Love Them to the End
David W Palmer
(John 13:1 NKJV) Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
The Holy Spirit narrates Jesus’s Passion Week for us; and as he opens this passage, he explains exactly where we are at this point in his story: “Before the Feast of the Passover.” Next, he gives us the relational setting: “He should depart from this world to the Father.” The world did not receive Jesus, but the Father loved him and was ready to welcome him back. Then, importantly for all of us who follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit said, “Having loved his own … he loved them to the end.” Today, be encouraged knowing that Jesus loves you, and he will always love you.
We note that the Holy Spirit didn’t say, “Having trained his own,” or “Having led his own,” or even, “Having brought his own to wholeness.” It is so important for us to realize that the way the Holy Spirit summed up Jesus’s three years with his disciples was: “He loved them to the end.” Jesus loved his trainee leaders from the time he called them all the way through their apprenticeship—even when they had “no” or “little” faith— “to the end.” In other words, according to the Holy Spirit, “love” was the one word that completely summed up Jesus’s entire interaction with them.
From this, we see the importance of loving those we are leading. If we are leaders, love should be the standout characteristic of our leader-follower relationships. Whether we are leading some disciples for Jesus, managing people at work, raising a family, or leading by example, love should be our dominant and distinctive hallmark.
The leader-follower relationship can be a testing and difficult relationship. This is because the follower will often be: challenged with the need to learn, resistant to receiving correction, and having to deal with immature, fleshly rebellion when called to submit—all while often being offended or bewildered by their leader’s actions and reactions. (Sadly, no leader or under-shepherd is perfectly like Jesus yet!—not even you or me.) So, to keep this relationship intact, Jesus designed and modeled its proper application: love, love, love.
When we are entrusted to be like Jesus and to have people follow us in his name, our main responsibility in this relationship is to love them. Our Lord also calls us to feed them and tend them, while making disciples of them (See: John 21:15–17, Mat. 28:18–20). Yes, we have leadership responsibilities to train and shape disciples—growing them to be all they are called to be in Christ—but our main responsibility is to “love them to the end.”
In the times in which we live, this will become more and more challenging:
(Matthew 24:12 NKJV) “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”
Jesus forewarned us of the temptation to allow our love to cool. What’s the solution? He maintains his fervent love for us, and he wants us to keep our love burning hot until his return:
(1 Peter 4:8 AMP) Above all, have fervent and unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins [it overlooks unkindness and unselfishly seeks the best for others].
Three times the Holy Spirit tells us to pursue love, so it must be very important:
(1 Corinthians 14:1 NKJV) “Pursue love ….”
(1 Timothy 6:11 NKJV) “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue … love, patience, gentleness.”
(2 Timothy 2:22 NKJV) “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue ... love ….”
Our Lord expects us to go after love, to make it a goal, and to give it a high priority. So:
Add Love:
(2 Peter 1:5–8 NKJV) “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, {6} to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, {7} to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. {8} For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2. Keep Yourself in the Love of God:
(Jude 1:21 NKJV) “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
3. Clothe Yourself in Pure Love:
(Colossians 3:14 NKJV) “But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:8 NKJV) “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.”
4. Be an Example in Love:
(1 Timothy 4:12 NKJV) “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in ... love ...”
5. Do Everything with Love:
(1 Corinthians 16:14 NKJV) “Let all that you do be done with love.”
Remember: “If you do these things you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1:10 NKJV).
I believe that to be like Jesus fully in loving those we lead, we need also to be like him in what he says here:
(John 10:10 NKJV) “… I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
To love those we lead like Jesus does, we need to be able to say that we have come into our leadership role with them as one who is a constant source of “life” to them. Thankfully, Jesus explained how to do this. First, he said:
(John 7:37–38 GNB) “… Whoever is thirsty should come to me, and whoever believes in me should drink. As the scripture says, ‘Streams of life-giving water will pour out from his side.’”
Jesus also said:
(John 6:63 NKJV) “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
If we come constantly to Jesus and drink-in his love and his stream of life-giving words, we can overflow love and life-giving words to others. We need this so we can make the default setting of our mouth encouragement and edifying words for those we lead. Let’s fill them with vision and revelation from heaven. We have sheep to tend and feed, so let’s ensure that we have a fresh supply of green grass for them directly from Jesus, the living Word. This way, we can be like him, and love them constantly.
Prayer is another very important aspect of loving our entrusted followers. I believe it is the first and most fundamental act of love that we can do for anyone. Jesus even told us, “Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Mat. 5:33 NKJV). When we pray for them, we allow God to work in their lives; this is the most loving thing we can do for anyone. So, pray for those for whom you are the under-shepherd. For some other very practical ways to love those we are given the privilege to lead, we can get some ideas from the popular “Five Love Languages.” These can help us formulate ways to love each individual person in a way that they can receive:
Words of affirmation
Gifts
Appropriate touch
Quality time
Acts of service
Maybe among our followers, we need to keep a constant stream of these going all the time. That way, each person will receive love in a way that’s special and believable for him or her.
Today, begin by thanking God for the awesome privilege of sharing his responsibility to love and lead people in his name. Pray for them, using the scriptural prayers modeled for us in the New Testament. Then, ask the Holy Spirit for ways to express love to them—ways that they can receive without suspicion.
Remember to sit at Jesus’s feet every day, drink from his never-ending flow of life, and be constantly aware of God’s love poured into you by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). This way, you will be able to keep the life-giving words of affirmation, encouragement, and grace pouring out in the pure love of God.
Then, when you need to correct, teach, and make decisions that call for submission, your “sheep” will be joyfully living in an environment flooded with love to comfort and encourage them—despite the sandpaper, challenges, and trials of being led.
(1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 NKJV) And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, {13} so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.