Jun 11: John 15:12-17
Key Verse: John 15:17
This is my command: Love each other.
Devotion:
I can remember the days when I was at boarding school and I would do anything to get out of ‘rest period’ where we had to stay on our beds in silence just after lunch. One of those things was to go to a post-lunch club such as chess club or the Christian union club. I failed miserably at the chess club because my brain is not wired for games like that… so I went along to the Christian union club…
Pretty quickly I found out these people were very different in their attitudes toward each other and to life and I liked that. Before long I started to listen and learned about the love Christ had for me. Whenever I read verses about the love Christ has for us I hark back to those days in school so many years ago when I learned about this new way of loving.
When Jesus was trying to teach others about this way God loves us, He must have come up with a lot of opposition from the ruling parties and the teachers of the law who were teaching people about a vengeful and strict God who insisted on rules and regulations. We look back at those times and we may wonder how people were so caught up in this web of deceit; but we still have that in our modern world!
The more power hungry people get when they are in charge of things, the more we are covered in lies and deceit, and the harder is becomes for us to know the truth in the end. God wants us to know the truth and to share the truth with everyone!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you convince people to do things your way?
How often is that God’s way, and how often just your way?