Election as a Call to Love First

I have enjoyed carefully examining a short portion of Jesus' discussion with his disciples during the last supper in John 15:1-17. Over the last few days I have been pondering 15:16, a verse that I am sure will raise some eyebrows tomorrow when I discuss it in the sermon. It stands out for its theological bluntness on the doctrine of election.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. John 15:16 ESV

What it says is plain enough. We did not choose Jesus. Jesus chose us. His move was primary, and any decision we feel we've made with regard to Jesus is a result of his sovereign choice. That's clear enough; but what I've been pondering is the location of this particular bit of theological precision. Jesus is talking about his love and how we as his beloved friends are to abide in his love and love others in the same way he loves us. Why, seemingly out of the blue, does Jesus switch to the topic of his sovereign choice?

And then it hit me. Election is not only Christ's sovereign choice of the people for whom he will sacrificially give his life; election is also the model for how we are to love others first. Now, my thoughts on this are just now simmering, so I would welcome any perspective or critique you may bring to them.

Here's what I think I'm seeing. In 15:12, Jesus says we are to love others as he has loved us. This means sacrificially, which is clear from the next verse that says no one has greater love than he who gives his life for his friends. Now that's challenging enough. To love to the point where you are willing to die in the place of the other person is beautiful, costly love, and it is absolutely the central message of the cross, because Jesus dies as the substitute sacrifice for the sins of his people.

But 15:16 heightens the challenge by showing us yet one more aspect of Jesus' love for his people that must be modeled in the loving fruit they produce, namely, that we are to be the people who love others first. The disciples didn't choose to love and abide in Jesus. Jesus chose them when they were perfectly content to keep on fishing, collecting taxes, etc. without any love for Jesus at all.

I've talked to enough people, done enough counseling, and searched my own heart enough to know that we humans are not inclined to love first. What I am inclined to do is love conditionally. I will extend love as an invitation to others, and if it is accepted, friendship begins. When it's rejected, I assume the other person is not worth my love and move on. That's what my sinful heart wants to do. I want to revoke the invitation.

But Jesus' love isn't an invitation, it's a selection. He chooses us, and we become his beloved friends. As such, my love isn't to be simply an invitation, but a choice to love. I don't get to decide how and to what extent I'm going to love other people anymore than I decided how and to what extent Jesus was going to love me.

Now of course, my love for another person is not irresistable like Jesus' love. My love doesn't bring about new birth or new creation in another person. But it is not the doctrine of irresistable grace that Jesus references. It is the doctrine of unconditional election, and to that end my love for another person must pour from me regardless of how it is received.

Imagine if everyone who followed Jesus realized that they were chosen, in spite of themselves, by Jesus, and used that love as a model for loving everyone else. Imagine if we said, "No matter what you do to me or how you receive me, I am going to love you first as unconditionally as Jesus loved me first, even if it kills me."