Letters to the Family of God
by Joe Franzone | March 6, 2025 | Pastor's Blog
March 6, 2025
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14)
What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love
No, not just for some, but for everyone
From the song What the World Needs Now, by Hal David
Dear Friends.
There is no line of thinking, no attitude more perfect, outstanding, respected, and wholesome than that which is rooted in the love of God. No one is more equipped to show this love that is better, clearer, and real than the Christian. We are to direct that love, the Bible says, to our neighbor.
If you want to know how to love your neighbor and have a clear example of it, consider two things the Scriptures teach us. First, pay close attention to how God loves you. Second, pay close attention to how you love yourself.
As I Have Loved You
How has God loved us? Part of the answer is that God has given us the gifts of life, food, drink, places to live, clothes to wear, friendships, and the capacity to think, plan, work, and play.
However, the highest answer is this: God, at an infinite cost to Himself, exercises His goodness toward sinners. You see, at the root of God's love are always His grace and mercy. Love is God's ongoing kindness. It is more than just being undeserved; it is the complete opposite of what ought to be deserved. The reason? The objects of God's love are people (like me) who have broken God's law, whose bent is rebelled towards Him, and who only merited His condemnation and punishment.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
Therefore, it is an overwhelming truth that God should love sinners. But it is an exceedingly overwhelming truth that God, in spontaneous, uncaused, irrevocable love, gave the gift of His Son to become human, die for sins, and become the one mediator who can bring us back to God.
This is God’s love for us. Says J.I. Packer, the measure of the best that God can do is omnipotence! Thus, faith in Christ introduces us into a relation big with incalculable blessing, both now and for eternity.
Love Your Neighbor as You Love Yourself
When it comes to loving ourselves, in times of great need and big danger, we yearn to be loved and helped with good advice, generous help, the care and love of others given to us with a happy heart and a great big smile. Deep down, we would want to be helped by people who, at the root of their love, expect nothing in return.
Moreover, when it comes to loving ourselves, we usually meet our needs with speed and exactness. If we are sick, we take medicine quickly. If we are hungry, we don't wait too long before we feed ourselves. If we are sad, we usually act quickly to find comfort. To twist the line from a favorite hymn of mine, then to our need, (we) like a mother does speed.
Combine The Two
To love the way Jesus tells us to has two fundamental elements.
One, in a sense, is natural: love your neighbor exactly as you would love yourself. We, by nature, love ourselves well.
The second is supernatural, to love one another. As I (Jesus) have loved you, so you must love one another. Since this love is supernatural, we must ask for God’s love to work in us and through us toward others.
Oh my, do we understand the gravity, beauty, and depth of this love? We cannot love our neighbor as God loves us in ways that the Bible describes as immeasurable unless we confess our need for God to send His love through us, the same love He sent to us, so we can freely give love to our neighbor.
Those moments, as imperfect as we can be, when this unmerited love of God is lavished on others, unearned, just given, are in effect Gospel love. Gospel love is how God loved us, Gospel love is how we are to love all others.
This is no small thing because it seems to me what the world needs now is what the world has always needed: Gospel love, sweet Gospel love. Not just for some but for everyone. Let the reader decide.
O God of love who has given a new commandment through Your only begotten Son—that we should love one another even as You loved us, though we were unworthy wanderers—and gave Your beloved Son for our life and salvation, we pray, Lord, in every season of our life on earth, give to us, Your servants, a mind forgetful of past ill will, a pure conscience with sincere desires, and a heart to love all people. Do this, we ask, for the sake of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord and only Savior. Amen
A Prayer of Love from Cyril (376-444 AD)
With all my love in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Pastor Joe