KNOWN BY OUR LOVE

 

April 9, 2025

 

This Week’s Theme:

Seeing with God’s Eyes

Learning to see the world as God does 

and living in hope, renewal, and restoration.

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John 13:31-35

When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Let’s begin today with a couple questions.

How do people recognize a follower of Jesus?

Is it by what we say, what we do, or how we treat others?

What do you think?



In our Reading from John 13 today we are told that as Jesus sat with His disciples at the Last Supper, He gave them a simple but radical command: "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Notice, Jesus didn’t say that people would recognize us by our knowledge, our good behavior, or even our acts of service, He said they would know us by our love.

Love is not just a feeling; love as Jesus revealed it to us in the Gospel’s is a commitment, and a way of life. Jesus loved deeply, even when it was costly. As we reflect on His words, today I believe we are invited to examine our hearts asking “Does our love reflect His?”

Ok, let’s acknowledge that Loving others isn’t always easy. We know that there are moments when pride, hurt, or misunderstanding make it difficult. But here is the thing about Jesus’ love, it is not conditional, He loved without limits, He loved without waiting for people to deserve it.

This kind of self-giving love revealed in the Gospel is transforming. This love when experienced changes the way we speak, serve, and interact with those around us. It challenges us to move beyond convenient love into Christ-like love, the kind that forgives, restores, and draws people toward God.

How? You might ask, knowing ourselves as we do.

Well, perhaps Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 might shed some light on this for us.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Clearly, the Apostle is telling us that this love that reveals that we belong to Jesus is a work of grace by the power of the Holy Spirit that roots us in God’s love. Even in the command to love, we see the promise of God to help us.

Let us reflect on our relationships and interactions.

Is there someone you find difficult to love?

Pray and ask God for His strength to love them as Jesus loves, not just with words, but with action, patience, and grace. How might we intentionally show God’s love to someone around us.