Loving Others

Jesus says, in John 13:34, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”  
Living in community with other believers is difficult to do. The idea that the church is a building or even just a meeting is foreign to the New Testament. The church is the people of God and we are called to live in relationship with each other; we are called to love each other. But the world pressures us to devote ourselves to gain a sense of personal security and significance before we get around to obeying God and loving others.
Yet, we should be ready for confusion and disappointment. Why? Because that’s part of following Christ into community. There are no pat and easy answers. How do we love the sinner but hate the sin—how do we reject the sin without rejecting the sinner? How do we die to ourselves? Why is so much of life disappointing? Why don’t people behave and why do bad things happen to good people?
Those questions throw us into dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Spiritual community is only possible by the presence and power of the Spirit. If we don’t see the power of God manifested in our lives, we won’t have the faith to believe that He can and will change us. There are many in America whose hunger for piety is great, but they live in constant frustration because they don’t know if God can really change their lives. They haven’t seen signs of God’s power and presence. If we want to have faith for changed lives and power to love others, we need to continually live in Jesus and have his life poured into ours.
-Pastor Dino Griffin