"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (v.35)
Jesus spoke of love often during His ministry, encouraging all His followers to: 1) "Love the Lord their God with all their heart, all their soul and all their mind" (Matthew 22:31); 2) "Love your neighbor as yourselves" (Matthew 22:39); and even to 3) "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44).
Now Jesus is giving His disciples a new commandment to, "love one another." Therefore, in light of Jesus's teachings (which His disciples bore witness to), this seems like a very strange command. Why would He feel the need to say this? The first part of our text gives us the answer, "All will know that you are My disciples, IF you have love for one another."
Love is the ID card of the Christian. It is the outward sign to those around us that we identify with Him. The Apostle Paul describes this kind of brotherly love in first letter to the Corinthians, "Love like this suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
This is the type of love which allows us to have peace in the middle of the storms and trials of life. This kind of love binds us together and draws others to it. May your life be marked with His love for others.
The Truth
"For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." (1 John 3:11)
Jesus spoke of love often during His ministry, encouraging all His followers to: 1) "Love the Lord their God with all their heart, all their soul and all their mind" (Matthew 22:31); 2) "Love your neighbor as yourselves" (Matthew 22:39); and even to 3) "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44).
Now Jesus is giving His disciples a new commandment to, "love one another." Therefore, in light of Jesus's teachings (which His disciples bore witness to), this seems like a very strange command. Why would He feel the need to say this? The first part of our text gives us the answer, "All will know that you are My disciples, IF you have love for one another."
Love is the ID card of the Christian. It is the outward sign to those around us that we identify with Him. The Apostle Paul describes this kind of brotherly love in first letter to the Corinthians, "Love like this suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
This is the type of love which allows us to have peace in the middle of the storms and trials of life. This kind of love binds us together and draws others to it. May your life be marked with His love for others.
The Truth
"For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." (1 John 3:11)
