Bible League: Living His Word “I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other just as I loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.”— John 13:34-35 ERV When I was growing up, I went to church camp every year. I have such fond memories of Camp LRCA in northwest Indiana! I loved swimming and sitting around campfires. I loved learning Scripture and making new friends. I didn’t like the food very much, which was kind of weird because I was “husky.” I liked to eat (and I still do)! I remember the songs that we used to sing. One song had the words, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, by our love.” This little praise song comes straight from the mouth of our Lord Jesus. In today’s verse, He gave His followers a new command. This command wasn’t external in nature. No, it was internal. He told His followers who were gathered together, on the night before He was crucified, that they were to love each other as He loved them. Jesus told them that the world would know that they were His followers if they would just do this one thing—love each other. Jesus didn’t say that the world would know we are His followers by the music we listen to or by the number of Christian bumper stickers on the back of our SUV. He didn’t say that the world would know we are His followers by the lever we pull in the voting booth or the number of church services we attend each week. He didn’t say that the world would know we are His followers by our tattoos or lack thereof. It’s not by our hairstyles or the Bible verses we share on social media. He said, “All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.” Don’t get me wrong, some of these are very good things to do, and obedience to His Word is necessary. However, sometimes we get so focused on trying to follow all the rules that we forget to follow this command of Christ. If we can come together as the body of Christ and truly love each other, we will shock the world! Why? It is because the world is so devoid of love. Love is in such great demand, but is in such short supply. As followers of Jesus, we know the greatest love of all—GOD’S! If we can learn to truly love each other in the church despite all our differences, it will speak volumes to a world that is deeply divided. If we, as followers of Christ, can overcome that which separates us and can instead be united in God’s love, we will show the world that what we say we believe is true. The world will never believe that God is love if His own people can’t show it to each other. Let’s go out of our way to love one another in the Kingdom of God. The world will take notice of a bunch of people doing something so radical, and they just might want to know more about the God Who loves them and sent His Son Jesus to prove it. By Shawn Cornett, Bible League International staff, Illinois U.S. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingNumbers 7 Numbers 7 -- Offerings at the Tabernacle Dedication NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Mark 4:21-41 Mark 4 -- Parables of the Sower, Lamp on a Stand, Seed Growing Secretly, Mustard Seed; Jesus Calms the Sea NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is. Insight Life is short no matter how long we live. If there is something important we want to do, we must not put it off for a better day. Challenge Ask yourself, “If I had only six months to live, what would I do?” Tell someone that you love him or her? Deal with an undisciplined area in your life? Tell someone about Jesus? Because life is short, don't neglect what is truly important. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Genesis 49:24 His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.That strength which God gives to his Josephs is real strength; it is not a boasted valour, a fiction, a thing of which men talk, but which ends in smoke; it is true--divine strength. Why does Joseph stand against temptation? Because God gives him aid. There is nought that we can do without the power of God. All true strength comes from "the mighty God of Jacob." Notice in what a blessedly familiar way God gives this strength to Joseph--"The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." Thus God is represented as putting his hands on Joseph's hands, placing his arms on Joseph's arms. Like as a father teaches his children, so the Lord teaches them that fear him. He puts his arms upon them. Marvellous condescension! God Almighty, Eternal, Omnipotent, stoops from his throne and lays his hand upon the child's hand, stretching his arm upon the arm of Joseph, that he may be made strong! This strength was also covenant strength, for it is ascribed to "the mighty God of Jacob." Now, wherever you read of the God of Jacob in the Bible, you should remember the covenant with Jacob. Christians love to think of God's covenant. All the power, all the grace, all the blessings, all the mercies, all the comforts, all the things we have, flow to us from the well-head, through the covenant. If there were no covenant, then we should fail indeed; for all grace proceeds from it, as light and heat from the sun. No angels ascend or descend, save upon that ladder which Jacob saw, at the top of which stood a covenant God. Christian, it may be that the archers have sorely grieved you, and shot at you, and wounded you, but still your bow abides in strength; be sure, then, to ascribe all the glory to Jacob's God. Daily Light on the Daily Path Psalm 25:12 Who is the man who fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.Matthew 6:22 "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Isaiah 30:21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left. Psalm 32:8-11 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. • Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you. • Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. • Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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