There is a difference between Love and being In Love. It is like the difference between there being a house and being in the house, or there being a group and being in the group, a family and being in the family. It is the difference between something that is “out there” and something that you are in, connected to and with, a part of.
Too often we talk about love as an “out there” thing. Share the love. All you need is love. Love makes the world go around.
But this isn’t what Jesus discusses or what He modeled. The model He provides is His and the Father’s love. We see it throughout our verses for today.
The son of man is glorified and God is glorified IN him.
If God is glorified IN him, God will glorify the Son IN himself
This is connectivity at its pentacle. The love of the Trinity within itself of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is to connected that it is impossible to distinguish where one love begins and another connects.
This is the love Jesus called His disciples to have. An “In” kind of love. He didn’t command them to love. He commanded them to “love one another”. To be connected, joined, be part of the “in” of what made them something bigger.
This is how Jesus loved them. It wasn’t just the washing of feet, the patience, or even the willingness to die for them. These were all just external manifestations of what He was really calling them to do, which is to connect “In Love.”
This is hard. This level of connection means the facades we put up around our messed up lives come down. We open up. We spend time together in thick and thin. We keep promises. We do not look only for win-win solutions, sometimes we look for win-lose solutions, were we lose to help the other person win.
But this is the difference between the way Jesus loves us by being IN us and the love we too often pass off as “doing our Christian duty.” It is being in a community, a family, a church (in the realest sense of that word) with other believers.
And, isn’t it what we long for in the deepest parts of our soul? God built us to be IN love, IN His Love, IN the Love of His Church which is the Bride of His Son, to have the Holy Spirit dwell IN us as the glue that connects us to the Father and Son and them with us and with each other.
My Answers:
3.
Glorified in this sense is a transformation from the blank slate of being a sinless man to taking on the sin of the world and bearing it on the cross, carrying it into death and, in so doing, paying the price in full for sin, rising again to human life and ascending to sit at the right hand of God. This is permanent and eternal and divine, connect the physical and spiritual worlds. In contrast man’s glory and fame are momentary recognitions of temporary accomplishments to the acclaim of other men.
4.
a.
Love one another as I have loved you. This is a higher than the do unto others command in that it is not just how I would like others to love me, but how did/does Jesus love me, and to bestow that love to others
b.
15. As the Father has loved Jesus and Jesus remains in the love of the Father, remain in Jesus’ love and obey and love each other. It is an interweaving, a connection or communion. As Timothy Keller says, a divine dance
2. There is no room for hatred in the brotherly and sisterly love that Christ provides. Someone who continues to hate is in darkness
3. Love with actions, be willing to lay down life (and possessions) for brothers and sisters in need. Have pity/compassion.
5.
To help me love others deeper and with more compassion, especially those brothers and sisters in need of my time and attention and compassion. Help me to be a joyful giver and not to become judgmental and/or frustrated.
The Notes are Good 