Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them… Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. (Romans 12:9,10 NLT)
"He loved them unto the uttermost." And
I think in that statement, there is the most wonderful thing that ever came into
this world. Jesus had had a lot of trouble with those men. They had often
misunderstood Him. They had often disappointed Him. They were really a very poor
lot of men.... He knew what a poor lot of men they were, but He loved them unto
the uttermost. That is the first thing about this love. It is not offended by
our failures. He does not withdraw His love because we make mistakes. We may
often disappoint Him, we may often fail Him, we may often grieve His heart, but
He goes on loving us. He loves us unto the uttermost, right to the end. He is
not offended by our failures. That is a very different kind of love from our
love. This is God's love in Christ....
You know, it is so easy to talk about love, to pretend to love, to use the
language of love, to sing hymns about love, and it can all be sentimental;
perhaps we all know people who have told us that they love us, but very often
they are the very people who have hurt us most. Now, the love of Jesus was not
sentimental, it was practical. He did not go in with His disciples and say,
'Brothers, I do love you very much.' He showed that He loved them by what He did
for them. It was not sentimental love, it was practical love. And this is the
love with which He loved them unto the uttermost.... These things which
characterize the love of Christ for His own ought to characterize us in love for
others. That is why the Holy Spirit has come. So that as He loved us to the
uttermost, so ought we to love one another.