First Sunday after Trinity AD 2026

Saint John, the beloved apostle of Jesus, is often called the Apostle of Love. In today’s Epistle, he speaks about love as well: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

This sounds like a command, doesn’t it? But can love be commanded? Does a command not seem contrary to the very nature of love, which must be given freely rather than offered out of obligation? Commands are often associated with punishment, and punishment produces fear. Yet the same apostle tells us that “he that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

We see here an excellent example of the Law and the Gospel. The Law—the commandment to love—reveals God’s will and acts as a mirror, showing us what we are really like. Do we truly love, and how deep is our love? Genuine love is willing to lay down its life for another, and Christ commands us to love not only those who do us good, but even our enemies. So, as always, God’s Law reveals how far we are from the perfection God expects of us.

However, in this same Epistle, the Gospel shines forth in all its beauty: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The Law awakens in us the fear of judgment, but the Gospel brings assurance: our sins are forgiven, our guilt is blotted out, and we are set free because God loves us. And the fact that, in His love, He calls us to love Him in return is not a burden that crushes us, but an invitation to a new beginning and a new life—one that God freely gives to all who come to Him in repentance and faith.