Love as Jesus loved!

In Deuteronomy 6: 4-5 we find what is considered as the greatest of all the commandments in the Old Testament: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And in Leviticus 19:18 we read, "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself." The Bible had taught these commandments to love, from the very beginning.

In both the Old Testament and New, we meet God as a God of love. And in both Old and New Testament, we find that God expects from us to have holy love.

But the old commandment does differ from the new commandment that John speaks about in 1 John 2: 7-8:  “I am writing you a new command... because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”   

When he wrote these words, John was thinking of Jesus’ own statement recorded in John 13: 34: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

It is not the command to love that is new, it is that Jesus gave us a new scope for love. It is not new in its being there, but it is new in its reach and standard!

In the old command, we were to love our neighbour as ourselves. In the new command, we are to love one another as Jesus loved and demonstrated God’s love to us.

This is the new commandment – to love as Jesus loved!

Listen to John 15:13, "Greater love has no one that this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Jesus loved us enough to lay down his life for us.

When we walk in the light and learn to forgive one another, we will take the next step as well: To love as Jesus loved!