LOVE ONE ANOTHER

If you look above the entrance doors to our church you’ll see the inscription, “Love one another”.  That’s a pretty clear message---I doubt there’s one among us, from young to old, who doesn’t understand what it means.  While much of today’s reading in 2 John deals with guarding the truth and being careful about false teachers, the apostle John also emphasizes the importance of practicing love.  In verse 5 he says, “…I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning.  I ask that we love one another.”  What does it really mean to love one another? What does that look like?  John continues in verse 6 with the explanation:  “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands.”

We often hear it said that love is an action verb and we may think that loving one another means actions like being kind, or helping people in need, or doing nice things for others.  Of course it does include all of that.  However, here John reminds us that love is to “walk in obedience to His commands”.  If we are obeying God’s commands, then that will certainly include our loving one another. God’s Word is filled with specific instructions of how we are to treat each other, what our attitudes to each other should be, exactly how we are to love one another.  Verses like these leave us no doubt as to what loving one another looks like in daily life:  “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32);  “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” (I Cor. 13:4-5); and “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (Romans 12:10)
 
Steve Douglass, former president of Cru, once said that the job description for a believer is to “walk closely with God and do what He says”.  Are we obeying God’s commands, doing what He says?  Are we loving one another as God wants us to?