John 15:12 - [Jesus said,] "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
What does that even mean? What does Jesus mean when he says, "as I have loved you?" Exactly, how did he love us? We need to know how he loved us before we can love one another in that way.
In sum, short version, Jesus loves us with mercy and grace.
Same thing, a little longer version, Jesus doesn't give us what we deserve (that's mercy), and he gives us what we don't deserve (that's grace).
Illustration: When I was a kid, there was this one day that I did multiple things that deserved a whoopin' from my dad. Sure he should've whooped me because I showed my worst self, but he didn't because he showed me mercy. Just like Jesus, my dad didn't give me what he could've given me because I deserved to get it. That's mercy. That's loving one another as Jesus loved us.
But it didn't stop there. I distinctly remember us going out to eat that night, which most families rarely did those days. Also having multiple choices of fast food was relatively new to our little Tennessee town, and for some crazy reason I remember that I got to pick the place. My brother and sisters just looked at me like, "Are you kidding? You get in a heap of trouble, and you get to pick where all six of us have to eat?" I picked the best stinkin' place in town, Long John Silver's. You went in smelling like human. You came out smelling like fried fish and vinegar. I loved it! My dad gave me what he didn't have to. That's grace. That's loving one another as Jesus loved us.
Can you imagine what this world would be like if, not even all people, but maaaaan, I'd take most people; what would this world be like if we loved one another as Jesus loved us? What would it be like if even most people didn't honk back at everyone who honked at them even though they "deserved" it? If even most people just let stuff go? Not murder, for heaven's sake. Most of the problems in this world aren't murder; they're the little things that irritate that we could just as easily choose to let go of instead of fueling them with the lighter fluid of murmuring.
Okay, so that's enough examples, or we'll be here all day. And as much as y'all send kind words about this devotion, no one wants to be reading it all day. At some point, we've got to move on.
And that's exactly what Jesus is saying to us. Life moves on, from bitterness to reconciliation, from irritability to joy, from sour grapes to hope, from weariness to gladness, from darkness to light, from death to life, from cross to grave to resurrection when we love one another as Jesus loves us.
Mercy and grace, friends; pass on the mercy and grace. Just as God, through Jesus, keeps passing it to you!
Praise God!
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