Love One Another

In the next paragraph Paul gives several commands to the Thessalonians.  Today we will look at a very familiar one in verses 9-10:  “⁹ But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; ¹⁰ and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; “ If you are even only minutely aware of God’s word or the teachings of Jesus you know that Jesus’ followers are commanded to love one another.  It’s not easy to define this and I suppose I don’t have time to do it here though I’d welcome your comments if you have any but what I’d like to focus on here is the last phrase, “that you increase more and more”.  I wonder if some of us don’t think that “love one another” is sort of like breathing.  It’s just something that we all do but we can’t really do it “more and more”.  You don’t get “more breathing”; at least unless you have an illness that temporarily restricts your ability to breathe.  But the Christian life and certainly the command to love one another is not like breathing.  It is not a stagnant thing…something that everyone does equally.  We are commanded to increase that love for one another more and more.  Do you think about that?  What does that look like for you?  Do you love people more today than you did one year ago…five years ago?  The Holy Spirit produces the ability and desire to love one another in the life of the believer.  I hope that you do think about this and that you do allow God to increase your love for one another.