John 13:1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
	This evening, let us look at the love of Christ for His own, which fully includes us. Even before the foundation of the earth was laid, we were the beloved of God, held within His grace-filled heart. We were known from eternity unto eternity. He knew the ones who would respond to His so great love in Jesus Christ. He made the way for that wondrous miracle of Love to become our very life. That truth is fully incorporated into this passage of our consideration. 
	We see, before us, the unchangeableness of Christ’s love. Events and circumstances did not and still do not hinder or prevent Him from bringing forth the Love that He is for His own. With mankind, there are often reasons that friendships fade or dissolve away. There are those relationships that die from hurt feelings, when self feels abused and neglected. There are those that succumb to distance as friends move to another area far away. There are those which disintegrate as interests change. And, there are those that are replaced with new friends who force away the old ones. 
This age is full of the dissolution of all earthly relationships. We see this in the way society cheapens the marriage commitment and the resulting divorce mentality currently flooding our society. We see it in the way family relationships are portrayed as easy to tear down. This age promotes disrespect and disregard for parents by their children. It is filled with the disrespect of the parents as they seek after personal things, rather than working for a solid and lasting relationship with their children. Families are scattered abroad with jobs and personal desires rather than with commitment and family responsibility. It is so easy to justify our actions of destruction with the need for more money, for more prestige, for a more affordable house. The underlying reason is the inherent lack of seeking after a relationship that is honoring to God. Yes, there are circumstances over which we have no control, but they are fully under the Hand of Our Lord Jesus Christ. As we seek after Him, we will find that the relationships set in Him do not suffer the dissolution of this world order. Things are faced together, as a family, in Christ. Marriages survive and even thrive in the midst of the most devastating situations. This is because of a complete reliance upon Christ to see the marriage through to that which He would have it express.
I would take a moment to digress into an area targeted at those who are of the age, or getting to be of the age, of soon considering marriage. There is nothing more important in the seeking after your life mate than to be able to stand in the presence of God and to declare that the one who is about to become your spouse is the one whom God has chosen for you. When that can be stated with all the fiber of one’s being, that marriage has the bedrock of Christ upon which to be built. It takes that bedrock in this age for a marriage to survive all the onslaughts that will be thrown against it. This world hates the true testimony of Christ. And, there is no testimony more evident of Christ than a marriage centered in Him. As the storms rage upon the marriage, there will be a confidence in its survival because of the knowledge that this union was ordered by God. There will never be any doubt or suspicion that someone else might have been a better spouse. The completed being, formed in that marriage bond, cannot be severed by any element of this world order. God created the union and He defends it and He nourishes it in the power of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
This then brings us back to the love of God in Christ Jesus that is everlastingly constant, no matter what this world throws at it. This was first made evident in the Old Testament as shown in Jer. 31:3, The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. This passage is an example of the heart of God after His own. It shows that God never changes His desire after those who are the called according to His plan and His purpose. He loves us with an everlasting love, a love that will not be blunted nor dampened with the advent of years upon years. His love is just as fresh and vital and alive unto us now, as it was in His heart before time was ever created by Him. Also, please note how He loves us. He draws us unto Himself in loving-kindness. He does not force Himself upon us. No, He loves us unto Himself in Love. It is as unending and as powerful as He is, because it is God’s very character incarnate.
 Matthew Henry defines three elements held within the everlasting love of God in Christ: 
[1.] Our Lord Jesus has a people in the world that are his own…, for they were given him by the Father, he has purchased them, and paid dearly for them, and he has set them apart for himself,-his own, for they have devoted themselves to him as a peculiar people. His own; … as a man's wife and children are his own, to whom he stands in a constant relation.
[2.] Christ has a cordial love for his own that are in the world. He did love them with a love of goodwill when he gave himself for their redemption. He does love them with a love of complacency when he admits them into communion with himself. Though they are in this world, a world of darkness and distance, of sin and corruption, yet he loves them. He was now going to his own in heaven, the spirits of just men made perfect there; but he seems most concerned for his own on earth, because they most needed his care: the sickly child is most indulged.
