Dear brothers and sisters in Christ –
Jesus, speaking to His disciples, said, “A new command I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, ifyou have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
“A new command.” Yet it is an old one. It was Moses, way back in the book of Leviticus, directed by God to speak His commands to His people, who said, “You shall not take vengeance.., but you shall love your neighbor as yourself, l am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18).
Jesus amplified His command, however, We are to love, He said, “as I have loved you.”
We understand what Jesus is talking about for we know how He loved us.
He has loved us enough to leave the glories of Heaven.
He has loved us more than earthly power and status and honor.
He has loved us more than He loved His own life.
Jesus further said that love for one another would be the mark of members of the Family of God. Just as He gave sight to the blind, made the lame man walk, healed the sick, and preached the Gospel to eager ears, so did His followers. So should we today.
With the love of Christ in us…
Fourteen of members of the Panama Mission team traveled to Panama City, Panama to offer eyeglass clinics at the four churches of the Lutheran Church of Panama — El Redentor Lutheran Church in Balbo, Dios es Grande Lutheran Church in Loma Coba, Los Andes Mission Church, and Emanuel Lutheran Church in Sora. In five days we tested eyesight and gave out 1,120 pairs of glasses. During the clinics, we acted as the hands and feet of Jesus. We traveled to those in need and we served them.
Loving others as Christ has loved us means that we should be willing to lay down our lives for them. It means no less than laying down our lives. This is a tall order.
Sinful beings that we are, we are not prone to love others as Christ has loved us. The apostle John tells us how it is possible: “Beloved, “he wrote in 1 John 4:7, “let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
We are born of God, and, by His grace, we can carry out His command to love one another through all the opportunities He gives us with all the gifts He gives us.
In the love of Christ, Pastor Hartwig