31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:31-35 ESV)
Now here’s a thought: when we act in love toward others, God is glorified. Two ways we can love others in a way that glorifies God that we can practice today:
First, we can love others by doing exactly what we read from Jesus in chapter 13 of John: serve people even if they should be serving us. Go and do something for somebody else even though it would be beneath you to do so. For some, this may mean literally washing somebody’s feet. For others, this may mean that we go out of our way to help a person who isn’t in the position to give us the attention and service we deserve.
Second, we can love others by challenging them to live in a better way – as Jesus’ disciple. It’s both our words and actions that show our love for people. This is a little harder than the first way to love because this actually requires you to be lovingly confrontational to people who you are journeying in life with. For example, this type of love is confronting a co-worker who is lying to his or customer or client trying to cover up a mistake he or she made. You love that co-worker by challenging him or her to do the right thing and confess of their sin against the client or customer and seek restitution and become a better version of themselves.
Ask God to identify people you can love in these two ways and then pour the love of God upon them.
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