Loving as… At a time like this, we must continue to keep at the forefront of our minds, the mercy of our God. (Romans 12:1) what we have experienced with Jesus, and the grand privilege of being his disciple, being formed and shaped into His image and likeness, created to be like him by the hands of our father.
What did that, does that, look like?
John 15: 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command.”
No greater love than laying one’s life down for a friend… what can it mean “to lay one’s life down?
Could it be, that we can lay down our lives for our friends, and not even “die”? Could it be, that the most difficult way to lay down one’s life for a friend is actually to “die to self”? And that, on their behalf? For their good? And that, out of a love that prefers someone else’s well-being, well-fare, the ultimate good, over my own? Maybe even at the expense of my own? My own life?
1Peter 2:24 "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds, you have been healed."
Rom 12:1-21Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
This truth lies right at the root of God‘s love for us, and the divine love He has placed in our hearts by his Spirit, and the type of love he can then rightly and justly command us to demonstrate, to express, to others. And this love…
Rom 5
And this...
Love must be sincere - Romans 12:9
9Love must be sincere.
How can we love this way?
17The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
So, what does this mean for me?
God granted me dominion. I have dominion in one world, my world. It is in that world that I cooperate with the Holy Spirit to govern me and my responses to the worlds that intersect with mine (or better stated, ours God’s and mine) - as
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal 2:20 ...and,
“...for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Phil 2:13 ...and,
I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Phil 4:13
In being granted dominion, I have been given choice, the freedom to choose to indulge my flesh or the Spirit.
Who or what to indulge - my flesh or the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:13)
What I will eat and drink - only bread or the word of God (Luke 4:4 (Deut 8:3); Ephesians 5:26; Heb 6:7; Ex 17:6; 1Cor 10:3-4)
What I will wear - tattered and stained clothes or a robe of righteousness (Jude 1:23; Rev 3:4; Isa 61:10; Colossians 3)
How I will speak about and to others - unwholesome and disparaging or edifying and encouraging (Eph 4; Col 4:6)
How I will treat others - don’t do to anyone what you would not have them do to you or do unto others… Luke 6:31; Col 3; Jude 1:2
Colossians 3:12-17
12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Clothe yourself with compassion…
deep feeling about someone's difficulty or misfortune
“visceral compassions" the deep feelings God has for all of us, and powerfully shows and shares in those following Him.
This command is no different than to love others as I have loved you, is the cash and where to share, the comfort the proceeds from it, he is the same compassionate comfort offered to us by her father
2Corinthians 1:3-7
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
So, AS, God has shown us compassion, we are to show others compassion. And, AS, God has comforted of us, we are to comfort others.
What’s most astonishing here, is that God chooses to comfort us just as often by internal means comfort us directly by the spirit to comfort us with, to comfort us through the hands and hearts of others.
Hence the command, and to “love as“, close yourself with compassion, as, and comfort others, As, you have been comforted…
The word as, then, is it self magnified by hits the sponsor ability to challenge, and by it being magnified, it further magnifies what we’ve experienced, and therefore what we are to give.
And us, none of us have an excuse.
So as, certainly means for us to look at God and his grace and his mercy and his love, but not only so, the wind in the way, when he did such a thing – while I was his enemy. And the way he did such a thing. Certainly through the Spirit, but really, just as often, He chooses to comfort us by that same Spirit through the heart - the hands and feet and resources of another - one of the “one another”.
That’s the point of the commands, they are meant to lead us to be the same thing for others AS He has done for us through others AS He has prompted them - and they have “loved AS… they have been loved”. To become “imitators of God AS dearly loved children…” (Eph 5:1-2)
This should also cause us to reflect on those in my life presently. Certainly with an eye to love, bring compassion, bring care and comfort.
And, certainly by God’s hand in it.
But, just as importantly, we see God’s working in and through the lives of others in our life. Those in the past, the present, and, now, having experienced such a faithful love, trusting that God will bring others into our lives for the same purpose, in the future.
As we experience these beautiful attributes of God, and that by His Spirit and through the lives of the brotherhood - the one another, the fellowship of believers - our faith grows, our trust grows, our hope increases, the peace we experience becomes transcendent, our minds are changed and transformed, or beliefs are solidified, or assurance is increased, producing in us, as we reflect on these truths, a heart of gratefulness, and a passion to tell others of this great love - expressed in compassion and comfort.
And to increase the privilege of blessing - others… Loving AS
And tangibly, all of this opens our eyes to those around us to whom we are to bring compassion and comfort, by the love we ourselves have experienced AS God has loved us, shown his compassion, and brought us comfort.
That we would not only look at the “great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us“, I want to see the cloud of witnesses the minister to us now, that we can be a part, that others may see, be encouraged, and follow.
