Rethink Love

Scripture Reading: John 15: 9 - 17 (NIV)
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17This is my command: Love each other.
Message: Rethink Love
Human love is a reaction
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”
Love is a reaction!
Before Jesus says in verse 17: “This is my command: Love each other.”
He goes to great lengths to describe the context of this command
Context is important
The context of the great command to love is that love is a reaction
We can understand something of love as a reaction, when we think about the love of a mother
We physically receive love when we are loved and touched as newborn babies
Even before that - while still in the womb, we receive the love of our mother
Everything we know about love is a reaction to love
Even when we struggle to love, that can be brought back to a reaction to a lack of love
The theme today is rethink…
Think about the love that you react to in your life
And when you look at the loveless behaviour of someone around you - understand that a lack of love is also a reaction
The love of God surpass all we know about love
I want to remind you of Psalm 139: 13 that says “For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
God’s love for you surpasses all love you are ever able to experience
When you rethink love, perhaps you should start by turning you focus to God’s love
Creating an environment of love
Humans are prone to respond to their environment
Our subconscious picks up on signals the environment we are and we respond to that
Call it a gut feel - we feel love or the lack of it when we enter a space
And we react to it without always realizing it
I want to give an example that would help us understand something of this (I hope it is not too controversial in light of what was in the news all week)
The story of Masada - the fortress in the middle of the desert in the Southeastern part of Israel, close to the dead sea
In the first Jewish-Roman war this fortress was surrounded by Roman armies and the Jewish people held out for a year being under siege
After a year the roman armies eventually managed to topple the defences only to find a mass suicide by the people of Masada refusing to surrender
Today Masada is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Israel
Israeli officers gets inducted at Masada
You buy T-shirts as Masada that says: “Masada - never again”
It tells a story of the Israeli people that feels surrounded by hostile neighbours and that they are determined never to give in and defend to the end
Many people have questions about what is happening in Palestine at the moment
I believe there is terrible acts committed by both sides of the conflict
But it is all a result of a hostile environment
On an interpersonal level, we find it hard to love when we feel threatened
Maybe part of following Jesus’ command to love is being focussed on creating loving environments?
Not to let people feel that they are under siege - like Masada…
Allowing love to flow (remain)
Jesus uses the words: “now remain in my love.”
For me this is another way of saying - focus on the love you receive from Jesus and allow that to shape the way you love
Or to allow the love of Jesus to flow into your life, but also out of your life
The command of Jesus to love, is a command to let his love flow through our lives
For that to happen, you need to be open to receiving the love of Jesus first so that you may be changed by it
Only then you will be able to let the love of God flow out of your life
Rethinking Love
You must have heard the command to love many times in your life
Today you are called to rethink love
Know that everything you know about love comes from God
Know that love is a reaction - that means your conduct also produces a reaction
Think about the reaction you bring out in others around you…
Think about doing more to bring out a reaction of love in people around you
Know that people sometimes feels threatened and surrounded and that feeling threatened and surround will not bring a reaction of love out of them
Work hard to create an environment of love where you come
Take the love of God, that comes to us through Jesus, and let God’s love flow through you to others
Let us change the world we live in by rethinking our love today!
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