There is a verse in the Gospel of John that is spellbinding in its simplicity, yet life changing in its effect. When understood and digested completely, there is no more profound and shattering edict in history. It demands the weight of existence itself, but through the immensity of this demand, Christ elucidates the colossal potential of the human being. All of this being true, the verse has been so commonly uttered that it seems to have lost its power in ordering how we approach our lives and our Lord. We need to be reminded of the magnitude of the task we’ve been given.
In John 13: 34, Jesus issued us a new commandment: “Love one another.” Simple enough. But that’s not the revolutionary part. We all know what “love” is. Love is the commitment we make to family and friends, the romantic feeling between two people “in love,” and the general niceties and charities that we afford to each other. I think it’s safe to believe that if someone loved in this way that they would be living a fine and noble life, a life that may draw many people to them and even bring a lifetime of happiness. However, as there ALWAYS is with Christianity, there is MORE.
Christ continues, “even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Ummmm...WHAT?! This phrase should erupt us entirely--and allowing it to erupt us is the key to living the truly Christian life. From the mouth of Christ explodes LOVE. AS. I. HAVE. LOVED. YOU! The Word of God made flesh, the conscious author of all of existence COMMANDS us to love one another in the same way that He loves us.
The weight of this is knee buckling.
The God that loved us so much that he created us from nothing. The God who wants us to be His out of love for us. The God that loves us so much that He allows us the free will to reject Him, who watches us sin, who never gives up on us. The God that formed a people after His own heart so that we may find our way back to Him. The God that became man so that He may know the suffering of the human condition, though He never needed to bear it. The God that loves us to the point of dying a death that He did not need to die. The God that is a constant outpouring, a constant giving.
This God. This love. And so too must we love one another.
Love is not a feeling. The God that is Love shows us this. Love is constant action. Love is a constant outpouring of self for the sake of others. Love is a mode of existing selflessly.
When we read Scripture we read a love story. The love story of a God that cannot and will not stop giving, and when we get to John 13:34, He tells us to follow His example. How can we possibly live up to this?
I’m not here to tell you that I truly understand how. In July of 2017 I wrote a quote on my classroom board that reads like this: “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence, for God is Love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.” Over these three years I’ve been on a search to figure out how to love in this way. It’s been an ever swinging pendulum of hits and misses.
Love is not easy, and even when it’s lived properly, it WILL require the bearing of crosses. Because we are human, we will fall short continuously, but just because the bar is set high, it doesn’t mean that we can discredit the task. It’s commanded because it IS attainable. An unactionable commandment is a cruelty and is incongruous with a God that IS Love. He’s left it up to us to try. Maybe reminding ourselves of this will begin to lead us all in the right direction.
Here’s the selling point: there is true joy in this commandment. He calls us to it because He calls us to Himself. He calls us into Love itself. To live in love is to live in God. How can life get any better than that?
"Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?"
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