In studying for our lesson this week, about the new commandment to love, I was reminded that this isn’t new at all.  It is the ancient command from God, given to His people, the first instructions on how to live in covenant with Him, how to live as covenant people with one another: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut.6:4-5)  And “…you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (Lev. 19:18)

From the beginning, this was the standard for God’s people.  What Jesus added was the measure of it: His own life example.  “…just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”  (John 13:34)  Something we know, but forget we know, need to be brought face-to-face with repeatedly.  “Just as I have loved you…” means messy all-out everyday giving of hands’ work and body’s strength, food for hungry mouths and hungry hearts, slowing to listen, being burden-bearers alongside, even when we feel the weight of our own need.

Maybe especially when we feel our own need, because that is what self-sacrifice is all about, giving up our needs in order to serve someone else’s, and trusting God to meet our own.  Our homes could be incubators for this God kind of love…. the needs are endless there, and our hearts are knit to these people, and in the chaotic ordinary moments of living together there are endless opportunities to give up self and become a servant.

I feel small next to Jesus’ standard.  “As I have loved you…”?.  With enough willpower and discipline I can do good to others.  But how can I pour out love like Jesus did, give as much as He did, and how especially to the difficult ones?  I don’t have it in me unless He creates it in me, transforms me into someone new– someone more like Him.  This is what A.B. Simpson called “living the Christ-life” and what the apostle Paul meant when he said “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom.6:11)

Then come,  Lord Jesus…have more of me so I can have more of You, and fill up this small dry heart with the abundance of Your Spirit, and let it pour out into all my everyday places.  If I am to obey this new commandment, I need Your flow of Living Water renewed continually.

“You are my supply, my breath of life, still more awesome than I know….and all of You is more than enough for all of me, for every thirst and every need. You satisfy me with Your love and all I have in You is more than enough.” (Enough, Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio)

True Christianity is not merely believing a certain set of dry abstract propositions: it is to live in daily personal communication with an actual living person – Jesus Christ.  ( J.C. Ryle)