John 15:9-17
"As the Father loves Me, so I also love you."
Wow! Is there anything else to say? As the Father loves Jesus, Jesus loves us. Does He have to continue and say, "Remain in my love." Who would leave?
But how do you do it? Amazingly, in His very next sentence Jesus tells us, "If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love." Just as Jesus followed and obeyed the Father even unto death, so we are called to imitate Him. We are to keep His commandments. Okay, one more question: What does Jesus really want from us?
"This is My commandment: love one another as I love you."
And how do we show this? "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." Not necessarily to die, but to be willing to serve at all costs. We give up what we desire in order to meet the needs of others. That is love.
We are Christians, and we are known by our love. Not by the stinting, closed, stingy thing many identify as love, but as the expansive, wonderful, open, inviting, enlivening, wonderful thing that Jesus knows as love. A love so great it reaches through the ages to touch us even now and to transform us into His own image.
Praise God for the goodness and greatness of this message!
Father Ed Bakker ,
Anglican Catholic Church / Original Province
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Launceston on Tasmania
Australia
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