Jesus loved His disciples so fully that He could initiate a new commandment for His followers to follow: To love one another as He had loved them. This went beyond the commandment Moses had given, “to love our neighbor as ourself” morphing into, “love one another as I have loved you.”
Jesus—God’s gift of love to the world, was now multiplying Himself in His disciples. The same is true for us to love one another as Christ has loved us. We love from the experience of being loved, not from trying to love. We love not from volition, or emotion, or because it’s the right thing to do. We love from the love we have received. We love because God first loved us.
We have to be loved by Jesus before we can love like Jesus. When our love for one another is waning it’s time to return to Jesus and receive His love again. Maybe that’s why Romans 5:5 points us to expect a new outpouring of God’s love in our hearts at the end of every trial. Without the new love experience, we will have no new love to give one another. Love comes from Jesus, and then continues to one another. Jesus is the source of all love; and the Holy Spirit pours out His love into our hearts.
All we have to do is come and receive.
