Whatever it Takes to Love One Another

This is a corollary to WITT explain Jesus and is also something that requires us to commit to doing whatever it takes.

ILLUST - how many know your sibling loves you?

how many would say they regularly express it?

Have always regularly expressed it?

I know of a guy - who now has a beard. . .

Brad and rock climbing - Brad and ‘going to the park’

This is the kind of love brothers share

I also remember when neighbor shot me (errr, the guy I know) with a BB gun and his brother scooped him up and ran me him the house.

On one hand it communicated to me that my brother truly did love me, and it communicated that his philosophy was that he was the only one who was allowed to injure me.

Sometimes Christians operate with a similar philosophy.

John 13:31–35 (ESV)

31 When he (Judas) had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Loving Jesus’ people shows people Jesus.

(a reality that Jesus speaks into)

We (as Christians) are often known more for our law than for our love.

Thinking along the lines of what the church is known for, almost three-quarters of U.S. adults (74%) say the Church is an institution that offers hope. Forty-four percent of this same group, though, also notes that the Church is known more for things it is against rather than things it is for. Roughly one in three U.S. adults says the Church is “judgmental” (37%), “irrelevant” (36%) and “hypocritical” (33%).

Barna June 202

quick to point out where their life is wrong but weve figured it out

preaching about helping the poor while spending so much on buildings and events to entertain members

reminding everyone there is an in and an out

claiming to be holy but cutting someone off in traffic

Judgmentalism says you need help with that Love says I’ll help you with that

J stands on arrogance Love serves with humility

not a doormat or blurring of lines

The new command is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and appreciate, profound enough that the most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they comprehend it and put it into practice: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Jesus commands a profound love from you.

34 A new commandment I give to you,

What is love?

A NEW command

Jesus’ “new” commandment is not really new, but a renewed or fulfillment of the Law.

Law said to love your neighbor as yourself

Law was the standard for how the Jews were to have a relationship with God and with each other

Jesus, the fulfillment of the Law, now makes himself the standard for how we are to love each other.

It is a command.

The Law was a command guided by incentive (blessings and curses)

Jesus’ command is empowered by the Spirit.

We start with this to show we cannot follow what comes next with:

I don’t need to

or

I’m not able to

It will be obvious you follow Jesus if you love like Jesus

35 By this (all) people will know that you are my disciples, IF

If you only listen to Christian music

If you go to church every Sunday

If you have a fish on your car

If you look clean cut

If you only vote Republican

If you promise to never drink, smoke, or cuss or be found near those who do.

if you have love for one another.”

Those other things only identify you as part of a Christian culture - a radical love identifies you as part of the Christian church.

Loving one another is the mark of the Christian

Those other things are not bad - They may be very good, but too often religious-only Christians rely on those religious marks to identify them as a Christian

Love Inside

John, more than the other disciples, writes about followers of Christ loving one another.

1 John 3:11–18 (ESV)

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 4:20–21 (ESV)

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

I believe the reason for this is because shortly after Jesus asked his disciples to love each other in the same way he loved them, John stood at the foot of the cross watching the blood drain from Jesus’ body, an innocent man bookended by two sinners.

As he stood there alone, I wonder if he was thinking, “Do I love Peter this way? Do I love Matthew this way?” As one of the criminals next to Jesus professed faith in Jesus, did John wonder if he could love him in the same way?

Look to your right. Look to your left. Do you love those in the pew in the same way as Jesus?

If the answer is NO or you have no way to measure it, I fear we are only sharing a religious affinity and not Jesus’ love.

There is a difference between sharing affinity and sharing life - It’s the difference between liking something together and loving one another.

ILLUST - Next week, godly people will be rooting together for the Eagles many of them in a stadium together. They will be sharing an affinity - something they like, but they will not really be loving each other (if the Eagles lose, they won’t be loving anybody!)

Because of this some people are leaving the church or claiming that the Western church model has lost its way, and in some respects it has.

The key is not in disabling the church as an institution, it is in recognizing and remembering that the life of the church was never in the institution.

Because the mark of Jesus’ followers is evidenced through their love, then the life of the church is to be found where that love can be expressed.

A picture from the Early Church:

Acts 2:42–45 (ESV)

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Life Groups

You hear us talk a good bit about Life Groups. Life Groups take us from religious affinity to loving relationships.

