John 15:12

 John 15:12 – “Love one another as I have loved you.”


“The opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s selfishness.” – Billy Graham

We encounter the concept of loving one another a whole lot in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, and rightfully so. A non-loving Christian is not really a Christian at all, are they? In any case, I truly believe that every verse that talks about love has its own inherent value. This verse in particular out of John comes from an iconic chapter, where we read about our fruitfulness, and how we can cultivate ourselves and nurture our faith in order to be a resource for others. This makes sense, too; reading this verse on its own is powerful but reading the entire chapter emphasizes what we’re meant to take away from the verse. We are selfish lovers by nature – we seek to please ourselves. Many times, we’ll find ourselves being loving to others only because we want to feel good about ourselves. And that works . . . to a point.

Notice how Jesus (through John) words that sentence. His commandment was not to “love one another as you love yourselves,” but “as I have loved you.” That’s huge when you put that into perspective. We’re supposed to match the same level of compassion that Jesus showed to us at the least. And I get how that can make us feel hopeless, since we’ll never be able to reach that level of kindness and grace. We sure can try, though; that love isn’t ever running out.

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