Knowing God and knowing His will bring me into a close relationship with the Savior, and within this relationship I open myself to Him just as I am. It is very easy for me to be in the presence of the One from Whom I have no secrets, to Whom I can tell everything, and Who respects my choice and does not break me. God is the Being dearest and closest to my soul, and He Himself created me for Him. When my life merges with His life, it is such a natural condition of the soul and feels so good that I never want to leave it.
But I am not alone in this world. People surround me. Some are very close to me, while others are close both to me and to God. None of them are like me. They are different or even completely opposite, yet they are interesting.
The Lord commanded me to love these people. But why do I need this? I have Jesus, and I feel so good with Him. People bring only problems, and the more people there are, the more problems there are. And starting a family means allowing a lifelong problem into your life! No, it is better for me to remain alone. I will marry Christ and have a relationship only with Him.
But this decision encounters some inconvenient Bible verses that say that if I love God, I must also love my neighbor. I do not know how to love my neighbor, and when I begin trying, I fail.
When I speak about God, everything in the conversation centers upon God, and I feel at peace. But when I begin speaking or listening to others speak about love for one another, I enter a world of all kinds of laws and interconnections, examples and rules, theories and conjectures. Often, throughout all of this, the Holy Name is not heard at all—only various human conclusions about love and its influence.
It is written: ‘God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’ 1 John 4:16. I agree that God is love. But can I say that love is God? No such definition appears in the Bible. Yet it is precisely within my love that He reveals Himself and bears much fruit.
I know Christ’s declaration that if I abide in Him as the Vine, I will bear much fruit. In my fellowship with Him, I love Him, rejoice, have peace, and exercise longsuffering as I wait for answers to prayer. I am kind to Jesus and want to embrace Him. I show Him mercy and have faith in Him. In fellowship with Him, I am meek and abstain from every evil. It feels so good to bear much fruit in my relationship with Him! I could live this way forever.
But when difficult people enter my life, all my fruit seems to evaporate. I understand that I am poor and find it difficult to give them what I can give Jesus. Yet the commandment to love one another involves mutual love. Therefore, I wait for someone who will love me, and then I will certainly love that person in return, and we will bear much fruit. This is how we will love one another: we will speak to each other about Jesus, and through such fellowship we will draw closer to one another. Seeing my love for Jesus, my neighbor will love me as well, and I will respond in the same way. If someone does not love me, that person is not a friend, and there is no reason to spend time on him.
What a wonderful plan I have invented! Now I am ready to love a friend. Friend, where are you? Hello! I am ready to love you! Come, and we will enjoy being together—if you meet my criteria.
Unfortunately, this kind of relationship scenario occurs quite often. We may even hear the accusation that Christ is absent from our reflections about love and that, even on the Sabbath, we permit ourselves to speak about loving one another. We accept statements like these and answer everyone at once through this lesson.
If I bear much fruit in my personal fellowship with God but do not have this fruit in my interactions with my neighbors, how should I understand this phenomenon? From the illustration of the Vine, I conclude that fruit is produced not for the Vine, but for those who come to the Vine. Love is the foundational element in every other quality of the fruit.
When I ask God for love, He begins endowing me with it. Love forms my heart in God’s likeness, and it becomes easy for me to love those around me. Love is a verb, and it does not need to be proven. Everyone can see it.
By loving my neighbors, I learn what I did not know how to do before. I can practice this alone and fail to understand whether I am acting correctly. But when I fellowship with people who, like me, have decided to love their neighbors, we exchange experiences, share revelations, and warn one another about dangers. The world contains many counterfeits of love, and for many people the word is associated with something lustful and earthly. Therefore, in our fellowship we should separate the pure from the impure and continue forward.
Love is a Name of God, and He Himself writes it upon my consciousness and desires to see it in my life—not only in my relationship with Him, but also in my relationship with my neighbors.
When love fills me, it naturally and effortlessly spreads to everyone around me. Each person receives as much as he is able to receive. I do not say much to these people about God. I simply love them, and this relationship binds us with the invisible bonds of agape. If I have gone out to sow love, one day I will begin reaping what I have sown. There is nothing strange about this. This law works. But the seed does not germinate in every heart. If it is sown by the wayside or among thorns, there will be no good harvest.
And what do I see in my relationships with those I love? The fruit of the Holy Spirit. It does not even need to be proven. It simply ripens within our relationships and gladdens our hearts with its freshness and relevance.
For many, many years, I studied the law, truth, and doctrines and attended all kinds of seminars, meetings, and conferences. I grew in this knowledge and could recognize any error very quickly and present irrefutable evidence against it. Yet I never learned to love the people with whom I interacted. I understood that I resembled a learned Pharisee or legal expert more than a disciple of Christ. Without love, my entire religion was as dry as the Sahara Desert. Fortunately, I realized this and began asking for changes within my heart and for that very agape without which I am nothing. God heard and answered, and He began instructing me. I thought I would immediately become a professor of love, live within it, and amaze everyone. In reality, however, I saw how much garbage was stored within my soul and that love first needed to remove all of it before it could begin to grow. But the process had begun, and there was no turning back.
In these lessons, you are now tasting the blessings that I became able to share with you after many years. God required so much time to teach me. I am comprehending this science together with you, and God is present in every one of our lessons, because without Him we will understand nothing.
God greatly enjoys seeing much fruit within our relationships with one another, and we cannot hide it. This fruit exists, and it is indisputable evidence that the One Who is Love is with us. Yet we do not try to prove this to anyone or even stop to think about it. We simply love one another and thank God for it.
If someone has decided to leave us, that is his choice. We are learning to love one another—to love as the Lord desires—and we are succeeding. There is no form or majesty within us that would attract others to us. But we have God, Who abides in us, and we abide in Him.
If you are not yet with us, it is difficult for you to understand what is within us or where our God is in our fellowship. But we are closed to no one. Welcome.
Bible Verses for Reflection
2 Timothy 3:5; 1 John 4:11–12; Matthew 5:46–48; 19:10–11; 23:25; John 13:34–35; 15:1–5; Isaiah 53:2–3; 1 Peter 1:22; Proverbs 18:22; 21:9, 19; 25:24; 1 John 4:20–21; Luke 11:44–46; Ecclesiastes 2:14; Revelation 14:1.