TEXT: JOHN 13:34-35 (CSB) – ““I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The third thing I think we need to realize here is that when we obey this commandment is that it has the effect of attracting lost (non-believers) people to God.
In John 12:32 Jesus said, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.” Well, one way we “lift Jesus up” is when we love as only He can love. And when we do we see this promise of Jesus fulfilled, for people are then indeed drawn to Him.
Years ago, in an interview for PBS, Charles Colson was challenged to validate his newfound faith. The female interviewer defied him to tell her something that proved that Christianity was real. In answer, he told of an experience he had while he was spending time in prison due to his involvement in Watergate.
He said, “Several Christian men stunned me with a quality of LOVE I had never known before. I’ll never forget the day one of them-Al Quie-called to say, ‘Chuck, because of your family problems, I’m going to ask the President if you can go home, while I serve the rest of your prison term.’ I gasped in disbelief. At the time Al was the sixth-ranking Republican in the House, one of the most respected public figures in Washington. Yet he was willing to jeopardize it all-out of LOVE for me. The fact that a believer would lay down his life for another…was a powerful witness to me that Jesus was for real.”
As he shared this story with the PBS correspondent she broke down and waved her hand saying, “Stop, stop.” Tears mixed with mascara were streaming down her cheeks. Later she confessed that Al Quie’s willingness to lovingly give himself on Chuck Colson’s behalf had touched her deeply, and she vowed to return to the church she had left years earlier. You see, when we love as Jesus loves…when we “lay down our lives for our friends” people are drawn to God.
I read of a young boy who years ago traveled all the way across Chicago EVERY Sunday to attend D. L. Moody’s church. Someone asked him why he went to so much trouble just to go to that particular church when there were several churches closer to his home and he replied,
“Because they love a fellow over there.”
Christlike love ATTRACTS people to God!
Well, in order for us to obey this commandment we must first UNDERSTAND what Jesus’ love was like. Remember….He said, “….love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU…”
So, today ponder what does it mean to love others as Jesus has loved us. We will next look at the first of three qualities that characterize Jesus’love.
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