This is the fifty-seventh lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

To know the crucified and resurrected Christ more deeply as we approach Easter, consider using the devotional Knowing Him: Devotional Thoughts About the Cross and Resurrection

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” — John 15:9-13

Jesus said, “They hated me without reason.” He was neither the first nor the last person to be subjected to senseless rejection and persecution. But because he was the only perfect, sinless one, the hatred played out against him was the vilest the world would ever see. His haters called light darkness; they saw righteousness and called it wickedness. They even called the work of God the deeds of the devil.

We’ve heard stories of brave sacrifices—a soldier throwing his body on a hand grenade, a bystander pulling someone off a subway track, a firefighter charging into an inferno only to lose his own life. These are stirring, and they show humanity at its best. But Jesus’ sacrifice was not the impulse of a desperate moment. He moved with resolve toward his own end. There truly is no greater love. We could look through every page of history and into every corner of the universe, and we wouldn’t find anything that even comes close. Jesus looked at his friends, told them he would be laying down his life, and then required one simple thing of them (and us): love each other.

And so our one real chance at loving others is if we fully receive the love of God for us and let it change our entire perspective on our relationships with others. But this won’t happen by a casual remembrance of the love of Jesus. When Jesus said, “Remain in my love,” he meant we are to dwell there. We are to be conscious every hour of the day that the bedrock truth of our lives—the core of our identity—is we are loved by Jesus the Christ. Keeping our focus on the cross is the way to remain in his love.

Ponder This: What do you have to say to Jesus who laid down his life for you?
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Mel Lawrenz (@MelLawrenz) trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a PhD in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, including How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.