John 15:12-13 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.
I love suggestions! I can take suggestions every day of the week. Suggestions can be rejected, ignored, pushed aside. Commands, on the other hand, must be obeyed. Or they can be rejected, ignored or pushed aside, but there will be negative consequences for that rejection.
That is why suggestions, advice, and counsel are so popular. In our day and age when there is no objective truth, truth that is true regardless of time, place or people, suggestions, advice and counsel are all acceptable forms of speech.
But commands, that is a step too far. “You can’t tell me what to do!” So as a result, work ethic has gone out the window. Entitled people run around demanding their rights, pushing for equality of outcome without recognizing the inequality of efforts.
That is why the command of Jesus to His disciples is so controversial. Jesus demands that we love each other “as I have loved you.” So how did Jesus love them, and us by extension? What makes His love different from our normal concept of “love when it is convenient for me.”
The Jesus kind of love dies for those who don’t deserve it. It is willing, and actually does, take the bullet for us. He jumped in the way of the gunman as he fired. He jumped on top of the grenade thrown into the Forward Operating Base, using his body to absorb the impact in order to protect others from the deadly consequences.
The police are today facing an increasingly dangerous situation, one with deadly consequences. With the political elite pushing an agenda, bowing to the demands of the most radical anarchist, the police still have to do their jobs in the face of unsupportive mobs who are out to overthrow the status quo. Or even worse, to overthrow the government, and replace it with one in which their power is supreme.
Make no mistake, true love doesn’t burn down cities. True love gives up life in order to redeem others from the consequences of their sins. That is true love.
It is unfortunate that so many claim to love, but then when the opportunity comes, they step back from the full measure of devotion. They talk the talk, but then they yield to the pressure and not speak up. They value career more than their integrity. They are willing to take the full flames of retaliation and vindictiveness to speak the truth.
Jesus laid down His life for His friends. He loved!
Now it is up to us to lay down our lives for each other. This means our schedules have to allow space, margin, to make way for other’s needs. If we are too busy, then it is too easy to excuse our lack of love with “I’m just too busy” to help. So love means we must make space in our lives for love to burst through.
But in our day and age of teen athletics and activities rising out of parental guilt for being too busy, we create not love, but obligation. Love means we say “no” in order to create space for love between parents and children, and between children and parents. An atmosphere of rush, rush, rush, can never bring love.
Love would also make space for neighbors, co-workers, and the strangers. Love of Jesus’ type would be a radical shift for most of us.
And to be honest, I am not sure many are up to the task. Love is too great a sacrifice for modern believers.
And yet, this is exactly what Jesus is calling us to do. The impossible! We can’t love like this. But He calls us to do exactly this. Love in this impossible kind of way in our world.
The Arnold Journey 