When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment, He said; "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" Matthew 22:37. Jesus clearly said the most important thing we can do in this life is to love God with absolutely every part of our being. But Jesus immediately added, "the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself" Matthew 22:39.
After our love for God, we are called to love others with a love which flows from the love of Christ. At the end of His ministry, on the night before He was crucified, Jesus set a new standard for our love.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34 Love for others had always been important, but Jesus called the command "new" and changed the standard from the way we love ourselves to the way He loved us. Why is this significant?
Jesus came into the world with the single purpose of dying for the forgiveness of our sin so we could be restored to a right relationship with God - this is true love; "God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son..." John 3:16. We didn't do ANYTHING to deserve this love. While we were completely lost in a world of sin, God looked down on us, and loved: "God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8.
This degree of love, poured out for those who are utterly undeserving, is the definition of God's grace. Peter said we are saved by this undeserved love; "it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved" Acts 15:11. Paul said the same in many different ways: "{We} are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" Romans 3:24, and, "it is by grace you have been saved, through faith" Ephesians 2:8. God's love is demonstrated through grace!
The concept of grace is essential in beginning our relationship with God as well as continuing with every step of our journey along His path. But try as we might, we can never adequately convey the meaning of God's grace with words. We must continue to proclaim His truth through spoken and written words, but in this important area of God's grace, we are given a "new command" to teach through our actions - to teach through our love.
We have been given an incredible gift! We are given a gift we can never repay, but it's a gift we must share. The world is in great need! It is lost and desperate to know the grace of our Lord and Savior. Let's pour out love to those around us in the same manner it was poured out on us - undeserved and without restraint! Let's live out Jesus' new command and, through love, teach the world His grace.
- steve troxel
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