JN 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
13:34 A new command. In a sense it was an old one (see Lev 19:18), but for Christ’s disciples it was new, because it was the mark of their brotherhood, created by Christ’s great love for them (cf. Mt 22:37-39; Mk 12:30-31; Lk 10:27). As I have loved you. Our standard is Christ’s love for us.
1PE 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
2 John 1 verse 5.
A little under two years ago I was fortunate enough to go to Vanuatu.
In Port Vila I took time to go to the hospital.
What I discovered was a very different world to the hospital’s I am at frequently here in Southland.
The level of care and support is altogether different and you might come to the conclusion that, unless you were seriously ill you might prefer to stay at home.
What is the difference?
The level of care.
Just as there are hospitals with different levels of care so there are churches with varying levels of love at work in the fellowship.
Just as there comes a time in the life of a hospital when we need to improve the level or standard of care rather than get more patients - so the church comes to a place where it has to improve the level of love so that those coming in can receive a higher level of love and tenderness than they would receive anywhere else in the world.
If you were going into a hospital you would be looking for a depth of care and treatment that was going to make life different and better than it was before.
The story is told of Mother Tereasa entering a home for the gravely ill and dying. At one bedside was a young nun who was cleaning a gaping wound in the neck of a woman being devoured by maggots. The exposed flesh was covered with the squirming creatures, and the nun was removing them one by one, with a pair of tweezer’s held at arm’s length. "No, sister, you haven’t the idea", said Tereasa sternly, moving into her place. Using a scalpel, she began to cleanse the wound with expert strokes, her face close to the mass. As she cut into it, the stench increased, but she did not pull back. Finally, she turned to the younger nun. "You must understand", she said, "this is Jesus. We are cleansing the wounds of our Lord." Yes, Mother." replied the repentant nun, taking the scalpel and moving forward with a brave smile until her young lips were but a few inches away from the ugly wound and the dying woman’s open, glassy stare." (Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, quoted in Reflections on Servanthood from the diocese of Kansas.)
We need to understand and understand at quite a profound leval that when we are relating to even the least Christian that we are in fact relating to Jesus.
Our bible reading this morning is one that I believe this passage speaks into:-
JN 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
This passage has been among the most ignored and misinterpreted in our generation.
When the sister moves in close to the wound of the dying woman or when Jesus embraces the leper they are doing more than a physical act – they are demonstrating a kind of love that goes far beyond the polite caring that we get involved in as neighbours and friends.
This week I have spent some time thinking about this passage – not only personally but also wrestling with it, with friends and particuarily with the elders of this church.
I came to the inescapable conclusion that although the broad kind of love that we share with others, the world and people in general is applaudable and desirable it is not specifically what Jesus is targeting here.
I have been in a number of Christian meetings over many years that have covered a wide range of thoughts about how to share the gospel with the world.
Most of them have been commendable and often successful.
But here jesus makes an incredible statement.
Here he says:-
JN 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
I want to suggest to you that Jesus is suggesting here that the predominant way of being recognized as a disciple of his is to build a church where the members are practicing unreasonable love with one another.
Further such a l;ove is foundational for everything else that we are going to do.
The kind of love that we are to express to one another is to be the kind of love that comes from the top of the barrel.
The Americas cup is coming up this week and we were considering that as a kind of parable for the church.
The Americas cup is won and lost on small differences.
As with any ship design, a sailing yacht embodies many necessary elements, which must dovetail to accomplish its mission. What is nice about America’s Cup design is that the only mission is speed, maneuverability and reliability to best a single match race rival around a closed course. Size, weight, wetted surface, hull form, light but strong construction, efficient rigs with good sails, sea kindliness and maneuverability are necessary. In general the successful boats embody acceptable or superior selections in the above categories. Bold innovation has been rewarded, but nearly always, extremes have failed. In a series of yacht races encompassing generally a variety of wind and sea conditions, an overall good boat wins.
And generally speaking the Church that is winning today is the one who embodies – practising Christian love with one another.
What we discovered as we considered this passage in relation to the yachting illustration is that we may have set sail into the waters of evangelism and community – both great goals in themselves while ignoring the very high level of love for each other that the bible requires.
That becomes particuarily significant when you realise that the outcome of such love is to, use modern commercial jargon , gain widespread brand recognition.
This is summed up in the result of such love when we read:-
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
The opening line of the vision statement of our church is:-
Our vision is to be a caring church family who will do whatever we can to help people become wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ.
If our love for each other is important then – let us consider this morning three things that we can do that will flavour the church of Jesus Christ in this place with the love of Jesus Christ..
The first thing is to recognize what Jesus says in this passage from John is a command.
