As we see Paul’s treatment here of this subject, we should ask ourselves,
Is this true of my own heart? Have I experienced the love of God through Jesus Christ? Do I find myself with a new attitude toward people?Paul wrote this way in 2 Corinthians 5:1–21. He says that he looks at people completely differently than he used to. Do you? Do we? Do we no longer think of them according to the flesh—where they stand in the world, how much money they have, how impressive they are, what they look like—or do we see in them an object of the love of Jesus Christ? And do we have a natural, or at least a spiritual (capital S, Spiritual) love for them because of the Holy Spirit within us?Now, it is possible, you know, to not know the love of God, and that happens when we come to God not because of what he has done for us, but on our own merits. And of course, whenever we are coming before the Lord thinking about how great we are, and not confessing our sins and not relying on the blood of Christ, that will not produce love for other people. That will not cause us to love God or others. You know what causes the love of God? It is to stand before the cross and to see God’s great gift of love in his Son, and to realize that while we are so unworthy, while we have offended him, God sent—for the sake of love—his Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. And seeing that, having the spirit of that love within us, it simply is not possible for us to be unmoved and unchanged by love. And so Paul says that to be a Christian is not only to be taught about love, but to be taught to love one another.1
Richard D. Phillips
9 Pour ce qui est de l'amour fraternel, vous n'avez pas besoin qu'on vous en écrive; car vous avez vous-mêmes appris de Dieu à vous aimer les uns les autres,