Love First!

We’re relying on John – the Son of Thunder – for what we know about that evening with Jesus in the Upstairs Room.

There’s one sentence that seems almost unlike Christ at first. “If you love me you will keep my commands … show it by doing what I’ve told you.” At first it sounds like a complaint. Maybe a disappointed Mother whose rebellious son has caused her embarrassment; or whose Student Daughter hasn’t called as frequently as she’d asked her to when she went off to College. But that’s not Jesus.

After some closer consideration we see He might be saying, “Your obedience will prove your love.” The problem with that is that it puts performance before matters of the heart. Jesus Himself said that there would be lots of – many – people who, in the end, claim to have done things important to Him; things like “healing sick folk;” “exorcising devils;” people He doesn’t even know. They did what they did for reasons other than a relationship with Him obviously. One of His Followers – one He called later – wrote, “The letter kills; the Spirit gives life.”

No. The way of Christ is not the way of regulation and compliance. Christ’s path; all the way to this Passover evening, has followed a course of love; love for His father; love for His people; love which gave rise to a life of “Grace and Truth.” What you would expect of the Father’s Son?

“If you love me” …

The “love” matters most.

Such “love” stirs in anyone’s heart a desire to please the beloved. Passionate acts of admiration; even reverence; devotion; intimate understanding of the beloved’s desires and dreams. When you “love,” someone this way you “prefer” Him. There is, literally, nothing you wouldn’t do for Him. But no amount of religious rigor, no superior will-power, no regimen regardless of how precisely it’s followed will develop such love. It emerges from a re-made heart; a “right” spirit; a life born “of the Spirit.”

In that same Upstairs room, earlier in the conversation, He’d said, “By this will all people know that you are my Followers; by the love you have for each other.” And here, now, we see the same applying to our love for Him. Genuine “Christ Love,” stirred and active in the Spirit energized heart, will demonstrate the very character and way of life which, seen in Christ, was “Good News;” hope of “pardon;” “Light in darkness;” “Liberty;” assurance of “God’s High Favor.”

Love Him like you’ve never loved anyone or anything before. You’ll be amazed at how genuine; how strong it grows.

And you’ll be like Him; more and more loving … more and more lovable … the devil’s worst nightmare!