No Greater Love

John 15:12-17; Ephesians 3:13-19

John 15:12-17

12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one 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 slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things 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 would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

My topic today is not an easy one, when taught with truth & conviction. To start with, Love itself is not easy to define. Most are content to describe it it by comparing it to something- or someone- who is equally difficult to describe. We say, God is love”. And while this may be true, it does little to help us to define it. So love is, among other things, a person; more specifically, it is THE Person of God Himself, if we accept this definition. Our hearts bear witness to this truth, so I will not weigh down our time together with the philosophical & conceptual analysis of this. But…we must also state that love is a descriptive- it describes in some sense a feeling, and in another sense an action. I believe this to be two sides of the same coin; love is somethnig AND someONE we can feel…and that feeling ought to provoke us to action.

In order to understand this portion of John’s letter in proper context, I need to take you back a few chapters to chapter 13; I’ll summarize chapters 13 & 14 for the same of time, highlighting info that gives us insight into our selected text.

Chapter 13 begins with Jesus & the Disciples at the Passover Feast, which would become known among Christians as “The Lord’s Supper”. Right away in verse 1, Jesus teaches us something about the nature of love:

“Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (Jn 13:1).

Jesus shows us that love is enduring, not just endearing. He loved those who accepted His offer- and regardless of what came next, He “loved them to the end”. Wehn loving feelings pass, remeber the loving commitment we have seen in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus shows us that love requires humility, not just honoring. No matter how many time I read this, I just cant get over it: John 13:4-5. Jesus get up from the table after all the guests of honor have arrived and he takes off his outer tunic, ties a towel around His waist, gets a bowl of water, and washed His guest’s feel. God…washing dirty feet! What tasks seem beneath you? What is it that makes you say, “I’ll NEVER do that!”Jesus shows us the depth of His love not just in lifting us up, but in the way He humbled Himself. Jesus not only washed them- preparing them to serve, but He also demonstrated HOW to serve. “If I washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet” Jesus says in verse 14

Jesus shows us that love allows you to have peace in the presence of your enemies, not just in peaceful moments. Throughout John’s account, he emphasize the fact that Jesus was aware of His enemies’ presence- but He didn’t let it deter Him from His purpose. He didn’t kick Judas out…and He didn’t walk away. He wasn’t passive; He confronted Judas, identifying him as His betrayer and told Him in verse 27, “What you do, do quickly.” True peace is when situations can no longer take away your appetite- you can eat in the presence of your enemies as David says in Psalms 23. In other words, you don’t have to ignore the conflict or wait for it to go away to experience- your peace follows you into your storms- as David concluded in the same Pslam, “Surely [with absolute certainty] goodness and mercy will follow me.” The Holy Spirit within us allows us to be thermostat & not themometters- we don’t merely reflect the temperature of the room, we control it!

Jesus shows us the love requires obedience in action, not just observation and agreement. In chapter Jn 14:10-15, the Lord says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” On the surface, this may seem like a challenge: “Prove your love by doing what I tell you to do.” While God certainly has the right to demand a display of love through obedience, this type of thinking bringing us dangerously close to the heretical idea of “salvation through works”. The previous 4 verses give of the context fo this verse. Jesus say I don’t speak on my own accord; it is the Father in me that does the work. Then He applies this to us; just as the Father works through Him, so will Jesus work through us. So then in light of this, verse 15 tells us that love is the POWER that allows us to keep the Lord’s commandments. Love compels us to be obedient.

I can summarize the chapter 15 in just two words: love out loud.. Love challenges us to do somethnig about what we say we believe- not to earn our salvation, but because of it. It will give us the desire to share Christ, and the courage to do so. So let love rule! Be deliberate in your efforts to love your children…lyour husbad/wife…your family and coworkers. Let the Lord give you wisdom and coursge to love out loud. Never give up, beca:use love never fails!

I conclude with the words of Paul to the church in Ephasus

Ephesians 3:13-19

13 “This I command you, that you love one another.

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.