A New Command

"A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
-John 13:34
      If you've been following this blog recently, you probably noticed that most of my posts are ending with me talking about God's love. This wasn't really supposed to happen, but as I write these posts they always seem to point back to God and His love. I believe that there is a reason for this, and I want to talk about that a bit today.
      In Matthew 22:36-40, an expert in the law asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is. To this Jesus replies "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'". He then says "the second is like it: 'love your neighbor as yourself'". While these commands are quite straightforward and self-explanatory, what Jesus says next really got my attention: "All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments."
      What Jesus is saying here is that every command, and there were many of them, are all based on love. In other words, the easiest way to follow all the commandments is to simply love God and love others. It is impossible to follow the commandments if you do not love. I believe this is why it seems like all my posts come back to love; love should be the motivator for everything. There is no one who shows love more than God. "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
      Throughout His entire life, Christ always loved other people, no matter who they were. He healed the sick, drove out demons, and forgave sinners. He did these things because of His love, but also to set an example for us. In John 13:15 Jesus says "I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you". Before He said this, He gave the disciples are very simple example of how to love others; serve them. Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, and He then told them to follow His example. A very practical way to love others is to be humble and serve them.
      Why should we love other people? There are many reasons for us to love others, but I will give two today. The first and most important is because Christ first loved us. If we don't understand God's love for us, it will be nearly impossible for us to love others. God's love should be our motivator for loving other people. Whenever it seems tough to love other people, just think about the love of Christ. A way to measure love is to see how much a person sacrifices and how much the recipient deserves it. Christ sacrificed everything for people that deserved nothing from Him.
      The second reason we should love others is because that is how people will know about God. The verse directly after the verse at the beginning of this posts says "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." In my post "Where is God?" I talked about how people often question because because they don't see any evidence that He exists. The evidence is not supposed to be miracles, wonders, or a great sign, but that His disciples love each other. The proof of God is supposed to be how we live our lives. People cannot see God, but they can see how we, His disciples, live our lives. If we choose to be passive and not love, people will see no reason to follow God. If we live a life of love, only then will people realize that God might be worth following. I hope that we can all learn to be the proof of His love.
-Smart