My Dear Friends, 

I would really like for you to be very much aware of the understanding of the kind of love that Jesus has brought into the world, the great contribution of Jesus to the commandment of love. In quoting Matthew 22:39, "...You shall love your neighbor as yourself," we may be prone to believe that this was the thinking of Jesus Christ. It is important to consider the circumstances under which these words were spoken by Jesus. 

The Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection had been clammed up real good by Jesus' response to their hypothetical question concerning the resurrection and the crowds were astonished at Jesus' teaching. "When the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled in a body, and one of them, a lawyer, came to Him in an attempt to trip Him up and asked Jesus, 'Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?'" (Mt. 22:34-36) I can just see this shrewd lawyer trying to trick Jesus.

Now this was a difficult question to answer because the Jews had 613 commandments; 248 were things to do and 365 were things not to do. If Jesus Christ named one, the Pharisee figured he might trick Jesus on another one. His thinking was that no matter what Jesus would say he could be contradicted. In his plan of trickery, the Pharisee asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" Jesus simply answered, "Oh, I know that one." 

The first part of His answer was a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:4-9: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is Our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates." 

It's so important to talk about loving God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. Today we would say, "Tie it around your little finger with a string so you don't forget it." The custom of the Jews was to wear a phylactery, a strip of parchment inscribed with passages of Scripture. We could call it a good word bag. If one had a nice word from the Bible he would write it out and then put it in a bag which was worn on his forehead. God had told Moses that to love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength is so important that it should be written, placed in a bag, and worn on the forehead. It's so important to love God that way. Write it on the doorposts of your house; on the gates that lead to your property. 

In responding to the Pharisee that the second commandment is like the first, Jesus quoted again the Old Testament. "Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countryman. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." (Lv 19:18) Jesus defends Himself against the Pharisee by quoting two texts of the Old Testament, adding "On these two commandments the whole law is based and the prophets as well." 

I would like for you to remember that this is not the thinking of Jesus Christ. This is not His full thought. It's rather the answer He gave when He was stuck; when the Pharisees tried to trip Him up; when they wanted to get rid of Him; when they were trying to find a way to condemn Him. Of course, I realize that the first text that Jesus gave them, Deuteronomy 6 is perfect and we can't top that because if we love the Lord Our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our minds, then this clearly is the first and the greatest commandment. Understand, however, that Jesus Christ came into the world to fulfill the law. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill them." (Mat 15:17) Because of this we could think of different parts of the law and understand that Jesus Christ came to make them better. This is very clear in the Sermon on the Mount. For example, Jesus said, "You have heard the commandment imposed on your forefathers, you shall no commit murder,...but I say to you, don't even get angry...You have heard the commandment, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you, don't even do it in your head...You have heard the commandment I posed on your forefathers, do not take an oath, but I say to you...you have heard the commandment, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you.." This is the kind of thinking that I want you to understand; that Jesus Christ took even the commandment of love and He made it full; He made it complete; He added on to it. 

What did He add on? What has been the particular contribution of Jesus Christ to this commandment of love? I would like for you to take my word today, because if all you do is quote Matthew 22:34, you are giving the answer that Jesus Christ gave to a Pharisee who was trying to catch Him, who was trying to do Him in. This clearly is not the thinking of Jesus Christ. If we want to understand the thinking of Jesus, we will find it in John 13:34: "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." This time Jesus Christ is not stuck; nobody is trying to do Him in.. He says that He is giving us a new commandment. We can expect something different here. It's not going to be quoting the Old Testament; it's not going to be something that everybody knew. It's not going to be an echo of something; it's something brand new. "I give you a new commandment: love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, by the love that you have for each other." This is very deep, my dear brothers and sisters. This is the thinking of Jesus Christ. If we're going to come to understand the kind of love that Jesus Christ is expecting of us, then we have to think in these terms. We have to think that as far as love is concerned, we have received a new commandment. Jesus Christ has brought a new dimension in the world.

As long as we go on quoting Matthew 22:34, we're not quoting the thinking of Jesus Christ. People who say, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself" are not thinking according to the New Testament. It is, rather, Old Testament. To quote the Old Testament is to quote the unfulfilled law. As we see very clearly in Matthew 5:17, "I have come to bring each law to fulfillment."

To understand the love of Jesus, the love of Christians, we have to look much deeper. To the degree that we ourselves understand how Jesus loved us, will we then know how to love as Christians. The conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus as told in Chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostles gives us some insight of Christian love and at the same time introduces us to the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ.

"Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus which would empower him to arrest and to bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, living according to the new way." (Acts 9:1-2) Jesus had said, "I am the Way," therefore anyone living according to the way of Jesus, Paul wanted to catch and bring to prison. 

"He traveled along and was approaching Damascus; a light from the sky suddenly flashed about him. He fell to the ground and at the same time heard a voice saying, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' "Who are you, sir?' he asked. The voice answered, 'I am Jesus the one who you are persecuting.' " (Acts 9:3-5) Where was Jesus at this time? We know that Jesus Christ had died; had appeared to Mary Magdalene and the women; had appeared to Peter and to the disciples of Emmaus; had appeared to the apostles without Thomas and later with Thomas; had appeared by the side of the lake at the time of the miraculous catch of fish and the breakfast; had appeared to 120 people; had appeared to James; had appeared to 500 people before going back to heaven. Quite sometime after the Ascension He returned on the road to Damascus, appearing to Saul. Neither Saul nor his companions would have thought that Saul was persecuting Jesus because Jesus was not around. He had ascended to heaven; yet when Saul fell to the ground what he heard was, "Saul, why do you persecute Me?" Upon asking, "Who are You?" and hearing, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting." Saul became dumbfounded. He spent the rest of his life trying to figure out what had happened on the road to Damascus.

The startling discovery was that in the persecution of Christians Saul was persecuting Jesus. This doctrine of the mystical body of Jesus has been explained to us by St. Paul more than anyone else. Paul wrote: "The body is one though it has many members, but all the members, many though they are, are one body and so it is with Christ." (1 Cor 12:12) The idea that Christ is really part of us, part of our body, part of this mystical body is made very clear in the teaching of St. Paul. "God has put all things under Christ's feet and has exalted Him as head of the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills the universe in all its parts." (Eph. 1:22-23) Christ is the head and we are members of the body. 

"As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit." (1 Cor 12:12-13) Then Paul explains what he means. "If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,' would it then no longer belong to the body? If the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,' would it then no longer belong to the body? If the body were all eye, what would happen to the hearing? If it were all ear, what would happen to the smelling? As it is, God has set each member of the body in the place He wanted it to be. If all members were alike, where would the body be?" (1 Cor. 12:14-19) So it is with the mystical body of Christ, the Church. We are different people; each is unique with diverse gifts, ministries and works; yet we all work for the common good. The whole body of Christians are working together for the benefit of the body of Christ. My eyes are working or me and so are my ears. In the same way every single person is working for the benefit (should be working for the benefit) of the whole body, the mystical body of Christ, the Church. 

Paul continues: "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I do not need you,' anymore than the head can say to the feet, 'I do not need you.' (1 Cor 12:21) All of us are working together and the sooner we understand that the better it will be. I can't say to you, "I don't need you." You can't say to your neighbor, "I don't need you;" We need one another because we are members of that same body, the body of Christ. "...God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it so that there be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy." (1 Cor. 24-26) 

Paul affirms this: "For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another." (Rom 12:4-5) I am a member of your body and you and I are members of the body of Christ. Each of us has gifts. There's not one of us without gifts. "We have gifts that differ according to the grace bestowed on us, let us exercise them. One's gift may be prophesy, then he should use it in proportion to his faith; another one has the gift of ministry, then he should serve; another on the gift of teaching, he should teach; another one to exhort, he should exhort." (Rom. 12:6-7) 

We're all working for the same body. Try to understand the thinking of St. Paul, because he understood the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ, the Church, in a very forceful way. When a light shone upon him he was so startled that he fell to the ground. At the pronouncement of Jesus' words, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?", he responded, "Who are you, sir?" In announcing, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting," Jesus associates Christians with Himself as members of His mystical body, the Church. Saul (St. Paul) is directed by Jesus to get up and go into the city where he will be told what to do. Following Jesus' directions, Saul went to Damascus where he stayed for three days. During this time he could neither see, eat nor drink. The Lord sent Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, to him so that he might be healed of the scales that had formed on his eyes and that he might be filled with the Holy Spirit. He was then able to see Christ not only on the road to Damascus, but to see Him in his neighbor, the very people he was trying to persecute; the very people that he was trying to pick up and throw in jail; in these people he started seeing Christ. To further understand this aspect of our Christian life, I suggest that you read the beautiful letter of Paul to Philemon. In this letter Paul sees in Onesimus a brother of Jesus Christ. Understanding the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ will lead us to greater love of our neighbor; growth in the spiritual life; thinking in a divine way rather than in human terms, like God rather that like humans; thinking like Christians. Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus led him to this kind of thinking. We should hear the same words that Saul heard: "Why do you persecute me?" If you're persecuting somebody; if you're hurting somebody; if you're giving a hard time to somebody, Jesus says to YOU, :"Why do you persecute me?" "Who are you?" -- "I am Jesus." 

