Turning a duty to love into a channel of love …

“You can’t just command love from someone!” insists the husband who, long ago, chose to stop loving his wife.

“Actually, you can …” responds the marriage counselor.

What the counselor had in mind was the words of Jesus, when Christ actually did command us to love each other …

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other,” John 13:34.

The key to Christ’s command is in the second sentence: Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

Christ isn’t ordering us to push out of ourselves a begrudging sentiment sourced in compulsion, but a genuine love sourced from the One who the Bible says IS love! The difference looks a little something like this …

Are you “doing love” from a resistant attitude out of a sense of duty to Christ’s command, or are you allowing the source of love (God) to flow through you so you can be love to others?
Scotty