John 15:12-17
“This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all I have heard from my father I have made known to you.”
If you have grown up in the church, you can probably relate with feeling the small and quiet pressures of acting perfect as you grew up in the church. This problem usually comes through the form of a quiet voice to individuals in and outside the church. This voice is very deceptive, creating false assumptions and an altar-reality towards true Christian living ultimately destroying our faith through false securities. Most of these things we do are good but the position of our heart couldn’t be further from Him. This gives us a false security in doing good and serving because we are ultimately doing these things for the praise of our parents and church leaders and not for Christ alone. This false security, in my opinion, is very dangerous because it is so hard to identify and combat, as it progresses into our minds and hearts. Even though we are hearing sermons about the truth of Christ every week we are not learning about Christ through them.
These attributes of God are vital to the understanding of our Lord and Savior, but if we are completely honest, it is way too easy to let those lies from our childhood develop ignorant attitudes towards the Gospel. Instead we should be thanking God for his provision and giving us the grace to be able to show his love and power through our lives for his glory alone. Nothing more, nothing less. Because I grew up this way, I missed two major characteristics about Christ. These two Characteristics have been brought to my attention lately and I wanted to share them with you now because they have been so encouraging to hear and study these past few weeks. These two characteristics are the pure love of Christ and the undying friendship only Christ can bring.
First is love. We must explain a pure and true love because as fallen humans it is hard to grasp the concept of love without bringing preconceived ideas to the table. If you are not familiar with the love chapter I encourage you to read and study 1 Corinthians 13: 1-7 to get an understanding of what true love is. I quote,
“Love is patient and kind; love does not boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
If we are to have even a remote grasp of the love of Christ then we must put ourselves in a position to be taught. This in turn lets Christ change our thinking in order to understand this unconditional, pure, and ultimately, truthful love as it should be understood. This kind of love is the foundation of which the Christian faith rests upon. This is both sobering and such good news to me. It is sobering because I know that I do not love as I ought… and it breaks my heart that I try so desperately to love without the help of Christ. I have also rejected the pure love of Christ because of an ignorant, unfocused zeal towards good works and not towards Christ Himself. But on the flip side it is such good news because it isn’t up to me to perform or earn anything that is truly Christian. I am saying this to warn you and to charge you, pursue and know the love of Christ in its purist form as I have begun to do, and begin to experience the pure freedom that only Christ can provide. Pray and ask that the Holy Spirit convicts you and realigns your heart and thinking to see, through the lens of Christ's. Thank him for all moments he has given us to bear fruit graciously through his grace. Your response towards the free and Holy gift of the gospel is what makes this possible. Please seek this out and experience this peace that only he can give!!! Read…. meditate… strive to understand the true implications of the cross. Then you will start to understand this love that becomes accessible through that perfect and earth-shattering event of Christ and the cross.
Now that we have attempted to explain a pure Godly love, now we can begin to see the motivation by which Christ pursues us in perfect friendship out of this love. This is such an incredible thought to me. Human friendships have rocky patches at times but that will never happen with Christ as our friend. These problems can come in many different ways, whether it be miss-communication or selfish ambition. Whatever the case may be we can rely on the fact that Christ will never have those problems towards us, and even more so he is quick to forget those sinful moments that we have towards Him. These sins ultimately are separated from us as far as the east is from the west only because of Christ. As I read John 15 He seems to yearn for us to trust Him. Not that I know the emotions or feelings God has, but He seems to want us to conform to His will so that He can befriend us. He wants to develop a relationship deeper than servanthood and call us son, prince, and friend. Just as John 15:12-15 states,
“This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all I have heard from my father I have made known to you.”
Christ is waiting for the day when he can redeem you through his death and call you friend and not just servant alone. In this friendship nothing is in secret, nothing hidden or skipped over. It is completely organic in every way. In complete truth this relationship is based, and with the pure love that He lavishes on us he develops this relationship for all eternity. He spares nothing in order to have a complete relationship with you. So, I ask, “Are you a servant or a friend of Christ?” and may I add, “Do you know this kind of love?” if you cannot answer either of these questions than I urge you to pray. Pray to the one and only God, and ask him to show you these attributes that only He can give. And I pray that you will be able to walk in a new light of the Gospel based on these truths. I hope that this will change you, walking for the rest of your Life in a new light of the Gospel. Thank you Lord for all that only you can Give. Amen!
