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| THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. Image from ewtn.org via google.com |
"This is how all will know
that you are my disciples,
that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another."
"This is how the world will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another," says the Lord Jesus Christ. In relation to John 15: 12-17, we could also replace the term disciples with friends to read as, "This is how the world will know that you are my friends: if you have love for one another."
The Lord commands us to love one another
It is truly inconsistent for Christians to not love one another. Christians cannot hate or disregard one another. God is love according to St John and anyone who does not love does not know God [see 1 John 4:8]. As Christians we all belong to the one family of God, members of the One Body of Christ, the Church, and are all temples of the Holy Spirit. We are one in the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit and share the same divine life infused into us through baptism. We share the same baptism, we are confirmed through the same Spirit, we celebrate and partake of the same Eucharist, we receive the same forgiveness from sins, we are blessed and graced through the same Lord and Savior. Now, what can make us not love one another but sin and the manifestations of sin? And if we let sin divide us or separate us from one another, we also allow sin to rule our lives and be separated again from God mocking the great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one can say that he or she loves God if he or she does not love his or her fellow Christian for the same Apostle states that how can we love God whom we do not see or whom we have not seen and yet hate our brothers and sisters? [see 1 John 4:20].
The Lord commands us to love one another as He loved us
The Lord's command to love one another is not general: it has its proper delimitation. The love that He commands us to do is not any kind of love but a love in accordance with the love by which He loved us: a love which shares, saves and sanctifies. There is no other love on earth which can even merely equal more so surpass such love. All the other loves on this earth are nothing compared to that love hence this kind of love which the Lord commands us to love is the only real love which Christians have to love one another. That love which Christ our Lord commands us to love one another is a love which is ready to sacrifice for the sake of someone being loved for He said, "There is no greater love than this - to lay down one's life for the sake of one's friend" [John 15:13].
He considered us as His friends and He died for us [see John 10: 11, 17-18]. Therefore the love which He has commanded us to love one another with is a love that is ready to sacrifice for the sake of another. As we stated above, it is a love that shares, saves and sanctifies just like the love of the Father, who created us and shared with us His image and likeness; the love of the Son which saved us and reconciled us back to the Father making us the Father's children; and the love of the Holy Spirit which sanctified us. We too must have a love which shares [not self-centered or for the sake of selfish interests only], saves [leads to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church] and sanctifies [does not lead to sin or evil but to God and holiness].
He considered us as His friends and He died for us [see John 10: 11, 17-18]. Therefore the love which He has commanded us to love one another with is a love that is ready to sacrifice for the sake of another. As we stated above, it is a love that shares, saves and sanctifies just like the love of the Father, who created us and shared with us His image and likeness; the love of the Son which saved us and reconciled us back to the Father making us the Father's children; and the love of the Holy Spirit which sanctified us. We too must have a love which shares [not self-centered or for the sake of selfish interests only], saves [leads to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church] and sanctifies [does not lead to sin or evil but to God and holiness].
The Lord commands us to love one another as He loved us so that the world may know that we are His followers and friends
As followers and friends of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christians ought to be models of peace and harmony, of unity and understanding, of tolerance and peaceful co-existence. Christians shouldn't be the cause of trouble, misunderstanding and war. Christians ought to manifest love in everything.
Now, one might say then that if it's the case, Christians would be passive and would let evil reign on this earth. But that's a mistaken understanding of love. Christian love allows no room for evil and so Christians cannot be passive in case of injustice, nor tolerant when evil asserts itself. It is really because Christians love truly that it cannot let injustice or evil reign and must therefore defend truth, goodness and righteousness.
It is through this kind of love that the world would identify Christians as people who are different from the rest, truly set apart, and signifies the God who is holy and perfect [see 1 Peter 2:9]. Many times, it is by being signs of contradiction can Christians proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ [see Luke 2:34]. For if we do only that which others do, what good is that? [see Matthew 6: 13-16, 20, 44-48].
Now, one might say then that if it's the case, Christians would be passive and would let evil reign on this earth. But that's a mistaken understanding of love. Christian love allows no room for evil and so Christians cannot be passive in case of injustice, nor tolerant when evil asserts itself. It is really because Christians love truly that it cannot let injustice or evil reign and must therefore defend truth, goodness and righteousness.
It is through this kind of love that the world would identify Christians as people who are different from the rest, truly set apart, and signifies the God who is holy and perfect [see 1 Peter 2:9]. Many times, it is by being signs of contradiction can Christians proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ [see Luke 2:34]. For if we do only that which others do, what good is that? [see Matthew 6: 13-16, 20, 44-48].
Love one another as I have loved you, the Lord Jesus commands us. It is not simply an admonition or request: it is a command. It is an obligation which we bear as Christians and a significant mark of our being members of His Body, the Church. For if we do not love one another in the Church, we would be like a human body that has cancer cells which continually wage a battle with healthy cells and ultimately cause the death of a person. For the Church to remain spiritually and morally healthy, Christians ought to love one another. This way we shall be able to give glory to the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let us ask ourselves: are we Christians?
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