Love One Another
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. (John 15:11-14).
Jesus wills that His disciples should love one another, as He had loved them. He had been speaking of the Father’s love for Him, which flowed from heaven into His heart. He loved them in this same way; but He had also been a companion, a servant, in this love. For that reason, the disciples were expected to love one another with a love that surpassed common love, and which should surpass and rise above human weaknesses and limitations. And this love was to be brotherly, and so powerful that it caused anyone who felt it to be the servant of his brother.
Christ says that it went so far as to lay down life itself for one’s friends. Christ became our friend when He gave His life for our sins. We are His friends when we enjoy His confidence. He said: “I have told you all things that I have heard of my Father.” The apostles didn’t choose Christ. He chose them. He ordained them to go and bring forth fruit in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since they were chosen, they would receive from the Father whatever they asked.
Christ did this so that they would rise above the ordinary demands of their responsibilities; and would understand that they were endowed with divine grace. The same is true of the Church. We who gather in His name as the Body of the Church must understand that we gather as a responsibility in our love for one another. But beyond that, we are called upon the recognize that we do so within the aura of divine grace. In those days, the world hated these new Christians because of their hatred and rejection of Christ. The world loves and praises that which is of the world. This is a natural secular human consequence. We see it daily in the news and through television…people passionately and hysterically adoring entertainment “idols”.
But because we are Christ’s and He has revealed Himself to us; and through the apostles, has passed on to us His divine grace, we have become precious in God’s eyes. We are expected to realize and be conscious of the fact that we are precious in God’s eyes and are therefore called upon to emulate His holiness through our insatiable love and compassion for one another. Jesus separated the apostles from the “world”, and thus, we also are separated from this secular world through our brotherly love that is above the pedestrian and commonplace relationship.
Christ said to His disciples: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for I have taught you everything that I learned from my Father” And in this Gospel chapter we are shown how the Father sends the Spirit in Jesus’ name for Jesus’ personal relationship to the disciples. The disciples bore witness to the glory of Christ who was exalted by the Holy Spirit., Thus in Christ, the true Vine, we have the disciples, the branches. We are the heirs and branches of those vines. We are called upon to seek out our brethren in love and to bear witness to Christ, and the need for His precious love and compassion.
In many Armenian Churches there is an inscription upon the arch of the apse or altar area. This inscription reads: “That you should love one another as I have loved you”. It is significant that the Armenian Church has singularly adopted this phrase from Holy Scripture to place above all our altars. It witnesses the fact that, in our history, we have more often than not been unable to unite.
Indeed, European travelers, even from Medieval times have described the Armenians as intelligent and enterprising…but unusually jealous of one another. We ourselves, often comment today upon this very unfortunate characteristic that has been a dilemma and oftentimes a source of our inability to accomplish wonderful things. Unquestionably, in past years, this characteristic has deprived us of qualitative and productive leadership, and has instead created a “paralytic” or “status quo” condition in our churches and organizations, allowing for only superficial “events”, but lacking true cultural and religious substance.
Christ calls upon us to love one anther as He has loved us. Christ, God, gave His life that we should cleansed and become worthy in the eyes of the Father. Through His disciples he passed on a legacy of divine grace and compassion that surpasses human understanding. This is why it is imperative to know the truth of the Gospel. Remarkably, in our Badarak, just prior to the singing of the Lord’s Prayer [Hayr Mer]. the celebrant silently reads a passage called “the prayer of the Paternal name”…addressed to God the Father. It reads as follows: “O God of truth and Father of mercies, we thank you, Who has exalted our nature, condemned as we were. [even] above that of the blessed patriarchs. Because to them You were called “God”, whereas, in your compassion, You have been pleased to be named “Father” to us. And now, O Lord, we beseech you, make the grace of so new and precious a naming of yourself shine forth and flourish day by day in your holy Church…”
How eloquently and appropriately have the Holy Fathers of the Church expressed the new and more intimate and dynamic relationship of God the Father to His flock. Knowing this, can we permit ourselves to decline the favor of God and His paternal relationship to us? Can we as Christians and children of God, ignore his commandment to love one another? Can we continue to permit disharmony among ourselves? Of course not. We are called upon to be His disciples.
And in this context, we are compelled to exercise our deepest and most sincere love and brotherhood toward one another…especially within the family of the church. He is not simply “God”….but has chosen to be our “Father”. In this regard He willed that His only begotten son should be sacrificed for our sins. This was accomplished. His love became manifest. And for all eternity, we are bound by our faith to absorb this love and make ourselves a dynamic of the living Christ on earth.