Higher Thoughts on
Loving One Another

If you knew death was near, what would you say to those closest to you? The setting is night time, the Last Supper had taken place and Jesus knew the cross was quickly approaching. Only hours before His crucifixion, Jesus gave some important words to His disciples. Not surprisingly, one of the last things Jesus told the disciples involved love.

HIGHER THOUGHTS: A new commandment 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 disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

It's been said, The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The Bible tells us that God is love. (1 John 4:8, 16) If God is love, and He is, and if born-again believers in Jesus are adopted children of God, and we are, then... how far does the apple fall from the tree? How much do we look like Jesus? This new commandment from the Lord Jesus Christ is to each and every one of His followers, then and today - love one another.

Notice Jesus tells Christians, as I have loved you, - this is how believers are to love one another. This calls for us to consider the question, How much has Jesus loved us?

  • Jesus left the glory and majesty of Heaven and came to this wicked world - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus, God the Son, humbly took the form of a human - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus, God the Son, completely humbled Himself to do the will of God the Father, even to the point of death - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus took the mocking, the beating, and scourging - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus took the nails, hammered through His hands and His feet, impaled on the cross - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus took the punishment that we deserved, that our sin brings. Jesus took holy God's wrath against our sin - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus willingly faced that span of time, the only time in eternity past or in eternity future, when Jesus took our sin upon Himself and God the Father turned away from God the Son - for holy God could not look upon sin. God the Father forsook God the Son, and as Jesus cried out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Jesus endured it all - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus, having perfectly completed and fulfilled the will of God the Father, spoke those precious and powerful words, It is finished, - because He loves you and me.
  • On the third day, Jesus rose bodily from the grave in victory over sin, death and the grave, so that you and I could have eternal life - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus did not leave us as orphans but asked God the Father to send the Helper, God the Holy Spirit, to dwell with us and in us and abide with us forever - because He loves you and me.
  • Jesus has gone to prepare a place for each of His followers, that where He is, there we may be also - because He loves you and me.

As Jesus has loved us, so Christians are to love one another.

If you were on trial for being a follower of Christ, and the only witness testimony was how you loved your fellow Christians, would there be enough evidence such that all would know you are one of Jesus' disciples?

A new commandment 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 disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

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