Let's Talk About Love

[HKHaugan]

Let’s Talk About Love 

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (Jn.13:34).”

First, it’s a new command from a new Commander.  Of the many Greek words for love there were three standard relational ones in the time of Jesus, philadelphus (brotherly), eros (romantic) and storgei (family).  The word ‘agape’ was an obscure word meaning selfless love but elevated by Jesus to describe the spiritual love from God of which He was the only true example.  It was an external love, a love of others before self, given by God through His Son Jesus that was unique.  Therefore, to love as Jesus did would depend on the willingness of individuals to believe in Him and His way to love.  That doesn’t mean His love was limited.  “God loved the world of people so much that He gave His only Son to die for them that they would not perish but have everlasting life.”  Everyone is included.

Second, this command is unique in that it specifies a new, not yet experienced kind of love, a love revealed by Jesus and defined by Jesus and exemplified in Jesus.  It’s also unique because He is the ‘new’ not only for His time on earth but new for every person born into the world.  He may be historically datable but the experience of someone entering the heart by faith will always be new for every person because every person is new in the world and relationally new as well because every day is a new day.  That new spiritual experience is different from every other experience we may have.  It is eternal.  Family, memory, cultures, ethnicities, nations, businesses and everything in this world, all temporary.  But faith and the relational experience that comes with it is new and eternal for every single person starting life in this world. 

Third, you can’t equate the newness of a car, places you visit, people you meet and some other day to day event as new with its promises to be lasting, since none of them last nor will ever match the newness Jesus brings, nor its eternal effect.  Everyone born into this world is spiritually empty,     and alone, in need of spiritual centering.  They have unique minds, hearts and spirits but are absorbed in being in control of all three.  That’s sin and its isolating aloneness.

Fourth, it’s this self-centeredness in us that we know whenever we have a choice to make.  The ‘I’ in us has to be right, feel right and do right all by myself and sense a basic security within.  Every choice leads to a decision and it is made alone even though we may rely on outside sources for help.  But aloneness is the bottom line when it comes to our biological, emotional and intellectual life in this world. And that aloneness can be eternal because everyone born is an image of God, born to be like Him, to let Him build us spiritually and relationally with Himself and others who believe in His presence.  We need our Creator to help us.

So, “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins (1John 4:10).” In Him our aloneness disappears.  God’s love as revealed in Jesus is new every day since loving Him first reproduces His love through us when it is obvious His love is called for.  It’s easy to love those who love you or are your friends or family but to really love them calls for more than sympathy, kindness and mutual acceptance.  It’s when none of those are in the people you deal with or those who could care less or those who return only nastiness.  It’s a new command all right.  It’s new every time you walk out the door and into the world.