Love Begins With The Lord!

May 8, 2025

Love Begins With The Lord!

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.”

However, just because we are commanded to love does not mean love is easy.  Loving God, loving other people, and even loving our self often comes with challenges.  For most of us, love is often difficult and complicated.

For some, growing up in an unhealthy family, experiencing an abusive parent, or being continually disappointed by someone who struggles with addiction makes trust and commitment and love even more difficult.

For others, the betrayal by a close friend, a broken relationship with a son or daughter, or the unfaithfulness of a spouse makes patience and kindness and love even more of a challenge.

We are commanded to love.  But, love is not always easy. 

Sometimes we look to the example of another person to show us how to love more deeply and more broadly.  I have found that approach to be helpful.  However, what helps more than the example of other people is to follow the example of Jesus.  Afterall, it is Jesus who commands us to love.

As I watch how Jesus loves people (some who are pretty unlovable), I learn how and am inspired to love even when it seems too difficult.

In I John 4:7-12 the Apostle John writes; “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.  God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

Three things stand out in this text.

+Love is from God.

+God’s love is revealed in Jesus.

+Because God loves us, we are to love one another.

Love begins with the Lord God, love is revealed by the Lord God, and love is commanded by the Lord God. 

Jesus loved a corrupt tax collector.

Jesus loved a woman caught in adultery.

Jesus loved an enemy whose daughter died young.

Jesus loved a woman who was a prostitute.

Jesus loved a person with leprosy.

Jesus loved young children.

Jesus loved a person stuck in poverty.

Jesus loved a young man possessed by demons.

Jesus loved a man who wanted nothing to do with God.

Jesus loved a rich man focused on his wealth.

Jesus loved the spiritual leaders who wanted to destroy Him.

Jesus shows us how far love is willing to go by loving people who are often very difficult to love.  Jesus endures torture and ridicule, betrayal and abandonment, and even death to show us how far love can go.  In John 3:16 we hear; “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Love begins with the Lord God!  And then, the Lord God commands us to love; to love God, to love others, and to love self with that same kind of love. 

Take a moment today to reflect on someone in your life that might be one of the more difficult people for you to love.  Consider how Jesus might show that person love.  Then, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in loving that person in the same way Jesus shows them love.

When we love in ways that are modeled after the example of Jesus, our heart will fill more and more with delight in the Lord.  That delight begins with knowing we are loved by Jesus and then goes deeper as we love others in the same way.

Take Delight In The Lord!

Doug