Got to give it to you, Jesus. It’s your best line, perfect for pastoral memes and sticks well on car bumpers. “New commandment,” you said, “Love one another.” Why didn’t anyone else think of this? Let the blue birds flit down among sweet bunnies, violins sing, soft light diffuse the wooded backgrounds. Hmmm, greeting card worthy, for sure.

But to be real, for all the wonderful sentiment, it’s better known as the Hallmark of Hypocrisy, chief among them those who claim you as Christian. When it comes to divisiveness, angry labels, and best of all, judgmental attitudes, your people take the prize. Loving others isn’t always their forte. Hate to tell you this, but you’ve had like next to no influence on them. So don’t give us your pablum either.

Let’s begin with this: no denial here. For all Jesus’ good intent, the word and greater concept have been dragged through gutters. When the day is done, Jesus likely wouldn’t have been a part of it either.

Interesting though is how everyone seems to think it’s the greatest thing ever, as in “What the world needs now is….” Love songs sell. People fool themselves with it all the time.

Yet, to be candid, let’s admit love has been leveraged for unworthy purposes. As in, “If you loved me, you would…” Or how about, “Why can’t you love me for who I am?” Or this: “How can you say you love me if you don’t approve of me?” Fill in your own phrases, but the common denominator is…. no surprise is it? Me.

Self-gratification is what’s wanted here. Give me what I want. It’s a one-way, my-way relationship elevated to a premise and passion that’s making me your god. Be happy with that, and we can make it work. (Granted, this is exaggerated overkill, but maybe more than familiar as well.)

Expressions of love today are based in pride and control. Watch for it. If it smells like a fish, it likely is one. Jesus isn’t about making a stink. Jesus’ love won’t stand for this kind of shaded, sullied, twisted by time and culture kind of love.

Let’s be clear. Yes, Jesus said, “Love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.” His life was an example of Love that is not what gets shouted from your favorite music streaming service or latest rom com. What Jesus meant was, you’ve got to look at his way of Loving and then be that kind of Love. Be forewarned; it ain’t easy.

Expect Full Disclosure

As in, honesty, not pretending that everything is ok when it’s not, not looking the other way just to avoid conflict. A rich man ran smack into this when he asked Jesus how to obtain eternal life. He then ticked off about all the commandments he was good at keeping. When Jesus told him he needed to sell all he had and give to the poor, the man walked and Jesus let him go. (Mark 10:17-31) No compromise for the sake of keeping the peace and being tolerant. How else would people know what a relationship with God means?

Meet Mercy

Jesus’ Love is also based in forgiveness. Yet this forgiveness is not built by just saying sorry until the next time you screw up. For Jesus, forgiveness is radically preemptive, taking the initiative even before it’s necessary. Jesus knew people weren’t perfect. They would always need assurance that no matter how far they separated themselves from God or whatever they did to hurt another, forgiveness was the full measure of how loved and desired they were, how confident God is that people can be reversed to more, to better than what they are. Peter was the supreme example as the Disciple Who Always Got It Wrong. Yet, even when Jesus told him he’d deny that he had even known Jesus, he still prayed for Peter.

Servant Leadership

Service is another side of Jesus’ active Love. Jesus tied a towel around himself, took a basin of water, and washed feet. Dirty, smelly feet. In doing so, he became a servant, knelt low to the ground, and cared for a part of the body that wasn’t celebrated. No task was too humble for Jesus even as Son of God. Love steps away from the self to meet people where they are.

Radical Love

Even so, there is the most radical side of Love, that kind which sacrifices whatever it takes for the sake of Love. Comfort zones are not significant. Though the impending consequences of sacrificial Love may be costly, Love does so anyway. On the night Jesus gave this new commandment, Judas had just left to carry out his infamous act of betrayal. Jesus knew exactly what was happening. But he didn’t run and hide, try to find a way out of town, and escape what would be coming. Instead, rather than call out Judas as evil, Jesus gave a lesson on love.

Within hours that lesson would finalize as an lived-out example. “No greater love,” he said, “than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) Sacrificial Love is vulnerable, relinquishing everything to bring others into that Love. Jesus faced and accepted his destiny on the cross only because no one else could do what he could, no one else otherwise would embody this kind of Love.

Love is central to Life, and only Love can eliminate the power which defeats Life, the power of death. Due to this greater Love, Jesus Loved like no other, erasing death for those who would accept and live out his Love.

It’s likely one of the greatest atrocities of time that love has been corrupted into what it is not. In its purist expression, understand to be Loved, one must be one with the Lover, to Love as he Loved.

“Your love for one another will prove to the world you are my disciples.”

John 13:31-35

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The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

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