“Love one another.” Three simple, yet weighty words given to us by our compassionate Savior, Jesus. As we know, loving others with an agape love as we’re commanded to do is not easy. Drawing from decades of his teaching at Moody Bible Institute and years of pastoral and global ministry and experience, Dr. Winfred O. Neely brings rich biblical insight and pastoral wisdom to A Love to Live By. Through a Scripture-rich exploration of agape love and Christ’s enduring command to love one another, the book serves as a timely reminder of the power of biblical love and the Church’s greatest witness to a divided world. It’s my joy to welcome Dr. Winfred O. Neely to the farm’s table today…
Guest post by Dr. Wnfred O. Neely
The hour has come (John 12:23).
It is the hour of our Lord’s glorification through His death on the cross, His literal bodily resurrection from among the dead, and His ascension into glory.
Every circumstance and event in our Lord’s incarnate life has moved according to God’s calendar to this point.
The hour has come.
Our Lord’s public ministry in the first twelve chapters of the gospel of John has come to an end; now in chapters 13–17, our Lord Jesus ministers to His own in private. His heart is full and animated with agape love for His disciples. “He loved them to the end”—completely, exhaustively, and fully (John 13:1).
The hour has come. The sun is setting, night is approaching; it is suppertime. But lurking in the murky shadow of this hour is a diabolical design. Judas Iscariot has listened to the satanic suggestion to betray the Lord Jesus and has become an instrument of the power of darkness.
“Jesus is in control. He is not a victim of circumstances, but the Master of the raging storms of history.“
The hour has come. But Jesus is in control. He is not a victim of circumstances, but the Master of the raging storms of history. He knows that He came forth from God. Jesus is aware that long before the rustle of angels’ wings disturbed the hush of eternity that He shared unspeakable glory with God! Oh, He understood that His act of stepping down from the ivory palaces of glory to become human was voluntary. He knew that He came from God.
The hour has come. Jesus knew that He was going back to God. Now in heaven, in the immediate presence of God there will be something there that was never there before, something that will send heaven into convulsions of wonder forever—a real, live, literal, tangible, touchable God-man at the right hand of God with the marks of Calvary in His own peerless person. The sight sends heaven into convulsions of wonder forever.
On the eve of the cross, it is the Lord Jesus’ consciousness of unlimited authority, infinite glory, ultimate dignity mingled with boundless agape love in His heart for us that is His motive for what He does and says in John 13–17.
The hour has come. On the eve of the cross, a few hours before His crucifixion, what would our Lord say to His disciples and by extension to us? Right on the brink of the shame of the cross, right on the brink of the ignominy, right on the brink of His bearing the wrath and judgment of God on our behalf, what would Jesus say to us? It is wise for us to ponder and weigh with an attitude of prayer the words and actions of the Upper Room Discourse.
On the eve of the cross, the Lord gives us a new commandment: to love one another.
A commandment is an order, an authoritative injunction given by someone who has authority over our lives.
This commandment is not new in that it is recent; it is new in that it is fresh, different in quality; it is new in that it is to be experienced and obeyed by every generation of Christ followers. We need not explain again the meaning of agape love. But we are reminded again that we are commanded by our Lord Himself that this love is to characterize our relationships in the church and be the basis for the relational dynamics among believers.
We are to love one another and so reproduce the inner relational dynamics of the Godhead in our local church life.
The commandment is not optional. Refusal to carry out the divine mandate to love one another is an act of disobedience to Jesus.
“ The Lord’s love for us is eternal. His love for us knows no limits. “
The Lord, however, has more to say to us; He commands us to love one another as He has loved us. The Lord’s love for us is the standard and model for the love that we are to have for one another. The Lord’s love for us is eternal. His love for us knows no limits.
His agape love for us is shown by His humble service on our behalf. He washed the disciples’ feet and by extension our feet in humble service.
His love for us is sacrificial.
“Cruciform agape love is the standard of our love for one another in the church.“
He laid down His life on the cross for us.
Even though our Lord uses the past tense in the verb loved, He speaks prophetically about His love demonstrated for us on the cross. In His mind, the cross is already a fait accompli (John 17:1–3).
The new commandment now has an ultimate standard of agape love exemplified in our Lord’s death on the cross for us:
Cruciform agape love is the standard of our love for one another in the church.
Dr. Winfred O. Neely is a longtime Moody Bible Institute professor, and retired academic dean of Moody Theological Seminary. Having served as both a pastor and missionary in both the United States and West Africa, he has witnessed firsthand the power of agape love to transform lives and communities.
He and his wife, Stephne, recently celebrated fifty years of marriage, and in his spare time, he enjoys taking acting classes and watching science fiction films.
With depth and warmth, Dr. Neely’s book, A Love to Live By: Rediscovering Agape Love in Scripture, is a compelling call to rediscover the beauty, practice, and power of agape love.
Rooted in rich Scripture and filled with practical guidance, it helps readers live out Christ’s command to love one another in everyday life. Because in a divided world, the church’s greatest witness is love. If you want to grow in Christian love and better reflect the heart of Christ, order your copy today.
{Our humble thanks to Moody Publishers for their partnership in today’s devotional.}
