Jesus gave us one command. It is to be the guide to everything we say and do: Love one another as I have loved you.

^3:3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
    bind them around your neck,
    write them on the tablet of your heart.

The night that Jesus initiated the New Covenant, He gave His disciples a new command,

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

The key to the verse is, “as I have loved you.” If WE get to choose how we love, then we can justify pretty much anything. But, if we truly love as Jesus loved, we will always do what is best according to His Spirit. We were talking in SS yesterday and the word, “repent,” came up. “Repent” means “to change the way you are thinking and go a different direction.” Jesus told us to repent in Matthew 4:17. Here, too, if we choose the direction we are to go, we will wind up lost again. Instead, we are to start thinking as Jesus thinks, which requires Him in our heads. Enter the Holy Spirit. Back to John,

²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

²⁶ “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. John 15:26

¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:13

Jesus basically retired the Old Covenant and replaced it with a New Covenant, one of love. From then on, we go to Jesus for instructions on how to deal with people in His love–no matter the topic. Do we excuse sin? No, but Jesus redefined our response to sin. From then on, we are to respond as He did:

• without condemnation;
• with compassion;
• in mercy;
• showing grace;
• with much forgiveness–70×7 daily! (another way of saying, “every time”)

He doesn’t need us to be His police and especially the Holy Spirit. We are simply to be His ambassadors of His love. Easy to say, hard to do. Still, it’s imperative to the success of the Gospel that we do.

Abba, If I truly want to be just like You, I need to be just like Jesus who is “the exact representation of Your being” (Hebrews 1:3). To be like Jesus, I must do as He has commanded me, which is to love as He loved. In order to do that, I need Your help! You say that You have given me the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16); please help me to access it. Amen.