Devotionals

On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment. Not a suggestion, not an ideal to aspire to, but a command: love one another as I have loved you. And He gave them the standard by which their love would be measured: not the world’s definition of love, but His own. “As I have loved you.”

How did Jesus love? He loved sacrificially, laying down His life for His friends. He loved humbly, washing feet that would soon deny and betray Him. He loved persistently, pursuing Peter after his denial and Thomas after his doubt. He loved truthfully, speaking hard words when they were needed, but always in the service of grace. He loved inclusively, reaching out to the outcast, the sinner, the foreigner, the forgotten. He loved to the very end, and beyond.

This is the love that marks us as His disciples. Not our doctrinal precision, though doctrine matters. Not our worship style, though worship matters. Not our programs or buildings, though those have their place. Jesus said the world would know we belong to Him by our love for one another. That is a sobering thought. The world is not primarily convinced by our arguments; it is convicted by our love. When believers love each other across differences, forgive each other after conflicts, and serve each other without expecting anything in return, the world sees something it cannot explain.

Paul’s great hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13 describes what this looks like in practice. Love suffers long and is kind. It does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This is not a description of a feeling; it is a description of a choice, a pattern of behavior that is possible only through the power of the Spirit.

The world has many counterfeits of love. It speaks of love while celebrating what Scripture calls sin. It confuses love with indulgence, affection with approval. But biblical love is not the affirmation of every desire; it is the willing sacrifice of self for the true good of another. It speaks the truth because silence would be unloving. It sets boundaries because enabling sin is not kindness. It endures hardship because love is not conditional on convenience.

Who is God calling you to love today? Perhaps it is someone easy to love, and you can thank Him for that gift. Perhaps it is someone difficult, and you need His grace to see Christ in them. Perhaps it is someone who has wronged you, and love means forgiveness. Perhaps it is someone far from God, and love means sharing the gospel. Whatever form it takes, let it be the kind of love that marks you as His disciple.