I was spending time today with Jesus in John 14.  The first words he says are, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,”  It’s one of those phrases that he emphasizes in this final conversation with his disciples before the cross. In verse 21 he reverses the statement by saying, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.”

Jesus continues by telling us this is the way to know Him. “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.”  Keeping the commands of Jesus out of love for Him, opens a door into a greater encounter with His love and Jesus will allow Himself to be known at a more intimate level. This is not working to earn something, but a response of love from Jesus to our love for Him. He wants to reveal Himself to us in greater ways.

I asked Him what commandments I needed to focus on and He reminded me of John 13, where Jesus tells his disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, love one another in the same way I have loved you.”

Immediately, I began to think of how I am responding to the many voices within the Church these days.  There is such a great dichotomy of opinions, some vehemently expressed, some mocking, some unlovingly intolerant. This sounds like the world, but I'm speaking of that which is within the Church today towards others believers.  I had to examine my own heart in this.  Particularly in the areas of today’s controversies in the political and medical crises that surrounds us. I, personally, have not responded well to many of the statements and claims. Regardless of the truth or falsehood surrounding many of these things, my internal and sometimes external responses have not been based in love. As I allow Holy Spirit to show me my own lack of love in my thoughts, I find myself cringing at my response when I attempt to align them with Jesus’ words to love one another.

As Jesus addressed my own issue in this, I also must address this the Church.  The division within the Church today has increased and with it the lack of love for one another in so many visible ways.  The words of contempt and mockery that appear in the comments of many social media posts are often NO DIFFERENT than those I read from unbelievers.

Yet Jesus said the world will know we are his disciples because we love one another.

Then He brought me back to Matt 5 in the message that Matthew recorded. It is clear today, that there are many enemies of righteousness all around us.  The spirit of this world is the spirit of antichrist. The rise of ungodly wickedness that has been unleashed in America and around the world is but the precursor to unprecedented evil to come.  Whether it is in the religious, political, economic, medical, educational, media, or social realms, today there are many enemies of righteousness, many who are raging against the Father and the Son and those who are true believers.

Again I had to open my heart to Him and asked Him to show me my heart’s condition and response to those who have, on their part, become my enemies.  It is clear that there are many who rage against Jesus in all these realms, we see it in the news, we read about them in our social media from both trusted and not-so-trusted sources.  For me, my response has often been anger, disbelief that they could be so diabolical in their rage, full of deceit and darkness. However, I also see much of this same response from those in the Church around me.  In many ways, it seems we have become an angry Church.  For example, what happened in Afghanistan has brought forth a cry of revenge from some within the Church against our current political administration.  In many ways, I am seeing the very same mocking, anger and rage from within the Church as I see in the world.  My friends, it should not be so.

Loving Jesus through obedience to his words includes Mt 5:44-45 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  45  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” And back in verse 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

Oh Jesus! How do I do this? How do we as your Church do this? Many of us are not loving our enemies! Indeed, I have prayed many hours for the Church in Afghanistan in these past days, but I’ve also prayed with tears for those within the Taliban itself, not that God would strike them dead, but that they would come to repentance and salvation.  But can I do the same here in the USA? Do I pray for those who spitefully attack Jesus and his love? Do I love those who mock believers, ridicule the truth and seem hellbent on destroying anything that even smells of God?  It is everywhere on all sides of us. How do I respond in love and not with the same rage as the world?

This is one of the ways that Jesus wants to reveal himself to us. As we are intentional about loving one another and loving our enemies, He will open himself up to reveal how he loved His enemies even as he walked to the cross, helping us to walk in the same way.

I must learn to love my enemies, for that is His way.  I was His enemy, but through His love on the cross, He reconciled me and restored our relationship, and now I am no longer His enemy. Who of our enemies might respond to this love of God within us, causing a shift that rescues them from the domain of darkness, transferring them to the kingdom of our Beloved Jesus?

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.