Greatest Love...this may be long

^"12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." John 15:12-14

Wow, so Jesus is telling us to love one another as he loved us; that the greatest love is when someone lays down their life for a friend; and that if we do what He commands us we are his friends.

The first part of this is pretty straight forward, I command you to love everyone. Now, wait, isn't love a feeling? Can I actually choose to love someone? YES! Love is much more than a feeling, much, much more. The word "love" has been so diluted in our culture that it doesn't carry the same powerful meaning as it once did. I mean, do you really love french fries and spaghetti? (yes they go great together.) Would you be willing to sacrifice for those objects? If you are then you may need to seek some help, but chances are that you just enjoy eating them. The Greeks had five words for love; Philia, Eros, Storge, Thelema, and Agape. They considered, Agape, the greatest form of love. Philia and eros were used as love you feel for a brother and friends, and for a spouse respectively. Philia is where we get the name Philadelphia, meaning, "City of brotherly love." Thelema is used to describe a desire and Storge as the natural affection one has for their offspring.Agape is described as divine, self-scarificing, unconditional, active, voluntary, and thoughtful love. The kind of love Christ exemplified for us.

So, we have been commanded to love as He loved us, and he still loves us. Jesus then tells us of the greatest sacrifice one can make to manifest their love for a friend. Which he also exemplified for us. Now I don't think this means we are to run around jumping in front of bullets for random people, but if the opportunity occured, I would like to think that I would do all that I possibly could do to stop someone from harming one of my friends or someone that I care for. This type of sacrifice can also be met daily in what some call, "dying to yourself." Doing something without being told, letting someone else have the last of the food when seconds come up, or even staying late at work to help someone clean up when that is the last thing you want to do. Going back to agape, self-sacrifice is one of the words used to desribe it. Agape'ing everyone may not be the easiest thing you do, in fact I know it will not be, but it will be the most rewarding thing you can do to share Christ's love with EVERYONE, even difficult people. (which I find very hard, but God usually steps in and helps me out.)

And in the last part of this scripture Christ says, that if we follow his commandments that we are his friends. Now, sit back and think about this for a minute. Christ, a.k.a. God, the divine creator of the universe, the one that formed you in your mother's womb, the one who is to be feared, also wants to be your friend. How ridiculously awesome is that? It's an odd dichotomy that the Lord, who is to be respected and feared is also our friend. It is amazing how completely unfathomable God is. I love and rest assured that I will never, in this lifetime understand how God works and that I will not know nearly everything about Him, and maybe not even in heaven will I be able to comprehend his greatness. If I was able to see through everything God did and knew why he did what he did, I wouldn't want to give my life to a God that small. I want to worship and give my entire life to the One "who is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than I can ask or imagine." Eph. 3:20 some translations use the words "think" or "know." This means, the greatest thing I can conjure in my finite mind, all my hopes and desires, all my wildest dreams absolutely pale in comparison to what God can do and what he has in store for each and everyone of us. "Exceedingly abundantly" now that is an incredible amount more than I can think or Imagine, that is the God one can't put in a box, he cannot be contained. He is my everything and I want everyone to know about his perfect love. Love that casts out fear, love that makes enemies friends and brothers, love that heals, love that protects. Love that is perfect and that we are to strive for and to strive to replicate, and we can with our God's, with our Friend's great and mighty power.

My prayer for myself is that I would love everyone, no matter how difficult they can be, no matter how many of my buttons they can push. That I would sacrifice my life to my God, and that no matter what happens to me in this life I would love him with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all of my strength. Amen!