John 15:12-13 (NIV): My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.
OFTEN, we get so busy with life that we forget or disregard the commandments that GOD has given us--to love Him and one another. We let our adversary distract us with the cares of this world, and divisions arise because of our political affiliations, our religious denominations, our races, our genders, and our regions.
Even though collectively we are the BODY and BRIDE of CHRIST, we find so many reasons to hate or dislike one another, and our adversary gladly exploits these differences, driving us farther away from one another and farther away from GOD, His Word, His Purpose, and His Will. But JESUS is our MEDIATOR and our BRIDGE; He is the WAY, the TRUTH, the LIFE; He is the LIGHT, He is LOVE PERSONIFIED, and He is GOD WITH US, so we're not lost, forgotten, forsaken, or alone. We are saved, redeemed, forgiven, cleansed, transformed, and reconciled, foremost to GOD, then to others, by GRACE through FAITH.
LOVE is a CHOICE, and GOD chooses to LOVE US, and He loved us so much that He GAVE His only begotten SON so that whoever BELIEVES IN HIM should not perish but have EVERLASTING LIFE, and JESUS LOVED US so much that He GAVE His Life and His Blood on Calvary's Cross, so that we would be SAVED and FORGIVEN of SINS, REDEEMED, CLEANSED, RENEWED, DELIVERED, HEALED, and RECONCILED to GOD, the FATHER. So, instead of boasting and priding ourselves on being self-made and self-reliant or being better and having more than others, we should remember the most important commandments that GOD, who is LOVE, has given us, according to JESUS CHRIST, the ANOINTED ONE, who is our LORD and SAVIOR: TO LOVE GOD and TO LOVE OTHERS, for in GOD'sWORD from Genesis to Revelation, we learn that GREATER LOVE has no one than this: TO LAY DOWN ONE's LIFE for ONE's FRIENDS.
