As He Has Loved Us

Call to Prayer 

Title: As He Has Loved Us

By: Daniel Peter

Date: 03.10.2023

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. John 15:12 KJV

Love is a word used by humans every day with different connotations. However, when Jesus Christ was commanding the Church to love, He indicated what He meant by love by first demonstrating it to us before saying “love as I loved you (John 15:12 KJV)“. To really know what God’s kind of love is, we need to look at Jesus.

The love Jesus Christ demonstrated to us was sacrificial in nature. We were the offenders, deserving of death. Yet, He took our place of judgement and He released forgiveness to us. For us to really demonstrate the love of Christ, there must be an offence needing forgiveness. Therefore, we are truly obeying the Lord Jesus when we are able to love those who hurt us or spitefully use us (that is, when we love our enemies).  See Matthew 5:43-48.

When Jesus Christ was speaking about this, He said “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (Matt. 5:46 NKJV)“. This means, there is no spiritual gain (profit) when we love those who love us. Not because loving who loves you is bad, but there is no reward, for it doesn’t reveal Christ. We are truly walking in God’s kind of love when we love our enemies. So, when one acts in a way displeasing to us, it’s an opportunity to demonstrate that we are capable of loving like Christ by forgiving that person.

Acts like praying against the enemy and seeking vengeance that is now popular in the body of Christ shows that a large section of His body do not know what the love of Christ is. If God is love, and we are failing to know love, it means a lot of Christians do not know God (1 John 4:8). How can we claim to serve who we do not know?

Let’s emulate the love of Christ by loving the undeserving. Only then can we be recognized as children of God (Matthew 5: 43 -45).

Prayer Point.

Let’s thank God for His word today. Let’s ask Him to help us demonstrate the love of Christ.