A New Kind of Love

Knowing the time was fast approaching to endure the cross, Jesus kindly told His disciples that He would only be with them a little while longer. He used a term of endearment calling them “little children.” He knew that they could not come with Him, so He chose to give them a new commandment. The new commandment was to “love one another.” Why did Jesus say that this commandment was new when they already had a commandment to love their neighbors?

It was new because Christ loved in a way that had never been demonstrated before. He loved so much that He gave His life for all: men, women, Jew, Greek, uneducated, educated, religious, rebellious, enemy, or friend. It was new because this type of love was only possible with Christ’s Spirit. There is a vast difference between loving with human love and loving with Christ’s love. You must love God and walk in His Spirit to love your neighbor with this kind of love.

Separation between people comes as cultures and communities clash. Everyone seems to believe their way of thinking and living is the only way. But Jesus said to love one another as He loved us. That is a higher calling than simply learning how to get along. Some people think to love one another they have to speak and act pleasantly. But that is simply acting nice. Jesus did not come to teach us to act nice. Rather, believers are to love based on the fact that Christ resides in us and gives us His Spirit that allows us to love with the Love of God instead of merely human love. The love that Christ commanded does not end with the Christian community, it reaches out to all, just as Christ died for all.

When you have Christ’s love, you aim to help others find peace with God. This is a mark of God’s children. The love of Christ is kind in that it does not hold back the Truth that could potentially set a person free from the bondage of sin. Christ’s salvation and love is an act of kindness. However, to those who refuse to accept the offering of Christ, His love does not seem kind. Many think of kindness as being nice. But one can deceive oth-ers with nice actions. It is not kind to lie to someone in order to make them feel better when you know that you have Truth that could set them free.

Jesus did not lie, and He was the kindest person to ever walk the earth. With His disciples, He shared the Truth of what was to come regardless of how difficult it might have been for them to receive. With the Pharisees, He was kind by giving them warnings regarding the condition of their hearts. He was firm with the Pharisees because that is what they needed if they were to ever have a chance to come to peace with God. Kindness is a fruit Christ’s love, and the love of Christ has a purpose. The purpose of Christ’s love is not to make people feel better, but to save them from themselves.

Christ had at least three kinds of love that would be considered new to His disciples and to all believers:

1. Love in action: “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

2. Self-Denying Love: “For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is writ-ten, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.’” Romans 15:3

3. Self-Sacrificial Love: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13

This is the uniqueness of Christ’s new commandment. When you look at these as a whole you see a love that is not deceitful but that is willing to sacrifice, give up one’s own desires, and help others. This love is willing to be treated wrongly while continuing to do right.

 

From John: True Belief Brings Kindness (Book 3) by Alison Veazey and Kerry Skinner.