Daily Devotion for Thursday 10th July 2025
St John 15: 12 – 17
Jesus said: “‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Reflection
The significance of love, and of being loved, doesn’t appear to be a priority in public debates about politics and finance from those in power. Rather, wealth creation and issues about tax and tariffs dominate.
Jesus brings a different approach, offering love as the underlying priority for life. This love is God’s gift, seen in the sacrificial offering of Jesus’ life. It starts with knowing that, as we are, we are loved by God.
There are times when the pressures of this life can take us personally away from that close sense of God’s love. We can feel too busy to take time to stop and wait upon God. Or we can get caught up in despair and difficulty, and feel abandoned and on our own. Or we can feel guilty at all the things we think we should be doing and don’t have time for.
In the wider world today love can seem to be disregarded. There’s a focus on the self, leading to stepping away from people rather than being alongside people. Too often we hear words of hatred, see acts of violence, or hear about war rather than peace, being a priority.
Jesus invites us to the path of love and appoints us to bear fruit. We’re no longer on our own. We don’t need to despair, even in the most difficult times. When we’ve trusted ourselves into God’s hands, we’re no longer living only in our own hands. We can only do so much. What’s significant and gives us hope and strength is that we do what God calls us to.
Knowing that we’re loved by God is the starting point for our being able to live in love. Growing in this knowledge takes time, putting ourselves into God’s hands day by day. When we’re filled with God’s love, we can then bear the fruit which God asks of us in this troubled world. We can put aside our differences and disagreements and be inclusive of a wide range of diversity, just as God’s love embraces a wide range of different people.
Prayer
Compassionate God,
may I again this day place my life in Your loving hands.
As I receive your love,
help me to live in this love for those around me,
and in this troubled world.
May I bear the fruit to which you call me,
in however difficult the circumstances might be.
To You be the glory, now and always.
Amen.