Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

Daily Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

3 June 2025

Reading From John 13:21-28

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”—John 13:34-35

It is to be from Jesus that His followers model their expressions of love. Our love proves that we are truly born again and we must be careful how we love. This is why it is so vital to the health and balance of our faith that we get to know Jesus.

We get to know Him by spending time reading, pondering, studying, applying, and meditating upon His Word the Bible. The Scriptures give us the pure record of the life of Jesus, which He lived perfectly for us as our example of what it means to live a godly life. Look at how Jesus lived and loved and go and do likewise.

Jesus reached out in love to people who were not like Him. We see this modeled in His interactions with the Samaritan woman at the well and His parable of the Good Samaritan. He spoke the truth in love.

The Lord also had real compassion for those who initially disagreed with Him. His gentle teaching of Nicodemus recorded in John 3 gives us one of the most famous verses of the Bible, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. That whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus was not afraid to spend time with people who had the worst moral and ethical reputations in society. He was continually dining with tax collectors and sinners. This does not mean He joined in or condoned their immoral or unethical behavior. It means He loved them enough to be with them, listen to them, and minister to their needs. Many of these people became some of His most trusted disciples. He was in the world, not of it. Love was His lifestyle.

“Lord Jesus, the quality of my love for people needs some improvement. Please show me how to live and love like You do. May I walk through my daily life with real compassion, grace and mercy, for You have shown these virtues to me in abundant measure. I love You, Lord. Amen.”

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.—I John 4:7-12