Good News #36: The More I Know and Believe God’s Love for Me, the Easier I Am Able to Love Others!
Twice in the gospel of John is it recorded where Jesus spoke these words.
In John 13:34, Jesus said…
“A NEW commandment I give to you, that you love one another; AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, that you also love one another.”
In John 15:12, Jesus said…
“This is MY commandment, that you love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.”
Jesus said it is a NEW commandment.
Jesus also said it is HIS commandment.
Oftentimes, the new covenant is confused with the old covenant where people still think God demands them to love Him.
Don’t get me wrong. We should love God but the new covenant is not premised on our love for God.
I mean who are we to assume our finite and often wavering love for Him can match His unrelenting faithful love for us? It is absolute arrogance to assume such.
The new covenant’s premise is God’s love FOR us.
His love FOR us is the cornerstone… the bedrock… the foundation of the new covenant.
A new commandment, Jesus says…
His commandment, He clarified, is this — that we love one another AS He loves us…
In other words, the command is to KNOW how much HE loves us so that we can love one another.
1 John 4:19 says…
We love because He first loved us.
This is the gospel — GOD so loves you that He sent His Son for you and if you can just be humble enough to learn how much HE LOVES YOU, you will gain the capacity to love others and in doing so, He sees it as you loving Him.
The gospel is God’s lovingkindness towards us, not the other way around.
The gospel is God’s love for us…
And what an extravagant love God has for us…
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