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Perfect Love By Linda Schreiber Do we place unnecessary walls between ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ? A mature love can breach those walls.
esus gave us a commandment in John 13:34-35: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." And again later in this discourse to His disciples He repeats this command twice: "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). "These things I command you, that you love one another" (John 15:17). Jesus felt it was so important that He repeated this command to His disciples at least three times. He said that if they loved each other as He loved them, everyone would know that they were His disciples. We know that love is the fulfilling of the law, and that God's law is based on love.
As Paul wrote: "Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:1-5). The mind of Christ We can only be of one mind the way the Father and Son are if we understand what Their kind of love is. Paul tells us in Philippians that our minds need to be like Jesus'. We cannot have pride in our minds if we are to even begin to reach the kind of mind Christ had. Giving His life for His friends required a complete lack of self-centeredness. Jesus and the Father have perfect love. John, "the apostle of love," wrote: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love" (1 John 4:18, New American Standard Bible). The Living Bible puts it this way: "We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us, and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us." In the New International Version this verse says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
The apostle John hit on the basic reason God's people do not always show perfect love. John tells us that perfect love casts out fear. Fear of something prevents us from doing what we know we should. Do we have this kind of love among us? At first you might say, "Why of course we do!" I would like you to consider if there is anyone who is supposed to be your brother who you might fear under certain circumstances? We must, of course, be practicing righteousness and mature love ourselves. John tells us that those who do not do righteousness are of the devil and not of God. John also tells us in this same scripture that if we do not truly love our brother, we are also not of God. "In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother" (1 John 3:10). Who is our brother?
We are to have a special love for those God has called. They are our brothers and sisters. Do you love your physical family? Most people would say yes. We have a special bond with our family. We should have a special bond among the brethren. All those the Father has called and who practice God's way are our brethren. They are our family. Do we place unnecessary walls between ourselves and the rest of the family? Do we think that because we are part of a certain group or organization -- or even because we aren't a part of a group or organization -- that we are somehow exempt from Jesus' commands to love each other? Do we say we love the rest of the Body but do things that show otherwise? How would Jesus treat His brothers and sisters? Would He feel that because they were not under the same corporate name that He should avoid them?
Verse 15 of 1 John 3 tells us: "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." The Living Bible puts it this way: "Anyone who hates his Christian brother is really a murderer at heart; and you know that no one wanting to murder has eternal life within." The word hate may seem like a strong word here. You may think it means an intense hatred of someone or hating so much that you might want to hurt or kill him or her. But this word does not mean that kind of hate. This word is from the Greek miseo (Strong's 3404), which means "to detest (especially to persecute); by extension, to love less: KJV -- hate (-ful)."
Jesus tells us in 1 John 3:16-18 that we should love the brethren so much that we are willing to lay our lives down for them. It also tells us that we should show our love by what we do and not only what we say. In other words -- practice what we preach. God nowhere in His Word tells us it is all right to treat some of our brethren with love and ignore others. God nowhere tells us we can place barriers among ourselves. God nowhere tells us we can place barriers between others. It is not wrong to organize ourselves in order to preach the gospel. It is wrong to separate ourselves from our brethren and to impose separations on others. We should never have to fear each other. Satan wants us to fear each other. God wants us to love each other. What kind of love will you have? What kind of love will we all have? Let's all begin to profess and to practice "perfect love." Recommended reading If you'd like to read more about United Church of God, an International Association, please visit http://www.ucg.org/booklets for more free literature. Copyright 2004 by United Church of God, an International Association All rights reserved. |
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Origin of article "Perfect Love"
Keywords: perfect love love love of brethren
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