Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-april-24-2025
John 15:12-17
12 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down their life for their friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I 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. 16 You 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. 17 This is my command: Love each other.”
In addition to all the other things going on this year during Holy Week, I officiated at a young couple’s wedding here at our church. They were members of a much larger church, with a big, auditorium-style sanctuary, and they wanted to be married in a church with a more church-like character, so we were pleased to provide a place for them to take their vows.
Like the majority of all Christian couples planning their wedding, this couple chose to have a portion of First Corinthians 13 read during the ceremony. I’m sure you’re familiar with it — it’s the famous “love is patient, love is kind” passage you almost always hear when people are getting married. But I tend to surprise the couples in my brief “sermonette” when I tell them that the passage isn’t really about what they think it’s about. Couples read the word ‘love’ and think about the romantic love that has brought them together. But the apostle Paul had in mind a different kind of love when he wrote this passage. In fact, the King James Bible translates the word in this passage as ‘charity’ rather than ‘love.’
English-speaking Christians hear or read the word love, and our minds first think of powerful affection. But the New Testament word that’s usually translated as love is the Greek word agape. And that word refers to taking responsibility for the welfare of another person, even if that person is your enemy. So the commandment to love other followers of Jesus applies even to those we don’t particularly like.
When it comes to the other followers of Jesus that we interact with most often – like our friends from our home church – it’s not that hard to love those people. Sure, there might be a few people who occasionally get on our nerves, but we can put up with them for an hour a week because we know them, and because we understand the foibles that make them troublesome.
But it’s harder to love Christians from other parts of the greater church — especially those who regularly criticize our theology or the governance of our churches. It’s usually in the debates around the hot-button issues of the day that Christians can be most bitter and condemning. A few years ago, I was reading an article in Christianity Today magazine, and the author declared that members of mainline churches like us are like atheists and members of other religions – that we’re all “enemies of the faith.”
I might be wrong, but somehow, I think that’s not exactly what Jesus had in mind when he said the world would know his followers by their love for one another. So how are we supposed to love people who call themselves Christians but seem to base so much of their life of faith on condemning other followers of Jesus who disagree with them?
For one thing, when we’re around people who are not practicing followers of Jesus, we should be very careful about how we talk about those who criticize and condemn us. We should resist getting defensive and criticizing them back. We shouldn’t be shy about expressing what we believe on important issues when we disagree with other followers of Jesus. (And of course, we should be able to back up our beliefs with reference to the Bible, and not just by saying, “Here’s what I think.”) But we shouldn’t engage in name-calling like saying those who disagree with us are ‘bigots’ or ‘fanatics.’ For the most part, those who disagree with us are trying to understand God’s will for their lives and to serve him faithfully – just as we are.
And I’d like to suggest that we should pray regularly for those who disagree with us. We should resist the urge to pray that God will straighten out their “mistaken ideas,” and instead pray that God will heal the wounds that separate us from them. We can also pray that God will prosper them in their ministries and lead them in their lives of faith.
Of course, loving other believers also means working toward reconciliation with them – looking for chances to build bridges with those who are alienated from us. Paul wrote that, “We have been given a ministry of reconciliation.” So when we work for reconciliation with brothers and sisters in Jesus, we are doing the work our master entrusted to us. And maybe just as importantly, we are modeling the love Jesus commands us to exercise.
Many unchurched people are hungry to be part of something authentic. When we talk about love but show bitterness and anger, we seem about as inauthentic as it’s possible to be. But when we take seriously this commandment to love other believers, even those who curse and despise us, that stands out in an angry world.
Today’s reading also includes what Jesus said about his disciples being friends rather than servants. We understand that the things Jesus says to his first disciples are meant for us, as well. It’s a little overwhelming to think that Jesus would actually regard us as his friends. But he says that those who do what he commands are his friends. So to claim his friendship, we have to be comparing our lives to the teachings of Jesus. That means asking ourselves whether we’re demonstrating sacrificial love for others – even those who might condemn us and hate us.
I suppose it’s true that there’s a lot more clarity about being a servant than about being a friend. Servants only need to do what they’re told. But friends are supposed to think about the best interests of their friend and act in those best interests. So the invitation to be a friend of Jesus carries with it a call to be thoughtful about our lives of faith.
Of course, nobody wants to see his friends fighting and arguing. So if we truly want to be friends of Jesus, then we’re obligated to show patience and tolerance for others who consider themselves his friends, too. I guess it’s all part of the agape ‘loving one another’ thing.
Let’s pray. Lord, help us to love one another – not just those who smile at us on Sunday morning and serve side-by-side with us, but also those who disagree with us and even criticize and condemn us. Help us to remember that it is to be by our love for one another that we are known as your followers – and your friends. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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