A New Command

Thank you for taking a few moments from your time gathering together to join us. It is great to see everybody.

Announcements:

We are inviting you to join us for outdoor chapel at All American Chapel 1100 on Sunday.

This Tuesday, May 26th, men’s group will meet back at the Hospitality House this Tuesday at 7pm. I would like to spend time catching up and praying.

Prayer and Praise -

What has been a Challenge this past week? What has been a victory this week. What does your work schedule look like as things are changing? How are your relationships and thoughts you have as you return to work? IS there a unique dynamic at work?

Last week I introduced a passage that I believe would be beneficial for us to spend some time as a community to consider and follow into a deeper study in what the Bible reveals how to practically live out its teaching. First, I would like to take a look a deeper look at the passage and dive into some of the challenges of how we can love one another.

This passage comes from John 13:34-35:

34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” [1]

Jesus gave us a new command; that we love one another. The reason that Jesus gives us this command is that we are testifying to our discipleship in Christ as we show our love for one another. The timing of this command I think is important from Jesus to his disciples because he is about to be betrayed and handed over to be condemned.

The question comes to mind, “What is new about this command?” We see throughout the whole Bible from the Old Testament (Lev 19:18), the Gospels (Mt 19:19, 22:39, Mk12:31, Lk 10:27, John 13:34), and the Epistles (Ro 13:8, Ga 5:14, Jas 2:8) love your neighbor as yourself. So, what is this new command to love one another?

I think Jesus was speaking not just the action of loving one another, or even the depth of his love, but rather the source of this love. We see this command again in, We love because of Jesus loved us, and I think the source of the new is the command is Jesus. This is because he says we are to love “as I have loved you”. Jesus is the source of this new command. We see the concept of loving one another before Jesus’ incarnation to flow from the the performance of worship and it was a duty to be carried out. Now we see the physical embodiment of how to love and from whom this love flows to our family in Christ. In John 15:12-13 we see this carried out to its fullest context and intent.

“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.[2]

Jesus willingly went to his death because of his love for his friends. We are indeed friends with Christ if we do as he commands. In the military we understand this depth of sacrifice of one to the other we have lots of stories of brave young men and women who sacrifice themselves for those that they serve with. We often attribute this as their love for their fellow soldiers as perform their duty paying the ultimate sacrifice. I have plenty of friends that have that verse tattooed, but they do not know the love of Jesus. Jesus is the source of the love. Our love for one another is something I think we often have a hard time with. I was reading a commentary and I think it helped me better articulate why we have a challenge “loving one another as Christ loved us”.

The Expositor’s Bible, Volume 5: Luke to Galatians Chapter VIII: Jesus Announces His Departure (John 13:31–14:4)

As the Christian Church is a new institution upon earth, so is the principle which forms it a new principle. The principle has, indeed, too often been hidden from sight, if not smothered, by the institution; too little has love been regarded as the one thing by which the disciple of Christ is to be recognised, the one note of the true Church. But that this form of love was a new thing upon earth is apparent

What this says very simply that far too often we put too much into the institution of Church, which after all was a gift given to us by Christ; that it often can get in the way of of our command to love one another. This command is the way in which we are able to testify to our membership of the Church. I think for many of us we think too often of going to church rather than being the Church. I want to challenge our thinking in this area in the upcoming weeks as we see how we can “love one another”.

The over arching question then arises, “How is it then are we to love one another?” As Kim pointed out to me this is too broad so we worked through a few other questions that I would like for your groups to talk through. and this upcoming week someone from you group post to the facebook page.

What keeps us from loving others, like Christ loved us?

Why can this be a difficult command to follow?

What is 1 thing that you can do to love this Body of Christ this next week?

What other passages are you able to to find that deal with how we are to love one another?

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), Jn 13:34–35.

[2] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), Jn 15:12–13.John