Character of Christs disciple: Loving Others

John 13:35 (AMP)
35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”

One important and evident trait of a true disciple of Jesus is love for others. Jesus says that the thing that will be a witness to everyone that we are His disciples is our love for each other. Love and unselfish concern for others, now that’s a tall order especially today when we live in a “me first” society. A society where it’s me first and the rest will sort themselves out an attitude that we also find in the house of God.
Jesus talks about having a genuine love for each other not just for those who come to your church or denomination. The apostle Paul broke this down further for us when he wrote;

Philippians 2:3 (AMP)
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit [through factional motives, or strife], but with [an attitude of] humility [being neither arrogant nor self-righteous], regard others as more important than yourselves.

Let me make this personal, “As a disciple of Jesus I do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. Everything I do is from an attitude of humility being neither arrogant nor self-righteous. I regard others as more important that myself!” Question is, how true is that statement for you and I?
The truth is I cannot achieve this on my own but, as long as we stay connected to the vine then we will bear fruit and Love is one of them.

God is love and the more we walk in obedience to His word the more we become like Him. 1st Corinthians 13 breaks down to us what love looks like and how God would expect of us to walk in love when we interact and deal with each other. We are reminded over and over again in the new testament to love one another, that ought to give us a hint of how important this is to the God we serve. We are His children and how we treat each other is a reflection on His character. When we identify with Him then we must exemplify His character.

The world is watching and though they sometimes ignore the message we carry, how we treat each other can either draw them closer to God because they also are looking for love but in all the wrong places or it may push them even further away.

Let us Love one another!