Love One Another, Even As I Have Loved You.

“…love one another even as I have loved you.” 

Before His crucifixion, Jesus gave his disciples three commandments to be observed:

“Believe in God, believe also in Me,” [See AM]

“Do this in remembrance of Me” that is the blessing of the bread and wine and the partaking of His Body and Blood, and 

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another,”  

What follows are  some reflections, inspired by the Holy Fathers, on the Lord’s commandment to love, specifically with regard to the love we as Christians must gratefully receive and return to Christ, the love for our brothers in Christ and all men, and, perhaps most often neglected, love as the precondition to unity in the Church.

The term love is much misused and abused in our contemporary society and it is important to emphasize that the Lord’s command is qualified by the phrase:  “…as I have loved you.” This is no worldly love but rather a divine love that is entirely new to human existence. It is a love beyond worldly or humanistic terms of reference and categories but made human, or rather, theanthropic, through the Incarnation of the Logos of God. On this commandment a new life is founded within the Church whereby man is molded after the image of the New Man. This selfless divine love is the distinguishing characteristic of the genuine and true disciples of Christ who are called to love one another, as Christ loved His own disciples - and, indeed, all men - for whom He willingly laid down His life.  

This new commandment of love Jesus did not give to all mankind, but only to those whose hearts He purified of the selfish, egotistic love that characterizes fallen man, and then abundantly filled with His own selfless, philanthropic love. Sadly, we Orthodox today often live a mostly un-Orthodox life, indistinguishable from the heterodox and unbelievers around us. We profess belief in Christ but our hearts are far removed from Him, seeking fulfillment in the illusory vanities of this world. For the Christian, love encompasses self-denial, obedience, humility, meekness and self-sacrifice for the well-being of others. How many today would see the perfect expression of love in the crucifixion of one’s flesh, with its passions and desires?  Unless we are purified through repentance, confession, mourning, tears and the grace of baptism, it is impossible to live according to the Gospel Law. And this purification is accomplished through the holy mysteries of His Church, where one finds the spiritual strength and power to live this new life of theanthropic (Divine-Human) love. 

Our Love for Christ

The Lord repeatedly declares: He who loves the Lord observes His commandments. In observing the Gospel Law, which may be found in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, Christians thereby nourish their love for Jesus, becoming united with Him in heart and mind and soul. St. Nikolai Velimirovich writes eloquently of this fervent love for the Lord found in the saints:

“We remembered and vividly beheld the act of divine love; an act surpassing words, surpassing comprehension. Martyrs responded to this love by the streams of their blood, poured out like water; the saints responded to this love by the mortification of their flesh with the affections and lusts (Gal. 5:24); many sinners responded to this love with a flood of tears, heartfelt sighs, and the confession of their sins, and drew from it healing of their souls; many people burdened by sorrows and sickness responded to this love, and this love dissolved their sorrows by Divine consolation. Let us also respond to the love of our Lord Jesus Christ by our sympathy with His love: by a life according to His all-holy commandments. He demands this sign of love from us, and only this sign of love will He accept from us. If a man love me, said He, he will keep my words: He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings (Jn 14:23-24). If we do not respond to the Lord's love for us by our love for Him, then was not the blood of the God-Man shed in vain? Was not His all-holy body tormented for us in vain? Was not the Great Sacrifice placed upon the table of oblation and pierced in vain? Its intercession for our salvation is all-powerful; all-powerful also is its indictment against those who disdain it.”

St. Symeon the New Theologian movingly writes of this love we as Christians must have for our Savior: 

“Let us be eager, then, to find Christ and see Him as He is, in His beauty, His attractiveness.

Flee the world, flee the illusion of  this life and its false happiness. Hasten to Christ, the one Savior of souls. Let us endeavor to discover the One who is present everywhere. When we have found Him, let us keep to Him, let us fall at His feet and embrace them in the fervor of our souls.

Allow me, O Christ, to kiss your feet. Allow me to kiss your hands - these hands that created me by Your word, the hands that fashioned everything without effort. Let me be filled with these (graces) without being sated. Grant me the sunlight of Your face, O Word, and the enjoyment of Your ineffable beauty. Let me contemplate and delight in Your vision - the vision unutterable, the vision invisible, the awesome vision.”

Love for our neighbor.

St. John the Evangelist writes: “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” (1Jn.4:7-12)  

If we love one another, God abides in us.  And this abiding love causes us to see our brother as our life and thereby His love is perfected in us.

St. Justin of Chelie teaches:  “Therefore whosoever loves his brother prays for him, fasts for him, is merciful towards him, meek, humble and patient. Thus, through the help of all these virtues, love conquers everything that is mortal in man, i.e., sinful, demonic and evil.”

It is with both a smile and reverent awe that one receives the words of St. Porphyrios when he says: “Our love in Christ must reach all places, even to the hippies in Matala [in Crete]. I very much wanted to go there, not to preach to them or to condemn them, but to live with them, without sin of course, and leave the love of Christ to speak of itself, which transfigures life.”

St. Silouan of Mt. Athos taught::

“O brethren, there is nothing better than the love of God when the Lord fires the soul with love for God and our fellow man.”

“The man who knows the delight of the love of God - when the soul, warmed by grace, loves both God and her brother - knows in part that “the Kingdom of God is within us.” Blessed is the soul that loves her brother, for our brother is our life.”

