Loving One Another

If we claim to believe in God and love Christ, we ought to live in manner consistent with his example, as I John 2:6 states.  “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”  In order to be consistent in emulating Christ, we will have to learn what his attitude was like, and Ephesians 5:25 tells us, “… even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” 

In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”    Literally, Jesus said that the most obvious evidence that we are Christians will be that we love one another, not in just in corporate sense, but as individuals, one person for another.   Far too often we, like most politicians, begin to focus on what is good for the organization (the greatest good), rather than what is best for the individuals.   As a result, individuals are simply ignored and their rights are trampled for the convenience of the crowd.  In I John, John addresses the subject of loving the individual at length. 

He starts off in I John 2:7.  “Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.”  I John was probably written around 37AD, and initially was mostly read by Jewish believers who were familiar with the Old Testament law. 

In Matthew 22:35-40, Jesus made some very important statements about the Law.  “Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” 

The Old Testament Law they already knew was about loving God and other individuals.  While it sounded much different, Jesus’ command to love each other was really just a simplified version of the old Law.   Because believers have the Holy Spirit to give them a proper attitude, they can do what is right without having to have every detail spelled out for them. 

John was very specific about the importance of our attitude toward other Christians in I John 2:8-11.  “Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.  He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.  He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.  But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” 

Just as Jesus said that love for other Christians is evidence that we are Christians ourselves, John says that a lack of concern, or conflict with other Christians indicates that we are not walking with Christ and has no idea what a proper relationship with Christ should be like or what it means to serve God.  As paul made very clear in I Corinthians 3:3, if we cannot get along with other Christians, we cannot be walking in the Spirit.