Love one another

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He instructed the disciples in the washing of feet, the Lord’s supper, and the promised Holy Spirit. Finally, He gave His disciples one more commandment:

A New Commandment
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:12-14)

Jesus’ last commandment to His Church is to “love one another.” The final act of Jesus’ life as a man is to give His life for His friends, and so He sets the example of love for the Church and every man. Even as Christ gave His life for the Church, this is the kind of love His disciples should have for one another.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16)

It is through the Holy Spirit that we learn to love one another. From God’s love, we love others. Paul writes, “Concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another” ( 1 Thessalonians 4:9).

“Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”

Love “rejoices in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). Without love and the leading of the Holy Spirit, the unity Jesus prayed for will never happen.

Until we are all persuaded, we must respect the faith and conscience of the one who observes elements of his faith in conscience to God. “For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant?” (Romans 14:2-4)

We should never allow our spiritual understanding to become a reason for boasting. God gives us understanding only that we may be saved and know Him more deeply. Paul again writes, “We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:1,2).