John 13:21-38 | What's the lesson for me today?

In verse 34 of this passage, we are instructed to love one another as Jesus has loved us. That is an incredibly important line. What I have been recognizing over the course of the last several months is that I have failed to really understand the love of God. I have been in a very deep pursuit of grabbing ahold of that fact. It is central to the Gospel! The Gospel cannot be understood outside of love. There have been so many twistings and perversions of that narrative that I have spent the vast majority of my time explaining what it is not at the neglect of failing to understand what it is.

The life of the believer is one that operates out of the overflow. We love because HE first loved us. We do not conjure it up. We give back to Him that same manner of love that was given. Consider it this way. A child wants to get his father a present for Father's Day but doesn't have any money to do so. He goes up to his father and asks for some money to get him a present. The father gives the son $20 and takes him to the store to buy a Father's Day present. Now it is out of what the father has given to the son that the son has any ability to give back to the father. The son on his own couldn't. So the same for us. We receive from the Lord and give that back.

Our passage of discussion is not relating to the love we return to the Lord, but rather, it is relating to the love we have for one another. I want to be precise here. Jesus is speaking with His disciples when He says this.

35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
-John 13:35

The love that is being talked about contextually is the love among disciples of Jesus. It is the love of the family of saints. They will know we are Christians by our love for one another. The love that is poured into our hearts is poured in among saints. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves, but we are to love one another as Jesus has loved us. I have heard this passage misquoted many times over. There is a special love that is held for the saints, among the saints, in Scripture. We do not see that so much today.

So what lesson is standing out to me today? I need to understand the love of God for me that I may then, in turn, love the body of Christ with His love.

What lesson is sticking out to you today?