Love One Another
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
If you have your bibles let me invite you to open with me to the gospel of John chapter 13.
Last week we finished 15 months of a verse by verse expositional teaching through the entire book of Revelation.
Since the planting of St. Rose Community Church in 2016 we have similarly worked verse by verse through:
The gospel of mark
Acts chapters 1-18
Romans
1 Corinthians
Colossians
Titus
2 and 3 John
Revelation
the book of Proverbs
Many of the Psalms
Jonah
Habakuk
Haggai
And
Malachi
For our small groups have worked through:
Exodus,
1 & 2 Samuel,
John,
2 Corinthians,
Ephesians,
Philippians,
Galatians
1 and 2 Thessalonians
1 Peter
Hebrews
James
and
1 John
and for this fall,
community groups starting this week begin their journey through the book of Ezra .
we believe whole heartedly that the blessed life is the life that knows, and keeps, and proclaims the words of the Bible…. and that the best way to know the Bible is to work through entire books verse by verse
But for the next few months…,
we are going to do something a little different..,
We are going to preach one passage each week…, but we going to focus on a particular theme
one that dominates the application sections of the New Testament…,
That theme is theme of “one anothering”
or “the one-another commands of the New Testament.”
These commands are the most frequently articulated kinds of commands in the New Testament..,
They show up everywhere,
They describe the essence of the kind of life that we should be pursuing and enjoying in the fellowship of the local church…,
Our plan is to focus on one of these commands each week…,
through an exposition of one text where the command is highlighted.
And for this week..,
We begin with the most frequent command..
The one on the surface that everyone can agree with.
love one another…
so lets read and lets pray for God’s help in understanding.
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.”
Lets pray
God , please help us to understand.
please empower us to obey.,
please guide us by your Spirit
that this word would become reality in our lives..
please speak by your grace and for your glory.
before turning our eyes to the context of this text…,
lets take a moment to consider our context…,
the context in which we live and read this verse…,
Here is our reality….
Relationships are hard.
We want them…,
We want them to be deep, meaningful, and soul satisfying…,
but…,
we also want them to come easily..,
naturally..,
with little effort,
little sacrifice,
low cost..,
high reward…,
We want to CONSUME deep, meaningful, soul satisfying relationships..,
the same way we consume material goods…,
it is in the life blood of our culture to consume things
cheaply with two day shipping
and without having to leave our house…,
and with the safety net of being able to return them hassle free and with no commitment..,
But Relationships
do not come with two day shipping
they do not come with guaranteed returns for purchase price.
Relationships are hard….firstly because YOU are a sinner…,
There is a self-centered sin monster built into the fabric of your human nature…,
It is natural that you live in a state of self love, self glory, and self preservation,
so that your most natural path
of least resistance is the path of self-service.
This is the reality of human nature since Genesis chapter 3.
In Genesis 3, sin entered the world….and Adam blamed Eve for the sin.
by Genesis 4, the first older brother, murdered his sibling out of envy.
If you think you came from a dysfunctional family…,
take heart, your not especially unique.
relationships are hard….
they are uniquely hard in our digital world..,
because our minds are so clouded with constant pings, and notifications, and reels, and entertainment..,.
we find ourselves constantly feeding the pathways in our brain that consume, consume, consume…,
that we find it harder and harder
to pro-actively cultivate
or create or pursue the costliness of relationships…,
that is our context..,
now let me take you into the context of John 13….
Its the night before Jesus’ crucifixion.
the setting is an upper room
where the eternal son of God
in human flesh
is preparing his closest disciples and friends for what happens next….,
He has just performed an incredible act of selflessness…,
Jesus the Christ, the great teacher, miracle worker, savior, and Lord…,
just got on his hands and knees
and he washed the dirty feet of each one of his disciples’ before dinner.
It was a task so dirty and degrading that it was reserved for the lowest of the social class.
Peter was so disturbed at the picture of humility,
that in true Peter fashion..,
he forbid Jesus from doing such a thing.
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus corrected him as usual,
and Peter quickly repented as usual..,
Jesus was washing the feet of his disciples for an important purpose.
He was providing them a model of what they were to do for one-another..,
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?
13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
It was a striking moment of humility
and love
and service for his friends and followers..,
but the scene becomes even more striking…,
after having washed each of their feet…,
Jesus says…, ‘one of you will betray me.’
the disciples were confused..,
and young John leaning back against Jesus during the meal…,
asks Jesus who the betrayer would be…,
look at chapter 13 verse 26.
