Chosen to love

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last...This is my command: Love each other (John 15:16-17).

Jesus says that we don’t choose Him, but that He chooses us.  The sobering fact is that we were incapable of choosing to follow Jesus.  In Romans chapter 8 Paul tells us, the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.  In 1st Corinthians he says, People who do not have God’s Spirit do not accept the things that come from his Spirit. They think these things are foolish. They cannot understand them, because they can only be understood with the Spirit’s help. Unless God intervenes, the sin that blinds us to everything good and holy and righteous makes it impossible to see Christ for who He really is, or find any value in becoming a disciple.

Thankfully despite all that, Jesus chose us to receive His mercy, chose us to learn from Him, chose us to follow where He leads.  He chose to look past our glaring imperfections and establish a personal connection with the precious individual God designed each of us to be.  He took action to establish the relationship which we were incapable of initiating.

You and I, we were chosen by Christ for a purpose.  The Lord says, I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.  We are selected to do things that have long-term ramifications, important things that have eternal significance.  We are appointed to share the message of Jesus with individuals who have not yet heard it. 

Fruit that will last—that fruit, that blossom of a life well-lived, is love.  Love for individuals who are caught up in futility, aggravation, hopelessness and despair.  We are to show a love that gets involved in hurting lives, a love that wants Jesus’ circle of friends to grow by another person.  Jesus wants us the bear a fruit of love that touches lives and changes them, not just for an hour or a day but for a lifetime.  Love has that kind of power when it flows from the heart of Christ.  His love has the power to free hearts from the darkness of corruption and fill them with the light of everlasting life. 

Jesus said, this is my command: love each other.  Love is more than affection, more than showing respect for dignity or rights.  Love is reaching out to offer strength, assistance, relief, support.  Love is sharing what Christ gives us, that all might know Him by our love.