“Our Basic Needs”


BIBLE READING: John 15

            Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who was best known for creating a chart that defined a hierarchy of human needs.  At his foundational level were those physiological needs that must be met for survival, such as food, water and shelter.  However, as you progressed on his charts, you found other basic needs that human beings must have to survive, like comfort, safety and stability.  These levels progress until we reach the final level he calls, “Self Actualization”.   It is at this point of Self-actualization that we realize our personal potential, our self-fulfillment, and as Maslow said, to desire “to become everything one is capable of becoming.”  In the middle of this hierarchy is our need to love and be loved, which doesn’t come as a surprise to any of us, nor is it a surprise to Jesus.  Jesus was well aware of the unknown that His disciples are facing in John 15.  These are the final moments that Jesus will have with His disciples before His departure and we already know that they do not fully comprehend some of the information He has already shared with them.  He knows that they will be scared.  He knows that they will be faced with things they never dreamed of being faced with.  However, He also knows the right things to say to them, to prepare them for the unknown that they are facing.  Jesus knows they need to hear and feel loved.  That is why He uses some form of the word “love” ten times in John 15.  Jesus wants them to know that just as the Father loved Him, He has loved us (John 15.9).  He also tells them that by keeping His commandments, they remain in that love (John 15.10).  One of these commandments that they must keep, to remain in His love, is the command that we have to love each other (John 15.12).  Then to prove to them the greatest expression of love that one can have for another is to give their life for them (John 15.13).  Now, was it possible for them to completely understand what He was saying to them? Honestly… in the moment… I don’t think so.  However, after He is resurrected, after they see the risen Savior and receive the gift of the Helper that He had promised…you can bet your last dollar they understood.  Today, we should feel the same comfort, safety and love that Jesus had for the Disciples while in that upper room.  Having that in mind, then …yes… Maslow was right; the only way that we can see our full protentional and achieve self-fulfillment is to understand the true meaning of the love that Christ has for us.

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