STANDARD LOVE

As I meditate this morning there is an on-going question that comes to my mind. I have wrestled with this issue for a long time and it appears to me again this morning. It is this: Can we really live by love? It sounds good and seems wonderful, but there is a very real resistance to this kind of idea. Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” To love, and live by love, is the commandment of the Lord.

There is an ever-increasing question about relationships as we try to sort out how to live together. If love is defined as the absence of any familiar, or unfamiliar fear; then we should want to examine and possess love at every turn. The Book of Jude says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God,” and that is much easier than keeping ourselves in the love of each other. It is easy to forget that this commandment of Jesus is tied to the other commandment. The first is to love the Lord and “the second is like it, to love your neighbor (each other) as yourself.”

Huge tests come to us when we begin to figure out some of these questions, such as, ‘Can we be governed, ruled, led, structured, envisioned and bridled by love? Or, must rules and laws of intimidation, fear and control motivate us?’ If love is our structure, or government, our rule and our boundary, then there must be some way to recognize this level of love. It is all compared to the ‘just as I have loved you’ part of the phrase. The kind of love Jesus demonstrated is our guide and our model. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus