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Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. – John 13:1, NKJV

This text describes the attitude of Jesus just before the Last Supper. The thought of what he was about to do, and the weight of the awesomeness of the burden that he would carry almost overwhelmed him.

This text doesn’t mean that he loved his own until the end of his life. That’s not what the Greek means at all.

The Common English Bible translates it as:

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully.

What the text means is that Jesus loved them to the uttermost. This is extreme love. This is even more than a love that goes beyond what we can understand or beyond what we have experienced. This is love taken to an unending extreme, in a way that only the divine heart of bottomless love can do. Jesus loves us to the end.

The ones whom he loves are “His own who were in the world.” He was talking about his disciples, with whom he was about to eat the Last Supper. He was about to be betrayed, denied, and abandoned by them. Yet still he loved them to the end.

He was talking about you and me, by whom he has been betrayed, denied, and abandoned. Yet he loves us to the end.

Whatever you may be going through, you haven’t come to the end of God’s love for you yet. If you need more strength, you need to receive more of his love. Are you doing that, or are you relying on your own strength?