One Perfect Love

Over the past few months, I have heard a couple of songs playing over the radio, that have caught my attention. Each of the songs carried the same theme. In the lyrics of one of the songs, a husband tells how, in spite of his sinfulness, his wife “.... loves me like Jesus does”. The other song is a young man assuring his sweetheart that he “will love her like Jesus does”. Whenever I hear those two songs, my first reaction is, “Good luck on that!”

However, luck has nothing to do with helping us to love others as Jesus loves us. In John 13:34, Jesus tells his disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus was asking his disciples to imitate His love for them as they love one another. He asks the same of us.

Christians bring dishonor to Christ and His love when we deal with one another in a loveless manner.....and we all do that at one time or another. Yet, we would like to love like Jesus. We would like to be more patient, caring, understanding, forgiving and able to love unconditionally. But no matter how hard we try, it just doesn’t happen. Our humanness gets in the way.

Jesus was both man and God Incarnate. His love was perfect. He redeemed us through His self-sacrificial love so that we may in turn imitate his love. Yes, we can love with our whole heart, but we can’t love perfectly like our Lord and Saviour. But the good news is that our ability to love will grow more and more each day as we walk the walk with Jesus.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Wouldn’t this be a great time to tell those near and dear to us that we love them............and most especially tell them we love them with the love of the Lord. We know the love we give isn’t a perfect love like our Lord’s love, but it is a love exemplified by Him who first loved us! Let us love one another!

May your love, Dear Lord, guide our every action. Amen!