“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35 (NLT)
One thing I have learned in life is that there is no such thing as a personal decision. Every decision I have ever made has had an impact on someone besides me. The most Darrick-centered decision I could ever make will have an impact on my wife, my family, my friends, our church, someone. Not only that, but often my decisions will directly involve other people. If they didn’t, life would seem a lot easier.
When Jesus was having His final words of instruction with His closest followers, He gave them a new command that sounds pretty simple: “Love one another.” When he did this, He wasn’t just adding another command to the hundreds of Old Testament laws they were trying to live up to. He was summing them all up into one overriding commandment: love each other. How? The same way He had shown love to them – unconditionally. That’s how people would know that they were really Jesus-followers, by the way they loved each other and the people around them.
During the crusades in the thirteenth century, a French military leader was reported to say, “Kill them all, let God sort them out.” Here in John 13, Jesus is saying the exact opposite. He’s saying, “Love them all, and let God sort them out.”
The final question in Andy Stanley’s book on making decisions is the Relationship Question, which is, “What does love require of me?” It’s the question that reminds us that our decisions aren’t just our decisions and that we need to consider how our decisions will impact the people around us.
How life and culture-changing would it be if we all asked that question, “What does love require of me?” when we made all of our decisions?! It would be history-altering. Marriages would be preserved. Families would be reshaped. Communities would be, well, communities. And, Christians, the church would have an influence on our world like we have never seen.
For the last month, we have been talking about recalculating and decision making. I believe God does want to provide divine direction for our lives. The questions we have looked at this week are great tools that make a grid for us to use in making wise decisions. And none is greater than these simple words: “What does love require of me?”
What does love require of YOU today?