John 15:9-17 (NRSV)
Read John 15:9-17 on biblegateway.com
Verse 9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. Verse 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. Verse 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. Verse 12"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Verse 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. Verse 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. Verse 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. Verse 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. Verse 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Devotion
What does God look like? How do you imagine God? Martin Luther’s answer to this question is surprising: “When I think of God,” Luther said, “I think of a man hanging on a tree.” He said this not to keep a gruesome, dreadful image of pain and suffering before our eyes, but rather to remind us that there is no length to which God will not go to embrace us in love. There is nothing that God would not do to save us through love. There is nothing God will allow to come and remain between us and God’s love. God’s love will conquer. God’s love will prevail. God’s love will win—as Christ’s love is lived and shared and bears fruit in this world—through you.
Prayer
We did not choose you, Christ Jesus, but you chose us. So fill us with your love that the fruits of your love will transform this world into the world of your desires. Amen.