Formed In Love - Dad as Disciple-Maker: Forming Faith, Hope, and Love at Home

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:34-35, NLT)

When I was a kid, I loved putting together model cars. As I got older, I started assembling more difficult models. I was always amazed at the amount of detail that would go into these tiny replicas of something much bigger and greater.

When the car came out of the box in pieces, you couldn’t tell what kind of model it was. But when all the pieces came together it amazingly reflected the original car.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes about what Christ came to do – to redeem and restore us. Lewis says:

“Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”

What Lewis is saying is that we are meant to model Jesus, just like a small plastic model car reflects the real thing.

In our passage in John, Jesus does something significant – He transforms the call to love by making it less general and more personal. Jesus says that we do not just “love our neighbor” (although he does say that elsewhere in Scripture). He says, “Love one another.” The Jewish people of that day, much like us, were very good at taking things from Scripture and bending them to avoid personal responsibility. “Neighbor” is broad and could mean a lot of things. “One another” is dramatically personal. It means loving the people around you – those you look at every day.

Here is where it goes from general to personal. He says, “love them as I have loved you.” He’s calling us to love each other by modeling His love for us. What kind of love does he have toward us? Paul tells us in Romans 5:8, “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” God loves us with a love we could never earn and don’t deserve.

Then Jesus says, “This is how they will know that you belong to me, that you are my disciples.” Your heart will be so transformed that you’ll love in a way that goes beyond your natural ability. You’ll love your friends and your enemies. The love you show may be a small model – a plastic version – compared to the vast, expansive love of God in Christ. But when people see it they’ll say, “huh, that really does look like the real thing.”

Dad, father, brother, son – you are called to love because you have first been loved. Jesus commands us to love, but He’ll give us what we need to do it. He fills us with his love in such a way that it becomes a reflex – not a requirement.

Why is love the greatest?

Faith for today and hope for tomorrow with be unnecessary in the blazing love of God. What remains is love. That’s why Paul says love is greater than hope and faith. Before we needed hope or lived by faith, God already existed perfectly – the Father bestowing love, the Son receiving it, and the Spirit giving testimony to that love. This is how we were created – in love. This is why were created – to enjoy God by loving him. This is where we are headed – to experience the fullness of that love in the new creation, forever together with Him.

Prayer:

Lord, God of all love, help me to love. Help me to love others as you have loved me. Help me to love my family. Help me to rest in your love knowing that I belong to you and I am free to love others, all because I have been loved by you before the world even began. Thank you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Dad Challenge: Make Love Visible

This week, do one unexpected act of love for each person in your household. Not because they’ve earned it or deserve it. But because that’s how Christ has loved you.

• Write your wife a note that names something you appreciate about her.
• Do one of your kid’s chores without announcing it.
• Say “I’m sorry” first—even if you were only 10% wrong.

Then take a moment after dinner or during bedtime and share why you did what you did:

“Jesus loves us when we don’t deserve it. I want you to know that kind of love—so I’m learning to show it.”

Allow your kids to not only hear about God’s love but to see love in action. Be a small model so they can say, “That looks like the real thing.”