John 15:17 “This is my command: Love each other.”

I am really struck by how much Jesus focused on love with His disciples. He taught the multitudes, including them, many things, but when it was just Him and the 12, He really homed in on love. As I keep being reminded, that’s not simply a matter of feelings, and it’s certainly not a rejection of holiness, but a deep, bedrock reality that’s hard to overstate. I’m convinced that God chose Greek as the language for the New Covenant precisely because it has different words for different kinds of love, and few other languages have that. They range from storge, which is essentially like, to agape, which is God’s unconditional love. We spend our whole lives learning what agape is all about, and we won’t have it perfectly until we are before the throne in heaven. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t experience or even express it to a degree here. In fact, Jesus Himself referenced that in verse 13: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Right after that, He proclaimed that His disciples were His friends, and then demonstrated that by going to the cross for them. We take love too lightly! Jesus wanted His disciples, then and now, to recognize His love for them and allow that love to flow through them to each other. As came out a couple of days ago, that is to be the distinguishing characteristic of a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

I have been bathed in love since before my birth, and I’m grateful not only for the love but also for the awareness of it. I see so many people who are largely unaware of the love that actually surrounds them. Part of that is from their distorted definition of love, equating it to pandering to their selfishness, when agape isn’t that at all. As a pastor and simply as a believer, my task is to express God’s love to everyone around me, whether they receive it as love or not. And sometimes they don’t! On this trip we have had many opportunities to express love to many people, and they have reflected it back to us. Cathy has expressed love to many total strangers in airports, and they have generally responded very well. And of course, our interactions with family and close friends have been precious. We have one week to go on this trip, and I look forward to the love that will flow in every direction, as well as the love that will greet us when we return to Omura. I am to be an agent of God’s love at all times in every place, building up the Body of Christ for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for these days we have with our older daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter. May we not be greedy, but rejoice to be part of the flow of Your love, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!