It is not the commandment of a law which convinces us of sin and weakness; it is a new command under a new covenant, that is established upon better promises. It is the command of Him who asks nothing that He has not provided, and now offers to bestow. It is the assurance that He expects nothing from us that He does not work in us. As I have loved you, and every moment am pouring out that love on you through the Holy Spirit, even so, love one another. The measure, the strength, and the work of your love will be found in My love to you.
As I have loved you – that word gives us the measure of the love with which we must love each other. True love knows no measure: it gives itself entirely. It may take the time and measure of showing it into consideration, but love itself is ever whole and undivided. This is the greatest glory of divine love that we have – the Father and Son, two persons, who, in love, remain one Being, each losing Himself in the other. This is the glory of the love of Jesus, who is the image of God, that He loves us as the Father loves Him. And, this is the glory of brotherly love, that it will know of no other law than to love as God and Christ.
He who desires to be like Christ must unhesitatingly accept this as his rule of life. He knows how difficult, how impossible it often is to thus love brethren, in whom there is often so much that is offensive or unamiable. Before going out to meet them in circumstances where his love may be tried, he goes in secret to the Lord. With his eye fixed on his own sin and unworthiness, he asks: How much do you owe your Lord? He goes to the cross and seeks to fathom the love with which the Lord has loved him. He lets the light of the immeasurable love of Him who is in heaven, shine in on his soul, until he learns to feel that divine love has only one law: love seeks not its own; love gives itself wholly.
And, he lays himself on the altar before His Lord: even as You have loved me, so I will love the brethren. By virtue of my union with Jesus, and in Jesus with them, there can be not question of anything less: I love them as Christ did. Oh, that Christians would close their ears to all the reasonings of their own hearts, and fix their eyes only on the law which He who loves them has emulated in His own example. Then, they would realise that there is nothing for them to do but this – to accept His commands and to obey them.
Our love may recognise no other measure than His, because His love is the strength of ours. The love of Christ is no mere idea or sentiment. It is a real, divine life power. As long as the Christian does not understand this, it cannot exert its full power in him. But, when his faith rises to realise that Christ’s love is nothing less than the imparting of Himself and His love to the beloved, and he becomes rooted in this love as the source from which his life derives its sustenance, then he sees that his Lord simply asks that he allow His love to flow through him. He must live in a Christ-given strength. The love of Christ constrains him, and enables him to love as He did.
From this love of Christ, the Christian also learns what the work of his love to the brethren must be. We have already had occasion to speak of many manifestations of love – its loving service, its self-denial and its meekness. Love is the root of all these. It teaches the disciple to look upon himself as really called to be, in his little circle, just like Jesus, the One who lives solely to love and help others. Paul prays for the Philippians: “That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement” (Phil. 1:9).
Love does not at once comprehend the work that it can do. The believer who prays that his love may abound in knowledge, and really takes Christ’s example as his rule of life, will be taught what a great and glorious work there is for him to do. The church of God and every child of God, as well as the world, has an unspeakable need of love – of the manifestation of Christ’s love. The Christian who really takes the Lord’s word, “Love one another, as I have loved you,” as a command that must be obeyed, carries about a power for blessing and life for all those he comes in contact with. Love is the explanation of the whole wonderful life of Christ, and of the wonder of His death. Divine love in God’s children will still work its mighty wonders.
“Behold, what manner of love!” (1 Jn. 3:1). “Behold how He loved!” (Jn. 11:36). These words are the superscription over the love of the Father and of the Son. They must yet become the keywords to the life of every Christian. They will be so where, in living faith and true consecration, the command of Christ to love as He loved, is accepted as the law of life. As clearly as the call of Abraham, this principle was deposited as a living seed in God’s kingdom, that what God is for us, we must be for others. “I will bless thee,” and “thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2). If “I have loved you” is the highest manifestation of what God is for us, then “Even so love ye” must be the first and highest expression of what the child of God must be. In preaching, as in the life of the church, it must be understood: The love which loves like Christ is the sign of true discipleship.
Beloved Christians, Christ Jesus longs for you in order to make you, amid those who surround you, a very fountain of love. The love of heaven would gladly take possession of you, so that, in and through you, it may work its blessed work on earth. Yield to this rule. Offer yourself unreservedly to its indwelling. Honour it by the confident assurance that it can teach you to love as Jesus loved. As conformity to the Lord Jesus must be the chief mark of your Christian walk, so love must be the chief mark of that conformity.
Do not be disheartened if you do not attain it at once. Only keep a firm hold of the command, “Love, as I have loved you.” It takes time to grow into it. Take time in secret to gaze on that image of love. Take time in prayer and meditation to fan the desire for it into a burning flame. Take time to survey all around you, whoever they may be, and whatever may happen, with this one thought, “I must love them.” Take time to become conscious of your union with your Lord, that every fear as to the possibility of thus loving may be met with the word: “Have not I commanded you: Love as I have loved?” Christian, take time in loving communion with Jesus, your loving example, and you will joyfully fulfil this command, too, to love as He did.
Prayer: “Lord Jesus, who has loved me so wonderfully, and now commands me to love even as You, behold me at Your feet. Joyfully I accept Your commands, and now go out in Your strength to manifest Your love to all. In Your strength, O my Lord! Therefore, be pleased to reveal Your love to me. Shed abroad Your love in my heart through the Holy Spirit. . Let me live each moment in the experience that I am the beloved of God. Lord, let me understand that I can love, not with my own, but with Your love. You live in me; Your Spirit dwells and works in me. From You, there streams into me the love with which I can love others. You only ask that I understand and accept my calling, and that I surrender myself to live as You did. You want me to look on my old nature with its selfish and unlovingness as crucified, and in faith prepare to do as You command. Lord, I do it. In the strength of my Lord, I want to love even as You have loved me. Amen.”