26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.
29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.
30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
so…, imagine with me now…,
young john processing the events unfolding before his eyes…,
Judas, the keeper of the money bag,
one of the 12 disciples,
a friend,
a co-laborer of 3 years by John’s side,
by Jesus’ side…,
he is leaves to betray Jesus…,
With freshly cleaned feet from the hands of Jesus….,
Judas leaves to trade Jesus for a sack of money…,
Relationships are hard…,
and it is in the midst of that moment….,
that Jesus looks at his disciples still in the room…,
he warns them of his coming death…,
and then he gives this command.
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.”
Jesus is preparing his disciples for his crucifixion…,
They are not going to be able to follow him as they once did,
But they are going to need to carry on his work without his physical presence among them.
Following him is not going to look like literally following his physical footsteps anymore like they had done for three years.
So Jesus is giving them one of the keys to continuing as a disciple of Jesus…,
And it is not in the midst of happy, easy, low cost fellowship over common hobbies, and interests, and stages of life…,
that Jesus gives this command…,
It is in the context of betrayal,
after a dirty,
humble,
self-sacrificial,
spectacle
that Jesus now gives this primary command to his disciples SO THAT the world would know they are in fact his disciples…,
Love One Another
Now, we are going to squeeze every bit of truth out of these two verses…,
So if your a note taker…,
here are five truths that are here in these two verses…
that are re-emphasized over and over and over again throughout the New Testament.
Truth #1 One-Another Love is Commanded
Truth #1 One-Another Love is Commanded
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another
The first word, I want you to zero in on is that word commandment…,
We will discuss whats new about it later…,
but for now just sit on this word commandment…,
This exact command re-appears over and over again…, here is just a sampling..,
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
this teaching certainly made a mark on John because its this commandment that he re-emphasizes in his letter
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him…
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
It is important that we realize the repetition is that of a command from the living God to his people..,.
the one another commands we will study in this series are not one another suggestions..,
they are commands of the living God…,
BUT these commands are not the means by which we earn eternal life..,
they are the means by which we enjoy the abundant life that Jesus purchased for us on the cross..,
Jesus came because we could not keep his commands perfectly…,
he paid the penalty for our failures…,
but that does not rob the commands of the bible of their power
and of their blessing
and of their wisdom..,
If Jesus loves us enough to be betrayed, and denied, and whipped, and mocked, pierced through with hammer and nail and spear and be crucified for us…,
then we should assume his commandments are also a display of his love for us…,
they are blessings..,
John words it this way:
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
so yes this sermon series for the next couple months is about commandments… that we should do…
not for our salvation,
rather, for God’s glory, and our joy..,
another important distinction.,
is that these commands like “love one-another” are not one-another prohibitions.
a prohibition is a command which says…, “Thou shall not”
like do not murder,
do not steal
do not commit adultery
I would argue that those commands are very straight forward and should be somewhat easier to obey…,
just don’t kill anybody..,
just don’t commit adultery..,
those are hopefully the simple commands for us…,
but these one another commands, including this command to love, are not like that..,
These are commands of action…,
the command here is to LOVE one another…,
it is in its essence active..,
but what does that mean?
My suspicion is that for most of us…,
we just assume we are doing this..,
we just assume that we are accidentally fulfilling the command to love…,
so long as we are not lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, or being rude…,
but the one another commands including this command to love
are a commission to do something…,
it is a command to be pursued proactively…,
not merely assumed passively…,
and its not a formula..,
there is an art to these commands…
Jesus was not washing feet all the time at every meal…,
but on this occasion it was one way in which he fulfilled the command to love one another.
One New Testament Scholar defines the command to love one another in this way:
“Far from being merely and attitude towards others, it involves a purposive act of will. It is, as Paul says in one passage, ‘a labor,’ and it expresses itself not in mere feeling or inclination but in concrete acts of service.”
- Robert J. Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting, p. 54
Truth #1 One-Another Love is Commanded
Truth #1 One-Another Love is Commanded
so what is One-Another Love?
Truth #2 One-Another Love is Sacrificial
Truth #2 One-Another Love is Sacrificial
34 ….just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Jesus displayed love through an act that was dirty, messy, uncomfortable, and lowly for the purpose of blessing and honoring and doing good unto his disciples whom he loved….,
later in the same evening of preparation, Jesus would define love in this way.
