Love like Jesus
“You can listen to our song here”
I was reading through the letters of John, man they are so good. But anyways I was reading 1 John, and he is just laying it all out and giving everyone a new commandment that was from the very beginning, which is to love each other (1 John 2:7-11).
I think this is Absodarnlutely amazing, because Jesus didn’t say anything about following the rules of the Jewish leaders, or following the strict guidelines of the Pharisees, or making sure you build rules and traditions to follow in your “churches”—making them strict to make you look good on the outside, to make you look righteous, to make you look humble, to make you look submissive, and then maybe He’ll consider you for approval into the Kingdom. (Matthew 23: 27-28)
No, He did not do any of this. Jesus said you should “love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31, Matthew 22:37-40, Luke 10:27). Here, John was saying that Jesus commands us to love each other (John 13:34-35, 1 John 3:23), and God commands us to believe in the One whom He sent—Jesus Christ (John 6:29).
God is commanding us to believe in Jesus Christ and to love one another, like He loves us.
That’s it. That’s the whole Bible, that’s the whole Law, that’s the whole message of the prophets, I mean that’s everything the prophets talked about, everything that God had planned from the beginning. The only reason Jesus came was to make a way to Heaven for us. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
That’s the whole Bible in one sentence, from Genesis to Revelation, summed up in two words: “Love others.” (Galatians 5:14)
But what do we do?
Oh, let’s divide. Let’s make a bunch of different religions. Let’s put a “church” on every corner. Let’s make each “church” a different denomination. Let’s make our own rules that will seclude those outsiders because we can’t worship with those types of people. Let’s stick with some strict guidelines to follow so we can make ourselves right in the eyes of God.
And now, look at us! We are so righteous, we are so humble. Man, look at all we have done! I am so proud to be this humble! Like I always say: It’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way! LOL
But John says here that if we do not put Jesus first in everything we do, in every aspect of our life, then we are sinning (1 John 2:4-6). That’s just absolutely amazing to me because we think we can set up a perfect world. We think we can do it on our own. We think if we show up with other so-called believers and follow the ritual every week, we’ll be good to go. But if we’re not putting Jesus first in every aspect of our lives from Monday through Saturday, it doesn’t matter one bit what we do on Sunday.
It’s not about religion. It’s not about man-made rules or traditions. It’s not about what you think you should do to please others. It’s not about what other people will think of you.
It’s all about your freaking heart.
If Jesus is not your focus, and I’m not talking about this so-called feel good Jesus that religious people make up in their heads, I’m talking about the One and Only Savior, Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe, the Great I AM (John 8:58, Colossians 1:16-17), the One and Only God who came down in human form to suffer and die and rise again with the power of His Father just to make a way to eternity for us to be with Him forever (Philippians 2:6-11, Romans 5:8, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
That kind of love only comes from Jesus, and He is asking us to believe in Him, believe in what He did, and to love others the same way as He loves us (John 15:12-13).
That’s His command, Love others like He loves us. We need to put Him first in everything we do, in work in play, in thought, I mean everything! Without Jesus, everything is useless (John 15:5).
People say, “Well, I love Jesus because I go to church.”
But the question is:
Do you love Jesus, and others when you’re not in the so-called church building?
Church is not a building.
It’s the body of Jesus Christ, every single born-again, Bible-believing, Jesus-confessing, sin-forgiven person is part of the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, His Church (1 Corinthians 12:27, Ephesians 5:25-27).
So, get this nonsense out of your head and start focusing on Jesus, and let Him lead you into all truth! (John 16:13)
Until next time, and from now on, read your bible from start to end, and LOVE others like Jesus would!
~ Joe Lester ~