I was reading in John 13: 31-38 this morning where Jesus predicts Peter’s denial just after washing the disciples’ feet. Verse 37 is Peter’s response, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you”. I found it interesting because Peter was ready to die for Jesus, but he wasn’t ready to live for him. What I mean is just a few chapters later we see him again, ready to die and willing to fight a group of soldiers single-handedly in the garden to defend Jesus, but he was not willing to wash the feet of his brothers as Jesus had done just a few minutes earlier.
As the rag-tag soldiers for Christ that we are, we are ready to fight and go into battle together, but often we can be reluctant to love and serve each other. And it’s this same passage that Jesus gives the command to no longer just love your neighbor as yourself, but love as HE has loved us. We are so willing and ready for the battle...in fact sometimes we are so full of readiness that we end up fighting with each other! But what we are not ready for is to love each other as Christ loved us, and this is where Satan knows he can divide us.
We are ready to fight the battle, we are willing to die to ourselves for Jesus. But are we ready to live for him? Are we ready to love each other in the midst of the battle?
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