Let us now examine the famous story of the Last Judgment found in Matthew 25:31-46; "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, escorted by all the angels of heaven, He will sit upon His royal throne, and all the nations will be assembled before Him. And He will separate them into two groups, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The sheep He will place on His right hand, the goats on His left. Then the king will say to those on His right, 'Come, you have my Father's blessing. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. Because I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the just will ask Him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or see you thirsty and give you drink? When did we welcome you away from home, or clothe you in your nakedness? When did we visit you when you were ill or in prison?' And the king will answer them, 'I assure you as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.'" The Lord is saying, "Look. I have everything. If you want to prove that you love me, do something for my brothers and sisters. They need it badly." This is the thinking that makes a difference. "Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me." That kind of thinking helps us to understand what Jesus Christ did. Following these words closely can make a difference on how we think, you and I. 

"Then the Lord will say to those on His left, 'Out of my sight you condemned into that everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels because I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was away from home and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing. I was ill and in prison and you did not come to comfort me.' Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison and not minister to your needs?' He will answer them, 'I assure you as often as you neglected to do it to one of these least ones, you neglected to do it to me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment and the just to eternal life." We cannot be on the Lord's side if we close our eyes to the needs of our brothers. Like the goats, we will be condemned to hell. 

I'd like to explain further by posing a question. What has been the particular contribution of Jesus Christ in this teaching? By coming into the world as man, He took the neighbors and He jacked them up to His level; jacked them up so high that He was able to say, "What you do for the neighbor is the same as doing it to me; if you feed your neighbor, it's the same as doing it to me; if you give a drink to your neighbor who is thirsty, it's the same as giving it to me because I jacked up your neighbor up to my level. If you clothe your neighbor; if you take care of a sick neighbor; if you take care of a neighbor, it's the same as doing it to me." 

If we were able to see Jesus, we'd be thrilled to bits. Imagine yourself at the mall. Try to understand what Jesus did by becoming man. He has taken every one of your neighbors that you see there and has jacked them up so that whatever you do to any of the neighbors you do to Jesus Himself. This is the contribution of Jesus Christ. Jesus has jacked up all the neighbors; there's not one who has not been jacked up; that has been left down below; not one who is just a plain Old Testament neighbor. Wherever you go in this world, all the people you see are made according to the image of God. We are then challenged to see Jesus in all of them and do for them the same thing that we would do for Jesus Christ. This is why this famous text in Matthew 25 is so important and why it is called the text of the Last Judgment. We will be accountable at that time for whatever we did or failed to do for our neighbor. Our salvation or damnation will depend on our reaction to these profound words of Jesus. 

When Jesus Christ jacked up the neighbors, He also jacked you up because you're somebody's neighbor. What I'm saying is that He did not leave anyone of us down. Many people don't have a right understanding of themselves; don't have a right love for themselves. You have been jacked up by Jesus Christ and if you're going to understand the commandment of love of Jesus, you have to think accordingly. I give you a new commandment, "Love one another; such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other." We have to learn to love ourselves as people who have been jacked up by Jesus Christ, treating ourselves as the Lord wants us to treat our neighbors. We don't have to do much thinking to realize that most of us don't love ourselves that well. In fact, many of us don't even know how to love ourselves and may even have a very low opinions of ourselves. As a result many neighbors may be getting gypped if some of us love our neighbors only to the degree that we love ourselves. Consider an individual who gets bellyache from overeating and knows that the cause of his pain is from overeating. Does he love himself? If one doesn't love his neighbor more than himself when he eats too much, I guess his neighbor's in trouble because he's in trouble. That kind of love is undesirable. When we commit sin, we do not have love for ourselves; therefore, if we don't love our neighbors more than we love ourselves, in that condition our neighbors are getting gypped. That's not Christianity. That's humanity; humanity unredeemed; humanity that did not discover Jesus. This knowledge makes such a fantastic difference in our behavior. The particular and unique contribution of Jesus Christ to the whole idea of loving is this: that He has taken you and all your neighbors and jacked you up in such a way that whatever you do for any of the neighbors is the same as doing it for Jesus Christ. 

We must be on guard against the kind of conduct described in Galatians 5:19-21: "Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissentions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Those who behave in that manner may have love for themselves but they don't love their neighbor enough. The love they have for themselves proceeds from the flesh and not from the spirit. 

