By L. Joseph Rosas III
God’s
love for us is the standard for neighbor love. Jesus gave his disciples
a “new” commandment, “love one another as I have loved you.” (Jh. 13: 34-35)
The new in that command is the standard of measure — the unconditional
and total love of God for us sinners expressed through the death, burial and
resurrection of .Jesus. (Although the disciples may have originally understood
it in more concrete terms of washing one another’s feet.)
Thankfully,
Jesus did not say, “As you love one another so I will love you.” We would all
be sunk. But his love for us (dying while we were yet sinners) is the standard.
When we hold a grudge, remember a past hurt, lay blame or seek revenge we are
not loving in the way we have been loved. When we obfuscate, fail to lovingly
confront or hide the truth from one another we are not loving as Christ loved
us
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Love
is a verb — love is something we do. Love is not primarily a warm
and fuzzy feeling or some other emotion. Love is not simply good intentions.
Contrary to Hollywood lore and romance novels, love does not simply come upon
us without rhyme or reason (or depart just as quickly).
Love
is, according to 1 Corinthians 13, the mark and measure of authentic spirituality.
And love is expressed in concrete terms like patience, kindness, gentleness,
humility and self-control.
Tertullian,
the early church father and apologist, observed, “See how the Christians love
one another.” If our love for one another in the body of Christ and the broader
neighbor love that Christ demands are indeed the mark of our discipleship, does
the world see in us any reason to believe?
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Sermon
brief provided by: Dr. L. Joseph Rosas III, Pastor, Crievewood
Baptist Church, Nashville, TN