John 15:9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than 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 slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the One who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. 25 This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’
observation
Remain in my love by obeying my commands
Jesus told us that the only way that we can prove our love for him is by being obedient to the commands that he gave us to follow, we can talk all day about how much we love something but until we put it into action there isn’t any proof. Look in the dictionary and you will see that love is a verb.
I loved you as the Father loved me, so love each other in the same way I have loved you
This is a selfless love, one that can give everything away including dying in order to benefit the one that is loved. This is totally opposite of the so called love that the world thinks that they have, the world has a selfish love, one that loves you if you adopt their way of thinking and behave the way that they think is right.
1 John 3:16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.
Jesus wants us to love big, to love radically like he did, our own agenda and welfare shouldn't have any bearing on my desire to love big.
You are no longer part of the world
Jesus said “The world would love you” but it can’t love you because you are not a part of the world, remember that you were bought by Christ and you are supposed to be noticeably different and the world won’t be able to tolerate the difference.
application
I must live each day in appreciation for the love that God had for me that he would make a way for me to have a relationship with him even though I was not his friend he still cared for me. I must follow his example and live selflessly, obeying his commands and helping others along the way.
prayer
Give me the BIG LOVE that you have Lord so that I can love selflessly as you have commanded.
