John 13:33-35
 
Pr. Tang Long Kin
 
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
 
Jesus is the only person I knew that talks about loving one another as a trademark of being His disciples. All others talk about seeking personal enlightenment and attaining certain level of knowledge in order to live a life that is so elusive. They are all about vertical relation i.e. relating vertically to a god or higher being. They hardly touch on the lateral relation i.e. relationship with fellow human beings.  If they did touch on the lateral relation it is more like “live and let live”. It is nothing close to loving one another.
 
But Jesus is different. While His main purpose is to restore our broken relationship with God the Father, He did not neglect our relationship with one another. In fact our relationship with our Heavenly Father is co related to our relationship with one another. He even gave us a “new” commandment that we love one another so that the world may know we are His disciples. There are two commandments from Jesus that are so simple and yet they are the hardest to follow – forgiveness and loving one another.
 
Why is it so difficult to love someone? Ability to love someone is not for everyone; at least not on our own effort and strength. Loving someone takes a lot of inner strength and courage in us. It is not for the faint hearted. When we love someone we are opening up our soul to them. We let down our guard or remove the veil so that they can see us as we are. When we love someone we are entering into their world that is unknown to us and at the same time we are letting them come into our own world. We are putting ourselves in vulnerable and dangerous situations.  It is vulnerable because we are baring our soul to them. It is dangerous because there is a very high risk of being rejected and hurt. These rejections and hurts can be very painful and damaging if we do not know how to handle them. But Jesus commanded us to love one another.
 
 As we embark on the journey of discipleship, loving one another is not a choice but a prerequisite. Jesus demanded that we love one another so that the world will know we are His disciples. For us to deepen our relationship with God, the depth of our relationship with one another should also deepen because they are co related. For someone to declare that he/she loves God deeply and has a very close relationship with Him and yet does not love fellow disciples of Jesus, he/she is either not telling the truth or has a very distorted view of what love is.
 
Loving one another is not for the weak but the strong. It takes a lot of our inner strength and courage to reach out to others. Jesus did not give us a commandment that is difficult or beyond our ability to follow. He never put extra burden on us. He knew we are already overburdened. That is why He came to seek out the lost and set captives free and heal those who are sick or are in bondage. He declared in Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” As disciple of Jesus we can draw strength from the Holy Spirit to carry out Jesus’ commandments. This includes the command to love one another. What is required of us is our willingness to open ourselves up to love others; our willingness to take the risk of being rejected and hurt in the process of loving others. Rejections and being hurt is sure to happen but we can draw on the strength of the Holy Spirit to continue loving one another and for healing to come our way to help us recover from such hurts. The reward is great for Jesus said “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”