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

I. Love’s many meanings.

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).

III. We are not saved by obeying commands.

IV. The struggles of Christian living and Hebrews 2:18 and 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Hebrews 2:18 “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure 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.”

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.