Knee Jerk Devotional: April 14, 2021
John 17:20-26
Passage:
I'm praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they'll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they'll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you've sent me and loved them
In the same way you've loved me.
Father, I want those you gave me
To be with me, right where I am,
So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me,
Having loved me
Long before there ever was a world.
Righteous Father, the world has never known you,
But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them.
We wrap up Jesus prayer in John 17 today. This is the part of the prayer where he is specifically praying for us. Those of us who would come after that first generation of disciples. It is a remarkable thing to me that Jesus had this kind of self-awareness. I mean, it shouldn’t because he was after all, divine. Yet, Jesus understood that there was something happening in time and space that was bigger than himself and that others would be part of this new thing that was being launched at the resurrection.
What does Jesus want for us? Simple, he wants us unified as he and the Father are unified. He wants us of one heart and one mind.
What’s the goal?
That the love of God might be in us.
Again, if we are going to follow Jesus the marker of identity is not right belief it is love.
What kind of love?
The love that the Father has for Christ is to be in us.
That kind of love is one that looks like this…
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13)
This is not a wedding passage. This is an all of life passage.
Have you ever considered the reality that 1 Corinthians 13 is the pattern after which the whole of our lives ought to be patterned after?
Today, I invite you to meditate on this passage of Scripture. Join me as I ponder afresh the reality of what love looks like and its place as the ordering principle of our devotional lives.