We Are Commanded To Love!

May 1, 2025

We are commanded to love! 

The love commandment is more than a suggestion or a recommendation.  The love commandment is more than an expectation or an aspiration.  The love commandment is more than good advice or a sincere request.  The love commandment is more than a moral directive or a social mandate.

We are commanded to love!

In I John 3:23 we hear; “And this is his (God’s) commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”

The idea that we are commanded to love seems a bit foreign.  We tend to think of love as being a romantic experience with our life partner or being the privilege of caring for our child or being in deep spiritual connection with another Christian or being the close bond with our best friend, or being the honor we show to our aging parents.  We don’t often think of love as being a commandment.

And yet, the Bible is clear that the Lord God does more than desire us to love Him and love one another and love our self.  The Lord God commands us to love. 

We are created by God to love and to be loved.  When we are not both receiving and giving love, we are not all that our Creator has made us to be.

We are commanded to love!

When a new born baby does not connect with its parents in a deep way, the child sometimes experiences something the medical profession calls failure to thrive.  It is a physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual reaction to a lack of both receiving and giving love.  Failure to thrive is a serious and sometimes fatal consequence whose cause is a lack of love.

We are commanded to love!

In Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus says; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” 

We are created by the Lord God to love and to be loved.  When we are not both receiving and giving love, we fail to be all that God created us to be and to do; i.e., we fail to thrive!

I imagine you might know someone who is not doing well right now.  There could be many different things going on right now.  Sometimes the root cause of our friend’s struggle is they are not both receiving and giving love in as great a measure as they need.  Maybe there is a bit of “failure to thrive” going on with that person that is causing them to stay stuck in a season of trouble and struggle.

I encourage you to take a few minutes right now and pray for your friend.  Ask Jesus to show His love to them in a special and obvious way today.  Ask the Holy Spirit to nudge them to show an act of kindness and love to another person.  Ask the Father to fill them with His amazing grace and His tender love today. 

I encourage you to take some time in the next week to spend with your friend.  Let them know you care about them and support them.  Let them know you pray for them and love them.  Let them know they are a child of God who is loved and cherished by their Heavenly Father.

We are commanded to love!

If you are going through a season of life in which you are “failing to thrive” ask yourself if you are not giving and/or receiving enough love in your relationship with Jesus and/or in your relationship with other people.  If so, take some time each day for the next week to remember you are commanded to love. 

Then, take some action! 

+How can you share and show your love for Jesus this week? 

+How can you share and show your love for another person this week?

+How can you be reminded that your are a precious child of God?

+How can you prepare yourself to receive the next great outpouring of Jesus’ love on you?

As we fulfill the commandment to love, we begin to thrive.  When we begin to thrive, our hearts fill with more and more delight in the Lord! 

Take Delight In The Lord!

Doug