Jesus now begins to talk about love. He began His love speech with a command. That’s right! He gave a command they were to love one another. While it seems simple enough, in just a few days, they would be on their own in a world that hated them and their leader. With feelings of being abandoned and feeling like they were sorely mistaken about the master they followed, each man would naturally lose trust in the others. Finger pointing would begin and ultimately the bunch would fall apart resentful and hating the rest.
Jesus knew that, so he told the guys to love each other, just as they had been loved. Jesus truly loved them. He taught them everything He received from the Father. He not only discipled them, He befriended them. They had been living as God’s BFF’s for the last three years.
So, Jesus told them plainly to love each other, just as they had been loved by the Father and by Him. Sadly, He was about to show them the extent of His love. He was headed to His death and that death came on their behalf. Jesus said it plainly, “Greater love has no one but that they would lay down their life for their friends.” So, when He told these men to love one another, the love required would be sacrificial.
Ironically, the entire initial group was martyred because of their faith. John was the only one that remained. His life was also demanded of Him, but when dropped into boiling oil, it did not affect him. God’s plan for John was not yet complete.
Through the years, these men would live their lives loving each in their world-wide mission for Jesus. Still, despite their selfless ministry, they were universally hated for their message. As they spread the Gospel, they would be beaten, stoned, hung, crucified, and executed in a number of ways. Jesus told these men that their mission was a collision course with the spiritual forces of darkness on the earth. As they hated Jesus and His message, they would hate anyone else carrying that message.
Still, despite the world’s hatred of them, the message of the Gospel did spread and all would know that they were loved by God. As Paul would later write in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” We are still called to deliver that message. We are also called and commanded to love one another. What we have to grasp is that such love requires a focus upon others and not on ourselves.
Jesus was commanding these disciples and commanding us to keep our focus on Him and on others. We must choose Christ over any and all earthly affections. That choice is not only difficult, but it causes unregenerate humanity to hate us and want to be rid of us. We are blessed to live in a country that allows the free worship of God. We know, as we scan the globe, that that freedom is not guaranteed. As Jesus reminded the Apostles, the world will not stop hating Him and it will not stop hating us. It is our responsibility to love each other, no matter the cost!
God Bless You
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12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another.
Disciples’ Relation to the World
18 “If the world hates you, [e]you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have [f]sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have [g]sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
Walking With God 