Day 15 – Love!

2020 VISION | Day 15 | Love!

“My command is this: 

Love each other as I have loved you.

 Greater love has no one than this: 

to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

You are my friends if you do what I command”

(John 15:12-14).

The lyrics of a famous song tell us, “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” In John 15, Jesus commands us to love others even if it means laying down our lives for them. This sounds so honorable, but why do we often struggle at following through with what Jesus told us to do? I think it’s because it’s not as easy as we assume. Sure, it’s natural to love those who look like us, talk like us, vote like us, and believe like us, but what about the people who don’t? Would we lay our lives down for them? Would we stop everything to make sure they know they are loved, or do we often label them as inconveniences? Jesus told us that the greatest love is to lay down our lives for others and then he commanded us to love our enemies. He told us to love everyone, even those that don’t agree with us, those that we quietly label our “enemies.” But what if we changed? What would our community look like today if we all made the conscious decision to love everyone? What if we agreed to stop looking at people as inconveniences and instead searched for moments where we could put our lives to the side and share God’s love with others?

Prayer: Father, help me to never again fail to love another soul any differently than You do. Let my life reflect Your love. Let my purpose be to always remind every person I meet that You love them deeply enough to have given Your only Son. Let me never do less than honor this commitment of love by offering my best for Your glory. In Christ’s name, Amen!