May 5, 2024 

Today's Reading: John 15:9-17 

Daily Lectionary: Numbers 3:1-16, 39-48; Number 4:1-8; Luke 14:25-15:10

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  (John 15:12)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Love is commanded. Therefore, this kind of love that Jesus speaks of is not a feeling. You cannot command anyone to feel a certain way. As much as you might wish to be able to command that hot girl in English class or the guy across the row in band to feel attraction to you, sadly, it doesn’t work that way.

The love that Jesus commands is action. Self-giving action, at that. This is not the kind of self-giving that a girl does when she finally gives in to pressure from her boyfriend to have sex. That’s not self-giving, that’s giving in. Jesus does not command sin, for sin is dangerous and destructive to people. Sex before marriage, for example, is a monstrous faith destroyer. That is why God set up His Commandments- to safeguard and protect you from dangers that would harm the good Gifts that God gives. Getting back to the self-giving nature of love, it is the kind of action that sacrifices money, time, a caring heart, and perhaps your popularity to help someone under affliction.

Chief among the Commandments is love. Your love for fellow believers (especially in your congregation) is to reflect Jesus’ love for you. You cannot truly know love, that is, without learning God’s Word and believing the Gospel. You cannot truly show love where you are ignorant of the self-giving Jesus gave when He laid down His life for sinners. For Jesus not only commands love- He commands a specific love. This specific love mirrors Jesus’ own actions for us.

Because no one can keep this commandment by nature, we confess our lovelessness and receive Jesus’ Absolution from our pastor as from God Himself. Our pastor’s Absolution delivers forgiveness for our lovelessness. And it also refreshes us in Jesus’ love for us. His love is action, meaning that in Confession and Absolution, Jesus is acting to communicate the righteousness He won for you by His death. Risen from the dead, Jesus has broken the power of death and defanged the devil. There is no condemnation for you who believe this. Therefore, receiving Jesus’ love in the act of hearing the forgiveness of sins, we can then show the same kind of heart and forgiveness to those who sin against us lovelessly. God grant Your Spirit that we might! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O God, the giver of all that is good, by Your holy inspiration grant that we may think those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

- Pastor. Robert Mayes is the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church and Zion St. John Lutheran Church in Beemer and Wisner, NE.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

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