THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever stepped in something disgusting?
READ TOGETHER.
John 13:34. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Jesus spoke these words to his disciples on the same night that he washed their feet. Yesterday we said that washing the feet of the disciples was a picture of Jesus dying on the cross. Jesus will become a servant to the whole world and cleanse the whole world of sin when he dies on the cross. Jesus’ death on the cross is the greatest act of love ever.
After Jesus washed their feet and before he would die on the cross, Jesus told his disciples to love one another. He called this a NEW commandment.
But haven’t we always been told to love one another? Hasn’t Jesus already said that loving God and loving our neighbor are the two most important commandments? Yes. So how is this a NEW commandment.
The new part is this – just as I have loved you.
The law in the Old Testament told us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. That means we are to love each other the same way that we love ourselves. But now Jesus is saying that we must love each other the same way that Jesus loves us. By washing feet. By forgiving. By serving. By sacrificing for them.
Loving others as we love ourselves was hard enough. So hard, that no one has ever done it. How much more impossible is it to love others the way Jesus does?
Jesus knows that what he is asking us to do is impossible to do perfectly. None of us has loved others like Jesus does. That’s why first Jesus had to cleanse us of our sins on the cross. Knowing that none of us would love perfectly, first he died for our sins, he “washed” us clean, so that we can work hard at loving each other from a pure heart.
When you know that you won’t be in trouble for failing to obey a commandment, then you can strive to obey Jesus’ commandment without fear of failing. And when you know that Jesus loves you perfectly and has given everything he has to you, then you can strive to obey his commandment from freedom.
Because of Jesus we have been loved perfectly and cleansed of all our sin.
With Jesus we can love each other like he does.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Make John 13:34 a family memory verse.
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, your love for me makes it so I can strive to love others. I’m not afraid to fail. I’m not afraid to try. Help me to be kind today even to those who are hard to love. Amen.
TLICfamily 