P.S. This poem written while I am learning patience is dedicated to my former pastor, Dr. Joliam Sampaio. As he and his wife Claudia have given their lives in ministry, and missions, they have modeled patience. Through suffering and even slander, they have maintained both the joy and the meekness of Jesus.
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. .John 15:12 NKJV
Now, when Jesus told His disciples, “This is my commandment”, He certainly didn’t mean, that there were no other principles, commands or expectations within His teachings about the Kingdom of God. But what it does mean, is that if we aren’t loving one another, then none of the other stuff matters. As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, “Even if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” With a single sentence, Jesus levels the playing field among Christians. Rich or poor, male or female, young or old, brilliant or just folks with plain intelligence, we are all equally His children. Even if we are alone, we still are each given an opportunity to love someone today, if only through our prayers. Even though this chorus was not in their songbook, it so resonated with the residents at Life Care Center, that many were tapping their feet, singing along and smiling broadly. Are you struggling to love someone right now? Don’t worry. God isn’t expecting us to do all the heavy lifting. All He asks of us is to open our hearts and allow His love to pour through us to others. The world may never run out of people who are tough to love, but God will also never run out of love, because the Bible tells us, “God is love” (John 4:8).
Have a blessed weekend everyone, Happy Father's Day and remember that even the Beatles said, "We all need somebody to love!"
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.You are my friends if you do what I command you. John 15:14-15 ESV
The phrase, “I love you Lord” often used in the lyrics of our worship songs and hymns, though not unknown, was one rarely used by the disciples of Jesus, or even of the Lord Himself. Peter, Matthew or James didn’t get up in the morning saying things like, “Good morning, Jesus. I love you!” Most of the time the disciples were too busy asking questions about what they were to do next or arguing about who was the most important among them. Jesus Himself also spent most of His teaching talking about the Kingdom of God and showing love rather than just talking about it. That all sounds foreign to us who have spent a generation being told we must tell the people around us that we love them on a daily basis. Now, of course, the Bible also tells us that, “God is love” (See 1 John 4:8). At issue is not whether we really love God or not, but on what that love ought to look (and sound) like. Jesus tells us in today’s verse that love, doesn’t just mean saying, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” Love means laying down our lives for Jesus, and for each other, just as He gave His life for us. On the cross as God was revealing the deepest meaning of love through Christ, He didn’t once say, “I love you.” Instead, Jesus promised eternal life to a thief, offered forgiveness to his killers and asked His disciple John to take care of His mother. The lyrics of this week’s hymn do start out with “My Jesus I love Thee” but they also go much deeper into the what and why of that love. In his sermon this Sunday our pastor mentioned that we often gloss over the commands of Jesus and that we forget that He commanded many things. (He counted 38 commands of Christ). The kind of love that mattered to our salvation was a dying love, that chose the nails, the crown of thorns and the cross over comfort, freedom and popularity. The words that we sing about loving Jesus, loving God and thanking Him for Heaven are all great, but they must be coupled with a love that is too deep for words. The love of God is a message that can only be written with the ink of our actions. So, as John tells us in his letter, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18
I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree I love Thee for wearing The thorns on Thy brow William Featherstone 1864
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