Jesus is the Standard
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34
Jesus expects the same unconditional devotion from us for our brothers and sisters as He showed for us. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Paul’s demand, to have the same attitude as Jesus, who loved His own until the very end (John 13:1), may seem impossible to us. Faced with such desperation and darkness, fully aware of the huge challenge facing Him and knowing His disciples would all either abandon or deny Him, He knelt down and washed their feet, blessing them all His heart. He assured them that His love for them would outlast everything, and this attitude, as Paul says in the scripture above, should also fill our hearts with love for each other. How is this possible?
Firstly, our calling as sons and daughters of God is to be transformed ever more into the image of His beloved Son: “For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). God wants to pave a pathway through our hearts to the lost, so that He can knock on the doors of their hearts. The cross was God’s path through Jesus’ heart to man, to whom He came to bring life and light. In the same way, He wants to pass through our hearts to lead others into life and light.
This devotional is taken from the book To See God by Marcel Rebiai. If you would like to order your own copy, please email us here, [email protected].
Marcel Rebiai is a board member of Revive Israel, and is inspiration for our community. Marcel was born in Algiers in 1953. He came to Switzerland as a war orphan and received faith in Jesus in his youth, which changed his life and made him a messenger of God’s love in Jesus. Since then, he has been faithfully working for the building of the community of Messiah. Marcel is the founder of the “Community of Reconciliation”, an organization that works for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs based on God’s forgiveness and love in Christ. Marcel teaches in various settings around the world about the love that God revealed to us in Jesus, a love that enables reconciliation. Marcel has been living in Jerusalem for the last 30 years, is married to Regula, and has four children and eleven grandchildren.
