Passage Read: John 13-14
Meditation Verses: 14:30-31
Thought
Jesus loves the Father so much that He does and says only what the Father does and says, so that He can say that whoever looks on Him sees the Father. They are so closely united that to see one is to see the other. That is the same unity Jesus wants us to have with Him. But it requires Jesus' kind of obedience. Jesus' love for the Father causes Him to do exactly what His Father commands...even though it leads to His death. He knows His arrest is just a few hours away, and He must go to the garden in time for that appointment. He won't run, He won't fight, He will submit to the will of His Father, though it cost Him His life. That's what Jesus' love for His Father looks like, and that's the love for Himself that He calls His disciples to. Jesus isn't asking of us anything He is not also doing.
Application
If I love Jesus, I will obey what He commands, just as Jesus loves His Father and does whatever He commands, even to His own death. Should it surprise me, then, if Jesus' commands require of me things that are very hard for me to do? Things that require me to die to myself, my wants, my wishes, my comfort, my life? If the Father required of His own Son, whom He loved, a test of ultimate sacrifice, shouldn't I also expect such a test? Who do I love more? Myself or Jesus? Do I expect all of God's commands to me to be light and peace and blessing? If I love Jesus, I'm not free to do whatever I want or to pick and choose which of His commands I'll obey. If I love Jesus, I'll do exactly what He commands me to do, even if I must suffer or die for obeying Him. This is the only way to unity with Jesus and the Father.