John 15:9-12
The Message (MSG)
9-10“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love.
11-15“I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
You’ve just been hired as a manufacturer’s representative. The manufacturer in this case manufactured the earth, the universe and all that it is in them. Then he appoints you, a part of that creation to represent Him on earth to the rest of creation. That’s hard to take in. A few years ago my wife Ruth wrote this to be read at a church plant she was doing in a place where representing God, representing Christ, would not be easy. But is it any easier where you are? Where I am?
Look at the example I have set in how I’ve loved you and all of the others and follow my example.
Follow my example. Love the world.
Be Me to the world.
Be Me to your neighbors.
The woman across the road, the guy who lives downstairs.
The kids who play on your lawn.
Be Me to the vulnerable, the hungry, the oppressed.
Be Me to the poor, the cold, the homeless, the lost.
Be Me to the rich, the insulated, the sheltered, the lost.
Be Me to the fearful, the sick, the lonely, the isolated, the recovering.
To the educated, to the street-smart, to the foolish.
To the bruised, the bleeding, the calloused, the rough, the tough, the abrasive.
Be Me to the stubborn, the unappreciative, the ungrateful, the dismissive.
To the takers.
To the users.
To the ones who have raised themselves up, the ones who have made themselves as small as possible or who have been made small.
Be Me to the almost there, the almost gone.
To the empty, the misunderstanding, the suspicious, the condescending.
Be Me to the ones whose backs are toward you, the ones whose heads are bowed, the ones whose chins are held high.
Be Me to the uninterested, the undesiring, to the undeserving.
To the shackled, to the free.
Be Me the way I have been Me to you.
Be Me.
You have no right not to be.
~Ruth Wilkinson
Christianity 201 