July 24, 2018

The Holy Martyrs Borys and Hlib, Named Roman and David at Holy Baptism (1015); Holy Great-Martyr Christine

Read
Romans 8:28-39; John 15:17-16:2


Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

Of all the commandments that we are asked by the Lord to follow, this one command is perhaps the easiest—and the hardest—to follow consistently: to love one another.

In John’s Gospel, we hear this command to love one another just have hearing that the Lord has chosen us to bear fruit in our witness, our testimony, of Him to the world. Let that sink in for a moment. The God of the universe, the one and only true God, desires not to command us like robots, or some sort of toy for Hs amusement; He desires a relationship with us. He wants us to be like Him in all ways by His grace. He wants us to love as He loves. And He wants us to tell and show it to the whole world!

We all desire to love and to be loved. And when that happens, how easy life seems. When we love one another, whether that love be between husband and wife, father and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister, long-time friends, we REVEAL that love that the Lord has for His Church, for the world. This is our testimony to the world. And we CAN love because He has first loved us.

Sometimes it is hard to love but love we must! But we mustn’t be surprised. Our Lord speaks of the attempts to break the cords of love: hatred and persecution. In some ways, we must expect these, and despite them to carry one the project of loving. He has even given us the Holy Spirit that we may continue in the mission of revealing His love for the world by our day-to-day loving one another.