Love without obedience (John 15:9-17)
My desire to clean the kitchen was an exercise of love. Then my mom asked me to do what I was already planning to do—and my gift turned into affliction.
As a teenager I occasionally had moments of spontaneous helpfulness. I’d wake up and say to myself, “Today I am going to clean the kitchen for Mom.” Deeply satisfied with my initiative, I would spend the day soaking in the satisfaction of being a wonderful son. Then I’d return home from school and my mother would greet me, ask how my day had gone and tell me she needed me to clean the kitchen. And I’d bristle with resentment.
With that simple command my initiative hardened into a burden, and cleaning became one task among many other unwelcome requirements of the day. My desire to clean the kitchen had been an exercise of love, but now something had shifted inside of me, turning my gift into affliction.
If this is the case with a simple task, how will I respond when Jesus commands me to love? Surely his is an even more demanding request. A command to love sounds binding—it may degenerate into a list of things to do, a fulfillment of duty, instead of leading to the reciprocating love of two “free” individuals.
