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Love One Another!
John 13:34-35
After church, Johnny tells his parents he has to go and talk to the pastor right away. They agree, and the pastor greets the family.
“Pastor,” Johnny says, “I heard you say today that our bodies came from the dust.” “That’s right, Johnny, I did,” he says. “And I heard you say that when we die, our bodies go back to dust.”
“Yes, I’m glad you were listening,” the pastor replies. “Why do you ask?” “Well, you better come over to our house right away and look under my bed, ’cause there’s someone either comin’ or goin’!”
In John 13 we find Jesus informing His disciples that He will be going away soon. This, of course, worried the disciples. This is also where Jesus tells Peter that he would deny Jesus 3 times. It is here where we read these words:
John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Loving one another is not new here is Scripture. But what is new is that Jesus raises it as a new commandment. Jesus commands us to love one another in the same way He loved us.
When we look at love, we keep coming back to this example of how Jesus demonstrated His love for us. He did it in His sacrificial gift of death on the cross.
Just two chapters later in John we see Jesus words recorded on this matter again.
John 15:12-13, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
John 15:17, “This is my command: Love each other.”
These words in John 15 come in Jesus’ description of Himself as being the vine and we, as His disciples are the branches. In this conversation Jesus says the branches which do not produce fruit will be cut off and the ones that do will be pruned to produce more fruit.
Paul picks up this same theme in Romans 11 describing how gentiles are graphed into Israel.
To many these days dismiss Israel and claim the fact that we live under a new covenant in their dismissal. Let’s look at one of the prophecies of the new covenant which we find in the Old Testament, not in the gospels, demonstrating that the New Covenant isn’t the backup plan.
Jeremiah 31:31-34, “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Now, stay with me on this. Jesus gave the new commandment “love one another.” This is the new covenant in its simplest manner.
That covenant grafts us gentiles in the vine which is Israel. The new covenant doesn’t cancel God’s promises to Israel, not at all. It expands the benefits of those promises to the gentiles. And notice what Jeremiah recorded in verse 33 here: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”
This reflects God’s giving of His Spirit to live in our hearts. Pentacost, that is the new covenant we live in. When God poured out the Holy Spirit in the lives of all believers 40 days after Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
This is the same Holy Spirit that lives in each of us when we accept Jesus as our savior.
OK, you are still with me, right? Check this out:
Romans 5:5, “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
You see that right? God poured out His LOVE…through the Holy Spirit. That is what lives in us! But don’t stop there, as we live in the Spirit, He produces this:
Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
I want that! I want that! This is the job of the Holy Spirit to work in us, to change us, to make us like Jesus and I want that! So, I have to stop fighting against the Spirit and work with Him. I must yield to the Holy Spirit working in me.
When we yield, we get all that fruit, we get love, joy, peace…We get it all. We just need to yield and obey. When we hear that quiet voice of the Holy Spirit how will we respond? How will you respond?
You see, to love one another, truly, we must yield to what the Holy Spirit is doing in us.
Ephesians 5:2, “and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
John MacArthur writes concerning love for one another, “If the church ever consistently loved like that, it would have a powerful impact on the world.”
Francis Schaeffer in his book “The Mark of the Christian” lists 2 practical ways we can manifest love for each other.
- By being willing to apologize and seek forgiveness from those they have wronged.
The greatest disputes between believers isn’t caused by doctrine, but rather the unloving manner in which disputes are handled.
- The second way to demonstrate love is to grant forgiveness.
Do we see the completeness in this circle. Seek forgiveness and grant forgiveness. This is what God has done for us when we seek Him.
Following last week’s message on loving our enemies I was asked by someone how we can do that for someone who has molested a loved one.
Wow, that really drives home how hard it is to love an enemy doesn’t it. It isn’t easy, but forgiveness is our key to freedom. Look at this:
Luke 17:3-4, “So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
These are beautiful words, but they are hard to live by, aren’t they?
When we can begin to see each other with the understanding of how sinful we are and how much Jesus paid for our sin it helps us forgive in the manner in which we have been forgiven.
Back to our passage:
John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Our culture is dying; our world is in decay. But there is a light and when we love one another that light shines.
John continues this thought in his letter:
1 John 3:14-16, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”
The music group, For King and Country, has a song called “The Proof of Your Love” and in it we read these words:
So let my life be the proof, the proof of your love Let my love look like you, and what you’re made of How you lived, how you died Love is sacrifice So let my life be the proof The proof of your love
I love these words because that is exactly right. Our lives, when we love, are the proof of God’s love. We become the testimony of God’s love. The light in the darkness. The very image of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Love is sacrificial, it’s not a mushy feeling that comes and goes. It’s not getting everything you want, so you love. No, love is unconditional, it is sacrificial.
It isn’t measured in what you get, it is measured in what you give away.
We are not only to love one another, but we are to:
- “… Be at peace with one another.” (Mark 9:50)
- “… Wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14)
- “Love one another with brotherly affection.” (Romans 12:10)
- “Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:10)
- “Live in harmony with one another.” (Romans 12:16)
- “…Let us not pass judgement on one another.” (Romans 14:13)
- “…Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.” (Romans 15:7)
- “…Instruct one another.” (Romans 15:14)
- “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” (Romans 16:16)
- “…When you come together to eat, wait for one another.” (1 Corinthians 11:33)
- “…Have the same concern for one another.” (1 Corinthians 12:25)
- “…Through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
- “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5:26)
- “Bear one another’s burdens.” (Galatians 6:2)
- “…With patience, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2)
- “Be kind to one another.” (Ephesians 4:32)
- “…Forgiving one another.” (Ephesians 4:32)
- “…Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” (Ephesians 5:19)
- “…Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:21)
- “…In humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)
- “Do not lie to one another.” (Colossians 3:9)
- “Bearing with one another.” (Colossians 3:13)
- “…If one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.” (Colossians 3:13)
- “…Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.” (Colossians 3:16)
- “…Encourage one another.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
- “…Build one another up.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
- “…Exhort one another every day.” (Hebrews 3:13)
- “…Stir up one another to love and good works.” (Hebrews 10:24)
- “…Encouraging one another.” (Hebrews 10:25)
- “Do not speak evil against one another.” (James 4:11)
- “Do not grumble against one another.” (James 5:9)
- “…Confess your sins to one another.” (James 5:16)
- “…Pray for one another.” (James 5:16)
- “…Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love [for one another].” (1 Peter 3:8)
- “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:9)
- “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.” (1 Peter 4:10)
- “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.” (1 Peter 5:5)