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Love. That word sums up everything the Christian faith represents. Love is a verb, an action word. Love has muscles and goes where others fear to tread. Jesus commands you to love.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another. John 15:17 NKJV
WHAT IS LOVE?
Love is not a smiley face without strength.
True love goes into the gritty world and gets shoved around.
It is not romantic paper hearts and flowers love, but the soul-jarring, unrelenting, in-danger kind of love.
A COMMAND TO LOVE
Jesus’ command to love means to give out a love that doesn’t give up on others.
One must love the unlovely.
Love the unresponsive, the uncaring, the cruel, and the unsympathetic.
Love the one who loves us least and who might be planning to harm or kill us for our faith.
Such outpouring of love reaches and touches and heals a world that is bent on evil.
Some recipients of our love couldn’t possibly care less for us.
They might hate believers and the idea of Jesus Christ entirely.
THE STRONG, STRONG LOVE OF JESUS
Jesus’ love was strong.
It was unrelenting.
He came to die for sinners and we are to love those same sinners of which we number ourselves.
Christ didn’t run from the cross and all the agony of dying for the sins of the world that it entailed.
He allowed Himself to be nailed to that cross for your sins and mine and He did it in the name of Love.
OUR TURN
Jesus commands us to love others. Not a suggestion or a wish or a plea but a command to love.
Put on your armor and go out to the battlefield.
It is not for the faint of heart. In fact, on your own, you will fail this assignment you are commanded to do.
Read that again. On your own, you WILL FAIL this command.
THE HELP
You need the forgiveness of your sins and the inpouring of the Holy Spirit into your life.
As a believer, you have received Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior into your heart and life, and have promised to follow and obey God.
You have gone to God in prayer and asked forgiveness of your sins through Christ’s sacrifice for you on the cross.
Now you are ready to do as Christ asks us to do.
We ask God first for the infilling of the Holy Spirit to strengthen, encourage, comfort, guide, and help us on our mission and throughout our lives.
As we ask in faith, God gives us this blessed gift of help.
READY TO GO FORTH
Thus armed, we now go forth to love as commanded.
Staying in constant communication with God through prayer is needed daily, maybe hourly, sometimes moment by moment.
God gives you His Word for instruction. The Bible is your survival guidebook, so to speak, to help you navigate through your life.
You will receive the help you need if you stay in constant communication with God through these blessings.
With the Holy Spirit within, remaining in prayer, reading the Bible daily, and with eyes on Jesus, take up the command to love.
Your life will never be the same.
It will never be better on this earth.
Go forth with joy and purpose.
Jesus commands us to love.
Go with God.