Read John 13:31-38
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (v34)
Some Thoughts…
Judas had left the room, gone to set into motion the most dark and demonic of nights … and Jesus turns to His beloved “children” (see v33) and begins to prepare them for what He had called them to do. And He begins with the most important thing – LOVE, loving like Christ; self sacrifice and deep commitment to the needs of everyone. Yet Peter is not listening. He can’t quit thinking about what Jesus just said, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” (v33c) Peter already had in his mind what he would “do” for Jesus. He was ready die for Him (at least he thought he was). There is no way he would let his Master just walk away. Peter missed it! Jesus was about to show them the greatest virtue of all, and through the cross, Jesus gave everyone who would follow Him the perfect definition of love…
Peter still had a lot to learn. He wasn’t ready to love that way. He even denied Jesus three times before daybreak! Peter was preparing for a fleshly battle to over take the evils of powerful men, but Jesus was calling him to a spiritual battle for the hearts of any person who would lay down their weapons and surrender to the Love of God in Christ. And it would take three questions before he began to understand; “Peter do you love me?… Peter do you love me?…. Peter….do you love me?” (John 21:15ff)
Am I running into the battle today to rescue the perishing that are loved by Jesus or am I looking for a good fight to convince someone that are wrong and I am right?
A Prayer…
Father, forgive me when I deny you, when I try to push for my opinions of how You should be doing things. Help me to surrender to your way today and seek to love everyone that crosses my path. Just like you do. Amen
Rick, your thoughts closely match my own this morning. I’ve been thinking all morning about how the best way to “win” the game of life is to choose to lose, regardless of the personal cost, when everything within this flesh wants to fight back. Thanks for so adequately expressing that the way to win is to love.
Yeah… I started thinking about Peter… all his talk to “go with Jesus and give his life” and without LOVE he was too timid to even own up to knowing Jesus to a servant girl… But after Peter embraced the calling to love like Jesus, he was bold enough to stand before the people who killed Jesus and radical enough to share with people that his Jewish culture would call “untouchable”… Loving like Jesus is crazy stuff!