My life unfolded in such a way that until I was twenty-four, I did not know God and had no knowledge of eternal life. Soviet schools had shaped within me the thinking of an atheist. I understood only that one day my life would end and afterward there would be nothing. It was difficult for me to comprehend that I would no longer exist while this world continued developing according to its laws and I would know nothing about it. Somehow, life lost its meaning, because I had been born only to die.
But light entered my life. I came to know the truth, and it made me free. In a prayer of repentance, I gave all my sins to God and entrusted my life into the hands of Jesus. From that moment, a new reckoning of time began for me. All my habits began to change, and my thoughts turned toward heavenly truths. Eternal life became my new reality, and knowing Christ became my new occupation.
I did not yet belong to any church, but I knew clearly that I belonged to God. Salvation was mine, and the Holy Spirit showed me how to continue living with my new faith and how to develop it. My independent study at home became the pattern of my new life. It always maintained my spiritual condition and nourished me with heavenly manna. I thought that eternal life would begin at Christ’s Second Coming and that the present was merely preparation for that event. But the Bible revealed to me that by believing in Jesus, I already possess this life. How wonderful it is to understand that you are already an eternal citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom.
After finding God’s church with true teaching, I decided to join this movement and become a member of the body of Christ. I was joyfully welcomed into the Christian family, and I gained brothers and sisters. I read in the Bible that we are commanded to love one another and decided that my kind attitude toward fellow believers was the love the Lord desired to see within me. As long as there were no trials, my love adapted very successfully to any community and any people. But when conflicts or disputed opinions arose, I understood that not all my fellow believers were saints and that I myself had not yet reached the heights of righteous living I dreamed of conquering.
All my Christian experience led me, after sixteen years of life with Christ, to understand a very important truth: I did not possess agape love. Without it, I was nothing, and all my knowledge brought me no benefit. But I knew that God is Love, and this moved me to ask desperately for this love for myself. The Lord answered and gave me to understand that my prayer had been heard. Something happened to my worldview, and I began seeing the world, my family, and my fellow believers through the eyes of a loving person. It was fascinating to understand that I loved. I could not have imagined a better position in life. Every day, the Lord revealed new facets and laws of His love to me, which I tried to put into practice and share with others. At that time, I did not yet know what to do with all my revelations and wrote nothing down for other people. I thought that because I loved people, I knew how to love according to the commandment, and I boldly shared my discoveries in this area. Yet all my experience came down to this: I would find another friend, reach an agreement with him to love one another, and our relationship would remain at the level it had reached without developing further. Lacking experience in developing relationships like these, I considered this to be love for one another. I will not say that there was no love between us, and I love everyone whom the Lord gives me. But everything is understood through comparison.
Then the Lord gave me another friend. As I had done with all the others, I offered him friendship and later love for one another. But this friend was not like my other friends. He took an active role in developing our relationship without violating my freedom, while desiring that I respect his freedom of choice as well. Our relationship developed successfully and continues developing to this day. I have described earlier what began opening before me in my new friendship and love for this person, trying to convey the full depth of these experiences.
It is so fascinating to welcome into your life something great and inaccessible that you did not know before because you never even imagined it could be possible on our sinful Earth. The inner world of a friend, which also reveals you in the process, is that unexplored realm within God’s children that remains a blank spot in the lives of many believers.
The deep inner world of a friend’s soul is an inaccessible realm of endless research and discovery into which angels long to look, while we do not even suspect that it is possible. It is good to know that my neighbor is a boundless world and an unexplored planet of unusual blessings, but such knowledge provides little benefit if it is not personally connected with you. Yet when I touch my friend’s soul and immerse myself in his loving heart, I am amazed by how many of God’s blessings are concealed within this extraordinary knowledge of one another. Blessings like these come only through mutual love. Love is the little key to the treasury of a friend’s heart. It can open everything and show you something great and inaccessible within human relationships that you simply did not know before.
When I look at a papaya, listen to descriptions of how delicious and beneficial it is and what its flavor resembles, attend lectures about the beauty of its aroma, and watch how it should properly be eaten, I will never know or understand what it truly tastes like until I taste it myself. The same is true of love for one another: it is impossible to appreciate another person’s experience fully until you yourself taste the fruit of an eternal relationship by having a loving friend of your own.
I imagined how wonderful it would be for us in Eternity, where everyone would think about your happiness and you would think about others. There, everyone will be able to love his neighbor unconditionally, and no boundaries or temptations will remain within this pure love. But that will be there, later—perhaps for me as well, if I enter that place. Yet why wait for this ‘later’ when it surrounds you here and now? Why dream about a beautiful, distant future when we ourselves can create it today by making a mutual decision to love one another according to Christ’s commandment and asking Him to teach us to obey it?
We proclaim to the entire world that God’s law is holy and that the commandments must be kept. Yet at the same time, we remain ignorant about keeping the Lord’s commandment to love one another. Or, at best, we assume that we keep it because we are God’s children and one family. But even within an earthly family, love for one another does not exist unless both people have made a conscious decision or understand what love is. Everything will be conditional and relative.
Love for one another reveals to me the mystery of eternal life within an endlessly beautiful relationship with my neighbor. Even now, I taste God within our mutual love and understand that without Him we can do nothing, that He is present within our friendship, and that He reveals Himself to us through our experiences of close fellowship. In creating us, the Lord intended to present to the entire world a miniature likeness of Himself and His image, so that through our visible relationships He might partially reveal to the whole universe the mystery of divine relationships. We reveal this to the world through our mutual love for one another.
Bible Verses for Reflection
John 13:34–35; 14:15; 15:10–17; 1 John 1:5–6; 5:1–3, 12–13; Deuteronomy 8:5–11; 1 Corinthians 2:9; 13:1–3; Jeremiah 33:3; Proverbs 17:17; 1 Peter 1:22; Revelation 22:14; Psalm 8:3–5.