If ye have love one to another

John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Jesus left his disciples a commandment, and a powerful example at that, that they should love one another as Christ loved them. By this love would all men know that they are the disciples of the Lord Jesus, the Christ.

His disciples taught this lesson and commandment to the Church.

1st John 4:20-21
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

In this growingly tense and uncertain time, particularly in America and witnessed also in places around the world, of divisive polarized politics and fomentation of hatred based on ethnicity, race, or ideology, it’s a good time to look at what Jesus and his disciples said about loving one another.

Jesus repeatedly spoke of his commandment to love one another.

John 15:10-13
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus left us his great example on the Cross of Calvary where he died for the sins of his friends and all men to free them from the curse of sin. God loved man so much he gave his only Son as this holy sacrifice for you and I to live eternal life.

John 3:13-21
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

John 15:17
These things I command you, that ye love one another.

In this commandment Jesus tells the kind of love we should have for one another as he stated earlier in the same scripture.

John 15:12
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

You have already a witness of the love God had for all of us, now read about the love of Christ toward those of his believers.

Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What Paul proclaims in his letter to Roman church is a powerful love which Jesus the Christ has for his followers.

If Christ can love us so powerfully ought we not to love our brother or one another with the same fervent love?

Paul further taught in his letter to the Roman church:

Romans 13:8-10
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

To love is to fulfill the holy law of God! To love one's neighbor as one’s self is to fulfil the law of God. Paul further teaches this in his letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 5:13-25
¶ For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Paul teaches that to love one’s neighbor as one’s self is to fulfil all the law of YHWH.

To live in the commandment of loving ones neighbor is also to live in the Spirit.
If one does not love, he exhibits the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit, but rather those of the flesh, the lust of the flesh.

The lust of flesh is contrary to the Spirit and its fruits are contrary to that of loving one’s neighbor as one’s self.

Now the works of the flesh are as follows: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, and reveling.

But living in the commandment Jesus gave us, to love one another, we see the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

To better understand the love and loving ones neighbor we need to look at what Paul wrote to the Corinthians about love or “charity.”

1st Corinthians 13:1-8
¶ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4 ¶ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 ¶ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

We can see that love, or charity, is a work of many of the fruits of the Spirit. Without love, or charity, in our lives we are not living as true Christians, we are merely empty shells going about doing things fulfilling our own flesh, but not the will of God.

A very powerful explanation of the love of God is the example of Jesus’ disciple John.

1st John 4:7-21
¶ Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14 ¶ And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 17 ¶ Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

As shown already, to love and not to hate is a commandment by Jesus and Jesus taught of the commandments of God, YHWH, his Father.

Let us look briefly at the commandments of YHWH to the children of Israel.

Leviticus 19:18
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am YHWH.

The scripture commandment is for Israel regarding Israelites. The next scripture is for Israel regarding the strangers or those living among Israel who were not of Israel ethnically, racially, or by a foreign origin.

Leviticus 19:34
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am YHWH your God.

Deuteronomy 10:19
Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

As the children of Israel were a stranger once under Egyptian captivity, they should honor the strangers around themselves and thus “love him as thyself.” This was a commandment by YHWH to Israel.

Jesus taught this very concept of God’s law. Read the scripture in the gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 22:35-40
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

We see this same lesson by Jesus in Mark’s Gospel.

Mark 12:28-33
¶ And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: 33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

In Luke’s Gospel we see the same lesson by Jesus, but with more explanation for us all to understand what to love one’s neighbor truly means.

Luke 10:25-37
¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

So we are to love God first, with all our heart, mind, and being, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, with the same kind of love that God loves us.

That’s a powerful love!

That is a love that does not look on one’s race, ethnicity or the color of one skin, but look at that person as a human being and most likely a sinner who needs the salvation of almighty God.

Therefore we as Christians are not to engage in strife or division, nor racial hatred, nor angry politics and rhetoric, but we should love one another just as Christ loved, and loves us.

I hope and pray you have better understanding of the love of God and what Jesus wants us to do, to love one another as he loved us.

What a wonderful God we serve and what amazing love he has for all of us!

If only we would answer him and love him and obey his commandments.

Do you know the love of Jesus?

Do you know Jesus?

If not, I invite you learn of him now.

May God bless you with the love of Jesus.