John 15:12-14 – “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.”

Jesus repeats “The One Commandment” here again. I get the very clear picture that Jesus has been talking about this for quite some time here in both chapters 14 and 15. Jesus is really driving it home that in order to please Him we need to love each other! It is amazing that this has been a problem for us as Christians.

Another interesting thing to realize is that it is humanly impossible to do what Jesus is asking. By “humanly impossible” I mean that as a human alone, we cannot do it. I think that any honest individual would admit that loving someone enough to die for them is not what they naturally do. How can anyone do what Jesus is asking here?

As I have said before, this really is impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As believers, God does change us in our hearts and gives us the willingness to love each other as He loved us.

Remember that Jesus is the vine and we must be connected to the vine or else we can’t be a productive branch. When we are connected, Jesus will make us able to do this impossible demand. There appears to be another thing involved here as well: our will.

So, rather than taking these words as a reason to give it more effort, we should be using these words to be willing to do what He asks even though we cannot do it ourselves. We must both remain in Him for without Him we can do nothing, and we must remain in His love by not refusing to love each other. Not that we would have to do it on our own, but that, by being in Him, we will be given the power as we are willing to submit to it.