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Remain in My Love

Remain in My Love

Last updated on: May 5, 2018 at 7:03 pm by Mary Pezzulo

Remain in My Love 2018-05-05T19:03:03-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

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.”

He does not call us slaves, but friends.

This is what you take upon yourself, if you become a follower of Christ: you will not be a slave, but a friend.

And this is contrary to everything we know, because human beings are accustomed to being slaves.

That’s my personal proof for Christianity being real, and maybe this only works for me: God does not want us for a slave, but a friend. Who could imagine something like that? If I were to make up a religion, I would never in the world imagine that. I would imagine gods who want sacrifices. Gods who want me to follow rules. Gods who want me to be subservient, if they think of anything as insignificant as me at all.

Here is a God who wants something different: to be a friend. God greater than I, more than I, beyond anything I could imagine, made Himself into a zygote and then an infant and then a man, so that He could become my friend and love me.

This is His commandment: remain in My love. This is the condition for being a follower of Christ: you must remain in His love. Everything flows from that. Every good deed we perform, every sin we avoid, we do so because of that love, and in order that we remain in His love.

The Father pours out His love eternally into the Son, and the Son returns the love in kind, keeping nothing for Himself. The eternal pouring of love is itself a Person, and that Person is the Holy Ghost. To be a Christian is to remain in that love– the Love that proceeds from the Father to the Son and back eternally, the Love that cannot be divided, the Love that will not be limited, diluted, slowed or rationed. Each Christian receives all of that eternal Love. And to remain in love, we must return that love, as freely and wholly as it was given to us. It cannot work in any other way. To be a Christian is to enter into the Movement of the Trinity and be one with God.

In that Movement, we lay down our lives. We must. There is no other way to be a Christian. Every day we lay down our lives, take up the Cross which is the source of Life, and lay that Life down for one another again so that Christ may fill us with His Life again. And where this constant laying down and receiving anew takes us– that, I can’t tell you. Sometimes you’ll see things change all at once. Sometimes you remain visibly where you were before, only your life has new meaning now. Love takes some people into the hermitage or the convent; She takes some into that ragtag, imperfect mirror of the Trinity which is known as the human family. Love takes some across the world, into the desert, into the city to preach the Word; she takes some to leper colonies, schools, hospitals, soup kitchens. Some will actually, physically lay down their lives on battlefields, gallows or real, physical crosses.

All who surrender to this eternal Love will end up in the same Place, and that Place is Paradise. There is only one road to Paradise, and that is the Love of Christ. But the road will look very different for each person who travels that Way.

Is Christianity a set of rules? No. It cannot be. Christianity is Love. But that Love will make demands of you– strict demands for how you treat yourself and others, what you do with your time, even how you think when you’re by yourself. If you do not remain in Love, you will never find Heaven by following rules.

Is Christianity a sacrifice? No. It cannot be. Nothing we can sacrifice will impress a God who has everything already. Christianity is Love. But that Love will demand the laying down of your life, again and again, the constant sacrifice of Love to Love so that more love may come in to fill the empty places. If you do not remain in Love, you will never find Heaven by making sacrifices.

Is Christianity servitude? No. It cannot be. No servitude is necessary to a God who can do whatever He wills. Christianity is Love. But that love will demand that you serve Christ through one another constantly, whenever you see your neighbor in need. If you do not remain in Love, you will never get to Heaven through service.

If you keep His commandments– if you serve, if you sacrifice, if you follow the rules– remain in His love. If you love Him, you will keep His commandments, because they are only the demands of Love. He will give you the joy of Heaven, and your joy will be complete.

This He commands us. This is the Law and the Prophets: that we love one another with the love of Christ.

(image via Pixabay)

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