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Love One Another

by Elizabeth Marks  
1/25/2007 / Marriage

John 13:34 NKJV A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Jesus gave us this commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. This fits so well with the topic of marriage. In the bible study called Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas we looked at Luke 6:41-42 NKJV and discussed how God uses our spouse as a mirror to help us see what areas in our life need some improving.

I wanted to expand on that thought. In Luke 6, we saw we are not supposed to point out the "speck" in someone else's eye until after we've dealt with the "plank" in our own eye. Consider what it might be like to have someone constantly pointing out your flaws, when you can plainly see they have their own flaws they should be concentrating on. Do you suppose the criticized person would feel loved? I highly doubt it.

When Jesus told us to love one another, he didn't say love one another by any old standard or means. He specifically said "love one another as I have loved you." That's a whole different kind of love, isn't. Jesus' love for us caused Him to physically give up His life to pay for our sins. By His sacrifice, we are pardoned and given eternal life. He laid down everything associated with His flesh that He would carry out God's grace and extend forgiveness to those who didn't deserve it. Did He ask us if we wanted Him do that for us? No, but out of love, He choose to do it. Think about the ramifications in our marriage, if we choose to lay down our flesh, share God's grace and dispense forgiveness to our spouse, who may not "deserve" it.

Taking Jesus' words to heart and applying them in our life may, in one sense, mean instead of focusing on our spouse's weakness we consider our own weaknesses and remember the grace and forgiveness God has already given us. This should compel us to extend the same grace and forgiveness towards our spouse.

Lord, thank you for your awesome love! Thank you for your Words of Life! Keep us coming back for more, learning and growing in You.. Help us lay down our life, as Jesus did, for the sake of loving others as You loved us. In Jesus name Amen.

Copyright Elizabeth Marks, author of ThinkOnIt Devotions, has a heart for encouraging believers with God's Word. Please visit http://www.ThinkOnItDevotions.com for more devotions, bible studies, book reviews and more!

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