From Romeo and Juliet to Kate and William, our imaginations are fascinated by epic love stories. As a society, we are enamored by these deep connections and the imagined fairy tale life we believe they lead. What is it about these great loves that we are so obsessed with? I admit they hold my attention, and I’m not sure why!
At the heart of any great love story is a point of self-denial or self-sacrifice. A great love must be ‘tested’ or ‘proven’ to be deemed worthy. How many young princes are sent on an epic quest to prove their love for their lady! Didn’t we all cringe when William Thatcher continued to lose in the joust in order to prove his love in A Knight’s Tale?
No one knows love like Jesus.
Nothing can even come close. One of the main reasons Jesus knows love so well is because He made such a great sacrifice. A few days before the cross, Jesus sat down with his disciples and gave them one last lesson. His most important lessons. In John chapter 15, He’s leaving them with these priceless words:
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.”
John 15:9-17 (CSB)
These verses mean so much to me. I can’t explain everything being said here, but a few things jump out. First, Jesus and the Father love us. It’s so easy to say, but it’s harder to know. I know so many people who struggle with feeling loved. This world can be a brutal and cruel space, but that is not the life God wants you to live. He loves you, and He wants you to enjoy His love. Spend time today just thinking about it; the God of the universe looks at you and loves you. He desires you to ‘remain’ in His love.
He wants you to have complete joy!
Second, He wants you to love just as He has loved you. He wants you to lay down your life for one another. He wants us to surrender our agendas and our own comforts for the sake of one another. There is no greater love! It’s precisely what Jesus was preparing to do for us in these verses from John: lay down his life for us because of his deep love.
Last, He has appointed us to go and produce fruit in that love. Not just any fruit, but fruit that will remain. He asks us to be part of bringing His kingdom to earth so that all may know His deep love. How amazing is that! He wants to partner with us. He desires to work through us.
There is no greater love that anyone can have for you than Jesus.
He has chosen to love us, and we are called His friends. Don’t let anyone tell you that you are unloved or not cherished. Spend time with Jesus and allow Him to remind you how dearly loved you are.
You may not realize it, but we who follow Jesus are part of the most extraordinary love story ever. It’s a powerful love that transcends time and space to rescue us from separation. This is the love that will last for an eternity. Human love and affection can be fickle and fleeting, but your God will never leave you or forsake you. We can’t even begin to comprehend how deep the Father’s love is for us.
