Brothers and Sisters,

Reality check. Are we really loving one another? I didn’t ask do we love one another, but are we loving one another? Are we actively engaged in extending or expressing love for one another? This is a command from our God that we find all over the New Testament. Just consider a few passages.

Our love for one another is important because loving one another is how the watching world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples:

• John 13:34-35 34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Our love is to be like Jesus’ love:

• John 15:12-13 12This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.

Our love is to be deferential, aiming at harmony and filled with honor for one another:

• Romans 12:10 10Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

• Romans 12:16 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be conceited.

Our love is to be hospitable and welcoming to one another:

• Romans 15:7 7Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Our love is to be humble, gentle, patient, and long suffering:

• Ephesians 4:1-3 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Our love for one another is to be forgiving:

• Ephesians 4:32 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the “one another” commands of the New Testament. Over the next week, let me encourage you to read through these various commands (and to be on the lookout for them in the NT). Ponder ways in which you can be extending yourself in love, and remember that you need to be loved and have been loved by God in Christ.

Warmly,
Mike