January 19

John 15.9-17

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love.  ¹⁰ 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.  ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command.  ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last — and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Several years ago, John Piper wrote a book, “What Jesus Demands from the World”.  There are many short chapters that speak of ways in which we follow what Jesus taught.  But one of the things I took from it was that there are only a couple of places where Jesus uses command language.  It is usually invitational language.  Sunday we will see one of those times.  Here is the other.  Love others.

When we look at our life as people who follow Jesus, we see that it all stems from the love of God and the love of people.  Jesus gives us the example of how we love.  He lays down his life for us.  He says that the greatest way we love is to lay down our lives for our friends.  Not in the same extreme as Jesus for us.  But using our lives as a way to love others so that they can see the love of God.

As we prepare for our gathering of worship – our time of hearing God speak to us as we approach his throne of grace – we can begin looking at how we are each doing at loving others around us.  Who are the people around me that I have opportunity to love?  Whether they are inside our own congregation or beyond it.  Seeing love for others as an opportunity to share the love of God, being disciples of Jesus.

Song – Love Your Neighbour

Prayer

God of life, thank you for calling us to belong to something so much bigger than ourselves.  Thank you for your church in all times and places.  We pray that as we come to worship this Sunday coming that we may sense that the gospel of Christ is so much bigger than this congregation.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.