Love

Jn. 13: 33-35

Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, 'Where I am going you cannot come.' A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Why did Jesus address His disciples as little children? Was it because their spiritual maturity was not up for what was to follow? For example, Peter. It certainly was a childish response when Peter declared that he could follow Jesus where Jesus had already said that the disciples could not come. Was it spiritual pride or a declaration of love? Regardless, Jesus told Peter that before the rooster would crow, he would have denied Jesus three times. I wonder how those words sunk in? Did Peter believe them at all? Sadly, he was soon to find out all to soon.

But I don't read of Peter responding to what Jesus was teaching them, the new commandment. Jesus wanted His disciples to love one another as He had loved them. In fact, this love was to be the their identifying mark clearly establishing that they were His disciples. Is this love a reality in my life? I know that in my culture Christians are most often identified as hypocrites. People who might speak love without actually loving. And in Peter's day the established religious system were also hypocrites who often bore the brunt of Jesus' words. At one point Jesus said, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So what would set someone apart from the scribes, Pharisees, and many of the Christians in America?

I think the answer would be love. If people were to love each other like Jesus loved us, it would have to be a self-sacrificial love. Jesus sacrificed His own life as well as His relationship with His Father to save sinners. He was the greatest example of love known to man, and I am an adopted child, a joint-heir with Jesus, and have indwelling Spirit within me. I have the logos, the living word of God at my disposal. All of this transforms me so that I might love as He did, but only through His grace. Anything less would not be loving as Jesus loved.

Spirit,
Teach me to love. I want to be known as a child who loves as Jesus did. Continue to grow Your fruit in my life so that this may become a reality.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen