Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going.So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.[1]
My teacher, Dr. Dennis Kinlaw, was wont to say in his later years, “I don’t know how old I was before I saw this in the Bible.” Frankly, I would roll my eyes at that, because he knew his Bible backwards, forwards, and sideways. But I find myself doing the same thing these days. In this case, I do know when I first realized how the Last Supper Discourse holds together. It was a few weeks ago.
In that message Jesus was clearly attempting to get the disciples ready for the avalanche that was about to fall on them. So while he makes several points, he focuses on three things, stating them over and over again in a variety of ways: 1) I am going away, and will no longer be with you – BUT I am coming back and will be in you; 2) The world hates you, and will persecute you; 3) You must love each other.
What I never saw before (and should have), was that point three is the necessary conclusion of the preceding two. What is the chief fruit of the Spirit of Jesus, the life of the Vine, in us? It is self-denying, self-giving love – so let it flow to your brothers and sisters. Do that so that you can survive the concentrated hatred of the world. When we stand with our arms around each other (which we can do if we are all Spirit-filled) in spite of disagreements or different outlooks, the Devil cannot pick us off, one by one. If we won’t live like that, we are not living in the Spirit of Jesus, and the Enemy can pick us off.
How will a hating world know we belong to Jesus? When the Spirit of Jesus enables us to hold on to one another. Let’s do it.
[1] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Jn 13:33–35.
Called To Be Transformed 