2.10.13 3.1.2026 A New Commandment John 15.12-17
Incarnation and Humiliation of the Word • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Entice: Love is not an outcome or a perquisite of being in a relationship. It is the foundation of relationship. That this is true of marriage and other durable relationships, is due to being anchored in the nature of God it is a part of being rooted in His image. Having said that, fallen human society has surely tried to undermine this fact of our nature.
In our world love is a selfishly held precondition…(I’ll love you if or when.)
For many love rarely rises above an uncontrollable emotion.
In our world the word love is used to verbalize preference or even prejudice.
The word is cheapened and thrown around far too often.
I love chocolate but that is not the same thing as saying I love God or in loving my wife.
Engage: In your experience have you found real love hard or easy? Pleasurable or painful? I ask because in today’s text Jesus adds an additional dimension to this very human condition. He tells us that His gospel can be summed up in one commandment. Love one another.
This “love command” puts us in a tough spot. On the one hand it seems pretty simple. Love one another. That’s it?
On the other hand, refusing to believe it is so simple is what makes it so hard
Expand: Love is a central term in John’s Gospel. Jesus uses the word in teaching. It is used of God and of us.
In John’s gospel we are told that love is what caused God to act in sending Jesus.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Love identifies us as disciples
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Loving others is the heart of obedience.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And today, in greater detail, we learn that love is also the object and content of that obedience.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15 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.
16 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.
17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Excite: Because human culture has spent centuries defining love as merely emotional or a preference the idea that it is right and fitting for Jesus to command us to love seems impossible. Yes, it can be hard.
The Christian faith requires us to do hard things.
The transformative love Jesus commands is not easy.
Then again,
false accusations are not easy.
Beatings are not easy.
Crosses are not easy.
The love that Jesus commands is transformative because He loves us first.
Explore:
Because it is not easy it is expected, encouraged, and we are empowered to embrace and extend the love we experience from Jesus.
Because it is not easy it is expected, encouraged, and we are empowered to embrace and extend the love we experience from Jesus.
Expand: To love well we must observe what Jesus does, hear what He says, and adjust our expectations to those of Jesus.
Body of Sermon First we are expected to follow the
1 Example and Embodiment of love.
1 Example and Embodiment of love.
verses 12-13
Jesus does not have expectations for us that He was not willing to exemplify in His own life.
First consider
1.1 The Embodiment.
1.1 The Embodiment.
of Love
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
We embody what we learn by following His
1.2 Example.
1.2 Example.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Sacrificial.
Sacrificial.
Transformational.
Transformational.
So, in defining the Christian faith we find that God Himself shows us what love is so that we may extend it to others.
Next Jesus describes His expectation for the
2 Response and Result of love.
2 Response and Result of love.
verses 14-15
2.1 Obedience.
2.1 Obedience.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
2.2 Inclusion
2.2 Inclusion
15 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.
The final expectation Jesus allows us the
3 Choice and Challenge of love.
3 Choice and Challenge of love.
Verses 16-17
3.1 He enlists us.
3.1 He enlists us.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you…
3.2 He equips us.
3.2 He equips us.
16 …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.
3.3 He engages us.
3.3 He engages us.
17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Shut Down
There are objections offered against Jesus’ command, this rule that we must love one another.
You cannot really command a persons emotions…
this assumes that love is merely an emotion and that emotions are “scripted.”
Love expresses nothing more than a strongly motivated preference…
OK, if that is so Jesus teaches us to grow into a different preference.
It’s hard…
lots of things are.
I don’t want to…
I’ve got nothing.
Verses 12 and 17 form an “inclusio.” They are virtually identical.
The difference is this. In verse 12, the love command is structural, a rule to follow which Jesus describes as His only command. It is subtly different in verse 17. There it is personal. Jesus commands it.
He speaks,
we listen,
we respond.
What lies between 12-17 enables us to do what we may not feel like, wish, want, or be able to do on our own.
The Love Jesus requires is the love that leads to the Cross and the love that makes impossible love a life-changing reality. Do you love Him? Then…love one another.
