(Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48; Ps.98:1-4; 1Jn.4:7-10; Jn.15:9-17) "This I command you: love one another." And so we hear the Lord's essential instruction: love. If we keep His commandments we will love, and if we love we will keep His commandments. His commandment is to love. But what is love? John gives us the simple answer, of course: "God is love," but also indicates further the nature of love, corroborated by the Lord Himself. It is "not that we have loved God, but that He loved us." Love comes not from us but from God, because, as we have said, God is love; we are not love. It is God the Father who has sent His Son to reveal His love by dying for our sins; without this sacrifice we would not know love, could not comprehend the love that is God, that is willing to lay down His very life for the sake of His children. Apart from this love we remain in the dark about love – any love separated from this offering is not love at all. And as it is not we who love but He who gives love, who is love, so it is not we who choose Him but He us. We did not contrive the sacrifice of the Son: we could never have imagined it. We have, in fact, great difficulty in simply accepting it, so beyond our concept of love it is. But there it is. There He is, calling us to His love, to this love, to the sacrifice of our own selves for one another, that we might thoroughly share in the gift of love. We need but respond to know love. And who may share in this love? Let us come to Peter's realization: "In every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him." There is none from whom the Spirit can be withheld, for, as John confirms, "Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God." So we need but love. We need but put our hope in Him and in His love. We need but keep His command, and His love shall be our own, and we shall find ourselves "speaking in tongues and glorifying God"; whomever we are and wherever we come from, we know "the salvation by our God" by living in the love of the Spirit and being "baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." Alleluia! There is not much else to say. Alleluia! Praise the Lord! Let us forever live in His love. Let us forever die for one another. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Love, the Meaning of: Can You Love?" from Loving Spirit, third album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, thank you for sending us your Son, for sharing with us your love – may we also share Him with others. YHWH, help us to love one another, to die for one another, that we might find the love you offer us in the sacrifice of your Son, that we might live ever in your love. What more could we want than to be begotten by you and know you by living in your love? What greater call can there be for our lives than to be united with you who are love? O LORD, all who fear you and act uprightly, all who love you and love their neighbor, all who desire you and your love you come to in your Son – may all be baptized in His Name! Pour out your Spirit upon all souls, dear LORD, that all might be conformed to your will and made in the image of your Son. As Jesus let us all be, laying down our lives for one another in the Spirit of love. We are all but men, LORD, but your Son calls us His friends as He draws us into union with you and your love. Alleluia!