Throughout the New Testament, we hear Jesus speak over and over about love—232 times to be exact for all you trivia buffs. Other than references to Jesus and God, it’s the most repeated word in the New Testament. It pretty much tells us Jesus wanted us to remember its importance.
Today, Jesus tells us to keep His commandments and goes on further to reduce that to one phrase—love one another as I love you. If we did that, there would be no sin. There would be no violence in this world.
A little further on in John’s Gospel passage Jesus speaks to His disciples (and to us) and says, “I have called you friends…” We put a lot of emphasis on friendship. When we were children, and maybe more so today, it was devastating to us when a person told us we were no longer friends. We take joy in friendship. We grieve at the loss of friendship. Other than family, friends play the most important role in our lives.
So what is Jesus telling us today? He tells us He has chosen us as his friend. We didn’t choose Him as a friend but He chose us! WOW!! He then continues The Message from last week. It’s our responsibility to go out and bear fruit by loving one another.