Jesus Christ said the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on the perfect unity of love. That is an astonishing statement. By some estimates, there are 613 commandments, laws, and statutes in the mitzvot. All of those commandments, laws and statutes are based on love. If we had that love, we would be fulfilling the entire law and all the demands of the prophets.
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40)
Jesus Christ prayed for you and me to have the perfect unity of love between the Father and the Son. And, he prayed for the divine assistance we need to understand and experience this perfect unity of love.
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!
“O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.” (John 17:20-26)
One of these men understood that perfect unity of love and wrote about it in the book of John and later in the books of 1st John, 2nd John, and 3rd John…
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12)
Another of those men, that Jesus was praying for, did not know that perfect unity of love, did not understand that perfect unity of love, and had not experienced that perfect unity of love. But, later, when the Apostle Paul learned about the perfect unity of love, he set out to teach the world.
Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15)
How about you? Do you know and understand the perfect unity of love? Are you experiencing the perfect unity of love? This is a very important question because it gets right to the heart of our life in Jesus Christ. Are you living a life that demonstrates the perfect unity of love? Or are you separating yourself in little cliques that consider all your other brothers and sisters with condescending disdain? Don’t let this question pass you by. Consider it deeply. Listen to the Apostle John…
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. (1 John 2:9-11)
If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them. (1 John 3:14-15)
If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters. (1 John 4:20-21)
If you do not understand the perfect unity of love, if you would like to know more about the perfect unity of love, if you would like to experience the perfect unity of love, ask God…
So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. (Colossians 1:9)
If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. (James 1:5)
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. (James 4:1-3)