Daily Readings & Thought for April 21st. “GREATER LOVE HAS NO MAN THAN THIS”

Today’s readings.. (Deuteronomy 4), (Proverbs 31), (John 15,16) Love is probably the most common word in both Christian and non-Christian literature.  It is used in a wide range of situations with many different meanings.  It is usually used in common speech today in a very casual way!  Are those who read God’s word influenced by this?      If we are – it will undermine our appreciation of what this word means in Scripture?  In the Greek there are two different words and the one we focus on is ‘agape’ which occurs so much in the Gospel of John; he uses it 27 times; 9 times in today’s chapters (15 &16).Chapter 13 contains a key statement of the Master, “A new commandment I have given you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” [v.34].  So how did Jesus love them? How did he set an example?       What events and words show this?  He washed their feet and he used this as an example of how to serve one another; however few of us tramp dusty roads in sandals with bare feet.  to make a ritual of this would destroy the lesson as we commented yesterday.  It was one example of love and humility toward one another. Jesus said, “I have given you an example that you also should do as I have done to you.” [v.15].Not many hours later he would tell them of the ultimate act of  “love” soon to occur – saying greater love has no man than this” [15 v.13] Jesus asked, “Who is the greater, one who reclines at table, or one who serves? I am among you as one who serves” [Luke 22 v.27]   So the love that Jesus showed was one of serving, he came as a servant – but will return as a King.  In serving Jesus, we must ourselves seek to show love by what we do.         There will be times when we need to be gentle as he was with his disciples when they faltered, and he said “O you of little faith” [Luke 12 v28]; but read v.22-31 and appreciate the context and our Master’s final point, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”.  We might think of what we want, but our heavenly Father knows what we need.  He did not send anyone away, they went away themselves when they found his sayings “hard” [John 6 v.60,66]  When John, years later, wrote his epistles he made one particular point which echoed these words of Jesus, “let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth” [1 John 3 v.18] or as the NEB version puts it, “love must be genuine and show itself by actions.”