February 22 – Greater Love

February 22 – Greater Love

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Plato said that only those who love wish to die for others.  This makes me wonder if we truly understand what “Love your neighbor as yourself” means, especially when we take it to its logical conclusion and realize that our neighbor is everyone.

Jesus also said that we are to love each other as He loved us.  Again, He committed himself to those words at the cross.  His love for us involved his death.

I've written before about how my grandmother wouldn't let us say that we ‘loved’ inanimate objects and when I consider the power of the words from John 15, I understand why that was so unacceptable to her.  To truly love, we must be willing to put everything we have and everything we are behind it.  How could I do that for something like chocolate (though that is a most amazing creation)?

Blog posts this month have taught us that God is love and that His love is complete. He was willing from the very beginning to put everything He was and everything He had behind the love He has for the world.  Jesus commands us to do the same.

We are to love completely, with all that we have, with all that we are. To truly love means we hold nothing back from ourselves.  This love is bigger than anything we can imagine. It is bigger than the love we have for our children, or our families. It is bigger than how we love our friends, our pets, our country, our church.  A commitment to love this big requires everything.

But, can you imagine what transformation that would bring to the world?