How does God love us? (part 2)

* If you haven’t read part 1 of this blog, I encourage you to; it’ll help give some context for this one.

“So I give you now a new commandment: Love each other just as much as I have loved you.” John‬ ‭13:34‬ ‭(TPT‬‬)

In John 13, Jesus takes love to a whole new, radical level. Where he once says “love your neighbor as yourself” he’s now calling us higher. He’s sounding the clarion call to love as we’ve been loved—to release the same kind of love that we have received.

Jesus has a way of saying some of the most thought-provoking statements. In this particular one, I’ve found myself being stirred to love in ways I hadn’t thought possible before. As we pause and ask, “How did (does) He love me?,” we’re provoked to extend that same love to others.

WHAT KIND OF LOVE

I can’t help but think about where the beloved apostle says, “What manner of love is this, that we should be called children of God.” When John says “What manner,” he’s using a word meaning “kind, quality, sort.” It’s used to describe people, nations, groups, etc. In other words, John is being very specific in pointing out the way in which we are loved. Therefore, it’s not enough to simply know we are loved, we must know how we are loved.  

In other words, it’s worthwhile asking the question, “what kind of love have I received from the Father?” As such, we owe the world this same kind of love.

Let’s look at another way He has loved us:

He did not count our sins against us: In 2 Corinthians 5:19, Paul tells us: “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” The Father, being in Christ, chose to hold nothing over the head of the human race, but out of His loving nature, drew us back to Himself.

When we think back to John 13 (where Jesus washed his disciples’ feet), I can’t help but think that Jesus washed every disciples’ feet, including Judas (the betrayer) and Peter (the denier). Nowhere does it tell us that Christ went around making sure each was mature enough to receive the washing—no, He met them where they were with agape love.

As the story goes on, we find that Jesus—in kindness yet in confronting love—calls Peter to the floor by acknowledging the fact that he would deny him three times. I wonder if Jesus, discerning the spirit of religion, the condescending slight of “I would never deny You like Judas did…” in the young apostle, and decides to level the playing field. It. wasn’t time to count wrongdoings, no matter how intense they were. Settling for nothing less than perfect love, He deals with the issue of the Pharisee spirit by calling Peter to the floor. I can imagine Jesus saying something like this: “If we’re gonna dance, we’re gonna do it my way. I’m not stepping to the rhythm of wrongs-recorded, but I’m in tune with My Father—who being in Me, reconciles the world to Himself, not counting our sins against us.”

Are we counting peoples sin against them?  Are we in our “I would never do that,” creating walls of division within our hearts?  Are we closing off one another under the banner of exclusion.  

If so, choose today to let them go, forgive and bless them. This is how He has loved us, and He’s asking that we extend that same grace to one another!

-RA