As I Have

Jesus said to him, “’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39). A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13:34). Some say that loving one another is not a new commandment, but Jesus said it was new and Jesus does not lie. The commandment to love our neighbor left room for debate; “Who is my neighbor?” – “If I don’t love myself, do I still have to love my neighbor?” The new commandment takes away those debates. Love one another as I have loved, is a commandment liken to “You shall love the LORD your God.” We were not commanded to love God as we love self, but with all of our heart, soul, and mind. How did Jesus love us?

The command to love one another is not a corporate loving; it is one-on-one loving. The love is an unconditional love, as Jesus loved us. The love is a forgiving love that sacrifices self in order to love the other person. There is a price to pay for entering into the commandment of Jesus to love one another. The price is to give up our own ideas about the personality or sins of another. We have no decision to make concerning our love towards another. The love of Jesus towards us is God’s never ending flowing love that casts out all fear to love. I’ve been hurt in the past – Jesus was beaten and hung on a cross to die – no excuse not to love – there is no fear of love in God’s love. Jesus is telling us to love one another without fear of persecution or rejection. That is another price we have to pay; we have to let go of the hurts that keep us from loving one another. “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind” (Luke 4:18).

God loves you. Sometimes that is all we need to know. God loves you, and that same love flows through you. With that understanding comes the understanding that God loves on the other through you, as Jesus loves us. God is the greater servant and when we let Him serve His love, His love flows through us to the one another. God provides everything we need including the love we need to obey the commandment to love one another. “And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). If the other cannot love you back, then they need the love you have flowing through you from God; because the Spirit of the LORD is upon you to heal the brokenhearted. God loves you, and that is enough information and provisions for you to obey the command to love one another. If your heart is broken and you cannot love; receive the love God is giving you through another and let God’s love heal your broken heart. If you cannot find someone who loves you with the Father’s love, look to Jesus. Jesus is anointed to heal; receive Jesus and be healed in Jesus name.

© 2010, Tim D. Coulter Sr.

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