‘Love each other as I have loved you’

Editor’s note: This is a reprinted column from Jack Purcell’s “On the Journey” archives. It originally appeared in The Star in 2013.

This is one of those commands of Jesus that seems beyond our ability, and I would submit that indeed it is beyond our reach. If we have a modicum of understanding of the love of Jesus we would know that we don’t love as he loves.

I love my 2-year-old granddaughter immensely, but to pretend that I love her in the same way that Jesus loves you and me would indicate that I have grossly underestimated the love of God.

If that was Jesus’ intent, he might have said, “Do your best to love each other like I love you” or “Try hard to love like I do.”

Rather, the implication is “love each other in the same way that I love you.” What is the difference you ask? It is the difference between human love and divine love.

What Jesus wants to flow between his followers is more than human kindness and great fondness. His desire is for us to create an envi ronment of godly love that is an expression of his love. This is, of course, possible only because we have his life and love living in us.

You might ask what does this love look like? That is an excellent question and one that deserves a straightforward answer. It looks like the life that Jesus lived while on earth.

We must be careful here because just having a great deal of knowledge about the life of Jesus can wind up being just that – knowledge. It is not knowledge of the life of Jesus that sustains a Christian. It is the life of Jesus.

Before I complete that straightforward answer I promised, I want to clear up an issue that is sometimes misunderstood. Often you will hear someone teaching that man has a spirit, a soul and a body.

More accurately, man is a spirit who lives in a body and has a soul. The true essence of man is that he is a spirit being.

Now let me complete my straightforward answer. It is found in Galatians 5:22.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

If we allow the Spirit of God to manifest these behaviors in us, it is safe to say we will love one another more consistently.

I cannot speak of the experiences in your journey, but along the bumpy road of my experience more than a few believers I have encountered were not exhibiting the love of God, but found it more convenient to exhibit judgment.

This leads us to question what enables us to be more consistent in following this profound command of Jesus? I know that it takes more than just a knowledge of him. I believe the more time we spend getting to know him and focusing on him, the more of him will show up in our relationships.