Unbreakable Joy: "Love one another as I have loved you."

Friday, December 28, 2007

"Love one another as I have loved you."

It is very likely that we've all heard the phrase, "Dynamite comes in small packages." This phrase is exemplified in the little word "as" which is sandwiched in the middle of a command given by Jesus twice in the Gospel of John (13:34 & 15:12). This little word "AS" is jam-packed with a depth and power very much yet unmined.

Considering the "AS" Jesus loved us - will give us the example and will enable us to do what He commands. If He commands it, then it can be done. He said "as I have loved you" this is not only an example, but such an example as that which enables. The beholding of Him changes us. The beholding and considering of the ways in which He loved/loves us (there are many more ways than we can imagine) is what empowers us to love with His love. There will be no loving as Jesus loves without considering and contemplating the manner(s) in which He imparts His love toward us.

Challenge:
Write down 20 ways in which Jesus loves you (the more the better, if you can do more than do!). Now you have something a little practical to look at to see if you are loving others in those ways. If you are not loving others in those ways then simply repent and ask for help - and thank God for one more example of how He loves you though you often blow it. Then ask God to show you His love for you more clearly so that you might be enabled more to love others as He does.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

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Noteworthy Quotes

Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly so worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.
- George Mueller

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
- C.S. Lewis

A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, a spiritual man is hard on himself and easy on others.
- A. W. Tozer

Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.
- Augustine

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.
- Blaise Pascal

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
- Jim Elliot

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
- C. S. Lewis

He loves Thee too little, who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.
- Augustine

The men of this world are children. Offer a child an apple or a bank note, and he will doubtless choose the apple.
- John Newton

In the end the heart longs not for any of God's good gifts, but for God Himself. To see Him and know Him and be in His presence is the soul's final feast. Beyond this there is no quest. Words fail. We call it pleasure, joy, delight. But these are weak pointers to the unspeakable experience.
- John Piper

God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Him, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
- C.S. Lewis

It is well that we accept the hard truth now: The man who would know God must give time to Him. He must count no time wasted which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance. He must give himself to meditation and prayer hours on end. So did the saints of old, the glorious company of the apostles, the Godly fellowship of the prophets and the believing members of the holy church in all generations. And so must we if we would follow in their train.
- A.W. Tozer

If God contains the fullness of all good things in Himself like an inexhaustible fountain, nothing beyond him is to be sought by those who strike after the highest good and all the elements of happiness.
- John Calvin

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.
- John Piper

God glorifies Himself toward the creature in two ways; by appearing to their understanding, and in communicating Himself to thief hearts and their rejoicing in and delighting in Him, and enjoying manifestations He makes of Himself. God is Glorified not only by His glories being seen, but by it’s being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that he might communicate and the creature receive His glory, and that it might be received both by the mind and the heart. He that testifies His idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.
- Jonathan Edwards