Love!

For Sunday, September 14, 2025:

John 13:34-35 NLT: “Now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Apparently, the first Believers, Paleo-Christianity, took these words seriously. It was said about them, “Behold, how they love one another."

Jesus was reminding his followers of a Godly command that had been around for quite some time. Jesus wanted these thoughts front-of-mind. When asked the most important commandment, he had answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” [Mark 12:30] The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” [Mark 12:31] “There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus didn’t just make up these words. He was quoting Old Testament Scripture. Deuteronomy 6:5: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Leviticus 19:18b “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

To keep things simple (KISS), I usually condense this teaching to “Love the Lord and love your neighbor.” That includes being nice, being helpful and being kind. It might involve solving a problem that wasn’t yours in the first place. Christians do the right things for the right reasons without being asked. We are servants to our sisters and brothers. Onlookers will say, “Look at those Christians! They seem to love everyone!”

Being kind to your neighbor is a good way to live. That’s what Jesus did!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Philadelphia - Love for One's Fellows!

For Thursday, May 25, 2023:

1 John 4:7-8 NLT: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

As Acts 2 ends, we learn that this new group of believers, ‘The Way,’ devoted themselves to fellowship. They shared possessions, took meals together and worshiped God together. This love for others, a principle first taught by Jesus, was being put into motion by the believers. Others liked what they saw and wanted to become a member too. They were baptized and brought into the fellowship.

To be clear, this love is not the unconditional love, like how God loves us. It’s reciprocal, treating others the way we’d like to be treated. This is not romantic or erotic love, but instead what the Bible calls ‘Brotherly Love.’ That includes ‘Sisterly Love’ too!

Christians should be nice people, friendly, helpful to one another and ready to serve. If group of believers, a church, isn’t welcoming and loving, something’s a little off.

Looking after our fellows should be as important as looking after ourselves.

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship