This is My commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you.
— John 15:12
First, the Lord has told us to love one another. “This is My commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you” (John 15:12). As Christ loved us, we also should love one another. The love among many Christians can be very degraded. Their love is just a matter of exchanging favors. “I do something for you, and you do something for me. Therefore we love each other.” That is degraded love.
The love that we should have is the love that imparts life into each other, even as Christ loved us. How did Christ love us? He loved us by dying for us and then imparting His life into us. We have to love one another in the Body of Christ, even to the point that we would forsake our lives. We should learn to lay down our lives for the sake of our brothers and sisters by being absolutely poured out upon them. We should also learn how to impart the divine life into the saints. This is the true meaning of “love one another,” the first commission that the Lord has given us.
Adapted from Born Again, pages 68-69.
Monday: “The Lord’s Second Commission to Us: Keep the Oneness (1)”