If this is our eleventh commandment, then it is probably the hardest to keep. Honestly, I am not loveable sometimes and I would not blame someone for not loving me.
Jesus said to his disciples, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
It is easier to lay one’s life down in small ways. Last week, I tried to give blood but my iron level was a small amount too low. I have given about 5 gallons in the past , but next time I will eat more liver and take iron tablets. This is a small thing and very impersonal. In the future when, I can give, I just pray that it goes to someone in need. This is easy and love without interpersonal relations.
It is much harder to love in larger ways. What about people who we do know? Recently, one of my grandsons was placed in a court ordered drug rehab. It will not work because it is something that I do not think he wants. The court made him enter the program. The reason why love for people we know is so hard is that we make judgements. I made a judgement when I said the rehab would not work. I hope and pray that I am wrong.
Jesus did not judge the woman caught in adultery. He just forgave and said to go and sin no more. Jesus told Peter to forgive 70 times 7. Still to forgive is a far stretch from love. If we are to love as a commandment we have to love as Jesus loves and to do it without judging.
I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”
If we are to bear fruit and be friends of Jesus, we need to remove judgement and love not to receive love in return but love because it is the right thing to do. This is what Jesus did. The fruit of love we produce will not spoil. We are chosen to bear this kind of fruit because we are friends.
If we are to be true disciples and friends of Jesus, we must bear the fruit of love without judgement. One thing that might be easier to complete our mission is that we were chosen to do this. We know what Jesus wants. Because we were chosen, we will be given the grace to love as Jesus loves.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
PS: Please pray for all Cancer victims and their caregivers. Pray for peace in the Ukraine. Pray for love to embrace the community in Buffalo, New York.