The Lord wants us to love our fellow man; and if you reflect that the Lord loves him, that is a sign of the Lord's love in you. And if you consider how greatly the Lord loves His creature, and you yourself have compassion on all creation, and love your enemies, counting yourself the vilest of men, this is a sign of abundant grace of the Holy Spirit in you.”

In the example of our Lord and the saints of the Church, we see this love extended not merely to one’s neighbors but to one’s enemies.

St. Silouan teaches: “The Lord is love, and He sent the Holy Spirit on earth, who teaches the soul to love her enemies and pray for them that they too many find salvation. That is true love.”

St. Porphyrios:  “True Christians, in the souls of whom Christ lives, are unable to do anything else except love all people, even enemies. The crown of our love for our friends has elements that are out of place (calculation, reciprocity, vanity, emotional weakness, passionate sympathy) while the crown of love for our enemies is pure.” 

Silouan and Porphyrios considered love of one’s enemies the distinctive characteristic of the Orthodox Christian. Indeed, how else can we grasp such love except to understand it as divine. Yet, it is worthwhile reflecting a little further on this love for one’s enemies:  

Moses had legislated that the Jews hate their enemies because this was an advantage to preservation of the race. This hatred of the Jews toward their enemies was defensive, necessary not only for physical survival but so that the Jews themselves might not become idolaters and violate their covenant with the Lord. In its truest sense, this hatred was directed mainly against idols and demonolatry. Our Savior Jesus Christ, however, legislates an offensive war against idolatry and false religion, arming His soldiers with fervent love which overcomes evil with good. The Apostles, armed with the spiritual fire of flaming tongues preaching the Gospel and hearts aflame, tore down the idols of the ancient world using no weapon except the love of God. Christians do not destroy their enemies physically but spiritually. The sword of the Spirit destroys the delusion and wicked will of the enemy but not his body. 

St. Paul writes: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down beliefs every high thing that exalts itself  against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”  Love is the mightiest weapon. 

For the Christian, hatred is maintained only against sin and the Devil, our only true enemies. Again, St. Paul says: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

One last aspect of our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ and all men. St. Porphyrios says something so profound here:: “The love of Christ is offered and always passes through other people.”  The love among brethren is the very love of Christ. Those who aid and support others in need and those in need of our support and love who, in turn, respond with loving gratitude all manifest the love of Christ. 

Love and the Unity of the Church.

“Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess…”

Love is the new principle of life for renewed mankind, and all growth and perfection of the Body of Christ is dependent on the participation of the individual members in the commandment to love one another. 

Without being bound together in love, the abiding of the Holy Spirit would be impossible. The Holy Spirit dwelling in the Church gives each member the power to be a new creature, and to be governed by love in his life.  St. John Chrysostom, commenting on the “one Body” says: “the love Paul requires of us is…that which cements us together, and makes us cleave inseparably to one another, and effects as great and as perfect a union as though it were between limb and limb. For this is the love that produces great and glorious fruits.”  

The teachings of St. Paul on love are inseparably linked with his teaching on the Church. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the teaching on the Church is followed by a “New Testament ode to love.”  According to St. Paul, the Church is the new creature living according to the love of Christ.  And the unity of the Church must be manifested not in unity of faith alone, but also in the unity that is the fruit of common love. Faith and love cannot be separated. The members of the Church are bound together with the bonds of Christian love.The violation of common love is a violation of the unity of the Church. And the Church’s unity in love, is first and foremost, expressed in common prayer and almsgiving. In the Divine Liturgy we pray for the whole of the people of God. And charity is a vital expression of this love. Charity for the poor, the widows, the infirm and strangers unites the members of individual communities in a most profound way.  “Elder Porphyrios taught that Christ’s greatest desire was for the unity of the faithful, for each member of the Orthodox Church to identify with the struggle and  pain of his brother, to carry one another’s burden and to live our lives as though we are one body.”  

But what of the separation among Christians. We must affirm that underlying the intransigence and stubbornness that leads to heresy, is a lack of love. As St. Hilarion Troitsly writes: “If the one Church is a bond of love, any separation from the Church, any heresy, at the core of which lie pride and self-will, attests to a lack of love. It could be said that the chief idea of the entire treatise[of St. Cyprian] on the unity of the Church is specifically that heretics lack love, while the unity  of the Church is a direct consequence of love. A heretic or schismatic does not maintain either ecclesiastical unity or brotherly love, and he acts in opposition to the love of Christ.” The modern ecumenical movement is forever talking about love but when all the political, cultural and linguistic factors are outlined and theological and spiritual differences remain, we must recognize that at the root of all heresy is an ongoing act of spiritual violence against the unity in love that binds members of Christ’s Holy Church. This accounts for the Orthodox opposition to any kind of false unity with the papacy. The very existence of the papacy itself constitutes a rebellion against the love binding together the sister Orthodox Churches.

Of course, as Orthodox, we must offer a selfless love to the heterodox. It is only the Grace of God and our example of love in the truth that will illumine their hearts and minds. Thus, St. Paissios the Athonite spoke of a “good uneasiness” in our relations with the heterodox. “That which is asked of every Orthodox person is to instill a ‘good uneasiness’ into the heterodox, that they might understand that they are in delusion. This is so they will not falsely calm their conscience and thus be deprived in this life of the rich blessings of Orthodoxy, and, in the life to come, of the even greater and eternal blessings of God.”

It is fitting that we end here with St. Paul’s Hymn to Love:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 

Love suffers long and is kind. Love envies not. Love vauntith not. Is not puffed up. doth not behave itself unseemly, seeking not her own, Is not easily provoked. Thinks no evil, rejoices not in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.