Commanded!

Commanded!

Dearest woman, I have a request to make of you. It is not a new commandment but a repetition of the one we have had from the beginning: that we constantly love one another. 2 John 1:5‭ TPT

This love means living in obedience to whatever God commands us. For to walk in love toward one another is the unifying commandment we’ve heard from the beginning.  2 John 1:6 TPT

There is no new command to love but an emphasis on the old. Even with the ever shifting measures and goals of the world, the standard of God has not changed one bit. The same measure He demanded from Elijah and Micah, is the same measure He demanded from Paul and John, and it is the same in my generation. The standard is simple: Love as He commands, not love as I define it. God has not made a compromise on that standard. It was love that established a plan of salvation right at Eden, and it was that love that manifested at Calvary, and it is that same love that keeps us grounded in Him. 

Don't know what the writer saw with the target of today's extract, but he made sure to remind her of what God's standard was and is. Maybe the standard was slipping; maybe she had forgotten what it was, but John made sure to remind her. As I run through the hustle and bustle of everyday life, what are the guardrails on my path to remind me of the things that are truly important? Do I take time to read God's Word to know what He demands of my daily life? Am I so caught in daily pressure that I don't have time for divine pleasure, whereby I seek to please God with all I am and have? 

If it was easy to carry out, God won't take so much time and effort to remind us why love is important. Obedience is the outward proof of inner acceptance of God as my Lord and Master. If I do not have a desire to obey Him, what I have isn't love, no matter how much it looks like it. Now this is where it gets tough: nowhere does it say the other person has to deserve or earn it, but I am required to give it anyway. It does not say the person must be lovable, but that my action and reaction flow from a heart that is totally surrendered to God and is free from man's expectations and judgments. 

I am not looking for validation; God's Spirit in me confirms my sonship. I am not craving human acceptance; God already calls me His own, and promises me eternal life when this present earthly phase ends. I am free from the hypocrisy of pretence; God's love in me makes it easy to love other people, because it is God's command, and it is healthy to do and eternally rewarding. I can only play my part; the rest is left to God. Even if I am not loved in return, let it be said that I obeyed God to the fullest. As I consider all that goes on around me, I must be careful not to let the poison around flow into me, so that it does not pollute the love that God has put in me, and commanded out of me. The world awaits the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God. Am I one? His time of favour is here.