Jesus. Jesus and you!

Love One Another.

John 15 : 17

"These things I command you, that you love one another".

These words are the commandment of Jesus to us, love one another. In our modern society, the word love has almost totally lost it's meaning. Love is associated with so many different feelings, and is also incorrectly applied to many different emotions.

Love is a word that is thrown around and used so easily, and yet it is one of the most powerfull words that have ever existed. There is an old song by Don Fransisco that pretty much sums up the word love. It says that, " love is not a feeling, but an act of your will. "

When we meet our perfect partner, we experience all these strange emotions that well up inside of us. These emotions can leave you weak at the knees, and feeling on top of the world etc. Are these signs love. When a married couple gets older, they no longer have all these strange emotions, but their love is ten or more times stronger than at the time that they were having these emotions. Therefore these emotions are not love.

Love is something that you choose to do. Love is not an emotion but a choice. When you get married, you make a vow to each other, and in that vow you state that you will love for richer or poorer etc. That is a choice that you make. When we come to Jesus at first, we make a choice to follow Him. We choose to love Him. Yes, we may get all the funny emotions at first, but at the end, we make the choice to follow Him. I have had many people approach me with concern that they no longer have that first love for Jesus, that they had in the beginning. All that has happened is that the emotions have disappeared and now the true love comes forward. This is the time of testing wether your love was based on an emotion or wether it is an act of your will to continue to love Jesus.

Jesus commands us in the scripture above, to also love one another. We are to show our love and we are to choose to love our fellow mankind. Love is kind and gentle. Love does not point it's fingers and delight in the hurt of others. Love hurts when others are hurting. Love weeps when others are crying. Love rejoices when others succeed.  Love is when you are prepared to sacrifice of yourself for the benefit of others. Sure you will get those that will take advantage of you, and those that will use you, and those that will persecute you, but is that not what they also did to Jesus.

John 15 : 20 "A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also."  Jesus continued to love those that persecuted Him. Saul was one of the main persecuters of the disciples, and yet Jesus turned it around through his love, and made Saul into Paul who then continued to become the greatest apostle of all.

Go and obey the commandment of Jesus, and choose to Love all those around you, regardless of the cost to yourself.

God Bless.