[3.] Those whom Christ loves he loves to the end; he is constant in his love to his people; he rests in his love. He loves with an everlasting love, from everlasting in the counsels of it to everlasting in the consequences of it. Nothing can separate a believer from the love of Christ; he loves his own, …unto perfection, for he will perfect what concerns them, will bring them to that world where love is perfect.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
First of all, we belong to the Lord. He has purchased us with the payment of His blood. The Father has honored His selfless act of love by bringing us into a living relationship with Himself in Jesus Christ. As that is the truth, the Love that created us anew in Christ will never, under any circumstances, be removed from us. That constancy of God, in Christ Jesus, is an assurance of the fact that we are made the beloved of God. This is what He foreknew in the ages of ages before time. As Mathew Henry points out, we are now in a family relationship with God in Christ as it was always intended to be. We are accepted into the very family of God, in Christ Jesus, and now live forth in the evidence of that relationship. That is why there is such a strong bond between Christians with the Lord and with other Christians as they fellowship together. We are sharing mutually in the joy of the Lord as He is blessed with the results of the tremendous, miraculous, and unending glory established in the perfect work of Jesus Christ. We are constantly the recipients of the effects of this perfect expression of Love for all of eternity.
We are in the very heart of Christ as He manifests His authority over the whole of creation. Nothing comes into our lives without being put before His omnipotence and omniscience. Because He so loves us, He brings forth those elements in our lives which will work perfectly to the glory of God. It is beyond all human comprehension to contemplate just how much love is ours in Christ. Not only did He give Himself up for us, but He safeguards us moment by moment on this earth. He is fully aware of what is in store for us as His Body on this earth. John 16:33, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. 
Christ knew what was before us as we were loved into His heart. He knew the reaction that would be forthcoming from this world that tried to end His power by nailing Him to the cross. Just as this world hated Christ, and still hates Christ, so does it hate us as He lives forth freely from our lives. Jesus knew He would no longer be physically in the midst of His beloved ones, walking with them, protecting them, and teaching them. He knew that the time was at hand for the Son of Man to be delivered up unto death, even the death on the cross. That death alone, could serve as the only effective action of God’s love for our redemption. That overabundant love of God, set upon us, was to be finally and completely consummated in the giving of the Son to redeem fallen humanity. 
Even as that sacrifice was looming before Him, Christ held us in His heart. He so loved us that He was willing to suffer the shame of crucifixion for our sake. … Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end… The perfect One, God made Man, the Son of God, loved us unto the end. This becomes an interesting study in itself. What is meant by the last words of this passage? There are those who look at it and come to the simple conclusion that Christ loved His own unto His death. That, however, is very unsatisfactory if it is simply implying the time up to His death on the cross. The reason is that His Love transcends the earthly life that He lived. It is His Love that now and forever holds us firmly in the hand of God. 
Then there is the argument that He can never die, but if that is the case, why would He even have dealt with the heart-felt expression of this verse? It is very apparent that Christ loved us through the giving of His earthly life for us. He also loved us so much that the grave could not hold Him. He was resurrected on that third day, never to see death again for Himself and for us. His love, even now, courses through the veins of our lives bringing about the life that He lives forth from us unto others. 
The majority of commentators look at the passage … he loved them unto the end, as referring to the uttermost. That would put the emphasis of this passage directly upon the heart of Jesus Christ. He so loved His disciples, His Church, His Body of Believers to come, us, that He willingly proceeded to love us to the utmost of His capacity to love. That is a very forceful statement when we consider Who it is that is loving us unto the uttermost of His abilities. We are loved by none other than God omniscient, God omnipresent, God omnipotent. There is nothing that is withheld from His power and His active expression of love. There is no manner of deflecting the full force of the covering that we are given in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no end to the lavished love which has drawn us into the very family of God, in Christ Jesus Our Lord and Savior. We are loved to the uttermost by, in, and through the effective and perfect ministry of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.
Consider the evident difference in the manner in which Christ faced death, separation from God the Father and from His beloved disciples. Rather than the full brunt of His concern being upon Himself and His loss and His soon to be endured torment and torture, His concern rested on those who would be left behind. He took us into His heart, even as He was facing the vilest death imaginable. He held us up before the Father and sought to have every aspect of the heart of God opened unto us in that which He was about to suffer. He loved us unto the utmost with all the fiber of His Being. 
This is the ultimate example of the continued, perfect manifestation of the Love of God. We see it in Ps 37:28, For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. We have the promise of God that His people will not be forsaken. They are precious to Him and will be under His protection and under His guidance and under His judgment for all of eternity. Some may find the idea of God’s judgment to be troubling. However, it isn’t when we see it from the heavenly perspective in Christ. God has pledged Himself to the judgment that was declared when Christ gave up His life. Those who are found in Christ will forever live in the judgment that we are forgiven, that we are covered in the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Judgment only frightens those who are guilty. For those seen by God, in Christ Jesus, we are seen in His perfection. We are completely assured that God will forever and ever hold us before Him in that faultless life Who now indwells us and lives forth from us. 
