Love

Love Makes all the difference.

John 13:34–35 (NKJV)

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

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

Intro: Tina Turner; 84 years old.

1984 she sang a hit “Whats love go to do with it”

Love has everything to do with it.

God is love.

He loves us

John 3:16 NKJV

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Gods love is in us and we are commanded to show Gods love by loving one another.

Here Jesus is with His disciples 12 -1 Judas had left.

John 13:30 NKJV

30 Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night.

Jesus was getting ready to leave.

Since He was leaving, they had to carry on. It would be up to them to share with the world what Jesus had done. ELAB

The command to Love:

John 13:34 (NKJV)

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

Jesus could have told them anything. But He commands them to “Love one another.”

This is not a suggestion, it is a commandment.

Jesus had already commanded to your neighbor.

He even commanded to love your enemies.

Now He commands to love one another. 3 times in these 2 verses “one another”

“New”

The word “new” doesn’t mean it was just invented but has the idea of being new and fresh.

Let’s look at why Jesus refers to this as a “new commandment.” After all, Leviticus 19:18, written hundreds of years earlier, says we are to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” In addition, in Matthew 5:14 Jesus said we are to “love our enemies.”

In what sense is “loving one another” something new? First, it is a command given by Jesus to the church, not to Israel. Second, it is the beginning of the “one another” teachings in the New Testament.

Their relationship with Jesus is changing. They will still follow his teaching and commands, but they will no longer physically follow him.

The relationship with Jesus was the not the only relationship that’s changing. Their relationship with one another is undergoing a radical overhaul. (They would now need to depend of each other)

With Jesus’s departure they are now being brought into a new community that will be defined by love.

The love that Jesus had shown them, they would now have to have that same love for one another.

Jesus was leaving but He wasn’t leaving them alone. He was leaving them together, and they were to love one another.

We are to love one another:

“Like”

Love:

Love: 4 different means. This is the Greek word agapao, referring to a selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love, resulting from a decision of the will. It’s in the present tense, meaning we’re to “keep on loving.”

They were to love one another as Jesus had loved them.

This chapter begins with Jesus doing the dirty work of a servant when He grabs a towel and a basin and washes the foul feet of His disciples

Notice this phrase from John 13:1: “…having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Loving “to the end” means, “to the uttermost.”

Jesus could have quickly wiped their feet, but He modeled what love looks like by rising from the table, laying aside his outer garments, taking a towel, pouring water into a basin, washing 24 feet, and drying them with the towel.

According to verses 14-15, this is the model for the kind of love His followers must demonstrate to, and for, one another:

John 13:14–15 NKJV

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 should do as I have done to you.

We are to love as Jesus loves by serving one another.

Look at VS 34 again.

John 13:34 (NKJV)

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

The 11 that are left. Jesus is telling them to love one another as I have Loves you.

There were differences and disagreements among the disciples. Peter’s brash personality probably irritated those the others.

I wonder how his brother Andrew felt when Peter, James and John got extra time with Jesus? We know the other disciples got jealous when James and John angled for the top spots in Jesus’ cabinet.

Now Jesus tells them to love one another the same way that He loved them.

Maybe looked at Matthews past, and saw him as a trader.

Matthew is thinking: Jesus you loved me with a love that no one has ever loved me. You called me to follow you, a hated tax collector.

You love me in all my faults. You loved me no matter what. Do you expect me to love Peter that way?

Maybe He was thinking, do you expect me to wash his feet too?

Jesus may not expect us to wash each others feet, but He commands us to love one another.

agapao, selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love, meaning we’re to “keep on loving.”

How do we truly love one another the way Christ loves us?

First, we have to let Him love us.

John 13:34 (NKJV)

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

The question by Max Lacato in his devotion. “How do you let God love you?”

If we let God loves us it may make it easier to love one another.

John 13:35 (NKJV)

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

“By this”

Our love for each other IDENTIFIES us as the children of God.

In other words, the Bible tells us that the thing that should identify us as Christians is that we have, “love one to another.”

People who claim to be Christians that show no are little love for other Christians. Are either Christians that are drifting, or just not saved.

If the disciples didn’t show love to one another, then they would be showing the lost that they were followers of Jesus.

If we’re going to love as Jesus did, our love must be willing to sacrifice, to serve and to suffer.

We build deep relationships, to really get to know others so that you can minister to their needs and they can minister to yours. (Wed night) (Fellowship)

If we will love one another like Jesus commanded us to do, then we can love our neighbor, then we can love our enemies.

This world is full of hate.

Movie Hacksaw Ridge. Elab on the Movie. Desmond Doss

At his court marshal “With the whole world set on tearing its self apart, it doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me to want to put a little bit of it back together”

Jesus would another command. “Go”

We are to go and share the good news (gospel)

But if the world sees that we do not love one another, then how can we show the love of Jesus with them.