Love One Another as Jesus Loves You based on John 15:9-17

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. Love’s many meanings. Love can mean many different things to different people. Some people love their work. Others love eating certain kinds of food, like ice cream. Still others love their God. Love is much more than warm and fuzzy feelings about something or someone. Love is more than saying that you love someone else. Love is kindness put into action. We show love to others by doing kind things for them and saying kind things to them.

II. Read John 15:9-11 and comment about remaining in Jesus’ love. In John 15 Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:9-11). Since God the Father loved His One and Only Son, that Son of God, Jesus Christ, loved the disciples He was talking to. Jesus Christ wanted His students then and His students today to abide in His love. How do we abide in Jesus Christ’s love? We abide in Jesus Christ’s love by obeying His commands, just as He obeyed His heavenly Father’s commands and was able to abide in His love. The commands of the Lord are not intended to be a burden to us, but those commands are intended to be a blessing for our lives. Disobeying the Lord’s commands leads to unhappiness in our lives. Obeying the Lord’s commands leads to joy in our lives.

III. We are not saved by obeying commands. I want to make clear that we are not saved by obeying the Lord’s commands. We can never do enough good deeds to assure ourselves that we will be saved from our many sins and wrongs. We will always wonder if we need to do a few more good deeds in life, if we think we are saved by doing good deeds for others. First of all, we, as Christians, regularly are moved to feel sorrow for and repent of our many sins against God and against people. Secondly, we are given the gift of faith in Jesus to assure us that we are saved from our many sins because of the perfect life Jesus lived for us, because of the innocent suffering and death Jesus went through for us, and because Jesus was raised to new life for us on the third day after being buried in the tomb. Last of all, since we are saved through the gift of faith in Jesus by God’s unearned love for us, we want to do good things that are pleasing in God’s sight and that give God the glory. Because we believe we are saved through the gift of saving faith in Jesus, we strive to do our best to obey the Lord’s commands, even though our sinful nature tries to work against us and the evil one tries to tempt us to disobey the Lord’s commands.

IV. The struggles of Christian living and Hebrews 2:18 and 1 Corinthians 10:13. Christian living is a constant challenge for each one of us. Each one of us struggles with certain bad habits and certain sins that we try to overcome. Sometimes we do overcome those bad habits and sins for a while. When we think we finally have won the battle against our personal struggles, then we sometimes can fall back into those old, bad habits and sins once again. We might tell ourselves that we are better than some other people who we think of as having worse habits and worse sins, but we know that we still fall far short of the glory of God and we know that we are guilty before God. Life is full of temptations for Christians, young and old. Jesus wants to help us resist the temptations of life, but sometimes we foolishly try to resist those temptations with our own powers rather than trusting in the power Jesus can give us to resist the temptations of life. In Hebrews 2:18 we are told about Jesus, “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

V. Read John 15:12-15 and comment about saving friends. In today's Gospel lesson in John 15 Jesus continues to tell His followers: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:12-15). I think those words might have inspired the writer of a famous hymn in our Lutheran hymnal to write, “What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.”

From time to time we hear about someone sacrificing his or her life to save a friend. Someone dives on top of a grenade in wartime to save his friends from injury. Someone saves a person from drowning and ends up drowning in the water instead. Those actions of self-sacrifice show the greatest kind of love—the kind of love that moves a person to lay down his or her life for a friend or maybe even a stranger. Jesus Christ did something greater than diving on a grenade or saving a drowning person. Jesus Christ showed the greatest kind of love for you and for me and for the people of the world by allowing Himself to be the perfect once for all sacrifice for all people on the cross outside of Jerusalem. Jesus Christ gave His innocent, sinless life for us all, so that we are forgiven for all of the times we have given into temptations and fallen back into bad habits. Jesus Christ loved each one of us so much that He died to change us from being His enemies into being His friends.

VI. Servants vs. Friends and John 15:16-17. Thanks to the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died and arose to new life for us, we are no longer called “servants”. Thanks to the amazing grace and mercy of God we are called “friends” of Jesus Christ. As friends of Jesus Christ we take seriously what the Bible teaches us about Him. Today’s Gospel lesson in John 15 concludes, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another” (John 15:16-17).

VII. Conclusion – read 1 John 5:1-5. 1 John 5 sums up the importance of God’s love for us and our love for each other with the following words: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:1-5). So, we are called to love one another as Jesus has loved us. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.