Do we love one another?

[Jesus:] A new command I give you: Love one another. As I
have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men
will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
--John 13:34-35 (NIV)

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Quotation:
Christians love one another. They never fail to help
widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If a
man has something, he gives freely to the man who has nothing.
If they see a stranger, Christians take him home and are happy,
as though he were a real brother. They don't consider
themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead
through the Spirit, in God. ... And if they hear that one of
them is in jail, or persecuted for professing the name of their
redeemer, they all give him what he needs--if it is possible,
they bail him out.
If one of them is poor and there isn't enough food to go
around, they fast several days to give him the food he needs...
This is really a new kind of person. There is something divine
in them.
... Marcianus Aristides (2nd century), a lawyer, before
HadrianThe Apology of Aristides on Behalf of the
Christians, ed. J. Rendel Harris, Joseph Armitage
Robinson, Cambridge: The University Press, 1891, p.
49-50

Thank you, brother Frank... This is a challenging word.

1 John 4:~

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

19 We love him, because he first loved us.

20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

Hi Lysa

I think the fact that they would fast, just so that they could give the food that they saved to another who had none, is something supernatural. Christians in the west can be very generous but I cant help wondering if we are not like the rich man that Jesus observed putting lots of money in the offering, giving out of the abundance of what he had, as opposed to the widow and her mite? When I read "The Heavenly man," by brother Yun, there were stories of people giving all that they had when all that they had was little or nothing. It warmed my heart to think of such love. I would imagine that the vast majority of us in the west do not come into contact with other brothers and sisters in Christ who literally have nothing, and that we would have so little ourselves that we would have to give up food for several days just to give to another who had nothing.........Frank