Love Between Friends

John 15:9-17

His commandments should be interpreted by those intentions. The love of God and His compassion for the helpless and the needy must be windows through which we learn to look in seeking His will. The disciples had been trained to think in these ways. They had been with Jesus and observed that this was the way He thought and lived. Jesus blessed the children when even the disciples thought this was a waste of time. He received the gifts and worship of women who were known to be sinners. He was delayed for three days in the Samaritan town of Sychar as a result of His conversation with the woman by the well, a woman the disciples passed by but never saw. He was acutely aware of the personhood of the blind man when His disciples and everyone else had no respect for him at all. And when these lessons were forgotten, blind Bartimaeus and his ilk were always welcome to come by and to teach them again. Even the disciples themselves were examples of the spirit and priorities of Christ, tax collectors and fishermen and Galileans, they had no creds but they were chosen, singled out by Jesus to be trained and trusted with the message that would change the world.