Acting Together
John 13:34-35 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
In the upper room, at the Last Supper, Jesus gives this new commandment to his disciples, to love one another. They (we) are to love one another “as he has loved” them (us). It is about witness to the world. It is how the world around us will see and know that we are disciples of Jesus. This commandment is about community. It is about the common good. It is about our living as disciples of Jesus. He commands that we follow him together. He commands us to love one another.
These are strange and foreign words in a culture that worships individualism. It is an
odd concept in an economy that is based on the premise that the one who dies with the
most “things” wins. It is hard to comprehend this commandment in a time where we
all seek something more—more house, more car, more status, more power, more
“stuff.” In this drive for “more” we find ourselves isolated and feeling alone. We are
driven to protect our stuff. So we fear our neighbor, we build higher fences and security
systems, we live in fear of losing what we have accumulated.
Jesus commands us to love one another—he calls us into relationships, he calls us into
his community. His command is to love one another “as he has loved us!” In this
community we move into relationship with Jesus and one another.
This truly is a radical command—in our culture of individualism, none of us has enough.
We all are driven to get more. But in this community of Jesus’ disciples, we begin to see
that God provides us with more than enough!
Source: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Make It Simple
In the upper room, at the Last Supper, Jesus gives this new commandment to his disciples, to love one another. They (we) are to love one another “as he has loved” them (us). It is about witness to the world. It is how the world around us will see and know that we are disciples of Jesus. This commandment is about community. It is about the common good. It is about our living as disciples of Jesus. He commands that we follow him together. He commands us to love one another.
These are strange and foreign words in a culture that worships individualism. It is an
odd concept in an economy that is based on the premise that the one who dies with the
most “things” wins. It is hard to comprehend this commandment in a time where we
all seek something more—more house, more car, more status, more power, more
“stuff.” In this drive for “more” we find ourselves isolated and feeling alone. We are
driven to protect our stuff. So we fear our neighbor, we build higher fences and security
systems, we live in fear of losing what we have accumulated.
Jesus commands us to love one another—he calls us into relationships, he calls us into
his community. His command is to love one another “as he has loved us!” In this
community we move into relationship with Jesus and one another.
This truly is a radical command—in our culture of individualism, none of us has enough.
We all are driven to get more. But in this community of Jesus’ disciples, we begin to see
that God provides us with more than enough!
Source: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Make It Simple
