LOVE those around us...

As a friend of mine and I were emailing a few days ago she ended with:

Geez, Jesus is so great.  I love that he is constantly calling us to get over ourselves and care about Him, His calling, and those around us.  That our goal is to LOVE those around us, not to be the "most holy" or the "best disciple."  Praise God for that!

Reading through John 15 recently, I realized that what he is saying is actually a train of thought with an answer for every question. Most of the time I read the bible and don't understand it all and tell myself "it's because you don't understand the implications of the words being used" (example as follows).

A conversation between me and John 15

John 15:1-9 basically (for the sake of this though process) commands "Abide in me (ESV)"
Me: "So I get basically what Abiding in Christ looks like -or at least I think I do- Reading his word, praying (all the "Christian Practices" ect ect)"

but if I simply ask the question: What does abiding in you mean? He answers:"

John 15:10 "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love (ESV)"
Me: "Okay, simple enough... keep the commandments, I can still keep with the "Christian Practices" idea, they follow his commandments, and follow the BIG 10. Easy enough, pretty simple."

But again, If I ask the question: "What is your commandment" He answers:

John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you Love one another as I have loved you. (ESV)"
Me: "Hmm, alright... not quite what I was expecting as his commandment, simply Love one another.... okay. Well that is completely different from just "Christian Practices"

All this being said because the statement "Our Goal is to LOVE those around us" line reminded me of this. Okay in order to Abide in him I do think that we are called to spend time in his word, and to pray (Christian practices) but I don't think they are the point Jesus is trying to make here: "Love One another as I have Loved you"

In Luke 10 Christ is approached by "an expert in the Law" and questioned about how to inherit eternal life. "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind', and 'Love your neighbor as your self' (NIV)" but when he digs deeper into this, he asks "who is my neighbor?" here Christ tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, the biggest thing I get out of this is that when we are called to "Love One another" it is not only our friends, or our family, but the WORLD.

I think that HOW TO LOVE is something I take as assumption because of my "world of knowledge" from my favorite knowledge source, THE MEDIA!!! (sarcastically). But I think- err. I know the LOVE Jesus was talking about looks very different from what the media says. 
In the words of Switchfoot (representing reality, not Media) "We don't know what we're doing, lets do it again! We're just amateur lovers, with amateur friends (Switchfoot, Amateur Lovers, from Oh! Gravity.)"
Someone said to me once "People are dying for someone to talk to" I think this is just one way that we are called to LOVE one another.

I really like the idea of not really knowing how to really love, I mean God loves us, but that is dealing with this infinite power loving finite people, and that isn't really clear to me how we (finite people) are supposed to LOVE others (finite people)- except that Jesus was human. Jesus did come down to earth to show us how to live as God's creation. And how did he live? with LOVE for others (finite person loving finite person)- if you can simply describe Jesus as finite ;)

How do we learn this? In the stories left behind from those who lived with him and saw what he did (scripture).

Geez, Jesus is so great.  I love that he is constantly calling us to get over ourselves and care about Him, His calling, and those around us.  That our goal is to LOVE those around us, not to be the "most holy" or the "best disciple."  Praise God for that!

So I wrote this out and didn't use it but thought it was interesting that it is quoted in "The Junglebook"
(13) Greater Love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (ESV)"