JN 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
If you were on the Team New Zealand yacht and the Skipper made a suggestion to you for the day – like I suggest that you take thermals today because the wind is meant to be cold – then he is unlikely to be upset if you fail to bring your thermals.
But if he gives a command like to the grinder start winching up the new sail and the grinders all say no we can’t be bothered – then the race is likely to be lost maybe even the whole multi million dollar race.
There is something of far greater importance at stake here than the Americas cup.
It is the Kingdom of God.
The really neat thing is that the command Jesus gives – when carried out – benefits everyone.
When that command is disobeyed then terrible things happen.
I read recently about a church that had been going for a 100 years that obviously had failed somewhere in this process. I have changed the name of the church and the pastor as a courtesy to them.
100 years of Christian fellowship, spiritual love, Godly unity, and community growth ended last Tuesday in a fit of congregational discord not to be rivaled in this century. Blue StreamChurch was split down the middle like the tabernacle cloth that tore at the point of our Lord’s crucifixion. It is said that one could hear that rip a hundred miles away. Blue StreamChurch was severed from the once stalwart cord of unity that bound them together. The fist of discord has pounded an army of Christian soldiers into two disheveled, unorganized factions of estranged members. The source of dissension in this once Holy house of God, is a piano bench which still sits behind the 1923 Steinburg to the left of the pulpit. members who have friends or relatives at say that the old bench was always a source of hostility
At present, Blue StreamChurch will be having four services a day. There has been an unspoken agreement mediated by the Blue StreamChurch. Each faction will have it’s own separate service with it’s own separate pastor. Since the head pastor is not speaking to the associate pastor, each will have their own service, which will be attended by factioned members. We are told that the services are far enough apart that neither group will come into contact with the other. An outside party will be moving the piano bench to different locations and appropriate positions, between services, so as to please both sides, and avoid any further conflict that could result in violence.
I don’t know much about this church but I want to suggest to you that the problem really is a failure somewhere to obey the command of Jesus to love one another.
That really is my second point.
Love requires sacrifices, compromises and often costly love.
For Jesus to love in the way he commanded his disciples to love it cost him his reputation – his respectability – his personal safety and eventually it cost him his life.
Sometimes in order to build the culture of the church and to be faithful to each other and to Christ it might mean that we have to choose between forgoing some pleasure or security in order to care for the members of the Christian Church.
Interestingly they did that in the book of Acts with extraordinary results.
AC 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Here you see the devotion love of the believers for each other and towards the body leading to the incredible change which was:-
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Thirdly and finally
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Love like Jesus commands needs to be learned – needs to be taught – needs to be understood because the whole future of the Kingdom of God – in the particular place where the church is planted depends on this one thing.
To what extent must we love the people in our church?
Jesus here makes an extraordinary statement.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Do you know how deeply interdependent the people on a winning yacht team are?
The truth is – very very deeply.
They live – eat – drink – plan and work together.
Why because they know that teamwork is everything.
I think there is an incredible challenge here for each one of us to analize just how Jesus loves us and transfer that kind of love to each other in the Church.
Does that mean – as a church we will not go out into the world or share our faith with others – Of course not but it does mean that we will share as a first call the love kindness and goodwill with those in the body of Christ – the church.
When jesus’ Mother and Brothers once were outside of wher ehe was teaching – Jesus is told that they are out there.
I mean family in the normal state of things have [priority.
But Jesus replies in a remarkable way.
MT 12:46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."
MT 12:48 He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
Friends – “Look around you.”
"Here are your mother and your brothers –
This week I want to encourage you to take some new steps in just loving the people in your own church.
Pay a visit to someone you wouldn’t normally visit –
Pray for each other –
Be kind to someone who needs a special kindness.
Illustration:In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you ’love’ your neighbor act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."
Friends I believe god is encouraging us to take giant new risky steps in loving one another.
This is the basic fuel for the future of the church.
Our Daily Bread, February 14.
Friends I believe god is encouraging us to take giant new risky steps in loving one another.
This is the basic fuel for the future of the church.
I will conclude with a little poem that I found on Sermon Central.
I AM YOUR CHURCH
I am your church.
Make me what you will,
I shall reflect you as clearly as a mirror.
If outwardly my appearance is pleasing and inviting,
It is because you have made me so.
If within my spiritual atmosphere is . . .
Kindly, yet earnest;
Reverent, yet friendly;
Worshipful, yet sympathetic, yet strong;
Divine, yet humanly expressed –
It is but manifestation of the Spirit of those who constitute my membership.
But if you should by chance,
Find me a bit cold or dull,
I beg of you not to condemn me,
For I show forth the kind of life I receive from you.
Of this you may always be assured;
I will respond instantly to your every wish practically expressed,
For I reflect the image of your own soul.
MAKE OF ME WHAT YOU WILL.
