John 15:12–14

My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. 13 greater love has no one than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 you are my friends if you do what I ask.

In verse 10, Jesus states: “If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remained in His love.”

Verse 12, we are told what the command is, “Love each other as I have loved you“. He now gives just one ultimate super consolidated command. When Jesus gave Himself up on the cross for all, He satisfied the Jewish Law, the old covenant. The commandments then became guidance that should be a compass as to whether or not you are abiding in Him and His love, not a legal blueprint to become a “good Christian.”

By seeking the face of God (becoming intimate with who He is), our character begins to change. A metamorphosis takes place where the old man and his self-serving, self preserving ways fade away. Just as we are a branch that now abides in Jesus and produces a spiritual fruit, we were once a branch that was connected to the world. The issue is, the world is not nourishing or life giving.  The World drains life from a person. Look at the world impact on humans today; it’s all around us. As people ask how God could let these things happen, notice that they have not connected themselves to the vine who promises life. You can’t say that a doctor wouldn’t save a patient when the patient refused to go see the Doctor.

I was considering some young Christians I’m watching come into this new way of life right now. I was thinking about how tough it is at first to grasp love as the motive and compared the law (punishment and reward). This revelation, I would say, was key to unlocking the gate between salvation (my acceptance of His payment for my sin) and our current Resurrected Relationship with Him.

The changes in my life since having my eyes opened to this understanding of a "love motive" have completely impacted every part of my being. I’ve taken a step from being a rescued passenger on a life boat waiting to be delivered to safety, to a team member who is working alongside my Savior, chasing after those who are still in danger, showing them the way to safety, delivering hope to each of them that you can only possess as you experience it, all in the name of love.

If I could only convey this image and what it has meant to me, into the young believers' being, what a jumpstart they would have. What an army of world changers we could witness rising up and chasing after those in need of a life boat! But it can’t be because “it’s the right thing to do“. The motive must be love and compassion for our fellow man, that can only be cultivated in a heart that has been overtaken by gratitude for what our Savior did for us. Here is where you begin to seek God‘s face. We will know Him by meditating on what He did for us. Did you hear that? Meditate on it...

We are born into a world that governs different bodies of people by laws established by those people; Laws that are developed with the idea, “This will ensure order within our body of people.“ What adds to the tangles of our legal hungry nature is that we based many of our laws on biblical principle; which isn’t bad, in fact it’s good. That’s our human way of thinking though, good things versus bad things.

But good things are not always God things.

This good versus bad way of thinking is driven by law.  Jesus came to fulfill the law and He did. By fulfilling the law, Jesus was able to give us one command that would guide us through the narrow gate: love.  If we truly love each other THE WAY CHRIST LOVED US, there is no need for any other law to show us right from wrong. There is a need to stay in constant connection with the vine, because as soon as we sever that connection, the love sustaining nourishment will no longer feed your heart.  

If you are not connected to the life-giving vine, then legalism (which destroys life) will quickly replace your motive.

Think about it; could you lie, steal, cheat, slander, or murder a person if your motive was to love that person in a way that put all their needs before yours? Of course not. That kind of love for all your fellow man, that can only grows out of your heart if it is being nourished by the vine of life, “The True Vine.“