As I Have Loved You

This is My commandment, that ye love one another. - John 15:12


We are to love, as Christ loves.  That seems impossible.  You here "love others" and your mind immediately goes to that one person that has wronged you, shunned you, spread lies about you, etc.  In other words, we immediately think of those people that are "impossible" to love.  Then, we are discouraged because we cannot love them. So before we've even tried - we feel as if we've failed this one great commandment that Jesus so plainly lays out for us.  However, we miss the "even as I" phrase....loving like Christ means a few things.  First, it does mean love everyone (sorry!) - Second, it also means love in the power that Christ loves.  Where does Christ's love come from - Himself: THE VINE.  Where do we get the power, the ability, the love to love others?  THE VINE!  "even as I" means that we draw the power to love only through being completely connected to the Vine. 


Murray says:


"How are we to begin if we are really to learn the mystery? With the confession that we need to be brought to an entirely new mode of life, because we have never yet known Christ as the Vine in the completeness of His quickening and transforming power. With the surrender to be cleansed from all that is of self and detached from all that is in the world, to live only and wholly as Christ lived for the glory of the Father. And then with the faith that this "even as I" is indeed what Christ is ready to make true, the Vine will maintain that very life in the branch wholly dependent upon Him."