Love That Binds

If Christ is the center of the circle, the circumference is love.

Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment on the night of His betrayal.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

This love is not optional. It is not the result of natural affection or social compatibility. It is the mark by which the world will recognize that we belong to Jesus.

The love Jesus commanded is not romantic sentiment. It is not the warmth you feel toward those who appeal to you. The Greek word He used was agape. A love willing to sacrifice. Willing to serve. Willing to die. The foundation of this love is not the worth of the beloved but the commitment of the lover.

When Jesus loved us, He did not wait for us to become beautiful or worthy. He loved us as we were, sinful and hostile to Him, and He poured out His life for us. He has called us to love one another with that same self-giving love.

John describes the nature of this love:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)

Love is not an action you undertake. It is a character God has, that you participate in. When you love, you are reflecting the very nature of God.

Paul fleshes out what this love looks like in practice.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:12-14)

Notice the progression. Love is not the only virtue Christians are called to. It is the garment that holds all the other virtues together. Without love, compassion becomes patronizing. Kindness becomes manipulation. Patience becomes coldness.

This love is tested when people disappoint you.

When things are easy and pleasant, anyone can feel love. But when someone in your small group fails you. When the brother across the aisle says something you find irritating. When the sister you have prayed for makes the same poor decision a fourth time. When the elder you trusted falls short. That is when genuine love is revealed.

Genuine love forgives seventy times seven. It does not keep a record of wrongs. It believes the best about people. It is willing to be wronged rather than to break fellowship.

This binding love is what holds the circle of fellowship together. It protects the community. It guards the weak. It calls back those who stray. It celebrates with those who celebrate and weeps with those who weep.

When you love your church family with this kind of love, you are not just being a good person. You are reflecting the love Jesus poured out for you. You are making the invisible God visible to a watching world.