Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
If you had one message to give before you passed, what would that message be on? Would it be a message on hope? How to live with courage? Maybe some lessons you've learned along the way? In our text today, Jesus is in His final moments with His disciples and He's about to go to the cross. This is the Last Supper—He's having a last meal with His disciples. The speech He gives is actually not fancy at all. It's a speech on loving one another.
What's New About This Commandment?
He says, "I'm giving you a new commandment." When I read this text, I ask myself, well, what's new about loving one another? He answers that by saying, "just as I have loved you." The command used to be, love your neighbor as yourself. But Jesus comes on the scene and says, this is the new commandment—love just as I have loved you. The newness is just as I have loved you. How did Jesus love us? Sacrificially. In fact, He ultimately went to the cross and absorbed the wrath of God that you and I deserved. Now, you might be reading this and saying, well, I'm not going to the cross, so what do I do with a verse like this? The call for us remains to live sacrificially. We all have opportunities to stretch ourselves, to love on people, to give sacrificially. There are people in our lives that are honestly hard to love. I have people in my life that are very hard to love, and it's hard to love them—especially sacrificially.
The Love of God Poured Into Our Hearts
When I have a hard time loving people, I remind myself that Romans chapter 5, verse 5 tells us that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts. When I came to Jesus, God's love was poured out into my heart. When I struggle to love, I remind myself I have the capacity to love people because God's love has been poured into my life. It's been shed abroad in my heart. Here's what happens when we take the attention off of ourselves and love sacrificially: we become like Jesus. Something happens when we shift the attention off of ourselves and look for ways to serve. Jesus always elevated people. He noticed people. He looked for ways to serve. He looked for ways to add value to people.
Who Is God Calling You to Love?
My encouragement to each and every person listening is to ask yourself, who in my sphere of influence—at home, in my neighborhood, where I play sports, at the coffee shop, wherever I go—who has God placed in my sphere of influence that He's calling me to love? If you have a hard time loving them, ask God to give you eyes to see them the way He sees them. Because once we have eyes to see people the way God sees them, we're going to love on them the way God wants us to love.