Loving to the end
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. John 13:1, ESV
I just love that phrase—LOVED THEM TO THE END. But the Greek word here—TELOS—doesn’t mean “end” like it’s over. It means FULLY—loves them FULLY or FULFILLING AN AIM or the PURPOSE.
That got me thinking of all the times I’ve felt at MY end or said “I’m done.” But that is so different than what Jesus is saying here. Loving someone to OUR END is very different than loving someone to HIS END.
We are never an obligation or a checklist for Jesus—we are a purpose and a joy. And the challenging part is that further in the chapter, Jesus says we are to be known and to love by this type of love—
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35, ESV
WOW. What a high, impossible-to-reach-on-my-own bar. How is it possible?
But first—let’s admit that the world is HUNGRY for it. For belonging. For love.
Check out these stats from a 2021 study on friendship in the US over the past 40 years:
10% of women and 15% of men report they don't have a single friend.
Women with more than 10 friends have dropped from 28% to 11%; for men—from 40% to 15%.
61% of adults feel lonely.
The world is LONELY and we have the answer! Why? Because true friendship is modeled in the Trinity and how the Father relates to the Son and the Son to the Spirit. It’s pre-fall and in creation. It’s God’s response to man being alone in Genesis 2. Community is woven into the fibers of who we are because it’s part of who God is.
BUT—if I’m honest, I often love out of April and not the Lord. I love to MY end, not His.
Remember 1 Corinthians 13? Well—I’m not patient, I’m not always kind. I do boast and struggle with pride. I am self-seeking and struggle to not keep a record of wrongs. I could go on and on, but most of all, verse 8 says “love never fails,” and I absolutely do fail. As I get older, I become more and more aware of my weakness and my desperation for God to intervene so that my loved ones can be loved out of HIM and not out of ME.
But here’s some good news. Remember in verse 34 where Jesus called it a NEW command? What makes it new? Love has been there since the beginning!
Warren Wiersbe says that it’s not “new in time” but “new in experience.”
Now, the Holy Spirit has come to FILL and FUEL a different kind of love. So different that “everyone will know that you are [Jesus’] disciples, if you love one another” (verse 35).
A Christlike, Spirit-filled, and Spirit-fueled love is one that embraces the other fully—but also offers myself fully—mess and all.
It’s one that seeks to go to the cross together because we both need it terribly.
It’s one that acknowledges a DESPERATE need for the Lord’s intervention to love and serve others well.
Here’s my question for you and me…
When I look at the relationships in my life - am I loving them in such a way that I am able to do it out of my own skills, strengths, and natural tendencies?
Or am I desperate for the intervention of Christ to help me love them more fully?
How would my love and my relationships look different if they were DESPERATELY DEPENDENT AND FUELED by the Savior?