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.
Love is by its very nature the caring for, and the striving for,
and the sacrificing for,
the ultimate good of another person…,
now that phrase “for the ultimate good” is important…,
it is not loving to give a toddler a loaded gun just because the toddler is upset that they don’t get to play with it…,
in the same way…, it is not loving to approve of the sin of a loved one..,
just because they would be upset if you held firmly to the truth..,
sometimes ultimate love for someone looks like you holding to the truth,
even if it threatens your relationship with them
as a display of ultimate love for them..,
The point here is that love as defined by Scripture is not the same as love defined by our culture..,
Love is not a matter of self-satisfying emotion..,
Love is not niceness in and of itself..,
Love is not tolerance…,
or simply the absence of hatred…,
no,
it is the proactive laying down our lives, our interests,
our preferences for the purpose of doing physical, relational, spiritual good for someone else.
Jesus laid down his life…,
for our eternal good.,
and then he commands us to love one another in the same self-sacrificial kind of way.
Paul agrees on the centrality of this command when he says.
2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Truth #1 One-Another Love is Commanded
Truth #2 One-Another Love is Sacrificial
Now why emphasize the phrase “one-another”?
Why not just say in general? “love others.”
so that the truths for this sermon would simply be
#1 Love is commanded
#2 Love is Sacrificial
that general statement would be true…,
so why the “one another” phrase?
Well because Jesus does not leave it in the general in this command...,
There is a direct application here to disciples of Jesus in fellowship with one another.
Truth #3 One-Another Love is Church Family Love
Truth #3 One-Another Love is Church Family Love
the word “one-another” is intentionally chosen.
listen to how one bible dictionary speaks about this word.
The pronoun allēlōn is reciprocal. It conveys the idea that two or more people are involved with an action in which they share the benefits or consequences.
- Baker Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words
Jesus is not simply giving a general command to love all people everywhere in this verse…,
nor are the other one another commands in the New Testament speaking to the outward facing relationship that the church has with the world…,
Are we to love everyone?
of course….,
but Christ Jesus is creating a new kind of community of disciples who share this kind of responsibility to one another..,
this kind of closeness…,
this kind of reciprocal,
communal,
one-anothering among disciples in churches…,
you may say you love everyone…,
but that means nothing…,
until it means something in your tangible sacrificial love for someone.
This commandment that Jesus is giving to his disciples…,
is a commandment that is meant to be lived out in the context of a community of disciples of Jesus.
John understood this
and thats why in his letter to a local church…,
John emphasizes one another love among the “brothers” of the church
10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
in other words don’t tell me your a loving Christian person…,
if their is no tangible evident reality to your love for the people in your local church.
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.
the one another commands are reciprocal commands
that describe the nature of relationships that should be pursued and cultivated in the household of faith…,
they are
commanded
sacrificial
communal in the faith family
In such a way that they are actually visible to the world…
back to John 13.
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.”
Truth #4 One-Another Love is Great Commission Love
Truth #4 One-Another Love is Great Commission Love
what do I mean by great commisison love?
I mean that the one anothering love of disciples in the context of Christian community…,
serves to accomplish the purpose of God in the world to glorify himself and draw people to himself…,
The world will see the one another love of people within the church…,
and they will wonder about the power and the reality of this God who is love…,
This is repeated again in chapter 15.
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
what is the fruit of discipleship?
that our love for God
and love for each other be evident!
Jesus prays that the love and unity of his people
in their relationships to one another
would actually be the conduit by which the world comes to know him…,
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
So this is God’s plan for your life…,
That your love and unity with other Christians in this church,
in this community,
would be so strange…,
that it would actually cause the atheist to question his atheism
and it would cause the muslim to question his allegiance to the very unloving god of Allah..,
and it would cause the depressed and suicidal visitor who doesn’t believe they could ever be loved…, to doubt the lies that Satan has been feeding them..,
Your pro active pursuit of love for each other actually reveals
the very power and nature of God’s love for us in the gospel of Jesus Christ…,
not only because it follows after the model of Jesus…,
but because One-Another love is only possible with the spiritual power of Jesus in us and through us..,
and that brings us to our final truth
truth # 5.
and our reading of these two verses.
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.”
What is new about the new commandment?
