Love

"A new commandent I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciple, if you have love for one another." -John 13:34-35 This week, I have been reading through 1 Corinthians and I got to the passage on Love. 1 Corinthians 13, we all know that passage so well, most of us can recite it from memory. However, how many of us truly live it? So often, we want to go on to the bigger things; preaching, teaching, debating doctrine, theology, etc. we forget that above all, we are to love one another. Jesus didn't say "By this all will know that you are My disciple, if you can argue the 5 points of Calvinism," or "if you can heal the sick," or "speak in tongues." Instead, Jesus said "...if you have love for one another" (emphasis added).So how are we suppose to love one another? We look to verse 34 of John 13 to see that Jesus said "...as I have loved you, that you also love one another." So we must love them as Jesus loves us. And how does He love us? Sacrifically. He literally laid His life down for us. He gave up everything He had for us. Do we do that? Do we give up our all for our Brothers and Sisters? Esteem them higher than ourselves? Encourage them? God has really shown me that this is the area that I need the most work on. He loves us despite the fact that we do not deserve it, so we must love others, whether or not they deserve it. My greatest hope is that we all learn to love each other this school year so others that see us know that we are His disciple and they give God all the glory.
--Crystal Valdez