This Sunday I had the honor of teaching our Confirmation class on “What does God expect of us?” (Confirmation is a class for students 7th -12th grade who want to learn about Christ, faith, the church and publicly confirm their love of God for themselves, as acknowledged in their baptism. For more information about Confirmation, click here.) We talked about the two greatest commandments of loving God with our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving others as we love ourselves (from Mark 12:29-31). At first, I thought this is a simple message. Then, I found myself wrestling with these commandments because of the theme from today’s reading.
Today’s Scripture reinstates the type of love we are to show to one another: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”(1 John 3:16). My picture of loving others changes drastically when I picture the love of Jesus and the cross.
Here are a few descriptions of love I observe from Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
Christ’s love is, no matter the situation, we give others respect and dignity.
Christ’s love is, no matter the situation, we offer hospitality, grace and forgiveness.
Christ’s love is, no matter the situation, seemingly overwhelming and undeserving, but we offer it anyway.
Christ’s love is, no matter the situation, there is an action that is beyond our comfort level and calls us to respond.
We are people who must love one another with Christ’s love. It’s beyond being nice. It’s a soul-twisting, life-changing love that makes an impact on others and on us. This is where the wrestling begins…because this is easy to say but not so easy to do. We remember that we do not have the strength or the natural ability to give this love. So, we ask God to give us this love to give to others.
Today, offer this love to someone you know that needs it. You can offer it through a smile, a kind word, any outward expression of the inward decision that you are making to begin to love one another radically. Find that one person that it is hard to love and start now. May you experience God’s presence as you offer this radical, life-changing experience.
