Love One Another, even as I have Loved You (John 13:34)

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).

It is beyond our understanding, but God is moved by the way that we relate and how we love one another. In Malachi 3:16 we read that when those that feared the Lord spoke with one another He heard and gave attention, our relationships get God’s attention! It is not clear if they were not speaking to each other or if the way that they were relating was not pleasing to God, but something changed.

David is a great example and mentor that we can learn from, not because he was perfect, but because he had a broken heart and he learned from his mistakes. At one point he decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, but he did it his own way, and it did not work. He left the Ark and forgot that idea until he realized that the Ark brought a blessing to the place where it was. He learned his lesson, and then he was very careful on how to carry the Ark of the Covenant (2 Sam. 6:1-15).

Each one of us can be compared to the Ark of the Covenant because we carry the presence of the Lord. Just like the Ark brought a blessing to the place where it was, our relationships are a way that we can receive the blessing from the Father. David learned how to be careful in his way of relating to others, even with those that were persecuting him. At one point, even though Saul was looking to kill him, David refused to harm Saul. “So he said to his men, “Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’S anointed”” (1 Samuel 24:6). The Hebrew word for “anointed” in this verse is the same word for “messiah.” Saul was wrong and filled with anger and hatred, but David still related to Saul as the Lord’s anointed, messiah. We are all anointed, we are all carriers of the image of God, and Jesus told us to love one another, even as He loves each one of us, whether we think somebody is right or wrong.

Philippians 2:1–5
John 13:35
Malachi 3:16-18