John 13:34 – “I give a new commandment to you, that you should love one another; according as I loved you, you should also love one another.”

Romans 5:5 – “And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.”

If you are going to be obedient to the commandment, you have to walk in love all the time.

In a previous devotion, we discussed how Jesus had commanded that we love one another as He loved us. We showed that there is no exception to this rule. If you are going to be obedient to the commandment, you have to walk in love all the time. Today, we are going to show from the Word of God how God can make such a commandment. Often we feel that we cannot help ourselves when we get out of love, and that God is unjust to require of us something that we cannot do. It is true that if God would require of us something that we could not accomplish, He would be unjust. However, God is not unjust in His command that we love one another because He has given us the ability to obey this command.

In Romans 5:5 we read, “And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.” This scripture isn’t talking about God pouring out His love on us so that we feel loved. It is talking about a supernatural work that the Holy Spirit performed when we were born again. God, through the Holy Spirit, literally gave us His very own love in which we can love others. The same love that is in God the Father and in Jesus is now residing in you through the Holy Spirit. That is how Jesus could say, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Remember, in His earthly walk Jesus perfectly walked in the commandment of love. We know this because He said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father,” and we know from 1 John 4:8 that, “God is love.” Therefore, for Jesus to make this statement and to not be a liar He had to have stayed in that perfect love all the time. This includes His crucifixion. Even when He was being unjustly and brutally beaten, He continued to walk in that love.

If you are going to obey this command to walk in love, you are going to have to get control of your flesh.

This is the same love that abides in us right now. We are not going to obtain this love someday. We cannot mature spiritually until someday we reach this perfect state of love. No, that love is in you now. When you hear ministers talking about developing in love or maturing in love, they are talking about maturing where the flesh is concerned until that perfect love will perfectly flow through you. This is mainly a matter of crucifying your flesh and its lusts. If you are going to obey this command to walk in love, you are going to have to get control of your flesh.

Look at how just God is. He requires of us to walk in this love without any exceptions, but He first gives us the ability to do it. God has never required anyone to walk in this kind of love without first equipping them for it. God knows that man, in his fallen nature or in his flesh, cannot love with this kind of love. Therefore, He gives us His own love in which to obey the command.

The problem for most Christians is that they are continually trying to obey the commands of God in the power of their own flesh. This cannot work. Your flesh is connected to the things of this natural world, therefore when your flesh is troubled by something in the natural it will react in the natural. When your flesh is tired it will be irritable. When your flesh is angered it will react in kind. Therefore, this love walk that we are commanded to obey must not be done in our flesh. This is why Galatians 5:16 tells us to, “Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of your flesh.” As we, by an act of our will, put our flesh under and choose to walk according to the Spirit, we will be positioned to let out this love that God has already placed inside of us and we will fulfill the command to love one another even as Jesus loved us.

The next time you feel that you can’t help getting out of love, remember that God is not unjust in His commandment. You have within you the ability to obey that command. You have the very love of God in your heart and it is by this love that you can obey. If you will choose to walk in the spirit you will not fulfill those desires of the flesh that cause you to get out of love. Then you will be able to perfectly love just as Jesus loved.