Bible Verse of the Day Sunday May 5th 2024

John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

The love of Christ is supernatural, divine and comes to us directly from the heart of God because God is Love. Christ Jesus was presently going to demonstrate how deep that love was for all who accepted Him as their savior, placing their faith and trust in Him and not in any worldly ways or good works and deeds that we might carry out. 

Self-sacrificing love is the new normal for believers and the totality of genuine Christianity. As Christians, we live in a hostile world. We need the support of one another to operate correctly in a worldly environment focused on laying up treasures of this world. We live in a society that gauges the worth of people by the quality and quantity of worldly treasures in our hope chest. The best way for us, as followers and believers in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate God's love to this lost, dark, and dying world is to love each other unconditionally. The world will know we are Christians, followers, and believers in Christ Jesus by demonstrating our love for all people. People will not see the love of God by our material success, by the number of people that attend our worship services, or by all the things we work so hard to accumulate. 

The more we grasp the concept and depth of our sins, the better we will comprehend the love of Christ Jesus for all people of the world. His norm for loving others was very high. This concept is an entirely different economy for Christians. The idea of "love" is randomly used today. Professional sports stars and politicians say they love their teams or people, however, this is not biblical love. Many speak of love in a romantic perception; this has nothing to do with biblical love, nor is it a warm fuzzy feeling. Biblical love is both the commitment and the execution of sacrificial love for others. It must align with what is best for our neighbor.

As Jesus exemplified and characterized the Father's love, we are to represent His love as His followers. The sole distinguishing characteristic of being a Christian is loving others; love is the emblem of being a Christian. Our distinctiveness as Christians is our love for other people, not how much knowledge, educational level, or how we serve.

Much of the Epistle of First John deals with Christians' love for one another. In that book, John argues that believers should sacrifice self-interest for others. This concept is a love of action and personal cost. Those who harbor ill feelings towards others or have the slightest malice toward other people undermine what Christianity is all about. Love for our Christian Brothers and Sisters does not suggest we are to love those without Christ any less.