09/05/2021 | NO GREATER LOVE

Reading:  John 15:9-17
15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Scripture texts are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible

Questions:

  1. Please write a one-sentence definition of love.
  2. What might it mean for you that Jesus commanded us to “love one another as I have loved you” (v. 12)? To answer this question, think carefully on the way that Jesus loved others, and the ways he showed that love in practical action to the people he was with (vs.13).
  3. What might it mean for St. Thomas Church that Jesus commanded the church to “love one another” (v. 17)?
  4. Whom do you find it difficult to love?
  5. Friends a Gospel truth is that the more we love, the more we can love. The more we surrender to others in Love and Service, the more we want to surrender in Love and Service. Perhaps this truth is why in Acts 20:35 Paul reminded his followers of the words of Jesus – “It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Do you agree with this view? Is this type of love in action possible for you?

God bless,

Rev Tim.