Love as Jesus loves you

"A new commandment l give you:love one another. As l have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34.

To love as Jesus loves me. A seemingly insurmountable task. How can l, the sinner l am, begin to even love as Jesus loves. Is it even possible in the world we live in today to extend a helping hand to another and love them with a Jesus kind of love? This is beyond me. l cant even begin to imagine what that might even look like or play out in my everyday life. Its an impossible task, yet its something that Jesus commands us to do. Why would God require us to do the impossible? What does God see in us that He would ask us to do such a thing, knowing very well that we in ourselves are plagued by sin and surely cannot possibly love like that? Could this place of complete helplessness be the very place God wants me to be in? Is the key to loving like Jesus, lie in realizing that on my own l simply cannot do it?

It is only out of the fullness of God's love that we can love, for we cannot give that which we do not have. We love because God loved us first. "We love because he first loved us." l John 4:19 The capacity to love like Jesus loves comes from the realization that on my own l cannot do it. Its too big a task for any man to do. Its only by depending on God and relying on him that this can be done. We simply do not have the strength to do it alone. You simply cannot love by trying harder or better. Its not about trying harder, it is about trusting in Jesus. Your strength lies in trusting in Jesus. Human love wears out, but God's love lasts forever. Jesus said "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me." John 14:1. This massive challenge invites us to call upon the power of God. That is why God calls us to do the impossible, so that our faith may not rest in our own abilities or strength, but in Him and Him alone. All that we do can and should be done through the power of the Holy Spirit, so that God is glorified because ultimately He is the one who does it.