I've been thinking more about what I heard on Sunday. A thought has been on my mind; this isn't a quote, but basically the idea was that to live in harmony with other believers, we share in their lives--not superficially but in a deeper, possibly sacrificial way. In reading other verses and looking on the web, I came across something John MacArthur said. This is copied from a transcript of his sermon on John 15:12-16:
"Jesus said in verse 12, 'Love one another, as I loved you.' Now, you can't love to the point of redeeming the whole world, but you can love with a sacrificial kind of love that gives. God isn't expecting you to love with a dimension of love equal to Christ's. He is expecting your love to have a sacrificial nature like Christ did. His disciples are not merely to be devoted and helpful to each other. They are to love like Jesus loved, who gave of Himself. Don't look at your brother in Christ as someone who's only an acquaintance; rather see him like Jesus would--primarily in terms of his soul's eternal needs. That requires the kind of love that is involved in comforting, instructing, and bearing one another's burdens. Sometimes, we substitute a superficial relationship for one that is deep. We need to intimately care about the needs of another."
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