Jesus gives us a profound new commandment. Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
But what does it truly mean to love one another as Christ commanded? In today’s world, love is often misunderstood or overshadowed by conflict, greed, and division. To explore this deeper, let me share a simple yet powerful story from Chicken Soup for the Soul.
A man walked out to his car one day and noticed a young boy from a nearby neighborhood admiring his vehicle. “Is this car yours?” the boy asked. The man nodded and explained, “Yes, my brother gave it to me as a Christmas gift.”
The boy’s eyes widened in amazement. “You mean to say that someone gave it to you, free of charge, with no conditions?”
“That’s right,” the man replied.
Instead of expressing a wish to receive such a gift himself, the boy surprised the man with his response: “Wow! I would love to be the kind of brother who could give a car like this to someone else.”
This moment captures the essence of Jesus’ commandment. Often, we desire to be loved rather than to love others. But Christ teaches us the opposite—to love without expectation, just as He loves us.
Unfortunately, today’s world seems far removed from this principle. Instead of love, we witness war, suffering, and division—sometimes even justified in the name of religion. The conflict in Myanmar is Buddhists attacking Muslims; in the middle east, the unabated killing of the people of Palestine not only with weapons, but also by blocking food and medical aids. Another ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia has ties to Christianity. The power of love is overshadowed by love of power, human ambition, and discord.
Blaise Pascal said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
The way religion is practiced today often contradicts its original purpose. While there is love served by the religious in the world, there is also so much of evil in the name of religion and politics. There is more hate in the world than love.
So, as followers of Christ, how do we reclaim His commandment in our lives? How do we become beacons of love in a world desperately in need of it? It begins with a change within our own hearts—a willingness to love as Jesus loves.
Jesus taught “love one another as I have loved you.” It is the only way for the world to be a better place. In the 21st century the question is “where is the love?” We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love. Not only Christianity, but also other religions continue to lose their ability to spread love and purpose on earth. That is because selfish politics and greed for power and wealth determine the agendas. Jesus confronted the corrupt religious and political systems, and in doing so, paid the ultimate price on the cross.
Amid all these, we have the task to love one another. The question before us is how? We must remember one thing: to love another it should begin within our hearts. We expect to be loved rather than love another. The dynamic must change.
The little boy in the story to express his love is something for us to follow. That is the kind of attitude we must develop to practice what Christ taught. We must be willing to let go things we hold onto for the sake of love one another.
That which keeps us from our neighbour, keeps us from God. This is difficult. But we must strive to change. If not, it will be a situation of “where is the love?”
In a world that continues to be violent, Christians throughout the world got to do more in terms of sowing love, beginning from the authorities and power to the least of the homeless person in the world. The absence of love among Christians has contributed to the world’s violence. We could also say that for other religions, but more strongly it is the failure of the Christians.
Amidst all of it, is there any hope to love one another?
Jesus’ new commandment is to love one another with the same kind of love the disciples had received from Jesus. This would be the way for them to be known as his disciples. This is the new heaven, and the new earth described in the Book of Revelation. It is a heaven and earth that is governed and ruled by Jesus’ new commandment of ‘love one another.’
Look at our sentence today: God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. That is the embodiment of the message of the reading from Revelation today. “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
That is the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed and worked for.
Jesus came into the world to reveal God’s loving nature more fully, glorifying God. When our lives reflect or more fully reveal the loving and forgiving nature of God, then we will genuinely love one another. When that happens, God will abide among God’s people. Let us keep the hope alive by continuing to love one another for the world to be a better place.