Living Love Together

Friendship.
That can be a loaded word.
Good memories, bad memories.
Having friends. Not having friends. not having as many friends as we want to have. not having our friends do what we want them to do, be what we want them to be, or say what we want them to say.
Not being a good friend.

What if friendship is more than we have thought or experienced?

Christ says in John 15, to His friends (and us),  that He has loved us with the love that the Father has loved Him with. Take a second to think that one through. The Father loves the Son perfectly. He loves Him without fear, without reservation,  without thinking of His own needs first.

This is the love that Christ loves us with. He loves us perfectly. He loves us without fear, without reservation, without thinking of His own needs first.

but wait...

Christ commands us in John 15:12-14 ~  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 

He tells us to love each other the way that He loves us. He doesn't command us to love the way we have been loved by our parents, or our siblings (if you even have one), or our friends. NO. He tells us to love each other the way HE loved us.

okay.

this is a whole new way of thinking. 

We must look to the Author of love, to learn how to love. Our Pastor, Dr. Jeff Rich,  preached a wonderful sermon on this last Sunday. I believe it is a message for The Church at large, and not just for our local church. You can listen below... some of the thoughts in this are from that sermon.

Christ loved deeply. He loved fully. He loved sacrificially. He loved freely. And He says that we are His friends if we do what He has commanded. Have we realized that He wouldn't have needed to command us to love each other if it was easy? hmmm.

I am really thinking about how we tend to view friendship. We tend to use the world's measuring stick, don't we? You have me over, i have you over. You scratch my back, i scratch yours. But what happens when we do something for someone, and they can't do it in return?  We tend to react like the world. ouch.

Christ calls us to love each other, not as the world loves, but as HE has loved us. He gave everything, even His life. Are we willing to die for each other? Are we willing to die to ourselves in order to love each other? One thing i think we forget, is that the world is watching us, Christian. They are watching how we love each other. They are watching when we complain about love costing us something. They are watching what we post on facebook.  They are looking to see if we really are different. Are they seeing a difference? i am asking myself this question. 

So, how do we love each other in friendship, the way Christ loves us? First, we have to be so confident in Christ's redeeming love for us, so hid in Christ, that we are doing things for others out of the overflow of love with which we have been loved (not out of a place of fear, or so that we can get something in return).

Next, we have to give that love to each other. freely.

what does that look like? I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Here are some things i have thought of, on how we can practically live this out (no, it isn't always easy):

• bring a meal to a person who isn't well
• send a note of encouragement (snail mail)
• have someone from church over for a meal (make a new friend!)
• be available to listen when a friend is hurting
• pray for each other
• do fun stuff together
• be accountable for Bible reading 
• meet someone for coffee
• offer to help in some way
• show up... be there. It is hard to grow friendships in church if we don't take the time to consistently show up.
• don't hold on to offenses 
• be quick to forgive
• speak the Truth in love
• share your story (as scary as it is sometimes)
• be willing to be messy with each other
• take off the masks
• cry with each other
• laugh with each other
• sing together :)

This is a hard command, but one that we can fulfill if we are committed to Christ! His Holy Spirit will empower us to love each other, as we have been loved by Christ! 

We are in this together, working it out as we go :)

I have a long way to go with this, for sure. These are my initial thoughts as i have thought about the sermon on loving each other. We are human, and will love imperfectly, thus the need to be quick to forgive. Yet, we CAN love. I know i am thankful for all the friends who love me in the good and in the messy :)

I welcome your thoughtful comments, to make this a conversation :)