Unconditional Love

John 15:9-17

Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”

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The irony of being a Parent is that no matter what our Children do, we will still love them.  Even if they do the unthinkable.  I have seen Parents love their Children through addictions, divorce, death, promiscuity, incarceration, and all sorts of challenges.  There is literally nothing that our Children can do to turn our love away from them.  And, the same is true for all of us as Children with both our Earthly Parents and our Heavenly Father.  No matter what we do in this world, He holds out His Hand to us to reach-up and grab.  Jesus loves us.  He remains in us.  He is our Friend.  He chose us.  But, why stop with our Families and Friends?  What is the harm in loving all others the way that Christ loves us?  It’s the greatest Commandment of all and it’s the simplest, too.  While it’s hard to love others unconditionally, it’s very simple.  Love is the Eternal Fertilizer to the Fruit of our legacies.  Jesus changed the world, because He loved us all the way to His death on the cross.  Jesus came with a simple task, but it sure was a long way from easy.  Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”  Have the courage to look to the cross and lead your life well while following other Godly examples of sacrificial leadership.