Only God can determine the judgment that each person will face in the end. Those in Christ will be forever in Christ. Those whose lives are wickedness and perversion will forever endure the consequences of having turned away from the offered love of God in Christ. God alone knows the hearts and He alone is the One to determine the fate of all men before Him. This is an aspect of the love of God that is often overlooked or conveniently ignored. It is often the case that men try to usurp the power of God. Men choose to label their decisions and their judgments with the name of God in a vain effort to give their determinations validity. That is never the case with God. We are not able to see into the hearts that are completely open to Him. We may see a person’s action throughout his or her life and yet never know the response to God in that person’s heart. We are incapable of knowing, let alone deciding the course set forth in God’s omniscience. We can simply bring forth the love that is ours to the uttermost in Christ. We need to set aside our likes and our dislikes and our preconceived notions. We need to ask the Lord to open in us the avenue by which He can give full and unhindered expression of Himself unto all those that He brings into our lives. Set aside the heart that seeks to demote people to the fires of hell, and raise forth the hearts that will love our fellow human brethren to the utmost in Jesus Christ. 
Isa 49:14-16, But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. What a wonderful contrast of the love of man versus the love of mankind. How often do we feel that we are alone in this world; that all love has been shut off from our beings? We take the position that chooses to see the terror of this age before us and the frustration and the impatience of humanity within it. There are news stories regularly of parents ending the lives of their very own children because of the onslaught of selfishness or hurt feelings or anger or envy or utter despair and hopelessness. This is no surprise to the Christian. The world has ever been inclined to destroy itself and its offspring with all kinds of atrocities. But this passage addresses something that is also so true of those who are Christians. We are well capable of giving up on those who show no sign of having a difference evidenced in their beings. We lose the patience of the Lord in dealing with our spouses and with our children and with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We hold forth a self-imposed standard which, if not met, will cause us to cast them out of our homes and out of our hearts. 
Thank the Lord that He does not deal with His children in the same manner. No, He has us held firmly within His heart. He will never forget us. We have His omnipotent Word on that. We are engraved into the palms of His hands. We are held closely forever and always. What a joy to rest in the assurance that God knows us, individually. His eyes are upon us and we are not forgotten as we so often forget Him in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He watches us as we work. He cradles us as we grieve. He comforts us as we flounder in the agonies of this world age. We are not lost. We are not abandoned. We are not disowned. We are loved beyond all comprehension because we are held eternally in the palms of the Almighty One, God of all creation, the Perfect Person of Love.
John 15:9, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. What a statement by the very embodiment of love! As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you… Does that make an impression in our innermost beings? Is there an amazed wonderment springing forth from our souls? Does the hair on the nape of our necks tingle with a glimpse of the glory of God that has been brought lovingly into our lives through Jesus Christ? Think about it! Take a moment and contemplate exactly what Christ stated in this passage. If any human mind could be elevated to the knowledge of the love of the Father for the Son, that mind could comprehend but a glimmer of the reality of the love with which we have been so loved. Jesus declares to all that He has followed the heart of the Father in the love that was poured out unto Him. Angelic hosts were sent to announce the joy of God in the birth of His only Begotten Son. The heavens were opened and the very voice of the Father declared that this was His Beloved Son in Whom He was well pleased. Angels were sent by the Father to minister to His Son in times of peril and need. The entire Being of Love has given His all unto the Son, and the Son has given every aspect and essence of that Love unto us. We are the heirs of the endless love that God has poured out upon Jesus Christ, His Son. There is no holding back; there is no diminished quantity; there is no diminished quality. The entire treasury of the heart of the Father has been laid upon us in Jesus Christ. And we are to continue in that love for all of eternity. 
Our lives should shed forth the Love of God unto all of this tormented and perverse generation. This world is so desperate for it. The people of this age have the same imperative need for His love, as we do on a daily basis. We cannot hoard it, for it ceases to exist if it is not shared. We cannot withhold it; because it is not withheld from us. We are called to love to the uttermost in the same measure as we have been Loved. Our lives, when we are through traversing this world, should be the expressed testimony of the very life of Jesus Christ - he loved them unto the end. That should be the witness of our lives on this globe. It should be absolutely evident, that through the lives we live before God - our loved ones, our associates, our friends, and our foes; all of them will have been loved to the uttermost by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.