What Does Jesus Say About Love?

Love

You can find a lot of places in the bible where Jesus talks about love. And back then, when Jesus was on Earth, the one word that we use for "love" had several different meanings. It really depends on what you're looking for.

The word used to talk about God's love for humankind was different than the word that was used to talk about how people should love one another. And, those words were different from the word used to talk about romantic love.

One passage that comes to mind is in John chapter 13:34-35.

34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

In this passage Christ is talking to his disciples about how He wants them to act toward each other. Jesus is so serious about what He's going to tell them that He calls it a "commandment".  This isn't a suggestion. And He gives the reason why.

Christ tells his little band of spiritual brothers that they need to develop a love for each other. A love that is just like the love that He had for them. He probably knew it wouldn't be easy. There was a lot of jealousy and ego involved. But, it was important for a couple of reasons.

Reason number one that Jesus commanded his followers to love one another is that without love and respect and self sacrifice for fellow believers, not a whole lot would get done. In fact, the whole operation would fall apart and the disciples would be prone to go back to their separate lives and the mission would fall apart.

And, reason number two, was that if non-believers actually saw true love at work among the disciples, then it would be a powerful witness about the life changing power of the gospel. Others would be drawn to the message that Jesus had left with the early church. And thus the kingdom would spread.


Think about that for a moment....

What would happen if the outside world saw that Christians (of each denomination) actually loved one another? How would that play on CNN? How would it play on Saturday Night Live?

While there may have been other things that Jesus says about love, this one in particular deserves a little more attention I think.