You know, I'm sure, that if somebody gets drunk, he is in fact gypping someone else. We can say that an alcoholic affects the lives of at least fifteen people around him. People who drink often come up with the comment, "Well, that's my business." That's so wrong. It's the business of a wife or husband; a kid's business; a father or mother's business; a landlord's business; an employer's business; a co-worker's business; a neighbor's business. Yet, an alcoholic says, "It's my business." This is not Christian thinking, but Old Testament thinking. It's an example of trying to fool around with the law and getting away with murder. Oh, no! This is not the thinking of Jesus Christ. We must take the word of Jesus from John's gospel not from Matthew's, considering the circumstances under which Jesus defined the commandment of love in Matthew's gospel. "I give you a new commandment: love one another." How? Not as yourself, that's not enough. "Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." 

If you don't know how Jesus loves you, you will never know how to love yourself, how to love me, or how to love your neighbor. Our greatest responsibility, then, as far as love is concerned, is to spend some real serious time in prayer, in meditation, in thinking, in talking, in sharing with others, in reading Scripture. This is how we can come to a real understanding of how Jesus loves us. What a responsibility! What a beautiful thing! What an adventure! What a spiritual discovery! We could start with John 1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God and the Word was with God." You know what God did! "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." That's Jesus! We have seen His glory, the glory of an only Son coming from the Father. "God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son." (Jn 3:16) Jesus is a gift from the Father. "Jesus who is the Son of God, though He was in the form of God, emptied himself, took the form of a slave, was born in the likeness of men, humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, and death on the cross." (Phil 2) Jesus loves you, loves me so much that He went to that extent. That's what it's all about. 

We can take a look at Jesus talking with Peter. When Peter says, "Lord, how often should I forgive my brothers, seven times?" You know what Jesus said, "Awww, Peter, if I forgave you seven times, where would you be today?" We have to learn to forgive seventy times seven because that's how many times Jesus forgives us. Jesus proved his ability to forgive when He prayed to the Father for forgiveness for His enemies as they nailed Him to the cross: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." It is only as much as we are able to spend some real time trying to understand how Jesus loves us that we will be able to love ourselves. Oh, I'm sure of one thing: if it were clear to you how much Jesus loves you, you would know how beautiful you are; how much you are worth; how much God wants you; how much God has done to patch you up, to restore you, to put you back on the road. You would understand how much you are worth in the eyes of God who carved you in the palm of His hand. Understanding the limits to which Jesus was willing to go for love of us will help you to know the extent to which you are supposed to go for love of your neighbor. Spend the rest of your life trying to understand the mystery of God's love for you. 

As Paul spent three years trying to figure out what Jesus meant: "I am Jesus the one you are persecuting," so must we try to understand the love that Jesus has for us. In so doing we would understand that Jesus has the same kind of divine love for the people that we may be persecuting; the people we're not loving; the people we're tearing down; the people we're talking about; the people we have turned our backs against; the people of whom we've washed our hands. The Lord would say, "No, don't do that! I did not wash my hands of you; I did not urn my back on you. I have not done that to you because I love you." When you love, how much can you stand from the people you love? How much parents have taken from their kids! You know that. How much wives or husbands have taken from their partners because they love! And this is just a weak shadow of what the Lord has taken from us because He loves us! 

The Lord wants me to really communicate with you about love; to share the meaning of His love; the depth of His love. That's why I think that these messages are so important. Can you imagine how you who are reading these words might be challenged in a new way to understand the kind of love that Jesus Christ has brought into the world; that you might become a person who really is loving the way Jesus loves? How wonderful it would be to meet somebody who loves you the way Jesus loves you! What joy to have that kind of love and to have somebody come to you wanting to be with you and hang around with you because you love the way Jesus loves. That's the kind of love that should have been really traveling around this world for two thousand years. 

Now, I'd like to go one step further. The picture I have presented is not yet complete. In order to finish the picture of the love of God and the love we must have for one another, we must return to the Sermon on the Mount. For many years I have felt that many people speak about the Sermon on the Mount, stopping somewhere in Chapter 5. In Matthew 5:43 Jesus says, "You have heard the commandment, 'You shall love your countrymen, but hate your enemies; 'My commandment to you is love the bums." Can I put it like that? Love your enemies! Pray for your persecutors! This is the thinking of Jesus Christ; that you and I are a people called to love enemies; to pray for persecutors. This will prove that you are sons of your heavenly Father. You know why? Because that's what the Father does. "You know what my Father does?" Jesus says. "He makes the sun to rise on the bad and the good." I know some people, who, if they called the shots about the sunshine, would keep the sun away from their neighbors' lawns, picnics, or gardens. And then the Lord goes on: "You know what my Father does? He makes the rain fall on the just and then the neighbors' gardens receives no rain and nothing grows. That's not the thinking of the Lord. 

