After a bit of a sabbatical, Bible Drill Wednesday is back this week. And after hearing Heather’s sermon this week (”Community: The Final Apologetic”), I began thinking about all of the “one another” commands in Scripture.
Heather talked about Jesus’ final thoughts/prayers as He prepared to go to the cross, and left us with this prayer: “My prayer is not for them [disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:20-21, NIV). Jesus was praying for the unity of believers into a community who served as the ultimate witness to Him. But John in his gospel records other thoughts and instructions Jesus gave to His followers in the hours preceding His death, one of the most important being to “love one another.”
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends….This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:12-13, 17)
Indeed, John must have taken Jesus’ command to heart. In 1 John 4:7-12 he exhorts us: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”
So what does it mean to “love one another?” How do we obey this command in a practical manner?
The Greek word for love used in John’s gospel and the epistle of 1 John is the verb agapao, which means “to love.” But don’t be fooled by this simple definition - agape (the noun stemming from the verb agapao) is the kind of love God has for us, which “can be known only from the actions it prompts. God’s love is seen in the gift of His Son…But obviously this is not the love of complacency, or affection, that is, it was not drawn out by any excellency of the objects…It was an exercise of the divine will in deliberate choice, made without assignable cause save that which lies in the nature of God Himself” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words). As Christ-followers, we are to exhibit this same type of deliberate love for others.
Love is a gift of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22) and is probably best defined in 1 Corinthians 13: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…” (1 Cor. 13:4-8).
We are commanded to agapao one another. If we want to “be one” and crave the community Christ prayed for us, we must start by loving one another. Are we obeying this command?
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