“For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:15-17, 34-35
We all want a successful life yet find one another defining it differently. Then, we ask, “What is a successful life in God’s eyes?”
Whenever I get caught up in earthly pursuits, God reminds me of what kind of life He would want me to live, telling me once again, “I give you a new commandment, that … just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” It is always a gracious reminder that, above all things, we are called to love. I believe that a successful life in God’s eyes is a faithful life. It is a life faithful to His new commandment that we are devoted to pouring out upon one another the love that Christ has been showering us with.
This new commandment sheds some light on an important aspect of our ministry as well. We often find ourselves focusing on the church membership or its financial state. It is a joy to see a church growing in these quantitative aspects. But if it becomes the primary goal of our ministry, we will lose greater joy, the joy of loving one another, because it will make us see one another as a means to an end.
I am so grateful that, by God’s grace, we are given to one another, not to use one another for some greater ends, but to love one another as an end of itself. Just like a successful life, a successful church in God’s eyes is a faithful church devoted to loving one another with the love of Christ.
Imagine your church is fully devoted to this new commandment. Imagine all the churches in the world are devoted to loving one another just as Christ loves us. Imagine how much that would transform our lives, families, nations, and the world. How exciting and wonderful that would be? Let us stay faithful, be devoted to His love.
Lord, help us to be faithful to you and devoted to your new commandment of love both in our lives and in our ministries so that your joy may be complete in us. Amen.
Sunny Limm is the pastor of Trinity UMC in Kinston