Love One Another

Last Sunday we explored 1 Corinthians 13 together—the love chapter. And although God’s truth about love can be applied in marriage, friend­ship, and just about any kind of relationship, the point of the passage is to infuse the culture of the church with a self-giving, Christ-like attitude that relentlessly pursues the good of the beloved.

“Love is patient and kind” (13:4).  Love “does not insist on its own way” (13:5).  Love is tough; it “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (13:7).  And love never fails (13:8).  How many of our belong­ings will be obsolete tomorrow, or worn out, or out of style, or sitting in a landfill?  But love is eternal.

And love is the very atmosphere God has prescribed for his church to breathe in and out together.  A given church may be bursting at the seams with super talented, beautiful, prosperous, impressive, dedicated people, but if love is not the air they breathe in and breathe out, it is all meaningless—vain, empty, “nothing” (13:1-3).

To underscore the urgency of mutual love as the church’s way of life, let me quote several New Testament passages that command Christians to “love one another.”  Read this list and let it pour over your heart—and let if move you to confession, if that is in order:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another (John 13:34).  This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12; cf. v 17).  Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law (Romans 13:8).  You yourselves have been taught by God to love one another (1 Thess 4:9).  Love one another earnestly from a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22).  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).  For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another (1 John 3:11).  And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us (1 John 3:23).  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8).  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:11; cf. 2 John 5).