"Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor.”(John 13:29)

 As I looked at this verse, I could not help but wonder why the Lord did not take the money bag away from Judas even when He knew that he was stealing from the donations. Could it be part of the faith that our Creator has in this being called man, whom He had fearfully and wonderfully made in His own image and likeness? Or was it  due to  His unwavering love for humanity despite their fall? You know, the kind of feeling you have about a house that you used your expertise as an architect to build?  Or a machine you designed as an engineer, or  as an app developer?   The kind of confidence that makes you beat your chest in confident assurance of the quality of your product?  The Lord must have believed that Judas could conquer whatever bad attitude and bad habit he had.  Especially since he was with Him daily over the three year period, listening to the Word that washes, purifies, and transforms.  Judah watched the word being confirmed with signs and wonders as people were healed, delivered, cleansed, and brought to life. To the Lord,  all that Judas needed to make a change was right there before him each day. I imagine the  Lord giving Judas a look that said, “Hey,  you are more than this Judas.  You do not have to be the one to do this.  You can do better.  You were made for more.  You are powerful, Judas. You were made to have dominion. Dishonesty and theft are beneath you.”    No matter who we are dealing with; a spouse, a child, a sibling, colleague or friend, loving another person inspite of who he or she is is a choice.  No one can compel us to love another.  The Scriptures says  "It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end" (John 13:1).  No one forced the Lord to keep loving Judas inspite of what he was doing, or inspite of the fact that he had lost faith in his master.  The Lord was complelled by love to keep loving Judas to the very end.  His love was not tied to anything that Judas or the other disciples did or did not do.  He chose not to give up on loving them to the very end.  Choosing to love another is a decision we take not for anyone else, not even  because of anything the person did, but because we choose it, just the way He chose to love us inspite of who we were and still are.  That decision was what took the Lord to the cross and kept Him there even while people mocked him.  Loving people must be a conscious decision, not an abstract one.  Because that decision will be tested like our Lord's was.  And how we respond will depend on how and if we decided to love in the first place.

When we choose to consciously love others, we will be doing what the Lord did, which was to give up His glorious throne and take on the form of a servant.

Thus, true love is not about living for ourselves alone, but about enhancing the lives of others.
  It is  giving others a better chance at life.  That was why none of the other disciples knew who would betray the Lord.  His had loved them all to the very end.  

Before Judas went out to betray Him, the Lord gave him wine and bread,  and washed his feet.  The Lord calls His disciples to love  people with this same love so  that they can can know Him and love Him back.  His love knows no bounds, no ethnicity, race, language or geographic location.  It only knows man, created in the image and likeness of God.  Male and female.  This is the kind of love that the Lord showed Judas and the rest of His desciples. This kind of love strengthens our commitment to those we live with and work with.  Loving people the way God loves them impacts them more than anything else.

It is important that we set our hearts to truly be people who are  about loving and touching other lives around us. Whatever  we have  must become our platform to impact lives. How are you choosing to love others regardless of who they are? 

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