Love One Another

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Scripture:

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.  10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

John 15:12   “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.  15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.  16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.  17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Observation:

Over and over again Jesus speaks of love. He commands us to love. We are to abide in love. Love is to be revealed in and through us every single day of our lives so that we will bear fruit. We are to go and bear that fruit, carrying the love of Jesus among ourselves and into the world.

Application:

Jesus’ love is contagious. It reaches out to a very needy world through you and through me. We are to be infused with his love in such a way that it becomes transforming to those with whom we come into contact.

This is God’s mission for the world — his children sharing his love into a needy world.

I often think about the who woman suffered for so many years with the “issue” of blood. In true biblical thinking she should have made Jesus unclean but the result was that his holy love cured her. This is the beauty of the love of Jesus — it pours out and transforms. Jesus calls us into his love so that it can be spread throughout his world.

Think about it today and every day — love one another!!!  Then, take that love out into the places where it is needed the most and let Jesus' love change the world.

Prayer:

Lord, let me love with your love.  Amen.


Thank you to Nazarene Publishing House and Keri Mitchell for helping to create and publish Reflecting the Image. This is not a devotional book, but rather a collection of thoughts and stories which lead us in the direction of reflecting Christ. Click on the image to take you to the NPH bookstore.The book is also available in Kindle format on Amazon.com.



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