“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:9-14)
In these words of Jesus, He reveals His inner thoughts. This was their last meal together before He was taken from them and crucified. Jesus, knowing what was waiting for Him, stresses the importance of Godly love towards each other. They knew that the Father loved Jesus. Yet here Christ tells them that He loves them in the same manner. He also gives them the command to remain in His love. How can we remain in the love of our Creator? We obey His commandments, in the same way as He obeys the Father. Here on the evening before He was crucified, He gives them the commandment to love one another, to lay down their lives for each other. Then He stresses if we do that, then we are His friends.
Thoughts to ponder on:
Am I laying down my life for God’s children? Maybe there are some that you don’t like. Maybe they have certain ways that are difficult to live or work with. God commands us to lay down our lives for one another. To become less important in our own eyes, and to react towards one another so as to build each other up. Let’s carefully review our lives and see if this love is within us. Let’s pray and ask God to instill His love within us for all of God’s children; those that follow Him, that His joy may be in us so that our joy may be complete.
