Love for one another is the most beautiful thing anyone could wish for a person.
It should be noted that we are not given detailed instructions for a relationship like this. Yet we can fully rely upon Christ’s personal presence within this mutual decision. Through the Holy Spirit, He Himself begins teaching us this heavenly science while taking into account our mentality, education, needs, and thirst.
When I enter my friend’s world and open my heart to him, we begin knowing one another from within and discovering an entirely different world and a different kind of relationship. God created us for love. When we return to God’s original plan and learn through personal experience what lies within our friend’s soul, we experience something special—something the world cannot give or reveal. Our mutual love binds us with the strongest bonds of agape and friendship, bonds that cannot simply be severed without pain.
The more I allow my friend to love me and give him the same love, the stronger our love and friendship become. Love for one another is not a superficial celebration lasting a couple of days, but a conscious and complete immersion into the world of one’s neighbor and an emotional attachment to his heart.
At this level of relationship, a sense of danger arises, along with the question of whether I love my friend more than Jesus. Has this person who is dear to my heart become closer to me than my dear Savior? Or perhaps I have taken Christ’s place within my friend’s heart? These are extremely serious questions that deserve attention.
This creates a dilemma. We begin obeying Christ’s commandment to love one another because we love Jesus and desire to obey Him in everything. Yet as we come to know and love one another, we become so dear and close and open ourselves so deeply that we begin to fear whether God will punish us out of jealousy, because within our friendship and mutual love we no longer give the Lord as much time and attention as we did before.
But if my friend and I decide not to draw as close as our hearts desire, but instead maintain distance within the relationship so that we may give God His proper time and place, will our love for one another turn into a strange performance? It is difficult to give a direct answer to all these questions, because there are no clear instructions concerning them.
I would like to share an example from life that may shed some light upon what is taking place.
When my adult children live in my home and are already able to choose their own path, I continue caring for them, feeding them, taking an interest in their personal lives, and making sure that they keep me informed about their plans, movements, and acquaintances. I have the right to require them to come home and go to bed at a particular time. They can always approach me, and I can enter their personal space without a special invitation.
But then something happens that I notice immediately. My daughter introduces me to her new friend and, after some time, asks for my blessing upon their decision to establish a family. What should I do? I understand that she will never again spend cozy evenings with me by the fireplace. I will never again be able simply to walk into her room and talk about life. Moreover, she has almost no time left to devote to me. But as a wise father, I understand that I prepared her throughout her life for this very moment. Now I release her to sail independently upon the ship of her life companion. Although I never cease to be her father, our relationship is no longer the same.
I believe that our spiritual growth includes particular stages and transitions that God knows perfectly and toward which He leads us as we mature.
Eternity will be filled with all kinds of living beings who will lay claim to my time, heart, and mutual affection while giving themselves completely in return. What is God to do with children like these, who will think about one another’s happiness from morning until evening and devote all their eternal time to it?
And what if another friend appears in my life and we decide to love one another? What if I gain more and more friends, we truly love one another, and our relationships become so close that everyone recognizes us as Christ’s disciples? What should we do with this?
I cannot say that God is absent from our love for one another. He is present, but our relationship with Him has entered into our relationship with our friend. Although I continue setting aside time for personal prayer and spiritual reading, I notice that I spend more and more time with my friends and that they invest more and more of their time in me. How could it be otherwise? We love one another, and this love draws us toward those whom we love and who return our love.
It would be foolish to spend an entire lifetime asking God for a loving friend, dreaming of such a relationship, and studying this science, only to hide from friends after receiving the answer to these expectations and prayers because they have become so close and dear to me that such happiness frightens me. What if it is some kind of trap?
The Lord knows our dilemma and desires to comfort us regarding it. If I honestly share my concerns with Him and ask Him to destroy everything that emotionally binds me to my friend if it is extremely dangerous for me, yet the attachment does not disappear but instead becomes stronger and more joyful, should I sever this bond myself?
What should I tell my daughter if, after several months of life with her husband, she comes to me repenting that she gives her life companion all her best time and loves him so deeply that within this love she cannot spend as much time with me as before? Would I truly advise her to end the relationship? Or would I tell her that she was raised throughout her life for this very season?
The Lord knows perfectly what I will encounter within my love and friendship with my friend. Yet He is the One Who commands me to love him. This means that within such a relationship I can rely upon His special presence in a way I have not experienced before. When I see the abundance of fruit the Holy Spirit produces within our friendship, I sense that I do not understand everything, but I become peaceful and continue forward.
Love for one another is a great mystery for the last days. The Lord desires to reveal it to those who enter this path and act according to His design—a design that awaited the participation of my friend and me.
Can I turn my friend into an idol and place him in Christ’s position within our love for one another? My carnal heart desires precisely this, and the enemy of the soul will certainly incline either me or my friend toward such a turn of events. But God’s Spirit will respond immediately to the situation and trouble the heart of the person whom someone is attempting to seat upon God’s throne. A crisis in the relationship may occur, but the relationship will not be destroyed. A loving friend will gently make it clear that he is not Jesus and should not be burdened with everything or expected to provide something extraordinary. He is simply a human being and an ordinary friend who can love at all times and consider the heart of a matter, but cannot perform miracles or change destinies.
The Lord guards from evil the hearts of those who have decided to love one another and ask His blessing upon their love.
Bible Verses for Reflection
1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Samuel 20:41–42; 2 Samuel 1:26; 1 Peter 1:22; Philippians 4:6–9; John 13:34–35; 1 John 3:11, 23–24; 4:7–8, 12, 21; Acts 10:25–26; 14:9–18; Revelation 19:10; Song of Solomon 7:10–11.