As we seek to live our lives for Christ and according to God’s Word, we come across certain passages of Scripture that are really important for the way you ought to live. If you’re reading a through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan, you might be reading this first particular passage today. It’s found in John’s gospel. John 13:34-35 says, “³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We have an obligation to Christ to show the world that we are His disciples. We accomplish this by demonstrating love to one another and love to those whom the world would classify as our enemy. This is one of the things that Jesus was teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:43-45. We need to treat those who disagree with our beliefs and our lifestyle with love and respect no matter what they say to us or about us, because isn’t that the kind of love that God demonstrated for us? (Romans 5:8).

So, as we look again at Romans 12, my goal for our time this morning is to see the Apostle Paul’s practical instructions on how we are to fulfill our obligation as Christ’s followers to live and to love as He did in this world and for this world so that as we live each day and as they see the fruit of our lives, people will give glory to God in heaven as a result (Matthew 5:16).