We are commanded repeatedly in the Scripture to “Love one another”; this love is to include all races, tribes and ethnic groups. To love another calls for more than some kind of mechanical obedience or some passivity, mistakenly called love. The command to love one another is really a call for personal transformation. It is a call to love until we love from our heart, until our core nature is changed. We tend to be self-focused and self-loving. We need a heart change to love as we should. Dallas Willard said, “Our goal is not to obey the teachings of Jesus. Our goal is to become the kind of persons that naturally obey the teachings of Jesus.” Loving from our core is the gauge by how well we are growing in sanctification.
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:10-12 (NASB)
