Michelangelo
"To love one another" is to walk in the Light! While we cannot explain God, by faith we demonstrate His love when we love others. To say we live in God's light and act with contradiction - with envy or jealousy, with anger or criticism, with pride or arrogance - we are not being truthful. When our actions offer compassion, peace, joy, humility and generosity, we are living and loving in God's peculiar light.
Read 1 John 2:7-11
. . . This commandment - to love one another - is the same message you heard before. Yet it is also new. This commandment is true in Christ and is true among you, because the darkness is disappearing and the true light is already shining.
1 John 2: 7-8 NLT
The commentary in the Life Application Bible reads as follows:
Christian love is not a feeling but a choice. We can choose to be concerned with people's well-being and teat them with respect, whether or not we feel affection toward them. If we choose to love others, God will help us express our love.
When we seek deeper, more intimate relationships, love must be present. Without this component, there is no evidence of a meaningful relationship with God or between us and another. As we grow spiritually, our love becomes an outward manifestation. God teaches us how to love by example ~ by loving us more than we can even understand love ~ by sending Christ as His Love Offering for us.
consider this!
- How can the message to 'love one another' be both old and new?
- How does a Christian wander in spiritual darkness?
- How do you love?
Holy One ~ You love us more than words and call us to love each other. The world tells us to love self most but does not love us at all. The contrast of light and darkness shouts! Jesus,the True Light, guide us through this dark world. Help us grow our love in You. Amen. ~dho