The Command That Changes Everything

There is always someone we find hard to stay near. A coworker, a family member, an old friend who said the wrong thing and never quite came back from it. We manage the distance. We call it moving on. But somewhere underneath, we know something is unfinished.

Jesus said these words hours before his arrest, gathered with his closest friends at a table, knowing one of them had already made the deal to hand him over. He was not speaking into an easy room. He was speaking into betrayal and fear, and still he said: love one another.

The weight of that word "as" is everything. Not love when it is convenient, not love when the other person deserves it. Love the way someone loved you first, before you had anything to offer. That kind of love does not come from willpower. It comes from being near the one who loves that way.