Loving God was not a new idea for the disciples of Jesus. They had been taught from the cradle that they were to love God with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their strength.
The counsel Moses had given to Israel in Deuteronomy 6:5 was the guiding principle of every devout Jew.
Nor was the directive to love one’s neighbor as one’s self a new concept. Amidst the many laws laid down in the Book of Leviticus was the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).
As if to add force to the commandment, the very next words declare, “I am the Lord God. Keep my decrees.”
And devout Jews did. So much did they try to keep this commandment that rabbis shaped long, complicated arguments about whom one’s neighbor was and how to love them as one loves one’s self.
In the last days of His earthly life, Jesus laid down a new commandment about love. As recorded in John 13:34, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Loving one another was a new twist for the disciples. They understood that they were to love each other as Jews were to love all their neighbors. But now Jesus said more than that. He said they were to love each other and they were to love each other as He had loved them.
Loving one’s neighbor was like loving humanity. It was general. It was faceless. Loving one another was specific. It meant loving the frustrating Judas Iscariot who asked so many unnecessary questions about why Jesus did what He did.
It meant loving James and John, even after their mother tried to get special privileges for them from Jesus. It meant loving Peter who seemed to have a special relationship with Jesus not enjoyed by others.
Loving humanity is one thing. Loving specific people is another.
“As I have loved you” — that is what Jesus said. The apostle Peter, one who understood what it was like to be loved by Jesus despite one’s failings, got the idea. He would later write to Christians that they were to “love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Pet. 1:22).
The disciples knew that Jesus loved them. He believed in them. After all, Jesus called them to follow Him. He invested Himself in them. He taught them and modeled loving God, loving neighbor and loving one another for them to see. Jesus loved them so much that He corrected them when needed. He forgave them and restored them when necessary.
The disciples did not make it easy for Jesus to love them, but He loved them just the same. Now Jesus said, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
In the years that followed, the disciples had a hard time loving one another. Peter was fearful of what others might say after he fellowshipped with the Gentile Cornelius. Paul and Barnabus disagreed so violently that they had to break up their missions partnership.
Even Peter and Paul had strong words with each other. They spent most of their lives working with different “people groups” — Peter with the Jews and Paul with the Gentiles.
Christians through the centuries have had trouble loving one another as Christ has loved them. The stories of relationships between Christian groups and within Christian groups are less than lovely. Roman and Orthodox; Reformed and Roman; Reformed and Roman and Protestant; Anabaptist and Reformed and the list goes on.
Today denominations continue struggling with fellow believers. Southern Baptist struggles are well known. Our troubles closely followed similar disagreements among Lutherans.
Today the headlines report disagreements among Episcopalians, among Presbyterians, among Methodists and the list still goes on.
Local churches divide. Animosity rages between the divided congregations for generations. Within churches, leaders fall out with one another, and their disagreements cast a shadow over all the church attempts to do.
At times, the church can be loving. Witness the continuing response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Church groups led the way in recovery efforts and continue to be the leading force in rebuilding efforts. But churches seem to have difficulty loving one another as deeply, as effectively as we love strangers in need.
It is as if familiarity breeds insensitivity. Sometimes we can “love one another” in moments of crisis, but we have trouble loving one another for a lifetime.
Often it is pointed out that Jesus’ commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” means one has to first love one’s self. Unless one loves one’s self, one has no love to share with a neighbor. Jesus died for us. He loves us. That means we are worth loving. When Jesus commanded the disciples to “love one another as I have loved you,” He gave them a reason. He added in John 13:35, “By this all men will know you are my disciples, that you love one another.”
If disciples of Jesus — church members, denominations, fellow believers in Christ — cannot love one another, then how will we show a loving God to a lost world?
Lord, help us to love one another that all may know of Your love. Amen.
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