Jesus continues to explain His thinking. "If you love those who love you, what's so hard about that? What merit is there in that? Do not tax collectors do as much?" We have to understand what tax collectors were in the time of Jesus Christ. Just try to understand the fact that the Roman army had invaded the country of Israel and that the Jews were no longer free at home. Some of the Jewish people, local townspeople who knew everybody around, had applied to become tax collectors. Their duties as tax collectors were to go in their own neighborhoods and say, "Hey, you didn't pay your taxes! Joe, pay your tax." So they would take the taxes from their neighbors and receive a cut and turn the rest over to the Romans. The Jews just hated their guts and you can understand why. Jesus said, "If you love those who love you, what's so hard about that? The tax collectors do as much." It's clear that if somebody loved the tax collectors, they were loved in return. They needed love, yet most of them hated to see their faces. So Jesus said, "If you love only those who love you, you know you're not any better than the tax collectors." 

Jesus continues: "If you greet your brothers only, what's so hard about that? The pagans do as much." If you say "Hi" only to those who say "Hi" to you, you have pagan love. Listen to that word and think about it. It hit me a few years ago that if we're not careful, we can go around with pagan love. "If you greet your brothers only, what is so praiseworthy about that? Do not the pagans do as much?" I think we have to consider this word seriously. If we're going to say that we are following Jesus Christ, then we need the love of Jesus. We need to act His way, not in the human way. It would always be very human not to want to talk to somebody; be angry with someone; to even want to do harm to certain people; that could be very human. But you and I are not merely human, we are Christians. As Christians we have to follow Jesus Christ; to take our thinking from Him who says very clearly--very, very forcefully in John 13:34: "This is my commandment: love one another, such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other."

If we started to think about the many sins we have committed against God, we would realize that God has every reason in the book not to want to look at us; not to want to do a single thing for us; yet He loves us. Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with: "You must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48) We know, then what we are supposed to do. Very simply, "The sky is the limit." That's how much love we are expected to have for one another. 

Remember the words of Jesus: "Don't you think that I have come to abolish the law; I have not come to abolish the law; but to bring it to perfection." (Mt 5:17) By his coming into the world, Jesus Christ has jacked the neighbors to His level so that whatever we do for the neighbors we do for Jesus. When He jacked up the neighbors, He jacked us up; He did not leave one person unjacked. So then Jesus Christ took all the enemies that we could have and He jacked them up so that whatever we do to the enemies is the same as if we're doing it to Jesus Christ. 

The Lord said, "Vengeance is mine; judgment is mine." So if anybody has done wrong to us, we're much better off to let Jesus handle it because if we try to straighten out the record we're probably going to do a bum job. Let's leave it to Him. You know that He can restore the record; He can get things evened out. Letting Jesus handle it brings peace of mind to us. 

We must mind our own business, you and I. You know what our business as Christians is, the business of a Christian is to love. And that's our business towards enemies? Our business is to love. That's why he said very, very clearly in John 13:35, "If you love one another as I have loved you, this is how all will know that you are my disciples, the love that you have for one another." The same kind of thinking appears in the Acts of the Apostles. People would say of us: "They must be Christians; look how much love they have for one another." 

I'd like to go one step further with you by asking, "How did Jesus love us?" In John 15: 12-13, Jesus said, "This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friend." And that is exactly what He did. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. Let's get a little commentary on that if you like by turning back to St. John's gospel in Chapter 10, the story of The Good Shepherd. Here's what Jesus tells us in verses 17 and 18: "The Father loves me for this, that I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down freely. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This command to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This command to lay down my life, I have received from my Father." 

Jesus Christ is talking to us because He wants us to be on His team; to think as He does; to be His people. He said, "Love one another as I have loved you." and "There's no greater love that this, than to lay down one's life for one's friend." That's what He did for us and that's what He is calling us to do. Such a tremendous teaching. Think very deeply of the contribution of Jesus Christ. When we speak of love, of Christian love, we need to know the meaning of it. Please! Never again! Never again say that Christian love is to love your neighbor as yourself. This was Old Testament thinking. The thinking of Jesus Christ is very different. "THIS IS MY COMMANDMENT: LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU."

Heavenly Father, we pray to you and we ask you to help us understand how to love one another. We ask this in Jesus's name. 

Lord Jesus Christ, we ask you to give us that deep, rich understanding that you gave to St. Paul so that we can be the kind of Christian that he was.