Life Groups are not simply a program of the church - they are the expression of the church.

Here’s what I mean:

There are approximately 59 “one another” statements throughout the NT of which our passage contains one.

These passages are found by their use of a form of the Greek word, ἀλλήλων, which translated means “one another” reciprocally.

Examples:

Love one another (John 13:34 - This command occurs at least 16 times)

Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10)

Honor one another above yourselves (Romans 12:10)

Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)

Build up one another (Romans 14:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Be likeminded towards one another (Romans 15:5)

Accept one another (Romans 15:7)

Admonish one another (Romans 15:14; Colossians 3:16)

Care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:25)

Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)

Bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2)

Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:2, 32; Colossians 3:13)

Be patient with one another (Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:13) Be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)

Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21, 1 Peter 5:5)

Comfort one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18)

Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Pray for one another (James 5:16)

If we try to employ these at a Sunday morning worship service:

How can I pray for you unless I know your needs, hurts, joys?

I may have opportunity to serve you, but how much can I really bear your burdens?

How can you practice forgiveness with me if I haven’t had enough interaction for me to irritate or sin against you?

Life groups are not the only way you can find community or share love within the church, but Life Groups are a real way to do so.

They create the space to share life, the scenarios to need to forgive, love, share burdens, pray with real understanding, etc.

What if we committed to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to love one another in this church in a way that looked similar to what we see in Acts?

In the context of Life Groups and with the covering of church proper, we might just show our family, neighbors, and friends the love of Jesus.

The world is dying to see you love on another

35 By this ALL PEOPLE will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Loving one another serves the mission of Christ - it has an evangelistic effect. (see last week’s message)

John Chrysostom:

And now the first question I wish to ask of you is this: do you know how great the power of love is? For omitting all the miracles which were to be wrought by the apostles, Christ said, “Hereby shall men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another,”1 and Paul said that it was the fulfilling of the law,2 and that in default of it no spiritual gift had any profit. Well, this choice good, the distinguishing mark of Christ’s disciples, the gift which is higher than all other gifts, I perceived to be deeply implanted in your soul, and teeming with much fruit.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1.9: Saint Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statues (Contents)

Jesus doesn’t point to supernatural acts to mark the disciples as his followers but love (arguably the most supernatural act of all).

It is not to say that supernatural things won’t authenticate Jesus’ work in your life and in the church, but Jesus singles out the display of love as the universal mark.

Why?

Because the need for a miracle is an uncommon scenario that requires an uncommon outcome.

The need for love is a common scenario that (with agape love) involves an uncommon outcome.

There are more opportunities to display the radical love Jesus is calling for than the supernatural miracles.

But when the church gathers and claims to be a loving community (and I’m only speaking right now about “loving one another” and not how the church is to love the world around them) even sings about it, yet from lunchtime on has little interaction with or even thinks about each other, we show ourselves to be hypocritical.

Worse yet, when the church fights, refuses to forgive, bullies each other, covers up their own sin and refuses to confront their own who do sin, criticize each other, etc. It is no wonder our children leave the church never to return.

How could it ever be possible for the church to fight with each other then attempt to point people to the cross of Christ - there is a lot lost in translation.

But if we love with a self sacrificial love then point to

(I wonder if the larger church model - of which we are not a mega church but still are too large to “know everyone” has only served to facilitate this problem)

Loving each other in a profound way invites a question with an answer that must involve Jesus.

This doesn’t mean we flaunt it. We don’t love for manipulation.

The effect is evangelistic not the motivation.

How will you practice the profound love like Jesus?

Join a Life Group, Whatever it takes

Commit to pray for and call other believers, whatever it takes

Ask forgiveness, whatever it takes.

Give of your time, energy, money where you know it is needed in the life of another believer, whatever it takes.

You cannot look at love nailed to the cross and settle for anything less than whatever it takes.

Conclusion

I know my older brother loves me - it was questionable some days.

There are people in the pews hurting. They may be hurting because someone they thought was their brother or sister injured them.

Maybe you injured them.

Maybe they’ve taken some shots from outside the family and they are wounded.

Will you (we) do whatever it takes to love one another?

“Now before. . . When the people knew that the hour had come to depart out of the church and into the world, having loved each other in worship, they committed to love each other to the end.