Spiritual understanding dictates spiritual life. Our theology directs our practice. Once we understand who God is and what he did in his first time coming to Earth and what he will do when he comes the second time, we can use the powerful phrase “in the meantime” to understand what every part of our lives should look like. Christ came and has ascended to Heaven, and he is coming back soon—so what are we to do “in the meantime?” According to Christ, we are to love one another.
Love one another! It’s an instruction simple enough for a toddler to understand and yet radical enough to give even the most faithful of us great difficulty in obeying it. Though we all know in our hearts that the world needs more love, we find ourselves hardwired to look only for ways to glorify and satisfy our own selves. Human beings are just naturally prone to selfishness. But disciples of Jesus aren’t! Disciples of Jesus focus their everything on loving other disciples—it is the fundamental thing that they constantly do.
In fact, the way Jesus describes it, our love for others is an extension of our glorifying the Lord. Such is the way Jesus himself loves. In fact, take a moment to recognize Jesus’ death and resurrection as the ultimate act of love. Jesus loved his Father so much that he obeyed him to the point of death, and he loved his people so much that he gave himself up for our redemption, and in both of these ways the Father is glorified. That is exactly how we are to love others: just the same way that Christ has loved us. Christ is the standard, which means the standard is high!
Technically speaking, this commandment wasn’t a “new” one; love had been the key part of the law since the beginning. But it’s new because in this new age, it responds to and reflects the love of Jesus. That’s what Christians do. We are not called to fight the people we dislike or follow any rulebook or find a self-exalting life; we are called to love one another, so long as this age lasts. Christ is coming back—but "in the meantime," let’s show ourselves to be disciples and love one another.
