May 28,
2000
John 15:9-17 (CEV)
I have loved you, just as my Father has loved me. So remain faithful
to my love for you. If you obey me, I will keep loving you, just
as my Father keeps loving me, because I have obeyed him.
I have told you this to make you as completely happy as I am.
Now I tell you to love each other, as I have loved you. The greatest
way to show love for friends is to die for them. And you are my
friends, if you obey me. Servants don't know what their master
is doing, and so I don't speak to you as my servants. I speak
to you as my friends, and I have told you everything that my Father
has told me.
You did not choose me. I chose you and sent you out to produce
fruit, the kind of fruit that will last. Then my Father will give
you whatever you ask for in my name. So I command you to love
each other.
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1.
A key question: "How have you experienced being loved?"
2.
It is out of this that we share love with others. There is a lot
of conditional love talk here but the key, all the way through,
is the key question: "How have you experienced being loved?"
3.
An alternative phrasing of the key question is: "How have
you experienced being chosen?"
In these two phrasing we find bed-rock questions which shape our
lives. May you continue to grow in your experience of being loved
and chosen. May you then love and choose in like manner.