Love One Another

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. ‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants are not greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. It was to fulfil the word that is written in their law, “They hated me without a cause.” ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning. John 15:12-27

Love one another is Jesus' commandment, the one that replaces the ten, and the commandment which is hardest for us humans to do. We live in a world where hate seems to be a virtue now. Folks loudly profess their hate for people who are different, because of their color, their language, their country of origin or their identity. Where the ones who are violently hated are found, there we will find Jesus. He understood how easy it is to hate and how hard it is to love. We have to overcome training and fear in order to love. We have to practice love until it becomes second nature and all of us are still working at it. May we rejoice in the commandment to love, because there we will find Jesus.

Precious Savior, you sacrificed your life

so all of might be set free from our sin

set free from hate and cruel judgment

set free so we might love one another.

We humans enjoy hate way too much

we judge others' mistakes with great glee

we turn away from the needs of neighbors

and refuse to love those different from us.

Lord Jesus, help us follow your commandment

let love be our aim and our only goal

may we learn to love the outcasts and aliens

and finally live in the joy of your loving arms. Amen.