“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down
his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer
do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but
I have called you friends, for all
things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you,
and appointed you that you would go and bear
fruit, and that your
fruit would remain, so that whatever
you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command
you, that you love one another.”
John
15:13-17
According
to these verses, we are HIS friends…under one condition, “if you do what I command you”. Followers of Christ should desire
nothing more in their lives than to obey His commands and be obedient to His
voice. However, I feel that this is less and less the case among Christians
today. We have become so wrapped up in ourselves and what we need to “do” to
look like a Christian, that we have forgotten about the real heart of our
Salvation: God’s Love. 1 John 4:7-21 sums it up well. Here’s a snapshot of what
John urges of his brothers and sisters:
“10 In
this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved,
if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No
one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His
love is perfected in us. 13 By this
we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit.”
1
John 4:10-13
John
MacArthur, a respected author and commentator, said this about verse 12,
“Nobody can see God’s love since it is invisible and Jesus is no longer in the
world to manifest the love of God. The
church is the only remaining demonstration of God’s love in this age”
(emphasis mine). How are we doing, church, at demonstrating God’s love to those
around us? Does our love reflect that which Christ demonstrated for us:
selflessness, humility, compassion, and grace? The most common form of love
discussed in the Bible is agape love.
(Side Note: the term eros, the Greek
word for romantic or sexual love, never once appears in the New Testament)
MacArthur gets to the heart of the Greek word agape to define it as this: “Love is, above all, sacrificial. It is
sacrifice of self for the sake of others, even for others who may care nothing at all for us and who may even hate us. It is
not a feeling but a determined act of will, which always results in acts of
self-giving.” (emphasis mine). So basically, love, as Jesus demonstrated and
taught for His followers, is something we must be determined to do, whether we
like it or not. This very same love is what we are commanded to do all
throughout the New Testament by Jesus and his disciples.
I
wonder if you caught this in the John passage…
“14
You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.
17 These
things I command you, that you love one another.”
Christ
first loved and demonstrated His love towards us. We did not love Him before He
loved us. In fact, we HATED Him. We cared NOTHING for Him. We ran from Him the
opposite direction. Yet, Christ’s love was this “determined act of will” that
defines agape love. He did not give
up on us, and that is a beautiful example of the way we need to be towards others,
especially those who are in Christ.
“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do
good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
Galatians
6:10
Another
thing I find from this passage in John 15 is that Jesus tells us, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…”
(v. 16). He chose you. For something specific that only you can accomplish. He
sought us out so that we could bear fruit for His Name. Not so that we could be
“blessed” on earth. No, so that we could do good work for Him! For a better
understanding of bearing fruit in all parts of our lives, check out this
excellent message by Lecrae.
Our
view of the Christian walk has been completely warped. We spend too much time
talking about what is right and wrong. We get hung up on politics, education
systems, and other people’s public sin, as if it is a surprise to us that there
is sin in this world. The reality is, this is a fallen world, and Satan is the
prince of this world until Christ comes back. But praise be to God that He has,
through the sacrifice of His Son, purchased this world, placed us here to bring
glory to His name, and provided His Spirit to guide and direct us. We have
nothing to fear if we are in Christ.
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,
God abides in him, and he in God…By this, love is perfected with us, so that we
may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in
this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because
fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”
1
John 4:15, 17-18
Fear
is when we know there will be punishment. As God’s chosen, we do not have to
fear, because He has called us as His friends, he has reached out to save us
from this punishment. Therefore, we have the opportunity to suffer with Him, “that I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His
death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead”
(Philippians 3: 10-11). We can count it as a privilege to follow Christ’s
example. And one of these ways is through love.
Let’s
remind ourselves once again the love which God has demonstrated for us. Let’s
stop falling prey to the eloquent words of empty truths. Let’s stop letting our
feelings drive what we do and say, but make every effort to act with a
determined will, especially to those who hate us. Let’s start holding the
messages we hear, and the words we worship God with, against His Word of Truth.
Let’s start asking for wisdom, knowledge and understanding like Daniel when he
was faced with certain death (Daniel 2:21).
Let’s
actually open up our Bibles and start reading the account and example of
Christ. Let’s glean from the apostles of old who have given us more than enough
advice on godly living. Let’s stop being lazy in our faith and start bearing
fruit for His Name--because we know He deserves it. And let’s stop acting like
we are someone worthy of God’s Love and forgiveness, because we are not; yet He
has chosen to show it to us, so let’s worship Him for the perfection of His
love that He has given to us. Let’s remember that we are the church, “the only
remaining demonstration of God’s love in this age”, and let’s start ACTING like
it, not just talking about it.
Jenna’s
Journal.
