READING:
One-year plan: 2 Kings 24-25, John 13
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 6-7, Mark 16:9-20
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As followers of Christ, we are to love another. In fact, we are to love one another as Jesus loves us. That’s a heavy-duty standard we cannot meet apart from God’s work in our lives.
To love as Jesus loves is to love sacrificially. It is to give ourselves for the sake of others. It is to love people who are unlovable at times. Indeed, our mutual love for one another is to be so obvious and unique that the world takes note that we are followers of Christ. They will know the love of God is in our hearts because they see our genuine love for one another. Echoing in my head as I write these words, in fact, is a song I first heard as a new believer almost fifty years ago: “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love . . . .”
On the other hand, something’s amiss when we don’t love one another as Jesus commanded. That’s when the world takes note of our internal squabbles, our congregational conflicts, our broken relationships—and they question the gospel because of our poor example. As one writer put it, “Lovelessness among believers nullifies their witness to the world and reveals them as hypocrites.”* May God help us not to let that happen.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you love other believers like Jesus loves you?
PRAYER: “Help me, Lord, to love others well.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: 1 Chronicles 1-2, John 14
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 8-9, Luke 1:26-38
* Kruse, C. G. (2003). John: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 4, p. 289). InterVarsity Press.