John 15:12 NIV
My command is this:
Love each other as I have loved you.
What Does Love Have To Do With It?
When I was in seminary a group of us used to play a
board game called Risk. It is a military
game where each player has an army and tries to conquer the world. It involves rolling the dice and
strategically placing your army pieces in such a way that you can best take the
armies of other players. For a while we
were playing once a week and it was quite competitive. I was the new kid in the group so for a
number of weeks I got beat rather soundly but after catching on to it, I did
pretty well. After a while, I got too
busy to play and had to give up on it but long after I graduated, I maintained
a love for the game; I just didn’t have a group to join me in it. Several years later our church had a picnic
and I brought the game just in case I could find three others to play it. The game takes about two hours and sometimes
longer to finish but I figured that since we were all there to relax and enjoy
the day, perhaps I could put a group together who would join me in Risk. I was able to find three others who liked the
game so we sat down on blankets and began to play. Now, the object is to conquer the world, and
although it was done with plastic game pieces and no actual weapons are
involved, to win, you have to one by one eliminate the other players until it
is just two left and then you try to destroy the other player’s army. This is just nice friendly fun, in
theory. The problem is you have to
publicly wreck one player and knock that person out of the game if you are to
have a chance at winning. That is not
fun for the players being conquered. As
I destroyed one player’s army and then another and finally the third, I grew
increasingly uncomfortable with what I was doing. I was after all the pastor and as I watched
the forced smiles get thinner and thinner as I took out one church member after
another, I found it nearly impossible to enjoy my successes. No one stuck around to see who won. Actually, no one wanted to see who lost. It was too painful. I went home that evening and wondered if it
might have been better to have thrown the game so that I did not risk hurting
anyone’s feelings. It is hard to feel
like a loving person when you are destroying someone’s army. It is really hard for that same person to
feel loved.
Perhaps you are like me. You don’t feel like much of an expert on
love. If you took a bucket and it was a
“love bucket”, how full would you say yours is?
I would have to admit that mine is pretty shallow. Do you love like Jesus? Is your bucket overflowing with love for
others or does it have to be tipped way over to get anything out of it? Are there only a few people who get to take
any love from your bucket or is it available to everyone? Do your enemies get any love from you? How about relatives you don’t really
like? Does your love bucket have a lid
on it or a narrow spout? How much love
do you have for others?
Perhaps the third most famous verse in the Bible
mentioning love is found in 1 John 4: 16.
God is love. Whoever lives in
love lives in God, and God in him. (NIV) What does that really mean that God is
love? Love, of all the spiritual
qualities we can consider is the one most dependent upon relationship. Faith, hope, courage, honesty, purity and a
dozen other qualities can all be expressed without another single being in
existence. Love however requires others
for it to exist. You can “love yourself”
but what does that mean? It is a
fruitless endeavor that erodes into self-absorption and selfishness. Love to exist must extend out to others or it
rots and then dies. You might ask how it
is possible for God to be three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but then
you must in turn be asked, how it is possible for God to be love and not exist
eternally as at least more than one person.
He cannot be love eternally if He is forever by Himself. Jesus Christ has to be eternal God with other
persons as God if He is to be love and to love.
The same is so for the Father and for the Holy Spirit. No one of them can exist alone and still be
love.
Love is the most profoundly Christian character
trait there is. It has no rival. As the Bible says, And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of
these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV) When the Lord was giving some of His last instructions
to His disciples before He let Himself be crucified, He told them, My command is this: Love each other as I
have loved you. (John 15:12 NIV)
Later He underscores His demand of them.
This is my command: Love each
other. (John 15:17 NIV) It is
His solitary directive. He does not tell
them to be sure to pray more or to take a bold political stand or sing more
worship songs or listen to lots of sermons or give lots of money to good causes
or study the Bible diligently during these last moments with them. He says “Love each other”.
Of course there are all sorts of good things we can
and should do to be faithful to God but it is all to no avail if we do not love
each other like Christ has loved us. The
Bible makes a clear declaration of how important it is to God for us to love
each other on His list of priorities for us.
If I speak in the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging
cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy
and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can
move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and
surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1
Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV) Every single
ounce of Christian behavior is tied to this one command, “Love each
other”. Listen to this clear affirmation
of how Christian people are to live. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing
itself through love. (Galatians 5:6 NIV)
Let us be clear about this matter of love. It is a way of doing things, not a way of
feeling about things…at least as it is found in the Bible. When Jesus clarified what it means to love
Him, our Lord said it was behavioral. Greater love has no one than this, that he
lay down his life for his friends. You
are my friends if you do what I command. (John 15:13-14 NIV) Love for God means to do what He tells you to
do, not feel good about Him or be attracted to Him. That may and probably will happen if you love
Him but without obedience to Christ, there is no love for Him. Martyrdom or laying down your life for Christ
means that your life becomes God’s to do with as He wishes. Whatever He commands, you do and that means
you love Him and are His friend. There
is nothing abstract about Christian love.
It is practical and concrete. If
you love as a Christian, it means you do something; something for someone else
that is a specific act that God would say is loving.
The Bible makes it very clear what sort of behavior
is love behavior. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not
envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is
not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices
with the truth. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV) If you wish to fill your love bucket and
please God, you need to pick one of these practical ways of being loving. Perhaps it would be to keep “no record of
wrongs.” How would you do that? You just don’t bring up any grievance you
have against someone and you stop thinking about it or pray for God to bless
that person every time your complaint comes to mind. Maybe you choose to trust someone who has
made the same mistake over and over again. This could cost you…you might be
frustrated or irritated by being let down again…but consider how many times
Christ has entrusted you with something and you have let Him down. You might do something kind for someone,
something that is even extravagant and because Jesus just does kind things for
you without expecting anything in return, you too do your kind deed without
expecting anything back or even hoping you will get something back. Perhaps you fight against your tendency to
get angry with certain people. Relax,
say a prayer and smile when someone irritates you or inconveniences you. Let someone get in front of you, pay
someone’s bill, give a back rub, provide a warm compliment, take time to listen
to someone else’s story, refuse to make a disparaging remark about someone
else.
Love is quite simple. Loving because Christ loves you is even
simpler. Choose something off this list
of love bucket behaviors and do at least one of them today. Ask Christ to fill you with His saving love
for all people and make a choice who and how you will love a person you know or
don’t know. Perhaps something as easy as
deciding to pray for God to bless an irritating or frustrating person through
the day would be what God wants of you. Instead
of having a “good day”, have a “loving day”.