Love Each Other

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

LOVE EACH OTHER

 John 13:31-38

31 When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. 33 "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. 34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  36 Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."  37 Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." 38 Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

NIV

We have just seen Jesus reveal the betrayer, Judas, and we are told when he left it was night. We are thinking that meant it was the night that Jesus would be arrested after Jesus and his disciples left the room prepared for the evening meal and cross over the Kidron Valley to the garden. It could also be considered night in another sense, the Light of the world was soon to be extinguished. However, let us just go with the fact we are told it is now night, the sun has gone down. What Jesus had meant to be his resemblance to the Passover with his disciples was over, as each day is finished at sunset. Now he begins a long series of teachings for their benefit, to remember after he is gone. He starts out by telling them that he has now been glorified and God is glorified in him. The whole point of this lesson about being glorified is that God is the one who is glorified and does the glorification of both himself and his Son. This would apply to each of us as well. There is no point in trying to bring any type of glory to ourselves. Our purpose is to bring glory to God and if there is any glory to be had in us, He will do the glorifying. What better way to receive glory than from God. Would it not be great to have God say that we were a man (or woman) after his own heart? Well, back to the narrative. Why would Jesus tell his disciple that where is going they cannot come, when just a little later he tells Peter he will indeed follow him sometime later. Jesus must be talking about the cross, about becoming the sacrifice for the sin of the world. He is the only one who can accomplish this and so although his disciples have gone everywhere with him since he called them to come and follow him, they cannot follow him on the cross. This is for him and him alone to go. However, there is something which they can do, and that is this new command, this new authoritative prescription for life, he gives them and it also is applied to us. We are to love each other just as Jesus loves us. Sometimes that is a hard pill to swallow. However, if we had something physical going on within, like in this time, say we contracted Covid-19 and we know it could be life-threatening, so we go to the doctor and he gives us a prescription, we would gladly take it and take all of it, faithfully as if our life depended in it. Jesus gives us an authoritative prescription and we need to take it, and take all of it to heart, as though our lives depend on it. Of course, we know eternal life is not dependent of our doing good deeds, or on loving each other, but at the same time, we should make every effort to take our medication Jesus has prescribed. What does loving each other as he loves us look like? He loves us so much he gave his life for us, so we could, through faith in him, have eternal life. How can we give our lives for each other? If that were in a physical sense, none of us would be left to love each other. So then there has to be a metaphorical or spiritual sense in which we can love each other like he loves us. That would have to look more like putting the needs of others before our own needs. That would mean we should never be too busy doing our own thing that we do not have time to do something for someone else. Of course, if all we do is constantly doing something for others, it might seem our needs, or things we have to get done would never be accomplished. We do have to go to work for ourselves, we have to shop and do things around our homes, etc. But, the point seems to be that we have to be ready, and willing to help a brother or sister in need. This might look more like having to make time for others. In all reality, if we were always doing everything for everyone else, we would then be living each other’s lives. So it has to come down to simply being there for each other when a need arises. There is also another sense in which that if we love each other as Jesus loves us, then we would do no harm to each other, which would mean that we do not judge each other, or gossip about each other, or criticize each other, or even form any kind of ill feelings toward each other. Here is where, we the church, may need some improvement. There could be other aspects as well as expressing this love for each other. The Lord gives us insight into how this may look when he inspired Paul to write to the Corinthians, and especially in that thirteenth chapter. What we know for sure is that his authoritative prescription for our lives is to love each other.