Faith Family,

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God, (1 John 4:7).

Quarantined at home you have some extra time.  You’ve always wanted a pond in your yard.  So, to occupy your time you start digging.  After multiple callouses and a few glares from your neighbors you step back and admire the deep and wide hole that you’ve dug.  Weary from all the quarantined digging, you sense that something is missing.  Your pond is bone dry.  What you need is water!  You need a source for that water.

The command to love one another requires a source.  Where will you get that love?  Others cannot be the source of your love.  Mr. Buc Hatch, beloved college professor, used to refer to a relationship where each person serves as the other person’s source for love as “two ticks without a dog”!  That’s gross!  But so are our relationships when the other person serves as our source for love.

There is no accident in the order of the great command that Jesus gave in Matthew 22.  The second command intentionally follows the first command.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself, (Matthew 22:39).  The second command necessarily follows the first command.  The second cannot exist without the first.  And the first will not exist without the second.

The motivation and the source of our love for each other is found in the love of our God.  We get to love one another as an exercise of His love.  So, when love is waning (like when the quarantine quarters seem to be shrinking), the problem isn’t with the other person.  Maybe the source is clogged!

May I tell you what a privilege it is to serve a church where the love of God is evident in the way that you love one another.  I know, not perfectly.  But, the love of God is on display as you love each other.  Keep it up!  Keep calling each other.  Keep picking up “stuff” for others as they have need.  Keep connecting on social media.  Keep encouraging one another.  Keep praying for each other.

Why?  For love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.