Why is it that this kind of love will be a definitive marker of he or she who is really a disciple?
Truth #5 One-Another Love is a Gospel Miracle
Truth #5 One-Another Love is a Gospel Miracle
The kind of love that Jesus commands us to have for one another…,
is not natural to us…,
in fact…,
it is not possible for us…,
If all we have in Jesus is an example of what we are supposed to do…,
we are doomed to a life of moral, relational, spiritual failure..,
What we need is more than a mere example..,
We need spiritual power indwelling us, changing us, enabling us to obey this command when we have no strength in and of ourselves…,
We need exactly what Jesus promises us in the new covenant…,
fast forward just two chapters in John for more commentary on this command..,
Hear the words of the Lord Jesus…
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
What Jesus promises to you is not just a ticket out of hell at the end of your life…,
What Jesus promises you is a deep relationship with him…,
like that of a branch attached to a life giving vine…,
from him we receive the nutrients,
the strength,
the power,
to ability,
to bear the fruit of love..,
the promise of the Gospel is not just our presence with God in heaven…,
the promise of the Gospel is God’s presence in us on earth..,
A Christian is a walking miracle..,
through faith in Jesus,
our hearts are made new,
we are born again,
and we now draw from a strength that is not our own to love in ways not natural to us.
This is why John in his letter 1 John…,
makes love for one another the key test for assessing whether someone is really a Christian or not.
This is how you know if someone is a disciple of Jesus…,
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
1 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.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
This is deep in John’s theology…,
When someone puts faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior…,
We should expect that one of the fruits of that faith is the evident love for the brothers and sisters in Christ in their church fellowship…,
and when we feel weak,
and loveless,
and tired,
and weary,
and wronged,
and betrayed,
and denied,
and abandoned…,
We abide in the love of Jesus,
We meditate on the words of Jesus,
We pray for the strength to love that only comes from Jesus…,
There are certain things written i the back of my prayer journal that I pray for every day that I know I cannot self-produce by will power and hard work…..,
On that list is:
love for God
and love for people
Any ounce of sacrificial God-glorifying one another love in my life…, is a miracle of the spirit of God working in me.
Truth #5 One-Another Love is a Gospel Miracle
Truth #5 One-Another Love is a Gospel Miracle
So what do we do with all this?
Well I want to close with a couple application questions.
#1 Have you received the love of God through faith in Jesus?
#1 Have you received the love of God through faith in Jesus?
the invitation of Jesus is that you receive the gift of eternal life,
the gift of his love poured into your heart,
through faith in him.
Listen to how Paul articulates our salvation..,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
receive the love of God today…,
by trusting he made a way for your sins to be forgiven,
and for you to dwell with him forever.
#2 Are you evidently a Christian from the way in which you sacrificially love the church family?
#2 Are you evidently a Christian from the way in which you sacrificially love the church family?
Is there anything about your sacrificial love for others that the lost people around you would find interestingly Christian…,
What is the fruit which is clearly from the vine of your abiding in Jesus?
If thats an extremely hard question to answer.., pray that God would help you think through what it would look like…,
to obey this command to “love one another”
It is the foundation of all the other commands we will work through in this series..,
and its my hope that the coming weeks will actually help us to fill out what it means to love one another actively.
#3 Do you find yourself thinking most about all the ways others are failing at loving you?
#3 Do you find yourself thinking most about all the ways others are failing at loving you?
If you find yourself giving most of your mental and emotional energy to thinking about the ways everyone else is failing to love you…
Pray for a perspective shift
If we are every to walk in the joy of the lord and in obedience to his command..,
We need to embrace his mindset
We worship a Jesus who stooped down and washed the feet of friends…,
all of which,
who would in less than 24 hours betray, deny, and abandon him at his darkest hour..,
and that Jesus commands us to love one another in that way…,
to strive for a culture of love that is not based on each other’s friend- performance…
If we are ever to pursue the art of one-anothering together…,
the first thing to die will have to be our own pride,
our own sense of entitlement,
our own expectations on everyone else,
our own constant frustration with everyone else's failures..,
Its typically the case that the relational standard to which we are holding others would crush us if others were to hold us to it.
We must crucify our pride,
if we are ever to enjoy sacrificial one-another love.
and if we do…,
it will be a miracle of God’s grace.,
and he will get all the glory..,
and we will get the joy of Christian community.
lets pray for that.
