East6B24.   Acts of the Apostles 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48.   It was thought among the Jews that only Jews, that is, “circumcised believers,” were acceptable to God.  Peter rejects that belief saying, “Rather, in every nation whoever fears him (God) and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” “While Peter was still speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.”  The Holy Spirit was thereby asserting his affirmation of what Peter had said.

John 15:9-17.  Jesus said in John 13:34: “I give you a new commandment: love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”  By this, Jesus is changing the Old Testament commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  (Leviticus 19:18b).  The word neighbor among the Hebrews was understood to mean only “your fellow countrymen” and not everyone; and the measure of love was only as a human being loves oneself.  Jesus’ expands the commandment to mean that we ought to love everyone as God loves everyone that he has created.  “God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:26a) “In the divine image he created him.” (Genesis 1:27b)  Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. We are his friends if we accept his love for us by accepting his will for us. In calling us his friends, Jesus is accepting us as beings created by his Father who share something of God’s divinity as long as we choose to live in his image and likeness.

1 John 4:7-10.  “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.”  We are unable to love God without our first and foremost receiving the love of God into our hearts.  By his love for us on the cross Jesus has satisfied the Father for our sinfulness and poured his love into our hearts so that we have love to give one another.