John 13:34-35

34  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

35  “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

I.       Love, the new commandment (verse 34)

34  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

A.   The commandment to love one another has almost no meaning apart from its contextual presupposition, “I have loved you”

1.     It is like commanding people to have no other gods who have not understood the meaning or accepted the exodus for themselves.

2.     Their question, “Why should I obey?” is perfectly legitimate until they recognize that the exodus is a paradigm for them as well.

3.     In the same manner, to ask people to love one another is pointless

a)    Unless they understood the love of Jesus in his Passover death for them alluded to in the two previous verses

b)    Such love becomes philosophically a nice ideal without any root in reality

4.     You can legislate “no discrimination” in the workplace based on a covenant and commandment of mutual respect

a)    But you cannot make people love one another without the acceptance of the covenant foundation of the self-giving love of God for the world  

B.    “I’m commanding you in a way I have not commanded you before.

1.     Not, I wish you all would do this

a)    It would be good or I hope you all will do this

b)    Do this because you’ll be amiable and pleasant

c)     It will be excellent and profitable

2.     Jesus commands it, and makes it one of the fundamental laws of his kingdom

3.     It goes right along with the command of believing in Christ,

1 Jn. 3:23

23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

1 Pt. 1:22   

22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,   

C.   The call to love is not new, but is embedded in the O.T. as well as the N.T

D.   Moses said, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (see Lev. 19:18)  

E.   Jesus said the new standard was as I have loved you  

F.    The command here is “new”

a)    (kainen: “fresh,” vibrantly new, rather than “recent”) in three ways.

G.  There is a new focus

1.     We are still to love our neighbor, but now a more intense love is to be directed toward “one another.”

2.     As mutual duty owing love to one another

3.     Looking to out love each other, and out do one another in caring   

H.   There is a new standard “As I have loved you”

1.     An equivalent expression in many languages is

a)    “In the same way that I have loved you, you must love one another.”

2.     He loved his disciples selflessly

a)    It was not about Jesus, he did the foot washing

b)    It should have been     

3.     Jesus loved his disciples sacrificially

a)    Going to the cross for us

b)    Forgiving us after the cross, after the denials     

4.     Jesus loved his disciples forgivingly

a)    His disciples were like us clueless

(1)  They wanted to kill what Jesus was trying to save

(2)  They wanted to sleep instead of pray

(3)  They were interested in their place in the kingdom instead of the King

(4)  They were blind and insensitive, slow to learn, and lacking in understanding

(5)  They were cowards

b)    Jesus held none of these things against them         

5.     Jesus loved with understanding, and without their understanding  

a)    Knowing those he loved did not understand

b)    He loved them even though they all would betray Him

6.     Love is not blind, ……….that is handicapped,

a)    Love it is wide eyed and opened vision of what we truly are

b)    Even though we do not appear to really be there

c)     Yet true vision, despite the real pain of the current not yet there view

7.     jesus was beyong kind to them

a)    Concerned himself for their welfare

b)    Instructed, counseled, and comforted them

c)     Prayed with them and for them

d)    Vindicated them when they were accused

e)     Took their part when they were run down, and publicly owned them to be dearer to him that his mother, or sister, or brother

f)      He reproved them for what was amiss, and yet compassionately bore with their failings

g)    Excused them, made the best of them, and passed by many an oversight

8.     We are no longer to love others “as you love yourself,”

a)    But “as I [Jesus] have loved you.”

b)    Christ’s own committed, self-sacrificial and limitless love is the yardstick by which we are to measure our love for our Christian brothers and sisters  

II.    The outcome of the commanded Love (verse 35)

35  “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

A.   Verse 35 “If you love one another in this way, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

B.   Most people think love should only bring you happiness

1.     Ultimately this is very true

a)    There is a price of love that sometimes that brings pain

b)    It may demand a cross for us to bear

c)     Are we willing to bear the pain of self sacrificing love and care for one another?

d)    When they do not get it ……and may never will     

C.   There is a new outcome

1.     As the Christian community is infused by Christlike love

2.     The world of lost humankind realizes that Jesus is real—and that we are His

D.   Peter, who does not understand, insists that he will lay down his life for Jesus’ sake (v. 37)

1.     Peter will do the work of the Good Shepherd

2.     How stubbornly presumptuous he is

3.     Did they figure that the disciples were now without sin simply because Judas had left

4.     Aren’t we all guilty at times of the sin of pride, trying to play the Savior, making ourselves into “little Messiahs,” insisting we can do His work?

5.     Peter did not realize that at the very outset of the struggle he will deny Jesus, not once, but three times

a)    Some had said it was because Peter did not stay close to Jesus that he denied him

b)    Jesus was plain …..where I go you can not follow …it was Jesus sacrifice alone for us …….but promided peter he would have another chance    

6.     Jesus knows him, as He does us

7.     And He still loves us with a love that will not let us go…Jesus redeems Peter at a breakfast fish fry    

III.Let’s make an application of this start Love At Home

A.   Love starts close to home but should reach to the farthest corners of the world

1.     If we are not really loving those who are close to us, then there is a good chance that we are not really loving anyone

2.     It’s hard to fool yourselves about the state and condition of your love

3.     There are so many times in our day when we are called to forget ourselves and bring some measure of care

4.     Helping hands, kind words, thoughtful actions - this is the stuff of love

a)    A small child wrote "Love is when Daddy reads me a bedtime story. True love is when he doesn’t skip any of the pages."

B.   You can’t live with another person and avoid the call to love any ordinary day

1.     Living with another person shows us how self-centered and selfish we can be

2.     This awareness happens time if we are tuned to the love station

3.     A good learner will know how to read the signs that call for a loving response

a)    Many married couples know that the secret to a happy marriage is to be kind to one another

b)    And the time to show love the most is when there is a sharp answer, not to start a war….  

IV.           This type of Love comes from the Head Not the Heart

A.   Love comes primarily from the head, not the heart

1.     Fooled you with that one, didn’t I?

2.     When we are talking about the love that is part of Jesus’ commandment to love one another 

3.     We need to be very aware that this kind of love comes from our head, that is, from our ability to choose  

A little girl came running into the house to her mother, exclaiming:

"Mamma, I love you!"

The mother replied: "I am so glad you love me. I have had a hard day, and I am so tired. If you love me so much, will you wash the dishes for me?"

The little girl replied: "I do love you, mother, but not in that way."

4.     Love doesn’t consist in saying words, but in doing the dishes.

5.     Love finds it ways into life through the decisions we make.

a)    Choosing to spend our money wisely so that we can have some left over to give those who need it, is a choice of love

b)    Giving up your desire to watch the history channel for yet another sports event on television so that your wife can see something that she wants to see, can be a choice of love

c)     Taking some of your time to visit a sick friend is a choice of love

d)    We may not feel like doing any of these small things, or a million other things, but we can make the decision to love

e)     Love comes from the head, not the heart