This week we are focusing on John 15: 9-17 and 1 Corinthians 13. The theme that connects these passages is Love.
Most people know 1 Corinthians 13 and are probably most familiar with versus 4-7. They start: "Love is patient, love is kind." You've heard it before, most likely at weddings. In fact, I am going to my friend from college's wedding in 3 weeks and I am doing a reading during the ceremony. You can guess what I'm reading: 1 Corinthians 13. So that one seems pretty straight forward. But what about the passage from John and why are they together this week? What are we supposed to get other than the overarching theme of love from this combination.
John 15:9-17 has Jesus telling His disciples how He is loved by God and how they are loved by Jesus. They are supposed to serve and obey to keep His love. There is a lot of talk about commands: following commands as part of "remaining in his love," loving each other as a command, and doing Jesus' commands as an act of friendship. Following this command talk, Jesus says that despite this the disciples are his friends, and not his servants. Huh? I have a hard time rectifying all these commands with the title of friend. We usually don't think of friends as those who boss us around and say the only way I'm going to love you is if you listen to me and do as I say. That sounds a lot more authoritarian than friendly.
Setting that aside for a moment, what the passage from John doesn't have is what it means to love, what love is. Combined with 1 Corinthians 13, however, we get a better idea of love. Maybe the way love is described here is how Jesus loved his disciples> This was the good example He set so that when he said, "love each other," they knew what he meant. But why then the command to love? Maybe a hint is in 1 Corinthians 13: 12, "Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." Maybe Jesus knew something about the disciples (and by extension, us). Maybe He knew them fully, and knew that a commandment would get their attention, more than say, a recommendation. Maybe in being authoritative, He was giving them what they needed.
Just an idea...
Susan
1 comment:
"Maybe He knew them fully, and knew that a commandment would get their attention, more than say, a recommendation. Maybe in being authoritative, He was giving them what they needed."
That one hurts a bit, as I don't know if I always deal with suggestions well (internally or externally). Is this one of the ways God can reach through our pride? What an interesting point you brought up!
The only thing I'd add is something I mentioned at Bible study - we need to be careful in reading this in purely human terms. This is a message from God's son, after all. Although, like you pointed out, the whole "friends" thing messes up that neatness of that comparison, too. Does "friends" in Aramaic have the same connotation, I wonder? Kind of like the word "uncle" in Arabic?
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