Skip to main content

Love One Another


                “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
          One of the ideas that has been wandering through my mind over the past few months is the idea of community and commitment – which I’m currently suspecting are the same thing. Today begins the exploration of that topic with the first of the “one another” passages. The first thing that needs to be addressed is linguistic. There are two words used in Greek to express the idea of “another.” The first describes another of the same kind, and the second, another of a different kind.
          In today’s passage, the another is another of the same kind. Some may resent the “us against them” interpretation, but that interpretation is not supported by the text. It does not say, “Love only one another who are like you.” Loving one another (of the same kind) is a great start place, but it doesn’t have to be the final destination.  
          Some might think that loving others of the same kind is too easy. It’s like loving yourself. If that were true, all our nuclear families and communities would be happy places filled with love, but that’s not the case. Loving “those folks, out there” is easier, because there’s some distance involved. Those folks aren’t in your face day after day, with the same irritating habits and failures they had yesterday.  And those irritating, failed people who are like you tend to be aware of your failures, whereas one of another kind might see you as heroic.
          As I think of this idea in the context of community and commitment, the first issue that comes to mind is who the others of my kind are. Jesus was speaking to the disciples, so that must be the primary set of one anothers that we’re supposed to love. It’s not the only set. Make a list of your “anothers of the same kind,” starting with your fellow Christians. Include family, friends, co-workers, fellow residents. Between you and God, which are your top five? Three? One? How are you doing at loving them? Do you have the courage to ask your #1 priority how they think you’re doing? I’ve got some thinking to do.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more