Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: John 13:1-17, 34-35

³⁴ ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

Years ago Christian retailers started producing WWJD bracelets, based on a concept described in Charles Sheldon’s 1896 novel, In His Steps. WWJD, an acronym for “What Would Jesus Do?”, represents the question by which the characters in Sheldon’s book vowed to make every decision in their daily lives. Quite realistically, living that way proved hugely costly for the characters while simultaneously being hugely beneficial to the society in which they live.

Our daily reading from John 13 is a wonderful passage to guide us in living by the value of love. What would Jesus do? He would love others by practically serving their real needs. He would be willing to sacrifice His dignity, time, energy, effort, privileges, position and pride to ensure that the genuine needs of others were ministered to and met. Jesus’ love was not a theoretical love, but it was also far from an emotional love. Certainly He felt the emotion of love towards His family, friends and even strangers. But most often the Gospels portray Jesus making a decision to love others by meeting their needs without using any emotive words at all. We do not have to feel love towards someone to act in a way that is genuinely loving.

We’ll discover more about this principle as we journey through the week, but for today let’s simply undertake to follow in Jesus’ steps by committing to keep our eyes open for situations in which we may imitate and manifest the love of Jesus through meeting the genuine needs of others.

Lord Jesus, open my eyes and help me to seize each opportunity to love others as You have loved me. May my life reflect the beauty of Your love today. Amen.