Marks of a Disciple: Loving
Disciples of Jesus Love.
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12).
Jesus gave us all sorts of other instructions and commands, but he boils obedience to God down to one thing: love. In the summary of the law, Jesus said to love God and love people. Here he says to his followers, “Love each other.” But he didn’t stop there. He said, “Love each other as I have loved you.”
The thought process goes like this:
- As God loved Jesus, so Jesus loves us.
- As Jesus loved us, so we are to love one another.
- The love of God is a self-giving love – a willingness to give of oneself for the benefit of others.
But what does that love look like? Christ-like love means being Christ-like in our willingness to give everything away–even our lives–for the sake of God’s purposes in others. Yikes. Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t expect perfection from us, but he does expect imitation. If we are just throwing up our hands and saying, “I can never do that,” we are missing the point. Our goal is to grow in Christ-likeness until we are willing to lay down our lives for our friends. (And not just in the imaginary moment of being a martyr – but in the everyday routines of life where all of us naturally focus on ourselves and our needs.)
You might have heard it said that hurt people hurt. That means if a person is hurtful to others in their words, actions or presence, it is probably because they have been hurt themselves. This perspective gives us a way of become curious about others rather than furious with them. But it is also true that loved people love.
The church is often accused of being hypocritical (and let’s face it: we have a less-than-stellar record because we are less-than-stellar people). Sometimes in the face of these accusations, we overlook the great change God has worked in the world through the transformed lives of people. Much of the world has no concept of the very real value added every day to life on this planet by authentic followers of Jesus Christ. The church isn’t perfect, we know that full well. But God is up to something. God is using his church to reach the world.
Practically speaking, the purpose of Christians loving one another is not to create a holy huddle. The purpose is twofold:
- We move toward the goal of the entire Christian life, which is becoming like Jesus.
- The world will witness a new kind of community that surprises them, that wows them, that baffles them, and that attracts them.
Bill Hull in The Disciple-Making Pastor said, “The distilled essence of Christ’s ministry to mankind was motivated, sustained, and underlined by love”. Boil this Christian thing down, and it is all about self-giving love. Jesus gave himself for us. When we let that sink in, really sink in, we are transformed by understanding that God SO loves us. And then we give ourselves for others. We are empowered by the Spirit to obey Jesus’ command to love one another within the church, and to love our neighbors outside of the church.
Disciples of Jesus Love.