clcgh.org Building The Capacity Of Christian Leaders, Equipping The Saints For The Work Of Ministry, Redirecting Straying Christians To The Sound Knowledge Of Christ
“A new commandment I give to you that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
God had always loved His people, but in giving Jesus to the world, He showed them how great His love for them is. Jesus came to model the love of God to them. Accordingly, He lived, spoke, acted, died, and resurrected in love, and is currently ministering in love in heaven as the interceding High Priest of God for His disciples.
Jesus left all Christians with a new commandment: love. By loving everyone, including those who hated and persecuted, and even killed Him, He was demonstrating a kind of love unknown to the world; God’s love, also known as agape love.
To be able to practise this kind of love, Jesus gave His disciples the Holy Spirit who is full of love. Through the Holy Spirit His love is poured into their hearts to empower them to love naturally (Rom 5:5).
Nobody can be lavished with such love and still be found deficient in love. Therefore, the absence of love in a Christian is the clearest sign of fake faith. John writes, “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10).
He further said that whoever loves God must also love their brother or sister (4:21). To love them is a command, and it also shows that one is God’s child.
Therefore, it is totally out of place for any person to fail to love a brother or sister in the Lord. Some even hate their spouses, parents, or children. Really, if they persist in living without love for these, they succeed in betraying their profession of faith in Christ, for they are even commanded to love their enemies.
None can be in Christ and live in hate, for their new identifying mark in Christ is love, so live in love, disciple of Christ.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for leaving a clear mark that identifies a person as Christ’s disciple. May the love of Christ be present in everyone who professes faith in him to show that they are your true child. Amen.
By Robert K. Asante
