John 15:1-17
Love One Another
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s 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.
Loving one another is a strong message that is one of Jesus' teachings...Jesus gave His Disciples this command...Love each other as I have LOVED you, and to love each other...Jesus knew that if the Disciples and followers of His could not get along that this would be and is a problem...And Jesus wanted His Disciples to go out and bear fruit and bring in more followers and apostles...Many non-believers do not believe because they see followers of Jesus reading the Bible and trying to be Christians, and then going out and having a life style that contradicts what Jesus has taught us...A fact that is true, because we all fall short of the LORD...
Author and Priest Brennan Manning said this about what Jesus taught about loving one another, “How have we gotten it so screwed up?...I was speaking to the Navigators not long ago and they asked, “Do you have a word for us?”...I said, “Yes, I do...Instead of being identified as a community that memorizes Scripture, why not be identified as a community of professional lovers that causes people to say ‘How they love one another!’”...Why do we judge Jesus’ criterion for authentic discipleship irrelevant?...Jesus said the world is going to recognize you as His by only one sign: the way you are with one another on the street every day...You are going to leave people feeling a little better or a little worse...You’re going to affirm them or deprive them, but there’ll be no neutral exchange...If we as a Christian community took seriously that the sign of our love for Jesus is our love for one another, I am convinced it would change the world...We’re denying to the world the one witness Jesus asked for: LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I’VE LOVED YOU. (JOHN 15:12)”...