This is my comandment…

…that ye love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12). This was the standard which Christ Jesus put before his followers.  The only caveat was that their love must be the same as his love.  That meant it wasn’t just for those who deserved it or loved them back. It wasn’t just for those who were good or kind.  It wasn’t even just for those who thought or acted or looked the same way they did.

It was a love that healed and saved without measure.

What does it take to love that way?

For Jesus, to love that way was to love as his heavenly Father loved. In fact, it was to know God as Love itself, not just loving but the very source of love. This view of God was revolutionary! But it enabled Jesus to express that love in infinite ways: by feeding multitudes; by changing water into wine; by knowing there would be a coin in a fish’s mouth; by healing the sick; by raising the dead; by redeeming the sinner. It was love that met the need when and where it needed to be met.

We can love that way because we have the same heavenly Father that Jesus had. And we have the model that Jesus himself set for us of love in action. He even said that “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” (John 14:12)

And because God is the source of love it can’t be depleted, it can’t be worn out.  God, Love, is infinite and fills all space.

Jesus was very clear that it wasn’t his own love that he was sharing freely.  He said “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (John 5:19)

Human love can be hit or miss.  It can be overwhelmed or under utilized.  And it can just plain wear out.  Divine Love, the source of Jesus’ love, never gave up, never gave out. That’s the source of our love too.

It does seem though, sometimes, that there is a lot of baggage that needs to be set aside in order to prove it.  Jesus gave some pretty clear instructions for doing just that, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 to 7).  For example: take the log out of your own eye before trying to take the splinter out of your neighbor’s eye; if someone wants you to go one mile, go with him two; do to others as you would have them do to you.  There are many more instructions for purifying and uplifting our love in those three chapters of Matthew’s gospel.

Perhaps the most clear reminder however, comes from 1st John: we love because He first loved us. (4:19) Loving as Jesus loved, expressing the source of love, is simply a natural manifestation of the Love that loved us first.

Let that love be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.