Love so Real
Devotion In Motion
Weekend Inspiration
John 13:31-35
So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
As Judas goes out, Jesus turns to His boys in the upper room and says, ‘This is the hour of glory. It’s all coming down. I’m going to be going, and where I’m going, you can’t come now. So in the meantime, I’m giving you a new commandment:
Love one another.’
A new commandment? Doesn’t it say back in the old testament book of Leviticus that we are to love God and that we are to love our neighbor? Isn’t that really the message of the Scriptures in their entirety? Hadn’t Jesus Himself said that upon these two commandments—to love God and to love people—hang all the Law and the Prophets? So What does He mean “a new commandment?
Look carefully at what Jesus is saying because it really is amazing. Yes, the Old Testament is filled with commandments and exhortations to love. But Jesus here makes everything new when He says, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ How did Jesus love them? How does Jesus love us? That’s what’s new. Paul tells us how He loves us when he writes,
‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it’ (see Ephesians 5:25).
The newness, the unfolding, the fullness of this new commandment is that you are to love in a way that costs you your life—not just loving each other in general, but loving sacrificially to the place of death.
You see, Biblically there can never be true reconciliation apart from someone or something dying. In the Old Testament, reconciliation was impossible without the sacrifice of an animal. In the New Testament, we see Old Testament typology become reality with the death of the innocent Lamb of God on the cross,
Jesus Christ.
Look, there will never be true reconciliation between you and the person who’s mad at you or estranged from you until you die, until you say, ‘I’m not going to grind my ax any longer. I’m not going to press my point any further. I’m not going to prove I’m right anymore. I’m just going to die.’
The question is, will you?
‘But I’m innocent,’ you say.
So was Jesus.
‘But I’m right.’
Wasn’t He?
A new commandment He gave us: to die—die to our pride, die our complaints and complaining, die to our position, our proof.
‘What if I die?’ you ask. ‘Does laying down my life and giving up my rights going to guarantee reconciliation with that person?’
Let me answer that with a question!
Was everyone reconciled to Jesus? No.
Not everyone is born again. Not everyone says, ‘Thank You, Lord, for laying down Your life for me.’ You see When you love like Jesus, some will respond and there will be reconciliation.
Others, however, will continue to spit at you and curse and mock you, even as they did to Jesus as He was in the very act of dying for their sins. But if we are to love as Jesus loved, like Him, we’ll pray, ‘Father, forgive them. They just don’t know what they’re doing.’
Jesus said ‘By this kind of love shall all men know you are My disciples,’ ‘when you love like I do—when you love to the point of death.’
In his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
“Would you give your blood to Mary?” the doctor asked. Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, “Sure, for my sister.” Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room–Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned. As the nurse inserted the needle into his arm, Johnny’s smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the tube.
With the ordeal almost over, his voice, slightly shaky, broke the silence. “Doctor, when do I die?’
Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he’d agreed to donate his blood. He thought giving his blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he’d made his great decision. Johnny, fortunately, didn’t have to die to save his sister. Each of us, however, has a condition more serious than Mary’s, and it required Jesus to give not just His blood but His life.
“A Love that Costs nothing-is worth nothing”
Amen
Victor Tafoya
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