When I was asked to write a devotional on John 13:34-35 the first thing that popped into my head was the 1965 song What the world needs now is love sweet love. That statement is so true but it’s simply not enough to throw around fluffy, feel good love. We need a more substantial love.
I am a diehard romantic and I’m always up for the cheesy Hallmark movie that has people falling in love at the end or a family is brought back together after circumstances pulled them apart. I LOVE that kind of love but again it’s not enough.
The Love that Jesus is talking about in this passage is beyond that. It’s the God kind of love spoken about in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6. It says: "4 Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, 5 never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. 6 It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out."
I heard just yesterday, Pastor TD Jakes say … “I hope you love me even when you don’t like me. It’s easy to love me when you like me but much harder when you don’t like me”. Love is a decision to care for someone regardless of how you feel about them and what they have done to you or against you. What you do to and for others speak volumes more then what you say to others. Your words can be beautiful but if the attitude behind those words is poor, you very well know that the attitude cancels out your words and makes it worse. You would have been better off just keeping your mouth silent. Your actions and attitude towards others are what speak and preach the loudest to those who don’t know Jesus personally or have drifted away from Him.
Every person has a story and I know for me it is very easy to overlook a person and never see who they are and where they have come from based on the time, place and circumstance I find myself in at the time. I always try to treat others with kindness and respect but I often shuffle past people, busy to get to my next task or appointment without ever really seeing them or trying to finding a way to engage them. Make them feel valued and heard or even to meet their most basic need.
We are given opportunities every day to show God’s love just like Jesus talks about so clearly in these passages. But it’s a decision to see those opportunities. It’s a decision to want to meet the needs of others and show God’s heart of love. Your kindness to others is the ultimate model to the world about how good God is. I want people to see the goodness of God working in and through me long before they ever see me. I want to be a billboard and display of the kind of God we serve. The God who would give up everything to save us and that didn’t stop when he died on the cross. But His overwhelming love carries on and continues even now and it will forever. I want to love people like God loves us ("We love each other because he loved us first." 1 John 4:19 – NLT).
So as this year starts I am personally setting a purpose to slow down and have those moments. Those God appointed, God ordained every day moments and encounters. I pray that they will speak volumes to others about the good, loving and gracious God we serve.
ASHLEY MOHR
Creative Pastor
