My
command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he
lay down his life for his friends.
Insights: Think for a moment about
the context of these two verses. In
these verses Jesus has just stated that a friend lays down his life for his
friends. It is through this sacrificial offering
that true love is proven. During the preceding
eleven verses Jesus has been telling about the Vine and branches. Now think for a moment about the agricultural
truth of planting, growing, and harvesting.
The seed that is planted “dies” in the ground and from its death new
life is born. In other words, the Vine
has life after a seed dies. Now think
about who is the true Vine and think about what night it is in His life. Jesus has just celebrated the Passover meal
with His disciples. He is now teaching
them the last truths He wants them to know.
In chapter seventeen He will pray the High Priestly Prayer over His
disciples and us. They will then go to
the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus will be betrayed by Judas. He will go through false trials and finally
taken to Pilate and Herod. After His scourging
and beatings, He will be taken to Golgotha where He will be hung on a cross and
die for the sins of the world. In other
words, Jesus is in the process of proving the very illustration of the Vine to
His disciples in real life. He is going
to prove He is the true friend to us all.
And just as Jesus lived this command perfectly, it is also Him who
empowers us to love others as well.
Think again to the first eleven verses of this fifteenth chapter. Over and over again Jesus tells the branches
to abide or remain in the Vine. The reason
for this abiding is because in the abiding one is connected to the Vine. The life blood of nutrients flows from the
Vine to the branches. If we have
witnessed Jesus’ perfection in love and we are connected to Him by His saving
grace, then we are able to live a life of love because He enables us to do
so. What we must do is continually
submit ourselves to Him and ask Him to let His love flow out of us toward
others. As He gives us His love we are
then able to love others in this same sacrificial manner in which He loved
us. Beloved, love one another!
Questions:
- Are you abiding in Jesus so that He can work in your
life so that you can love?
- Are you proving that abiding relationship by loving sacrificially?
Prayer: Lord, thank You that You never abandon me. You are always there guiding my life and
strengthening me. In Your work I am able
to love. Increase my love Lord so that
You are glorified. Amen.
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