Gospel: John 15:9-17

 

Jesus remains in the love of the Father observing the commandments that He received from Him. We remain in the love of Jesus observing the commandments that He has left for us. And we should observe them in the same measure in which He observed the commandments of the Father.

 

The commandment of Jesus is only one: to love one another as He has loved us! Jesus surpasses the Old Testament. The ancient criterion was the following: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 18:19). The new criterion is: “Love one another as I loved you”.

 

And immediately Jesus presents a very high ideal. He says, “I have made known to you everything I have learned from My Father!” Jesus no longer had any secrets for His disciples. He tells us everything that He has heard from the Father! Behold the wonderful ideal: to reach a total transparency, to have full trust in one another, to be able to speak about the experience of God that we have and of life, and thus, be able to enrich one another. 

 

The first Christians succeeded in reaching this ideal: “they had one only heart and one only soul” (Acts 4:32; 1:14; 2:42-46).

 

This statement of Jesus is also a reminder of what it means to believe in Him and be saved. To believe is an action – many actions. “You are My friends if you do what I command you” means action. Love not only describes a relationship, it is also an action verb!