Love is a New Concept
How do you handle new concepts?
Verse of the Day
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Today’s Devotional
How long does it take you to accept something new, something you’ve never heard of before, or that you’ve never considered? It takes me a minute or two. I would guess that most humans have a tendency to reject new things. Especially when the new doesn’t feel comfortable.
Douglas Adams, the author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has a set of rules for how we react to new technologies: “Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that is invented when you’re between the ages of 15-35 is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you turn 35 is against the natural order of things.” It only funny because it is true. We don’t handle “new” very well as adults. (My guess as to the reason why is because it makes us feel stupid, or inadequate, or incapable.)
Most days, as I sit down to begin to write my thoughts on these verses, I go back and read the section of Scripture from which it comes. So as I did that for this verse, my first thought was “Loving each other is not a new command, right?” So I went back through the entire Book of John. This is the first time John records Jesus commanding us to love each other. He says this to His disciples at what we call the Last Supper, after He had washed their feet, tells them that He is leaving, and as He is telling Peter about an upcoming failure.
So if this command is new, what command is old? If we go WAY back, we get to the Ten Commandments. Because we have had lots of time to read and reflect on these rules, we know that the first 4 give us some guidelines for loving God, then last 6 give us some guidelines for how to treat others. But in reading the Ten Commandments, there is not one time that the word “love” is used. They were instructed to: have no other gods, not make an image to worship, not misuse the name of God, honor the sabbath, honor their parents, not murder, not commit adultery, not steal, not lie, not covet.
Re-read that list. It’s a “Do” and “Don’t Do” list. So I can understand how a command to love is new. And loving like Jesus does, which is sacrificial and servant-like, is a completely new concept.
Having Jesus-like love is hard to do. But it’s what He calls us to. It’s hard because we are selfish. This morning, I heard someone say, “I cannot be truly happy while also being selfish.” So if I can learn to be more selfless, then through my service and kindness and love, maybe I would find true happiness as a by-product of trying to live like Jesus instructed. Maybe that’s what He wanted for us all along.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How do you find that selfishness gets in your way? Do you notice it when it’s happening?
How can you love more like Jesus today?
How can you set down your wants and needs and try to focus on the wants and needs of others?
How does serving and loving others give you joy?