Love God; Love People Week 2

The Example of Christ 

Jesus told us to love one another as He has loved us and thankfully we have numerous examples throughout the gospels of how Jesus loved; impartially and intentionally.

Prayer - “God, as we seek to love others and be more like you please help us to move past our indifferences and biases. Help us to love impartially and intentionally. Help us to love like you did.” 

Main Scripture - John 4:1-42; 13:34-35, Luke 19:1-9

Introduction

Welcome back to our 4-week series Love God; Love People… Where, you guessed it, we’re talking all about loving God and loving people. Last week, we took a look at where this instruction comes from and why it’s called “The Greatest Commandment.” We also took a look at the specific verses where Jesus gave the instruction AND where He offered us a “new command.” And this is where we’re picking up the series today, with, The Example of Christ, as seen in the new command. 

Read John 13:34-35

John 13:34–35 NKJV

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus’ command, and the example He set for us, was to love one another as He loved us. Fortunately for us, Jesus gave us numerous examples to look at, study, and emulate while He ministered here on earth. When I think about the example that Christ set there are two specific words that come to mind; Intentional and impartial. 

Jesus loved others intentionally and impartially throughout His ministry life. And today we’re going to look at a couple specific stories in the gospels of Jesus’ intentional and impartial love and care for others. 

Main Idea

It’s easy to love people we like, people who are like us, and people who share our interests and desires. It’s exponentially more difficult to love people who are different, who we disagree with, and people who have differing interests and desires. Most of us understand this concept and most of us generally surround ourselves with the people who are easy… After all, life is difficult enough, who wants to add difficult relationships to the mix? 

The problem for us, as we follow Christ, is that Jesus set a righteous example and then He advised us to follow Him. And so whether we like it or not, Jesus wants us to be intentional and impartial about loving others. We know this because this is what he did… and one of the most poignant examples of this in the gospels is found in John chapter 4. 

Read John 4:1-26 (You might paraphrase the highlights) 

John 4:1–26 NKJV

1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to go through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

The Samaritan Woman

There are many aspects of this story worth highlighting as we consider the example of Jesus as He was both intentional and impartial in His love and care for the Samaritan woman. First of all, Jesus was in Samaria, which might not sound like a big deal but it is and here’s why:

“There was a great hatred between the Samaritans and the Judeans going back to the Eighth Century B.C. In 722 B.C. the Northern Ten Tribes, with their capital in Samaria, were taken captive by Assyria and were deported to Media (cf. 2 Kgs. 17:6). Other captured people were resettled in northern Palestine (cf. 2 Kgs. 17:24). Through the years these pagans intermarried with what was left of the Israelite population. The Jews considered the Samaritans religious half-breeds and heretics (cf. Ezra 4:1-4). This gives a context for John 4:9.”

So, when the woman says in 4:9, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” You can see why she was surprised that Jesus would interact with her. Not to mention, but she was a woman, alone, out at the watering well in the middle of the day. The other women of the village would’ve all gone out together earlier in the day, and clearly, this woman isn’t welcome in their group. She is an outcast, she’s a Samaritan, and as a woman it would be inappropriate for Jesus to engage her alone at the well like he did. And that’s why His disciples are “surprised to find him talking with a woman,” as we learn from verse 4:27.

This is the impartial aspect of Jesus’ love… He shows us time and time again throughout the gospels that He is more than willing to cross cultural lines for the sake of the gospel. 

Read Mark 2:17

Mark 2:17 NKJV

17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Jesus makes it clear both in word and deed that He is in pursuit of the sinner, the outcast, the sick, the lame, the blind, the hungry and anyone else who needs to hear the good news of redemption and forgiveness. He’s impartial in the sense that if you need a savior, it doesn’t matter who you are, Jesus is ready for you. 

And as we’re about to see, He’s intentional with his time, all the time. 

In our John 4 passage we see Jesus interact directly with the Samaritan woman’s sin. Likely, the reason she was an outcast was because of her five marriages and current living situation, both of which Jesus supernaturally identifies. He doesn’t dance around the issue, He doesn’t ignore Her sin, but He also doesn’t rub her nose in it or shame her because of it. To the contrary, Jesus reveals who He really is to her, he shares with this Samaritan woman that He is in fact the promised Messiah. He invites her in when everyone else is shutting her out. 

And the exclamation point on the story is that she runs back to town and tells everyone about Jesus. She becomes the herald of good news, her social credit rises, and Jesus’ example of impartiality and intentionality shines bright for all to see. 

This story reminds me a lot of another example found in Luke 19. 

Read Luke 19:1-9

Luke 19:1–9 NKJV

1 Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 2 Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. 7 But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” 8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham;

Zaccheus

Just like the woman from our last story, Zaccheus was an outcast. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that as a tax-collector, he would’ve been hated by many of his fellow Jews. This is just the type of person that we constantly see Jesus interacting with, dining with, and inviting to join Him through discipleship. So, when Jesus calls out to Zaccheus and invites himself over to stay, we aren’t too surprised at the interaction even though it would’ve been shocking to those original viewers. 

How could Jesus even talk to someone like Zaccheus, let alone go and stay in His house with Him? This kind of interaction was completely unfathomable to many of the religious elites of Jesus day, and the challenge for us as we read along is to consider the places and spaces in our lives where we’ve become judgemental and divisive. Because the truth is, love breaks down our defenses, doesn’t it? When someone is intentional and impartial to us, we respond in kind. 

In the story of Zaccheus we get a first hand look at just how powerful the love and kindness of Jesus is in the lives of others. “Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus restores Zaccheus as he seeks to be redeemed and forgiven. 

Zaccheus was lost and broken, an outcast who had no real friends. Jesus looked past all that and loved him anyway. Right where he was, in the middle of the road. 

What an incredible example to follow. 

Conclusion

In an article from Christianity.com they ask, “What is the significance of the woman at the well?” And I think their answer is important as we wrap up our discussion today:

“It shows Jesus’ love for the world. The fact that the woman at the well was of such low standing — gender, race, and marital status — yet they talked so directly, almost as equal conversational partners, shows Jesus’ heart for all people, not just some.”

We see a similar heart when Jesus interacts with Zaccheus. And let’s not forget all the other stories throughout the gospels where Jesus shows us over and over again how powerful it is to love others impartially and intentionally. 

The question we must ask ourselves today is a simple one; “Am I loving others like Jesus did?” 

As I said earlier, it’s easy to love people we like, people who are like us, and people who share our interests and desires. It’s exponentially more difficult to love people who are different, who we disagree with, and people who have differing interests and desires.

Do you have difficult people in your life? 

Do you regularly interact with those whom others would call outcasts? 

Are you interested in the lives of those who are broken, hurting, and lost? 

Truth be told, all of us could identify areas where we need to love more like Jesus. So instead of feeling guilty and ashamed today about how we could and should do better, I hope we set our eyes on Jesus and step out in faith this week. Extend an invitation of love to another, pray that God would help you become more intentional and impartial. Keep a look out for those who may feel alone and abandoned. 

Let’s pray together.