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Joyful Obedience - Dying Love

By Paul Walker

Real Estate Agent with Equity Fifty Five Realty, LLC

March 28, 2011 04:42 PM

John 15:9-17 (GOD’S WORD Translation)

⁹“I have loved you the same way the Father has loved me. So live in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commandments, you will live in my love. I have obeyed my Father’s commandments, and in that way I live in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that you will be as joyful as I am, and your joy will be complete. ¹²Love each other as I have loved you. This is what I’m commanding you to do. ¹³The greatest love you can show is to give your life for your friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you obey my commandments. ¹⁵I don’t call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. But I’ve called you friends because I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father. ¹⁶You didn’t choose me, but I chose you. I have appointed you to go, to produce fruit that will last, and to ask the Father in my name to give you whatever you ask for. ¹⁷Love each other. This is what I’m commanding you to do.

Jesus gave His farewell address in John Chapter 15. It was His last night and He told his disciples that complete love is an obedient love to the pont of "Laying down your life for another". Jesus was obeying His Father in Heaven. He who was without sin, so loved the world that He would give His very life on the cross of calvary, and lay His life down as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. He was full of joy, and said if we would obey His commands and lay down our lives we too would have complete joy. It was God's love for mankind that made Christ leave the throne of heaven to come to earth and give His live as a perfect loving sacrifice on the cross.

Joy comes from giving, sharing, and showing love to others. That’s asking a lot. I will gladly give a friend my time (as long as I’m not too busy), my money (as long as it’s not too much), my attention (if I’m not preoccupied). Our love has so many limits.

But Christ was willing to share His love for us, by dying on the cross, even while we were still enemies, still full of sin, disobedience, indignance, dis-belief and yes even hate towards God. But Christ calls us His friends if we obey His commandments. He chose us who believe in Him. How does that happen? Because His first loved us. He is first in all things, and we are incapable of loving God because of our sinful state, so He loved (chose us) that we then could have love for Him. He saved us from our sins, we do not leave our sins to become saved, but rather we are saved because of His love, that then we can become obedient.

It was the love of Christ that made his disciples have the obedience, boldness, and love to leave the upper room to spread the good news to the ends of the earth.

So he had to make sure they understood the kind of love that he had for them and that they needed to have for each other. There are many kinds of love— love for a pet, love of a car, love for a friend, love of beauty and truth. But there is only one kind of love that can change the world, and that is sacrificial love. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Jesus, we praise you today for laying down your life for us, even when we were your enemies. No one has greater love than that. Thank you for calling us your friends. Thank you that you have made it possible that we can have eternal life with you in heaven, for as you have been raised from the dead, you are preparing a place in heaven for us. Let us share this wonderful news to everyone as we shout it from the mountaintops! Joyfully! Amen.

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