“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

If you keep my [new command], you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
(John 15:9-11) 

 

Jesus loved people the way he had been loved by God the Father first, which was personally with words and actions. Jesus, having been loved so well and empowered by the Holy Spirit at his baptism, loved his people this particular way. Over the course of three years, the disciples of Jesus were personally loved by him, they witnessed Jesus loving others, and they each joined in with Jesus as he was loving others - so that each disciple experienced a total of nearly 11,000 hours of being loved and loving as Jesus had loved them! It was after all of these experiences with them that Jesus told his friends that this was God the Father loving them through him, that when they were loved by Jesus he was showing them what God is truly like. That loving one another as they had been loved is the only way to remain in God’s love, and it has the added bonus of producing full and complete joy for those who do it. 

This is what we mean by “Loving the Jesus way” - loving as loved, empowered by the Spirit, to reveal God to the world.

Loving the Jesus Way makes our walk with the Lord easy, light, and restful, it satisfies our souls, and fills our hearts with joy!

This always begins by being loved by God first, up close and personally, through words and actions. Experiencing this life-transforming love compels us to love one another as and because we have been loved first.