But How Do We Love?

“A new command I give you:  Love one another.   As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”   John 13:34-35 (NIV)

I am convinced that the world recognizes love and responds to it.  At the Last Supper, Jesus told His disciples to love one another as He loved them.  Later, Paul describes the love that Jesus showed and that He expects us to show as well.  In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, he says:  “Love is patient; love is kind.  Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag or strut about.  There’s no arrogance in love; it’s never crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed.  Love isn’t easily upset.  Love doesn’t tally wrongs or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight.  Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what.”  (VOICE)   All of that really sounds difficult.   Well, it is, but Jesus told His disciples to love as He had loved them, and Jesus’s love is perfect love.  

I knows that I can’t live up to that kind of love all the time, or even most of the time, but I can count on Jesus doing so and forgiving me when I don’t measure up.  How do I stack up against Paul’s definition of love?  

My lack of patience and kindness often shows up when I am driving.   It’s easy for me to be envious when I see someone pick up a package of steak, and I look at the price.  I do brag about my three sons, but I don’t think I strut.  Arrogance is something that I don’t recognize in myself until I stop and think about my pride in my accomplishments.  I try not to be rude, or crude, or indecent, but I’m sure that I am sometimes.  It is easy for me to become absorbed in what I am doing and forget about the rest of the world.  Again, traffic, easily upsets me, but I try not to be pleased when I catch up to the person who cut me off at the next light.  Injustice is not something I approve of, but some truths are hard to accept.  No, I don’t put up easily with everything that comes my way, but I do trust and hope in my Lord, and with His help I will endure until I meet Him face to face.

So, I guess I don’t fulfill everything Jesus expects of me in love, and I ask for His forgiveness, knowing that He has taken these sins of mine to hell and left them there.  Thank you, Jesus.

So, ask yourself how well you measure up to Paul’s definition of love.