Frontier Alliance International is a Christian organization dedicated to spreading God’s grace around the world through ministry, disaster relief, and publishing. On Jan. 1, 2021, Frontier Alliance International published an article that urged Christians to love each other wholly like Jesus loved His disciples.
Before Jesus was crucified, He was betrayed by one of His disciples and denied by another. But in John 13:1, John the disciple writes that, “When Jesus knew that His hour had come ... having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
That He loved his own to the end elevates the standard by which Christians should love their brothers and sisters. The second greatest commandment tells Christians to love each other as they love themselves. However, to bear true and faithful witness to Jesus, Christians must love as Jesus Himself loved - they should love their neighbors not as they love themselves but as Jesus loved them. It is by emulating Him that they show their obedience and discipleship to Him.
There are no loopholes getting around this. As Peter asked Jesus how many times he must forgive someone who had wronged him and Jesus replied, “Seventy times seven,” so are Christians called upon to forgive every day, until the very end. The same way Jesus forgave those who wronged Him and loved them to the very last day. Christians love to the end.
