Picture from the Last Supper scene of the movie, "The Passion of the Christ"
"This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. "
- John 15:12
Our friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ hinges on our obedience to His command to love one another. But loving one another is not simply "loving one another", for as Christ our Lord Himself said, "even sinners love those who love them" [see Luke 6:32], rather it is a love based on this: "as I have loved you" and we could further understand this kind of love by going back to verse nine of the same chapter, "I have loved you just as the Father has loved me" and the Lord continues, "remain in my love", that is to continue loving the way that He loved us.
Hence the ultimate bases of love is that love by which God the Father has loved us and it is also written in John, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" [John 3:16]. The Father's love was concretely manifested by His offering of His own Son to become the expiation for our sins. As Paul writes to the Romans, God's love for us all has been demonstrated by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ even though mankind was still under the bondage to sin, that is, while we were not yet in friendly terms with God [see Romans 5:8]. For Christ our Lord Himself, repeating our quotation from Luke above, has said that it does not benefit anyone to love only those who love them, therefore, for love to become creditable, one must love even his enemies also.
Christian charity is therefore over and above that charity for the sake of mere charity. In our world today, especially among those who do not acknowledge God and even those who claim to be Christians and yet do not wish to antagonize people of other religions, the measure of manifesting charity is for charity's sake, or loving for the sake of loving only. No mention of God or no reference to the Lord. Man has introduced his own understanding of love.
Let us go back to what the Lord Jesus Christ said to the rich young man who called Him good: "Why do you call me good? Only God is good!" [Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19]. Here we can deduce that the ultimate measure of all that we do on earth is God only and we cannot measure anything - even love - for it's sake alone. Only God is good, hence only God is love in its fullest sense, only in reference to God can we truly express love. Apart from God nothing is good, even the charity that we do for the sake of itself. Instead, loving for the mere sake of loving is tantamount to the denial of God Himself. If it is not a denial of God, why should we not acknowledge Him when do charitable works? When we express our love for others concretely? Actually, by experiencing love, one is drawn to God not deny Him.
Mother Teresa was once criticized because she did not conduct charitable works the way social workers do but only because of her love for the Lord Jesus Christ. But she was in the right because as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, whatever we do - even eating and drinking - we must do for the glory of God [I Corinthians 10:31]. Moreover, Jesus Christ our Lord emphasized that without Him we can do nothing [John 15:5].
One more important thing, loving one another the way the Lord loved us is one way of fulfilling His command to go to the ends of the world that all nations may know His message of salvation and be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is by loving one another that others would be able to know that we are disciples of the Lord who have been sent by the Father [see John 13:34-35].
After all, what is important for us is to first build up our friendship with God and from that source we pour out our love for others through concrete action for the good of our brethren. If our love is not founded on the love of God we cannot truly love for without God we can do nothing since we are merely branches and not the vine itself [see John 15: 1-6].
A blessed loving, friends!
No comments:
Post a Comment