Scripture: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, even as I have loved you."—JOHN xiii. 34."Even as the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you; abide ye in My love."—JOHN xv. 9.
The Lord gave His disciples a perfectly new commandment, that they should love one another, as He had loved them. To this end He wanted them to know what the love was wherewith He had loved them. Nothing less than the love wherewith the Father had loved Him. It is the everlasting, unchangeable, divine love wherewith the Father loved the Son, wherewith the Son loved us, and wherewith we should love one another.
The thought is so vast and so heavenly that it needs time to grasp it. Pray about it and let God's Spirit make it a blessed reality: the love of God to Christ, the love of Christ to me, my love to the brethren, is one and the same almighty, everlasting love.
God sent His Son to earth to manifest this love. The same love that God had to His Son, He had in His heart for all mankind. This same love Jesus exercised toward His disciples. This love was given them when the Holy Ghost was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, that they might love one another, and more—even love those who were the enemies of Christ.
It is all one and the same love. Not merely a feeling or a blessed experience, but a living divine power, flowing from the Father to the Son, and working in the hearts of the disciples through the Son, and so streaming forth to the whole world.
We are ever ready to say: "We cannot love others as Christ has loved us." It is not impossible. The Holy Spirit, as the power of this holy love, sheds it abroad in our hearts. This is God's own Word. He who meditates on it until he believes it will have courage to bring his petitions to the Throne of Grace, and to receive the love which passes all understanding.
