Dcn Susan Erickson

Dear Friends,

What does love among Christians look like?  The New Testament reading today gives us an answer, and not one we necessarily expect: love looks like following Jesus’ commandments. That sounds more like coercion than love; what gives? 

In the Gospel of John, Jesus commands his disciples to “love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  (John 13:34) A little later, Jesus tells the disciples: “‘You are my friends if you do what I command you … I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.’” (John 15:14, 17; my emphases)

So, Jesus commands his disciples to love one another. But he also tells them that in order for them to love one another, he is giving them “commands.” 

In today’s reading of the entire (it’s short!) Second Letter of John, the writer tells the “elect lady” receiving the letter that he’s not giving her a new commandment, “but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning--you must walk in it.”  (2 John 1:5-6; my emphases)

For the “elect lady,”--who scholars say may be an allegorical figure for a church congregation--the concept of God’s commandments would have had a long, rich history extending back to the earliest days of the people of Israel. But despite Israel’s repeated failures to obey God’s commandments, God hasn’t turned His back on His people.  Instead, He has come to them--and not only them, but also to the Gentiles--in the person of Jesus, both God and human. In his ministry on earth, Jesus proclaimed and embodied God’s greatest commandments: to love God with all our hearts, and with all our minds, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

If we don’t first love God, we can’t really love our neighbors--who, as the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke reminds us, may live far outside our familiar circles. And if we don’t love either God or our neighbors, we cannot truly love one another with a Christ-like love.

But even a small step taken to love God and love our neighbor is one step forward in Jesus’ Way of Love.

— Dcn Susan

Ps. 18: 1-20; 2 Sam. 23:13-17; 2 John 1: 1-13