Love one another

Yesterday I read Joshua 15:20-16:7 and John 15. My favorite verses are:

Joshua 16:4 So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.

John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

God’s expectations are higher than man’s. Joseph suffered a great deal of pain and injustice from his own brothers and from the strangers that his brothers sold him to. But he said later that it was not his brothers’ fault because it was God’s plan. Joseph had to be in Egypt at the right time and place to prepare the Middle East for a great famine. In spite of very difficult circumstances, Joseph remained faithful to God. When the children of Israel received their inheritance in the Promised Land, Joseph’s descendants received twice as much as any of his brothers’ descendants. God rewarded Joseph’s faithfulness a generation later. We may not always see the results of our labor for the Lord, but God is in control and He will take care of it. We are to obey and serve, and that obedience is not trivial. Jesus said that we are to love one another as He loved. That is the highest possible standard because He loved us so much that He died for us! Are we willing to suffer and even die for the cause of Christ? God expects that much.