11This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
I wanted to highlight this verse alone, because although it concludes the former section and sets up the next, it is a powerful aphorism as well.
Often we forget that we should love one another. This is especially true when we are part of a in-house debate like Arminianism and Calvinism. Often our Calvinist brothers condemn us, saying that we are heretics and Semi-Pelagian and other false accusations. Often we aren’t that much better.
Even though we disagree, and disagree strongly, we need to love each other. We need to disagree in love, desiring one another’s health, and recognizing that faith in the gospel and alleigance to Christ is more important than the subtleties of doctrine. The context of this verse is the mark of a Christian: that Christians love their brother. Also, that anyone who does not love their brother is not a Christian. .
Therefore, let us uphold Christ and love our brothers. Both our Arminian brothers, and our Calvinist brothers. And if we are not loved back, we love all the more, for that is the call of Christ.
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