Growing Through Change: Learning the New Command to Love Like Jesus

Kimberlea Hardy
Mar 5
5 min read

Have you ever tried to learn something new? Maybe a new hobby or skill that would benefit you at work.

I have.

Learning takes a lot of effort and brain power. In her article on neuroplasticity, Lisa Bain, says, “Your brain is changing every day, by your choices, habits, and environment. Here’s what you need to know.”

different colored plugs in shape of brain image by freepix.com

Our brain changes moment by moment. Everything we think, create, and feel. New pathways are made in our brains when we experience something new.

This explains why infants, toddlers and teenagers need more sleep, and it explains why, even as adults, we complain about being tired when we learn something new.

There have been times when learning something new was easy, but most of the time it is frustrating and taxing. I am a give me a formula or a checklist type person. If I can follow it or plug it in, I am good. I even feel accomplished when I mark something off my list.

I get frustrated when I can’t figure something out quickly or when I have to put in more effort to master a new hobby or skill. Partially, because I am a perfectionist and partially because I don’t want to make time to improve or master it.

Here lately, my constant frustration has been learning how to use my iPhone. My husband and I decided to jump on the bandwagon about a year ago. Every time I think I have the phone figured out, there is an update and things change. The constant change makes me want to throw the phone or go back to the Galaxy or Android.

Change in our lives can be the same way. We don’t want our circumstances to change because we are comfortable with what we know. Maybe we do want to change, but we don’t want to be uncomfortable, so we stay with what feels right. Change is hard and commendable.

When our lives change, it can feel familiar yet different at the same time. This confuses our minds and makes the struggle to change even harder. I am sure this is how Jesus’s disciples felt when He gave them the new commandment to love one another as He loved them.

A New Command: Love Like Jesus

Before we dive into this new command and what makes it new, let’s look at one of the old commandments on loving God. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, and minds.

What does love with all our hearts, souls, and minds look like?

We can obey this command by spending time with God. That means we can pray, read our Bibles, and be the hands and feet of Jesus. Being His hands and feet is simply being a loving neighbor. We can share a smile, be kind, volunteer, or take food to a family who recently had a baby or lost a loved one. The list goes on and on.

Jesus tells us when we obey this command, we show Him that we love Him. John 14:15 (ESV) Loving our neighbor, whether we like them or not, is found in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In Leviticus, God tells the Israelites not to payback their neighbors when they sin against them but to love them as they love themselves.

Many of us who have been in church or around church for a while know this verse, but we are more familiar with the New Testament verse from Matthew, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39 (ESV)

As you can see loving our neighbor is a big deal to God. If loving our neighbor is not new, then what did Jesus mean when He said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34 (NIV)

Love One Another: What It Means to Love Like Jesus

There are many ways we show someone we love them, but washing people’s feet and laying down one’s life is not at the top of most people’s list.

John paints a picture of how Jesus loved His apostles up until the very end of His ministry by washing their feet and laying down His life for them and us. The ultimate sacrifice.

He laid down His life for us. John 15:13 (ESV) He took on the sin of this world so we could live with Him for all eternity. Oh, how He loves us.

Up until this point, most people were focused on themselves and were not concerned with caring for their neighbors, much like we are today.

Enter Jesus.

He walked among people showing kindness, gentleness, and mercy to everyone, even those the world considered outcasts. Jesus loved differently.

He tells His followers in Matthew,“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matthew 5:43-44 (ESV)

Here is where the disciples had much to learn. They were about to be sent into the world with the power to heal people and cast out demons in the name of Jesus. His name would stir up anger in many, just as it still does today. The 12 apostles would face persecution, and we should expect the same if we are true followers of Christ.

blue and gold we are all in this together with blue hearts image by freepix.com

People will not always like us, and that is okay. Instead of getting our feathers ruffled and acting on our emotions, we are told to pray for them. The people who rub us the wrong way, pray for them. The person who keeps talking about us, pray for them. The person who stole something from us, pray for them.

This is not easy and will not come naturally, but we can do it with the help of Jesus. We can ask Him to give us the right heart and pray for those who hurt us. We have to forgive them and ask God to help us with that too. Remembering what happened so we do not allow someone to hurt us again is one thing, but holding on to bitterness is another. We have to let it go.

The deeper we hurt, the more time we will need to process our emotions. This will take time. Retraining our minds to think positively about ourselves and others, thinking before speaking, and praying for those who are mean to us takes time. All we can do is take it one step, and one day at a time.

Fortunately for us, unlike the iPhone, there will not be constant updates. We won’t necessarily have a checklist on how to be more like Jesus, but we do have the Bible to guide us as we learn to follow Him.