JOHN 13:31-35 IT’S THE RELATIONSHIP!

31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

True Christianity is a relationship that is manifested in a web of relationships. The Messiah Jesus made the perfect relationship between the incarnate Son and the Father known, demonstrated that same relationship to the disciples and commanded them to have the equivalent relationship with one another and even the world. Divine love is to be the basis for those relationships. It is the love that motivated Jesus to live a life of perfect obedience to the Father, thereby revealing God’s nature. That same love was demonstrated by Jesus’ investment in humankind through his disciples and his sacrificial death on the cross. And this love is the major tool through which his Church is to reach the world with the truth about God.

For us, love is an emotion. As such, when we think about love we enter the world of fickle feelings and uncontrollable urges. Feelings are always measured relative to the emotional environment of the moment. When we fall in love we are on an emotional high. But emotional love must be fed everyday and exhausts our reserves rather quickly. Like a drug-induced high, it takes ever increasing and more potent stimuli to retain a satisfying love-high.

If that were the love God had for us, we would have been consumed long ago. God’s love is not an emotion but an attribute of his nature; his very essence. It is a steadfast love. It is the love St. Paul describes in the magnificent thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. In contrast to an emotion, it is a rational love. It is a matter of the will. Divine love is the will to do the best for the other person (1 John 3:11-18).

Our call as the Church is to announce and demonstrate the direction and purpose of God through Jesus Christ. Our God-given means for fulfilling our call is divine love. No pre-package evangelism program, no splashy community event, no innovative worship service, no demographic-driven strategy can be successfully substituted for divine love. In a world of lonely and alienated people, authentic, other-centered love will bring people into the kingdom like a porch light attracts moths on a summer night. It is all about relationships. This should not be a surprise. After all, who knows humankind better that our Creator?

Lord, make me an instrument of your love. Change my heart so that love is my will and not an emotion. Empower me to reach out to my neighbor by seeking and doing the best for him. May your love for my neighbor be manifested through my relationship with him. Amen.