Commanded to Love

John 15:12-14 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.”
 
HERE and in the law and the prophets of the Old Testament, God connects loving him to obeying his commands. We also remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:37 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.” Do you wonder how God can command love?
   God’s will is for his people to know that love for him and for one another is a choice of active obedience. Yes, love is an emotion we have at various levels for different people. But a God-centered love is a Spirit-empowered decision to do God’s purpose on earth.
   When Jesus speaks of the Great Commandment, for example, he connects it to the Good Samaritan story to illustrate true love for God and neighbors. (See Luke 10:27-37.) James, too, encourages the church to demonstrate God’s love by caring for people in need, obeying the Lord’s commands.
   Then see in verse 13 the world’s greatest example of active love, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” This is Jesus, the Son of God, declaring he loves his disciples with the greatest love of all. His death has become an example of extraordinary love for us. Jesus didn’t come to say, “I love you.” with his emotions and then go away. He came to demonstrate, “I love you.” with God’s extraordinary sacrifice on the cross to redeem the world through God’s commands.
   Jesus loves the Lord God – his Father in heaven – with all his heart, mind, soul and strength. And he loves you. The cross tells us so. Loving the Father and loving you, Jesus acted to save you. Rejoice in his love and receive it.
   Great love focuses on God. You actively pursue his commands. You purposefully decide to obey his commands. In turn, you “lay down your life” to obey the Father’s will. Sometimes it is a physical death. Always it is to die to yourself, so you will live for Christ. Romans 15:15 I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 
   Do God’s true love. Decide today to love God more than anything and anyone else in your life. You in turn will experience a growing love for all people. You will be prepared to do God’s love wherever he sends you.