Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) How I wish that would be so of me, and all of us. How wonderful it would be to instantly know that someone is a disciple of Jesus by the way they love others. Imagine how attractive that would be to those outside the Christian faith.
I did a fair amount of dreaming, this past week, about what the world would look like if everyone obeyed the two most important commandments, cited by Jesus in our passage this week, to love God and others. We will certainly experience this kind of “dream come true” in heaven, where the perfect love of God in Christ brings us to the throne and we express our love in praise toward God.
But here and now, love is hard and can even crush us. Unless, that is, we understand the message of Jesus in this week’s passage. It was a message that the scribe examining Him came so close to grasping. He was so close to the kingdom of God, yet not close enough to enter in.
Take some time to search out Bible verses that speak of loving God and neighbor, and consider how the two most important commandments are working, or might work out in your own life. Then join us for our last summer service, at 9 AM on Sunday.
holdfirmly 