God's LoveSample

Love One Another

Let’s take a journey back to the first century, around 35 A.D. The church had just begun. The first members were all Jewish. They shared a common history and culture. And now they shared Christ. Loving one another was easy for them. But God loved the world, not just the nation of Israel. Salvation was for whoever called upon the name of the Lord, even the Gentiles and the Samaritans. 

God made this clear to Peter in a vision. In the vision, Peter heard a voice say, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10:15). When the vision ended, the Spirit told Peter to go with three men to Caesarea to the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion…a Gentile.

Jewish law prohibited a Jew from entering a Gentile home. But Peter marched to the beat of God’s love. He entered the home and told the Gentile crowd about Jesus Christ. God poured out his Spirit on them just as he had done with the Jews on the Day of Pentecost. Cornelius, along with his family and friends were saved and added to the church. Jew and Gentile, now one in Christ. 

Here is what happened. The Gospel message turned people who hated each other into brothers and sisters in Christ. Not an ounce of love had ever flowed between these two groups. Only hatred and animosity. But now, the Lord moved in their hearts to love one another. Jews loving Gentiles. Gentiles loving Jews. The world looked on and the evidence was overwhelming. Those people were truly disciples of Jesus Christ. Our love for one another offers the same powerful evidence today (John 13:34-35).

As I learned on my Six Flags adventure with Floyd, the love of God is not something we can produce through human effort. We just don’t have it in us. Jesus made this point abundantly clear. “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Love does not originate with us. God is the source. He is love. Only as we abide in him, like a branch abiding in the vine, will his love flow through us. Here is the good news. As believers, we are attached to the vine, and nothing can separate us from him. His life flows through us, producing the fruit of love in us. It is mind-boggling when you think about it. The same love he directed toward you now flows through you. 

This is the greatest joy you can experience and it fulfills your highest calling. Paul made this statement in his letter to the Galatians: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6). This is Paul’s explanation of the vine and branch illustration. Our faith in Jesus Christ is expressed in love to others. This is what counts, nothing else. John gave us these commands: “Believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us” (1 John 3:23). This is the Christian life. All of these passages lead to this staggering truth: God uses us to show the world what love is. 

Have you come to know and rely on the love of God? He demonstrated this love in vivid detail through Christ’s death on the cross. It is “not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). 

In Christ, you stand before God as a forgiven person. Your sins have been taken away once and for all. You may be worried that someday God is going to punish you for your sins. Let the love of God cast that fear aside. Jesus died in your place. He took the punishment you deserved. That’s love. That same love He demonstrated on Calvary’s hill is present right now. Abide in it. Rely on it. It never fails.