“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. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” (John 15:12-17 ESV)
How did/does God/Jesus Christ love us? For one, Jesus humbled himself and came to the earth and took on human flesh via being born as a human baby to a human mother. But he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, so while he lived on this earth he was fully human and fully God (God incarnate, in the flesh). He allowed himself to live in a human body and to experience the kinds of things we humans experience, including pain, sorrow, temptation to sin (but without sin), rejection, false accusations, abuse, and death.
And then when he was crucified on that cross, although he had done no wrong, he became sin for us by taking upon himself the sins of the entire world. And so when he died, our sins died with him, and when he was resurrected from the dead, he rose in victory over sin, Satan, hell, and death, on our behalf. And this was so that we can now, by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, die with Christ to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God.
And he didn’t do this because we were deserving of his blood sacrifice for our sins. We were not! It was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us so that by God-persuaded faith in him we might now be delivered from our slavery (control of, addiction) to sin, and so that we might now be empowered of God to live holy lives pleasing to our Lord in walks of obedience to him and to his commands (New Covenant). He died to buy us back for God out of slavery to sin so we will serve the Lord with our lives.
But before he was put to death he had a time of ministry on the earth for about 3 years, along with his 12 disciples, where he healed the sick and afflicted, and he raised the dead, and he delivered people from demons, and he comforted the sorrowful, and he fed the hungry, and he performed many miracles proving that he was indeed God incarnate, the Christ who was promised to the Jews and who had now come. But most of his people did not receive him as such, and eventually they had him put to death.
Now, when Jesus had his years of ministry on the earth he also preached repentance (death to sin, turning away from sin, change of heart and mind) and walks of obedience to the Lord and to his commands as necessary elements of God-gifted faith which delivers us from addiction to sin so that we can now live holy lives, pleasing to God. And he was hated, falsely accused of wrong, harassed, persecuted, and had traps set for him to try to trip him up with his words in hopes that his enemies might accuse him.
He went through all of this for you and for me so that we could be saved from (delivered from) our bondage to sin and be empowered of God to now serve him with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands. And he set the example for how we are to love others. We, too, are to lay our lives down and be willing to be hated, falsely accused, rejected, called names, and persecuted for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of righteousness in order to see others freed from their addiction to sin, walking in holiness.
So “love” is not all this “feel good” and “mushy-gushy” stuff that is being called “love” today. It is not love to lie to people just to make them feel good. And if we alter and dilute the gospel message to make other people feel more comfortable and to not be offended with the truth, then that is not love. That is selfishness, because we are more concerned about what they think of us than we are about what they do with Jesus Christ with regard to salvation from sin and eternal life with God. Love is telling people the truth.
Now, that is not to exclude acts of kindness and mercy. Again, Jesus is our example, and he showed plenty of kindness and mercy to the people, but not to the exclusion of telling them the hard truths of the gospel message. For it is never kind to lie to people. It is not mercy to overlook the fact that so many people are professing faith in Jesus Christ but are living like the world and still according to the flesh. Mercy is telling them that if sin, and not obedience, is what they practice, they will not have eternal life with God.
When we do that we are laying down our lives for our friends, for we are considering their needs above our own. And we are considering their eternal destiny above their acceptance of us. We would rather that the world hate us and that we are despised among people if it means getting the truth out to the people so that they can be delivered from their slavery to sin and so that they can walk in obedience to the Lord, so that they can have genuine hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. That’s the ultimate of love!
Now, when Jesus told the disciples that he no longer called them servants, but friends, he was not dismissing them from having to serve him. He taught that to believe in him means to serve him with our lives. He was expressing to them a closer intimacy of relationship with them which had been formed. Paul referred to himself all the time as a servant of the Lord, but more like a bond-servant. For Jesus appointed them that they should go and bear fruit that lasts, and this was not a mere suggestion nor a recommendation.
Now when it says here that we did not choose Jesus but he chose us, it is not to say that we have no choice in the matter, but that rather we can only come to faith in Jesus Christ if God the Father first draws us to Christ, i.e. if he persuades us as to his righteousness and holiness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to repent of (turn from) our sins and now follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands. For faith in Jesus Christ is not of our own doing, but it is persuaded of God to repent of sin and to obey God.
And the fruit that we are to bear comes from God and is a result of our submission to Christ as Lord and our death to sin and our walks of obedience to his commands in going where he sends us and doing what he has called us to do, as his followers. And it is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25). And it can result in our own spiritual growth and development as Christ’s followers, in the salvation of human lives, and in encouragement to other believers to walk according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh.
[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Lu 6:27-28; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Ac 1:8; Ac 2:14-18; Ac 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Gal 6:1; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:11-27; Eph 6:10-20; Php 2:1-8; Col 1:9; Col 3:12-16; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; Jas 5:19-20; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6; Jude 1:22-23]
Servant of the Lord
An Original Work / July 26, 2012
Based off Romans 1:1-17
Servant of the Lord;
For the gospel you’re set apart.
Promised through the prophets of old:
Jesus, Son of God.
Through Him, and for His name alone,
We receive His grace
To call people, Him to obey;
Coming from their faith.
Servant of the Lord,
For the gospel you’re set apart.
Promised through the prophets of old:
Jesus, Son of God.
You belong to Christ;
Loved by God, and called to be saints;
Serving God with whole heart and mind;
Preaching Jesus Christ;
Always praying for others’ needs;
Helping hand to lend;
Giving courage to others’ faith,
For the praise of God.
You belong to Christ;
Loved by God, and called to be saints;
Serving God with whole heart and mind;
Preaching Jesus Christ.
Servant of the Lord;
Of the gospel, I’m not ashamed;
For salvation, power of God
To those who have faith.
In the gospel find righteousness:
Being right with God.
Turn from sin, and trust Jesus Christ.
By faith, live in Him.
Servant of the Lord;
Of the gospel, I’m not ashamed;
For salvation, power of God
To those who have faith.
https://vimeo.com/119511640
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