with devotion

Greater love has no one than this ...

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.

Many look back to the day that Jesus was crucified and blame the Jews or the Romans for his death. These embrace the idea that the life of Christ was extinguished by godless men. Even so, here what Jesus says to his disciples about his life:

I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

In like manner our lives are ours to lay down and Jesus challenges us to lay down our lives for our friends. I believe that our Lord tells us how this is done when he says:

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Greater love is demonstrated when we deny ourselves and lay down our lives for others in small and mundane sacrificial acts. To follow Jesus requires the same kind of love that He displayed on the cross when he forgave those who drove spikes into his body.

I need you Lord. Help me to love others the way that you love them.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide ...

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Love is the hallmark message of the gospels. In these apostolic writings we read that God so loved the world that He sent His Son and how Christ commanded his disciples to love as he loves. The heart and soul of the Christian message is love. It is impossible to abide in Christ and not lead a life of love for God and for each other.

Yet the love that Christ speaks of here is the kind that keeps commandments. Once cannot love and commit murder.. neither can they love and bear false witness.. and who can love their spouse and commit adultery? In tying together love and obedience Jesus helps us to know what true love is. This beloved, is the love that brings a fullness of joy.

Lord, help me to remember that I love when I keep your commandments.

By this my Father is glorified ...

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Have you ever thought about the idea that the things we do can bring glory to God? Consider these verses in John's gospel that speak of Jesus:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
...
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

The glory of God can be seen in us in the same way that it was in Jesus. When our lives evidence the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit God receives glory. When the fruit of the Spirit is manifested in our lives the glory of God is on display for everyone to see. We become the city on a hill that Jesus speaks of when we let our light shine brightly.

I think that our tenancy is to separate the glory of God from the mundane activities of our lives and defer it to the "glorious" and spectacular. Yet our verse today speaks to how God is involved and receives glory when we love.. when we are patient with each other.. when we exercise self control. It reminds me of the importance of being faithful in the little things.

Help me to shine today Lord. Help me to bring glory to you by the way that I live and love.

Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Apart from the hyperbolic nature of it, on face value this verse seems to reflect a quid pro quo mindset - the idea that God will answer my prayer if I just act the way He wants me too. I think that, at the heart of it, this verse says little to me about quid pro quo. In reality this verse speaks to me of knowing God and understanding His will. In reality abiding in Christ is all about knowing God and understanding how to pray in accord with His revealed will.

I think that one who knows God will never make prayer about silly things like expensive cars and getting rich. To know God is to know His will and how to pray in accordance with it. Where it gets complicated is when we try to understand His will with regard to things like the healing of a difficult illness. In matters such as this it is best to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal His will to us. And sometimes all we can do is pray Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.

Your will is enough Lord. Teach me to pray in accordance with it.

The branch cannot bear fruit by itself ...

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

Jesus continues to explain the metaphor of the vine further to his friends. Using the analogy of life flowing from the roots through the vine he speaks about staying spiritually connected to God. The Greek word translated abide is sometimes translated as live, dwell, continue, stay or remain and communicates a sense of perseverance. Endurance is a tough sell these days in this age of tolerance and understanding. Telling someone to believe even while enduring hardship is hard. Yet this is a message that calls us up to a higher place.

It is in such places of trial that fruit grows in our lives. As God's plow of affliction runs through our lives it gives us opportunity to sow heavenly seeds. Once the seeds are sown we are charged to water and cultivate the ground as we wait for fruit to emerge. Fruit takes time to grow and there are no shortcuts to the ripening of love, peace and joy. Yet it is essential to remember that fruit comes forth only when we are spiritually connected to the source of life. If we do not persevere in faith we are as useless as the withered branch.

Lord, you are the source of life. While I wait I will stay connected to you.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away,
and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Much is often made of what Paul says in the eleventh chapter of Romans about how gentiles were grafted in as wild branches to the olive tree that previously produced only Jewish branches. The focus of those discussions is often more about the branches than the tree or the vine. Jesus brings the attention first to the essence of life - the vine. He tells us that the heart of spiritual life is all about being connected to the source of all spiritual life.

Jesus takes the metaphor a bit further when he shifts from internal spiritual connection to the external evidences, or lack of them, of that connection. Interesting how he contrasts the lopping off of unfruitful branches and the pruning of fruitful ones. It is a stark contrast and one that speaks to me of how different those who evidence this connection are treated from those who fail to display spiritual fruit. Perhaps the issue is the quality of connection?

With trepidation I pray that you would prune me Lord that I would bear more fruit.

I am going to the Father ...

You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

How could his disciples really understand what he was trying to say to them. If I were there I would have been confused. You can hear it in their questions and sense it in their immediate actions when Christ was arrested in the garden. I think that his predictions of going to the Father had to go over their heads - who could have imagined that he was speaking of his own death. THIS WAS NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE!

Such is the confusion that many have when life turns traumatic and dreams of earthly messianic salvation seems so far away. Such is the frustration many experience when trials come and prayers are not answered the way we hoped that they would be. Such is the atmosphere that Jesus speaks of when he references the ruler of this world. Hope in this age is often so hard to grasp but hope is what we have because Jesus is with the Father.

My hope is in you Lord.. in your love.. in your sovereignty. I trust in you my beloved Jesus.

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