LOVE LIKE JESUS
Jesus Christ says: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:17). He died for us while were still enemies of God (Romans 5:10). Even when he was being crucified for the sins of the world, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Jesus even tells us to love and forgive our enemies, “that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45).
WE NEED HELP TO LOVE LIKE JESUS
Speaking more about love, Jesus said, first, love the Lord God with all your heart; and second, love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). Loving self seems natural; loving others is often a challenge. Sometimes it is even difficult to love some friends and family members. Loving enemies seems impossible. But Jesus said, “what is impossible with man is possible with God”(Luke 18:27).
HELPED TO LOVE LIKE JESUS
The Lord God sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper; and to empower us to do his will (John 14: 16-17; Acts 1:8). The Spirit can help us to love like Jesus. The Holy Spirit evidently inspired civil rights activist John Lewis, like he did Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and others who supported them, to love like Jesus–in the face of what many see as dissension and racial division in the United States of America.
As a devoted student of the Bible, John Lewis believed what the Bible said: “God has made of one blood all people of the earth (Acts 17:26) . He recognized that the Bible influenced the writers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence which states that “all men are created equal.” John believed that God created all people equal—that it not right for some people to think of themselves as inferior; nor right for some people to think of themselves as superior. He was willing to suffer in his endeavor to love and inspire others to love one another like Jesus Christ loved all of us.
- As a civil rights activist for justice and equality, he said: “we must march with the spirit of love.” He was severely beaten many times, jailed and suffered injustices while marching and leading in the Spirit of love. Speaking in the Spirit of love on a Martin Luther King Day, he said, “we must never, ever hate; the way of love is a better way.”
- As a congressman, love was seen as his guiding principle. In a Memorial event following his death he was praised by leaders of both parties of congress as “a moral force for the nation. ”Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Lewis the “conscience of the Congress” who was “revered and beloved on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol. ” Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell praised the longtime Georgia congressman as a model of courage and a “peacemaker.” Lewis, Pelosi added, “had faith in the charity of others, which is what gave him so much hope.” (Internet).
Lewis was guided by thesame Spirit as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, ‘I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”’ The Holy Spirit led both men and those inspired by the Spirit through them, to act on what Jesus told us: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:17).
