A Thought For The Week Of March 30

"Now I tell you to love each other, as I have loved you." (John 15:12) I find this to be one of the most meaningful verses in all of Scripture - challenging and comforting at the same time, which is surely the purpose of God's Word. This is a tall order, perhaps, but understandable if we read it in the context of Jesus' entire life. How did Jesus love his disciples? He gave himself for them - up to and including his life - an event we mark this Friday. Jesus, of course, doesn't expect us to go to the extreme of dying for our faith in him (although some tragically do) but he's clearly saying that anyone who truly wants to be his follower has to be willing to incur some sort of cost. What the cost will be is contextual. It depends on where you are and on what the surrounding culture is like, but there should be some sort of cost involved in being a disciple of Jesus. Jesus also said in verse 14 that "you are my friends if you obey me." That sounds rather legalistic, and not at all grace-filled. But, again in context, I don't believe that Jesus was speaking of obedience in a moralistic sense, to control people's behaviour. Rather, it's an ethical concept, an attempt to instill a certain attitude in his followers: a loving attitude; a desire to give for the sake of those around us. Jesus' command, after all, was to "love each other, as I have loved you." It's a call to self-giving love for the sake of the other. It's not moralistic. It's not "you must do this" or "you must not do that." It's simply a call to put the needs of others ahead of our own needs, and to be willing to pay a price to help meet the needs of others. That's tough to do, and it's not really in keeping with the way society functions - which is probably why Jesus also says in verse 18 that the world will hate his followers. The world will hate anything that offers a different vision or a different priority.