April 16, 2026
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
We are all greatly influenced by our own definitions of love. If our definition is broad, the love we express is wide and freely given. On the other hand, if our definition is narrow, the love we express may be conditional and highly specific. To complicate it further, we also tend to change our definition of love whenever it seems fitting to us. This is our great problem; we as human beings cannot be trusted to be the ultimate models of love to those around us. We are in desperate need of a divine definition that surpasses us all.
This might be one of the main motivations of Jesus as He came to earth. He desired to rid us of our weak, unstable, earthly version of love so that we may taste the goodness of God's love instead. And what he put before us was something so heavenly that our minds could hardly comprehend it. We must admit that heaven's definition of love is difficult for us to practice. We are not naturally wired this way.
We see an excellent example of this in Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus taught us to go as far as loving our enemies. Notice the wording in the passage. 44 "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven." In other words, to love like this is to prove that you are in fact a citizen of heaven. When we love in this manner we confirm that we are the legitimate children of our heavenly Father. This kind of love cannot be found anywhere on the earth, it is completely and wholly sourced from heaven alone.
Now we can understand why Jesus told His disciples to love in the exact same manner as Him. They were to receive the loving-embrace of Christ and share that with each other. They were to look toward the sacrificial act of Jesus' death and strive to model that in their own lives. Jesus has never called us to love comfortably nor conveniently. He has charged us with the mission of loving radically and doing so to the extreme of sacrificing our own lives for our brothers and sisters.
Our struggle today is not that we haven't received such a love. We know this love intimately and deeply. We are the recipients of God's tender grace every day. Our genuine battle will always be in our tendency to crawl back to the feelings of our flesh. We encourage you today, do not look within yourself to muster up your own definition of love. Look to heaven and see the son of God who was slain for us. Freely receive from Him, then freely give it away.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, you have shown me the greatest love I've ever known. Though I often take it for granted, you still surround me in your kindness every day. Help me to love others the way you have loved me. Give me the eyes and heart of your son Jesus. Enable me by the power of your Spirit to be an agent of mercy and grace to those around me. Amen.