I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. John 13:34 NRSV
A pair of identical twin girls, Alexis and Nicole, went through school with our older son, Kirk. Kirk played on sports teams with them, attended parties, and hung out at their house. Here's the embarrassing part: while I knew their names, I struggled to tell them apart to this day. But, on the other hand, Kirk had no problem identifying who was who. There was something, a slight difference in their physical appearance or personalities, that allowed him them apart.
In today's verse, Jesus knew his time was short. During those final days with his disciples, he wanted to prepare them for life without his physical presence. While Jesus was with them, they were identified as his followers, but what about after he was gone? What would mark them as his disciples, then and now, apart from the world? In the next verse, he says, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
While here, his comments are directed to the love of his followers for each other—it begins between us; in Christ's teaching as a whole, love takes on a broader context. Love each other without exception, believers and nonbelievers, rich and poor, people of color and white, and all the other things the world has created as divisions. This kind of love is not of this world but of the ethereal; it is only possible through the grace of our Heavenly Father. When we love as he desires us to love, we become as identifiable as disciples of Christ as if we had the words tattooed on our foreheads.
Father, thank you for your love. You sent Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in your love, so we might learn to love as you. We confess we find it far easier to love imperfectly as the world loves. Forgive us those times. Help us to live into the new commandment, loving perfectly and ultimately, that we may be identified as your disciples. In the name of our Savior and Teacher, Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Blessings,
Pastor Tim
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