Daily Bread

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.’

Here, Jesus alludes to the ultimate expression of love.

If you want to show someone you love them, you express it in many ways. The 5 Love languages remind us that you can love them through your words, you can give them presents, you can spend time with them, you can serve them, and you can enjoy physical touch, however there is still more that you can give, and that is to give yourself.

Jesus told his disciples that, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends," and he then went on to tell them that they were his friends. The ultimate expression of love is self-sacrifice — to literally give your life for someone — and this is what Jesus did on the cross. He gave his life as a 'ransom for many' (Mark 10.45). Jesus died so that we might be made clean and holy, so that God could 'make home' in us.

Jesus also reminded his disciples that they did not choose him but that he chose them. This doesn't mean they had no choice to follow Jesus. What it means is that God's salvation plan for them and for all of us was and is God's initiative. God chose to come in the person of Jesus, and God chose to love us and give themselves as the ultimate expression of that love.

What God hopes for us is contained at the end of these verses. God hopes that we will, 'go and bear fruit that will last'. Notice that the emphasis is on us 'going'. Our mandate or mission under Christ is not to keep God's love for ourselves but to take it to the world. We are to model the God who came to us by going to others. We are to model the God who chose to love us by choosing to love others.

How wonderful it is to be a friend of God. Let us today, go out into the world in the confidence of God's love, and let the world know that God is God.

Holy God
Thank you that I am
not just a servant
but your beloved friend.
May I love others
as you have first loved me,
and may I obey your command
to take your love into the world
and bear fruit that will last forever.
In the name of the Holy Trinity of love.