The test of love is obedience. Love leads a person to sacrifice a personal point of view and put oneself confidently into the will of the other not in fear or abject submission, nor to calculate a certain benefit, but simply to adapt oneself to the contour of the other. Jesus himself has done this, conforming himself as the Son of God to us by becoming a man, and as a human being, conforming himself to the will of the Father. He now commands that we do this with one another. Love brings forth joy.
Love can be joyful only when it is fully free.
A forced sacrifice or submission is no sacrifice or gift at all. This passage is a brief condensation of what is told in the whole of chapter ten read it all. This incident of Cornelius conversion marks a turning point in the attitude of the early Christian community. The best of Jewish Scriptural tradition, reflected in these psalm verses, recognized that God s love is universal, and that he chose a particular people in order to make possible his salvation for all peoples. Thus our motive for loving one another is not to hope to gain God s favor.