Our identifying mark and mission: sacrificial love

A “new commandment”? “Love, of course, is central in many parts of the Old Testament. The book Leviticus (19.18) commanded the Israelites to love their neighbors as themselves. But the newness isn’t so much a matter of never having heard words like this before. It’s a matter of the mode of this love, the depth and type of this love: love one another in the same way that I have loved you.” * Jesus defined the ultimate form of love in John 15:13 and did exactly that the next day on the cross.

• How did Jesus’ model of love expand love’s reach and deepen its intensity? Do you find this idea a bit daunting? In everyday life, there is almost never any need or opportunity to “give up your life” for anyone else. Yet there are almost always ways to give up time, energy or talent to bless other people. And Jesus’ follower Paul wrote that love is the main “fruit of the Spirit” (cf. Galatians 5:22). What might it mean, in practical terms, for you to love others as sacrificially as Jesus loved you?
• Bishop Bob Farr asked, in last weekend’s sermon, “What would it look like if our churches became the most loving churches in the community?” As you ponder that, do not think it is “soft” or “easy.” It grows from “a personal relationship of love and loyalty to the one who has loved us more than we can begin to imagine. And the test of that love and loyalty remains the simple, profound, dangerous and difficult command: love one another.” ** Are you willing to follow Jesus’ command?