“…just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.” John 13:34(b). Just after Jesus washed his disciple’s feet, he gives them this new command. Jesus knows that this is it! This is the final time they will be together before his crucifixion and death, and he leaves them with a command that seems so easy to do, but when we dig into it, it takes everything we have. He asks us to love until it hurts.
We can read how Jesus loved others in all 4 of the gospels. He loved through kindness, he loved through service, he loved through forgiveness, he loved through truth, he loved through sacrifice, and he loved through dying for us all. He loved so much that it hurt, it was hard, it was painful. We, as believers, are charged to love others the same way, and it is hard! Jesus modeled this love, and we can clearly see how the Father is glorified through Jesus’ love.
We have all encountered the loss of a loved one in our lives. The original shock of their death can hit differently. Sometimes it’s expected, sometimes it’s sudden, totally unexpected, either way, it hurts. Funerals afford us time to grieve publicly with friends and family members, but then the funeral ends, and we wake up the next morning and realize, life moves on and our loved one is still gone – and that hurts!
I have seen some cope with this issue by being proactive and distancing themselves from others. Their thought is, “If I don’t love others then it won’t hurt so much if they leave.” They move through life with no close relationships. They are unhappy and don’t always realize the pain and hurt they have inside – this is not how we are made. We are made to be in loving relationships with each other. Love until it hurts.
How do we guard ourselves from getting hurt in relationships? I honestly don’t see how we can do this if we are loving others like Jesus loved us. We are to love until it hurts.
I get it, we possibly can’t love everyone that way, I don’t know everyone (and some people – I don’t like!!) I suppose I agree on some scale, but loving people we don’t know or those in which we have disagreements or those that have hurt us does not take away the responsibility to love them. Look at those you don’t know or those that have hurt you or those that you just don’t seem to have anything in common and see them through this lens, they are created in God’s image and God loves them until He hurt! So, we should love others until it hurts.
This passage in John 13, continues to verse 35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” This is how we show Jesus’ love. People will see it in our words, or deeds, or ways, when we love people, especially when we love people until it hurts.
Love people hard, love them well, love them until it hurts. Forgive people, serve people, be there for people, listen to people. Do it without hesitancy, do it with all you have, do it unashamedly, do it until it hurts!
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