Dave’s Monday Blast – July 28, 2025

In John 13:34 the Church is given a “new commandment that we love one another” in the same way that Jesus loves us; i.e. unconditionally. In so doing, all of our relationships benefit as we provide encouragement, live harmoniously, forgive wrongs, and experience that peace that passes all understanding. Obedience always = blessings in His economy. A biblical definition of this kind of love has four aspects that we began to unpack last week.

From last week we shared the first two aspects:
1. Character: We usually think of love as feelings of affections, but in the Bible the word refers more to an action of the will than an emotion.
2. Source: “God is love”. It is not a part of who He is, but that He is love. The Holy Spirit pours His love into us (Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22).

This week we unpack the next two:
3. Standard:  We’d like to think that loving other people is optional and dependent upon their treatment of us, in other words, they must deserve to be loved, and if they don’t, we should be “off the hook” to obey that command. But that’s not what Jesus said. He clearly stated that we are to love others as He has loved us. InTouch comments: “Since we’re sinful, rebellious creatures, we certainly didn’t deserve His love. Yet God chose to love us even while we were His enemies. And to demonstrate, He sent His Son to die in our place, thereby bearing the punishment we deserved (Romans 5:8). Jesus’ command to love one another has no excuse clause. We have a responsibility as God’s children to imitate Him and walk in love just as He did (Ephesians 5:1 & 2).”

4. Expression: Now that we know we’re required to love others, how are we to do it? Another “rubber meets the road” conundrum of our faith. Next week we will finish this discussion by examining three primary ways we emulate God and express His love toward others.