“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34–35, NIV 1984).
My Musings – New? Really? Sounds kind of familiar. “Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18, NIV 1984). But “as yourself” is not even all that common. “As I [Jesus] have loved you,” is extremely uncommon. Yet that is His command.
My Advice – How are we as a Church doing? How are we as individual members of the Church doing? Are either of these things (“as yourself” and “as I have loved you”) what the world sees in us? If not, why would they want or believe what we preach?
We spend a lot of our time condemning those who “stands condemned already” (John 3:18a, NIV 1984). The same place we stood before we “believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:18b, NIV 1984).
We should at least love them as ourselves, because have stood where they stood. We should also strive to love them as Jesus loves, because He died that they might live (really live) as we now live. “I have come [to die and rise again] that they may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10, NIV 1984).
Inspired by Pastor Kevin Rutledge’s sermon 12/21/25, First Baptist Church of Sycamore (Illinois)
The Brew Is A Musing 