The Call to Love
By Maria Fontaine
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“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”—John 15:121
Although to love one another is a commandment from the Lord, the love that He gives us in order to do so is a reward, because it’s His wonderful love for us that enables us to pour out His love upon others. “We love because he first loved us.”2 That warm, secure, abundant, heart-to-heart love—that He rewards us with when we open ourselves to Him and receive it—is so great that we lose none of it by sharing it, and it continues to pour forth all over us and others.
The Lord has given us a whole handbook in His Word for how to love. He commissions each of us to grow in our love for others. He once said in prophecy that as you seek Him and desire His love to grow in your life, “you can experience a resurrection of love in your life.”
When we sit at His feet, we can tap into the main source for replenishing His anointing of love, where He can empower us. We must be touched ourselves with His love so that we may in turn touch others. We must allow His Spirit to work in and through us to help us to understand another person’s heart.
The Lord’s love has no end and no limit, and His Word says that one day the knowledge of Him and His love will cover the whole earth just like the waters cover the sea.3 How do we overflow with His love? It starts with looking to Him and drawing nigh to Him, and seeking Him and putting Him first in our lives—loving Him with our whole heart.
If you ever have any doubts about God’s plan for your life, just look at the amazing things He says about each of us in His Word. He has chosen you “from before the foundation of the earth,” “lavished you with His graces” … as “having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”4 What a calling, what a ministry, what a commission!
When you think how long ago the beginning of the world was, the Lord must be counting on each one of us to do our part to carry out His plan, because He planned it so long ago! But we can’t share His love effectively with others unless we experience it ourselves, and one of the primary ways we can experience it is by being quiet and letting Him fill us in loving communion with Him. We can only get filled up by being still, and we can only love others by His power and grace, because our love is not enough. The Lord is the One who gives us the power of His love, this great gift from Him, to fulfill the commission He has given us to show His love to the world and to love each other.
You may ask yourself, “Why can’t we just concentrate on loving the lost and not worry about loving each other? After all, we all know the Lord and we have His Word, and that should be enough.” Apparently it isn’t enough, because not only do you need this love in human form and this love in action in your life, but the Lord says that this is the way we are going to reach the world, through our love for each other. Jesus tells us, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”5
This is an amazing statement! He doesn’t say that if we have love for the lost, we will win them to Him; He says we must also have love for each other.
There is great darkness on the earth, but there’s great love in our hearts. The Lord has commanded His love to sweep the earth; He will not let darkness and evil win. But our part is to let the light of His truth and love shine amongst ourselves so that people in the world will see it and marvel that real love actually exists.
The Lord has been specific in His Word, and it is up to us to do our part to exercise the gift of love that He has given us. That may not translate into apparent great or glorious works, but rather the little things of everyday life—the little deeds of love, the daily words of appreciation and kind acts that show that we care—not just for our brothers and sisters in the Lord, but for those who are not yet a part of His family.
His Word tells us: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”6 When it comes to loving those you have to work with and interact with on a day-to-day basis, it’s a lot more difficult. People may have habits you don’t like, they have quirks that bother you, they have personality traits that frustrate you. But here the Lord is placing them with you and saying you’re responsible to love them and help them when you can.
There are people all around us who are battling discouragement and need understanding, those who feel lonely, and those who are sick and in need of encouragement. There’s something you can do to show some love, consideration, and concern to each person that you come in contact with during the day. Let’s not pass up an opportunity to be an instrument of His love—His hands and feet and voice—to help others and show them His love.
He has done everything possible to help us to love. He has given us His anointing, and as we receive it and exercise it, it will grow and multiply! Let’s do our best to manifest Jesus’ love to each other and to any who cross our paths. Let’s let Him continue to transform us and make us shine upon others with His love so that they will come to know Jesus, or draw closer to Him. Let’s take Him at His Word and step out by faith and see the wonderful places it will lead us!
Originally published April 1995. Adapted and republished June 2019.
Read by Irene Quiti Vera.
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