Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: John 15:1-17

The image of the Vine and its branches gives us a wonderful perspective on the Christian value of Love.

It teaches us that remaining in a deeply connected relationship with Jesus is the only way to truly live a life of love. Such a relationship with Jesus brings with it a deeply personal experience of His love for us, and it grows within us the desire and the ability to love others with His love. True Christ-like love is produced in us only by the indwelling Christ, and only as we “remain in His love”. We might say that true Christian love is an overflow of the indwelling love of Christ.

When Jesus says: “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you,” He is simply commanding us not to keep His love to ourselves, but to allow His love to flow out of us to others. There are days when this feels like an impossible task. There are days when this feels as though Jesus has the most unachievable expectations of us. There are days that we feel completely inadequate to know how to love others because they confuse us, misunderstand us, or just plain hurt us. Those are the days on which we are invited to have the sort of faith in Jesus that moves us to “ask anything” of Him – to ask the seemingly impossible of Him – which in this case must surely be, “Jesus, let your love flow through me to him/her”.

Jesus, let Your love flow through me today. Amen.