Dear Family and Friends,

Today we continue to prepare our hearts for Easter by reviewing a few more passages from the week leading up to that glorious Sunday.

The Last Supper was done, they were not yet in the Garden, and Jesus was preparing His disciples for what was to come when he said:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:12-14 ESV

This was actually the second time Jesus gave this command during what is called His Farewell Discourse.

The first time can be found in John 13.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35 ESV

Why was this commandment new?

Jesus had previously given commandments to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to even love our enemies.

Jesus was now telling His disciples – and He continues to tell us today – to love one another, our brothers and sisters in Christ, just as He loves us – sacrificially.

God sacrificed His Son for us. His Son sacrificed His life for us.

When we are willing to do the same for one another in love, people will know that we are disciples of Jesus, just like the eleven.

If someone did a litmus test of how we were doing with this particular commandment, it would likely show – not well…

I was deeply troubled by a news report earlier this year about a denomination voting to expel five member churches.

The reason given: Not being in friendly cooperation with the denomination’s statement of faith.

The vote followed an emotional plea by one the pastors at the denomination’s annual meeting, where he said, “We have to decide if we will treat each other as allies or adversaries.”

I mention this not to judge the decision nor take sides on the matter.

But rather to point out that incidents like these – infighting between Christians – cast a dark shadow over all who follow Christ.

How can we expect nonbelievers to choose to believe in and follow Jesus when His disciples act like the rest of the world?

We live in a world that is micro-focused, not on the similarities amongst peoples, but their differences.

Differences based on the group a person belongs to or what the person believes.

And once the lines are drawn, those who are different are treated as adversaries.

In just the past few years, we witnessed the dividing of America along racial, political, cultural, and yes religious lines accelerate.

When society focuses so much negative attention on differences, everyone, including believers, are drawn to do the same.

And to treat those who differ the same way – as adversaries.

We who follow Christ have always had our differences.

How often do we find ourselves in the midst of a church group thinking: There’s no way we would be together if not for Jesus.

The truth is we who follow Christ have more in common than all our differences combined.

We fear the same God. Believe in and follow the same Jesus. Are filled with the same Holy Spirit. Read and try to obey the same words of God.

So how can we protect ourselves from falling into this trap of looking at our differences rather than just celebrating our similarities?

And return to sacrificially loving one another?

A few years ago, Aileen and I started traveling with tour groups rather than adventuring on our own.

Adventuring is for young folks.

Touring is for the wise (from experience) who tire of carrying bags, researching the top 10 things to do, and getting lost.

Anyway, one of the added benefits of touring is getting to know our fellow travelers. And searching for what or who we have in common.

It’s fun and exciting and the connections we make are wonderful.

We get to know folks for who they truly are and not their labels, appearances or first impressions.

No one cares about differences. We celebrate our commonalities.

And we make lifelong friends.

Both God the Father and Jesus expressed their love by giving what was most precious to them.

One way we can do the same, short of giving our lives for each other, is to give one another our most precious possession.

What has become our most precious and scarce possession in today’s world? 

Our time.

We have made our lives so busy – too busy to reengage with the many friends we had just a few years ago.

And we have become too busy to start new friendships.

One reason is the pandemic rearranged our lives and priorities.

For many of us, our priorities shifted from our friends to ourselves.

But let’s face it, if we want to be friends with Jesus, loving one another sacrificially is a priority. (Read today’s verse again)

It’s hard to be “like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind” – and most of all love one another – if we barely see each another. (See Philippians 2:1-4)

None of us are able to fix the problems in the American Church.

But we are able to fix ourselves. We just have to want to…

In love always,