Getting Closer to Jesus: Several times throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus has tied true discipleship and authentic love for him with our obedience to his commandments. That is a message our current brand of Christianity needs to hear—and frankly, it’s tough medicine. The truth is, you cannot claim love of Christ while doing whatever feels good to you. Real faith requires the surrender of your will to God’s. It is this simple: If you love Jesus, you will obey his commands.
By our definition of love, that doesn’t seem too loving. Love and obedience or love and commands usually aren’t terms we link together. But what we must realize about Jesus is that his commands are not oppressive. In fact, the Apostle John reminds us in I John 5:3, “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.”
On the contrary, Jesus’ commands are the gateway to our joy. And not just joy, but Jesus described the gladness that would well up within us as overflowing. Jesus’ equation for authentic faith was that obedience to him would equal organic, unstoppable, spilling-over joy in us.
But there was a particular kind of obedience that Jesus said would lead to this special kind of joy: Loving one another. And not just a brotherly love, but it was to be the same kind of love that Jesus demonstrated for his disciples. What kind of love was that?
It was proactive. Jesus actually searched out his disciples to be the object of his love. He didn’t wait to see if they were lovable or even if they would love him in response. His love went out of its way to find them, and then he poured out his love upon them—even on one of them he knew would end up betraying him.
It was unconditional. His disciples did nothing to deserve his love, and they certainly could do nothing to earn his love. In fact, they often did just the opposite. They fought with each other. They selfishly jockeyed for position with him. At times, they didn’t listen to him and often they didn’t understand what he taught them. They left him in his hour of trial. They even betrayed him. Yet he stubbornly loved them.
It was sacrificial. Jesus laid down his life for them. Yes, he ultimately died for their sins, but he also died to his own rights in order to serve them. He told them that even as the Lord of all creation, he didn’t come to be served, but to serve and give his life to redeem them. Nowhere do we see a more powerful and clear demonstration of sacrificial love than in Jesus giving up in order to give to his disciples.
It was inexhaustible. Nothing in their past, nothing they did while with him, and nothing they could ever do in their future (because, as the Omniscient Sovereign Lord of life, Jesus knew what was in their future) could or would diminish his love for the disciples. Since God is love, and since Jesus was God, we find in him that true love cannot be extinguished.
Jesus said that if we decided to act toward one another with that kind of love—and make no mistake, Jesus made it clear by his life that divine love was a choice, an act of the will—it would unleash from deep within us an inextinguishable flood of uncontainable joy. While our flesh, along with the Evil One, supported by the philosophies of this world, continually lies to us that joy comes from what is done for us, Jesus says it comes by what we do: proactively, unconditionally, sacrificially, and inexhaustibly loving others!
Who can you love like that today—and every day from here on out? Who can you seek out to love as Jesus has loved you? What would be a way to love them unconditionally, in a way they did not deserve and could never repay? How might you offer love that is costly to you, and not necessarily in terms of the money you spend? And as you love them, can you—or will you—do it with a commitment to sustain that love indefinitely?
Fair warning: Choose to love like that, and you are choosing to unleash the unstoppable joy of Jesus in your life. Good luck.
Take the Next Step : Who are you being led to love as Jesus has loved you? Specifically identify that person. Then, just love them as Jesus would!
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