Embodied Love
On the evening a week after the Living Christ appeared to the disciples, he came to them again. Thomas, who is called the Twin, was with them; he had not seen him the last time.1
After they talked, Thomas, who is called The Twin said, “The Name of our God is in you, and in your peace we should truly live, but how can others believe what their eyes have not seen and their hands not touched?”
The Living Christ spoke the seventh word:
By your love for one another, people will know that you are my disciples. Three laws fulfill the Law of Liberty, the Law of the Spirit.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love him with all your soul and love him with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest law.
The second law of God is like it. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” All that is written in the books of the law and the books of the prophets is about these two laws.2
The third law, I gave you. That law is, “Love each other.” As I have loved you, so you also love each other. This is how all people will know that you are my disciples.3
This is love that shows up and does the good for others, whether it wants to or not. Love is choosing the good of another, and then backing that choice with your life.
This is the way of God, because God is love.4 As God said to the prophet Hosea, “For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”5
“How shall I come before Adonai, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Adonai be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Adonai require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”6
This love is not a show for the crowds, so you will be acclaimed for your charity. It is not done to be seen, to secure virtue, or to reassure the soul or the community.
This love is not deferred. Do not hide behind the goodness of your intent. A hollow promise is a cloud without rain. If actions are postponed, love is not enacted. Love does not wait for a better time. It lives where you are.
Love feeds, shelters, accompanies, protects, and restores. It is found in acting rather than speaking endlessly about what it might or could do. It understands and accepts what it can do right now and shares to the best of its ability. It gives what it can, living with its community.
Love is real. It can be touched, felt, and known. Your love for others shows that you are my disciples. That love is God, who invites everyone to the Holy Mountain for the banquet of life, a life more abundant.
Let love fill your heart, soul, and mind. Its presence heals and restores. When you love God, your neighbor, and one another, the presence of God overflows among you. It heals the divide between what you want to do and what you do. This heals the world as love takes care of, shelters, and restores all things into healthy relationship.
In this way, you reveal me to the world so others will believe and join the way. When they see God acting in the world, they will be healed.
John 20:24–29
Matthew 22:37-40
John 13:34-35
1 John 4:8, 16
Hosea 6:6
Micah 6:6-8