John 13:35
My first recollection of attending church was at Good Shepherd Lutheran in Lake Orion, which at the time was meeting inside an elementary school while the church building was being constructed. I was five or six years old, and the children would sit with their parents for the beginning of the gathering, and the Pastor would bring the kids up front and read us a story from the Bible. We would join in corporate worship and prayer before being dismissed to the classrooms for Sunday School. I don’t remember many details, but I do remember two songs that we sang frequently, and it’s crazy that those lyrics are still permeated in my mind even when I don’t recall what I had for lunch last Friday. :) “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray that our unity will one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love.”
This song was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of this devotion. “How will they know”. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35
Here in John 13, Jesus is sharing with his disciples at the last supper, the Passover meal. Now is the time of Jesus’s hour and glory, and these words to the disciples are significant when realized that it’s the final words that Jesus will share before he goes to the cross. What’s the last thing that you would share with those you love?
How do we measure love? Interestingly, the longest love letter ever written in 1875, a man in Paris wrote the words I love you 1,875,000 times. Hahaha. Seriously, how is love measured? Jesus shares with us, do it this way, love like I love. And how does Jesus love? What do we know about his love? The pages of the Bible from Genesis through Revelation are saturated with his love.
Some of my favorite passages on love are in Romans. In 5:5, I see that we always have a reservoir of love that never runs out-we have been given a great capacity to love, and 5:8 highlights the extraordinary, unconditional love of God, shown through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Get in the Word and you’ll see the depth and breadth of God’s love, so much love; sacrificial, unconditional, never ending, . . . LOVE.
Love. It’s our greatest testimony. It’s the ultimate mark of a disciple. Of all the “one anothers” in the Bible, this is THE ONE. Love one another. This new commandment provides a blueprint for how we are to embody the spirit of the Greatest Commandment in our daily lives. We are to demonstrate the love of God to those around us through our relationships with fellow believers. I mentioned that there were two songs that were infused in my mind from my time at Good Shepherd; the other was Onward Christian Soldiers. So, with that, onward we go. Onward in unity, onward in love. By this kind of love, all will know.
My first recollection of attending church was at Good Shepherd Lutheran in Lake Orion, which at the time was meeting inside an elementary school while the church building was being constructed. I was five or six years old, and the children would sit with their parents for the beginning of the gathering, and the Pastor would bring the kids up front and read us a story from the Bible. We would join in corporate worship and prayer before being dismissed to the classrooms for Sunday School. I don’t remember many details, but I do remember two songs that we sang frequently, and it’s crazy that those lyrics are still permeated in my mind even when I don’t recall what I had for lunch last Friday. :) “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray that our unity will one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love.”
This song was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of this devotion. “How will they know”. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35
Here in John 13, Jesus is sharing with his disciples at the last supper, the Passover meal. Now is the time of Jesus’s hour and glory, and these words to the disciples are significant when realized that it’s the final words that Jesus will share before he goes to the cross. What’s the last thing that you would share with those you love?
How do we measure love? Interestingly, the longest love letter ever written in 1875, a man in Paris wrote the words I love you 1,875,000 times. Hahaha. Seriously, how is love measured? Jesus shares with us, do it this way, love like I love. And how does Jesus love? What do we know about his love? The pages of the Bible from Genesis through Revelation are saturated with his love.
Some of my favorite passages on love are in Romans. In 5:5, I see that we always have a reservoir of love that never runs out-we have been given a great capacity to love, and 5:8 highlights the extraordinary, unconditional love of God, shown through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Get in the Word and you’ll see the depth and breadth of God’s love, so much love; sacrificial, unconditional, never ending, . . . LOVE.
Love. It’s our greatest testimony. It’s the ultimate mark of a disciple. Of all the “one anothers” in the Bible, this is THE ONE. Love one another. This new commandment provides a blueprint for how we are to embody the spirit of the Greatest Commandment in our daily lives. We are to demonstrate the love of God to those around us through our relationships with fellow believers. I mentioned that there were two songs that were infused in my mind from my time at Good Shepherd; the other was Onward Christian Soldiers. So, with that, onward we go. Onward in unity, onward in love. By this kind of love, all will know.
Posted in Devotional