They Will Know You by Your Love

I Love You; You Love Me; We are a great big family.  My daughter loved Barney when she was young.  Horror of horrors if she ever reads this and finds I let out her secret.  But the second advent candle represents Love.  And the Christian love is much like that song.  God loved me; I love Him; He wants me to love all his children so we will be a great big family.
God gave us the ultimate present one night two thousand years ago and He gave it out of love.

^{John 3:16} For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus guides us in three areas of love:

1) Love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul

2) Love our neighbor as our self

3) Love our Christian brothers and sisters as Christ loved us.

1 John 4 verses regarding love.

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Christ instructed us to love our neighbor, but my understanding of the verses above and the verse in John 13:34-35 is that we are being given a higher command than to love everyone as we love ourselves.  We are being commanded to love as Christ loves and we are not capable of this with our human selfishness.

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

This love as Christ loves is not for everyone but for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are not capable of this level of love on our own.  Only through the Holy Spirit living and working in us can we live out this kind of love.  This love sacrifices self for others.  This love humbles itself to wash the feet of the lowliest member of the family.  This love says I will do without so you can have.  This love does not enable but also does not make excuses for not helping.  This love always has the other’s best interest at heart.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”
Can people tell I am a Christian by my love?

Prayer:  Jesus please fill me with your spirit and help me to love.  I must pray sincere prayers for those who I have trouble loving.

Meditation:  Does my life show love or does it show selfishness?

Action:  Find the people who I know are disciples by their love.  How do I know they love?  Journal what tells me they love.