command...

2 John 5-6

I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

This is the second instance in Scripture that John tells us what love is. The first is in John’s first letter – “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us”.

Now a lot of people like to quote just this part of the verse, “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands”. But we have to keep the context. What is the command that Jesus gave?

(If you say, no this verse means you have to listen to do everything Jesus commanded then what will you do with Matthew 5 which says that if your right eye causes you to sin, you should gouge it out and throw it away? And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off!)

Here’s the context: there is a commandment we’ve had from the beginning - His command that you walk in love. His command is that you walk in the full knowledge of Christ’s love for you and I.

Did you know even loving one another can become religious? Instead of actually being concerned with what love is, we just want to know what it looks like, replicate it and get it done – ‘Look at how good I am - I’ve discharged my Christian duty to love’.

Our lives have been taken over by a desire not to do what is actually loving, but what appears to be right.

In our love for Him (which is frail and dynamic), we can’t walk in obedience, loving one another. In his love for us (which is strong and unfailing), we can!

Prayer for the week: Father, thank you for how you created us for relationship with you. Let your Spirit be a constant provider and teacher in my life. May my relationships with others be the same, full of life and love.