A Pause to Ponder God's Word
"Command to Love?"

I am a fan of the cartoon strip "Peanuts."One particular cartoon has stuck with me for many years. Charlie Brown and Linus are holding their heads in their hands while leaning with both elbows on the wall. They are obviously deep in thought as Charlie Brown blurts out, "I love mankind! Its people I can't stand!" It is indeed much easier to love the vague "everyone" than it is to love a person, especially the one who is so hard to love. That's why some Christians think Jesus' commands to "love one another," (John 13:34) even our "enemies" (Matthew 5:44) is absurd, far fetched. A nice ideal, but be real!

We know that it is more than an ideal. Loving God with our whole being and our neighbor as oneself is the essence of holiness. It is the hallmark of the Christian. But, we wonder, how can you command someone to love? Like the times I required one of my daughters to say they were sorry to the other. They sometimes responded, "Well, okay, but I won't really mean it." We figure, you either love or you don't. We can be forced to say it, but we cannot be forced to really love someone. But the command of Jesus doesn't go away; "This is my command, love each other." (John 15:12) It is so crucial that John repeats it serval times in his first epistle, (note chapters 3-4) emphatically noting that we are to love "not with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth."

The problem isn't with the command. It is with our understanding of love. For us love is an emotion. It is something you feel. But Jesus wasn't speaking about feeling in His command. Jesus was speaking about something so radical that He called it a "new command" (John 13:34), stipulating that we are to love one another as He has loved us. (John 15:12) "Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life," Jesus explained. (John 15:13) And in case we still haven't quite gotten it, God through Paul gives us a whole chapter to reveal what love is and is not. (1 Corinthians 13). One thing that is clear about these and many other passages about loving others, love is about doing, not about feeling. It is an act of will. A decisive selfless action that is done for the good and benefit of its object. This is why we can be commanded to love. Jesus demonstrated the full extent of love when He took our place on the cross. There He laid down His life for His enemies. That wasn't about warm fuzzy feelings. It was a decisive, righteous, gracious act for our good.

If we wait to for the feeling before we love people, we will love only those that love us. Jesus confronts such action with His penetrating question; "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them." Love is not devoid of emotion, it's just not determined by it. It's only possible through the Holy Spirit's enabling. We cannot love as Christ commands without His Spirit. Jesus pressed this truth home in His teaching about "Comforter," and His work in our lives. (John 13-16) The fruit of the Spirit is love. (Galatians 5:22) We need to draw upon His enabling to love, if we are ever to love as Jesus loved. Let the feelings come, if they will, but we love nonetheless. Then the world will look at us in amazement proclaiming, "Behold, how they love!" (John 13:35)

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes from God. He who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8) Beloved, let us love, "not with words or tongue, with actions and in truth."

Keep Close To Jesus
Pastor Gerry


A Pause To Ponder God's Word is written and distributed by Gerald Whetstone, Ordained Elder and teacher in the Church of the Nazarene. These devotionals may be transmitted, duplicated, used in part or in entirety without permission for nonprofit purposes only. Responses welcome. To Subscribe Click Here.
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