Scripture Introduction
Jesus “did not speak to them [the crowds] without a parable…” (Mark 4.34). And the Apostle John shows us that Jesus’ parables were often acted teachings, the most famous of which is in John 13: “Jesus laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (John 13.4-5). A few minutes after this “living parable,” Judas reject this grace of a humble God; Jesus then teaches the remaining disciples what is the heart or core of the footwashing sermon. Here is the defining mark of the true Christian. [Read John 13.31-35. Pray.]
Introduction
Love may not be what we would expect as the defining mark of a faithful follower of God. Do we not sometimes act as if Jesus said:
* by this all people will know you are my disciples, by your profession of faith? Do you have an orthodox profession: a Trinitarian theology, a Christ-centered redemption, salvation by faith alone?
* Or, perhaps, all people will know you are disciples of Jesus by your Sunday behavior: up early for church and never cutting the grass in the afternoon?
* Or, they will know you are his disciples by your ethical positions: pro-life bumper stickers and support for prayer in the public schools?
* Or maybe by the company you keep: the school you attend, the signs in your yard, the church where you are a member?
But none of those are his test: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” So I wonder, do people know that we at The Church of the Covenant are Jesus’ disciples? Somehow, people must be able to see and sense whether we truly love one another. Saying that we do is not good enough, is it? It is not, “People will know we are Jesus’ disciples because we claim to love one another.” They must be able to discern the reality, so what do they sense and see in us?
If we ask those outside the church who know us well, “What is a defining mark of Church of the Covenant?” would they say, “love”? I especially want to be sensitive to that when I read the concerns from Bible-believing pastors of another age.
J. C. Ryle, 46: “Of all the commands of our Master, there is none which is so much talked about and so little obeyed as this.”
John Calvin, Commentary, 70-71: “How necessary was this admonition [‘a new commandment I give you’] we learn from daily experience. Since it is hard to keep love, men lay it aside and contrive for themselves new methods of worshipping God…. Let this name of ‘newness,’ therefore, stir us up to cultivate love. Nor is it superfluous that Christ insists on this so earnestly. The love of ourselves and of our neighbor no more agree than do fire and water. Self-love keeps all our senses bound in such a way that love is altogether banished. And yet all the time we think that we have acquitted ourselves well.”
So I take from this command of Christ a corresponding test of our community: is love the defining mark of our congregation? In order to evaluate and improve, note:
1. We Are To Love One Another Because of Jesus’ Love for Us (John 13.33, 34b)
Verse 33 begins with a most gentle and comforting title: “little children.” One Bible scholar suggested, “my dear children,” as an accurate translation. Jesus chooses an expression to communicate care and compassion and concern. He soon must share a disappointing and frightening truth, so he first speaks a word of kindness to help bear the load.
Then in verse 34 he reminds his men that their love is based on the model of his love. Love one another, “just as I have loved you.” Together (the phrases, “my dear children” and “just as I have loved you”) remind us of God’s deep and abiding care. When he asks us to love one another, it is not with ignorance of the difficulty. He is not telling us to do what he would not. This is not the command of the boss who makes his employees do work that is beneath him. The Master leads the charge and exhorts his men to chase him into battle: “Come, Christians, follow, where your Savior trod. You know my love for you; let it motivate your love for fellow believers.” We are to love because of Jesus’ love for us.
2. We Are to Love Another Because It is a New Command (John 13.34)
John 13.34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
It seems a bit strange that Jesus would call this a “new” commandment. It certainly is not “new” in terms of never having been stated. Leviticus 19.18: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Loving each other has always been the standard for God’s people. So why does Jesus call it new?
Maybe because his love sets a new and higher level for our love. Before Christ, we were to love as we loved ourselves; now we must love as Jesus loved us. It is certainly an exalted standard which the Son of God sets before our imaginations.
Maybe he calls it, “new” because the people of his day had so ignored and neglected their duty, one to another. Then it would be a newly discovered love.
Or maybe he refers to something which is rare and excellent. “New” could be a figure of speech for a love which is unique and greatly to be desired.
James Boice believed that the newness referred to a change in objects for our love. In the old covenant, God’s people were to love especially fellow Jews (those sharing a common physical descent); now we are to love fellow Christians (those sharing a spiritual life).
One part of the newness may be the new power available to fulfill the law. Now that perfect love has lived in the person of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit unites his people to the good work of love which he has prepared and empowered for us. Whereas before the law of love could convict, now it can be obeyed – in dependence on the grace of the gospel.
I must tell you – I do not know the right answer. My guess is that all of the above are true. We must love one another because this is the new commandment from the Lord.
3. We Are To Love One Another Because Such Is Our Witness (John 13.35)
John 13.35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Paul Miller is a PCA Pastor who wrote the book, Love Walked Among Us: Learning to Love Like Jesus. Isn’t that a great title? Joni Eareckson Tada’s cover-blub says, “To see Jesus is to see what love looks like.” I agree with her, this book helps us see Jesus, and I hope we will use this material in small groups in the future. When we see Jesus, we see love.
But notice the sequence: first, Jesus tells his men that he is leaving; then he commands that we “love one another.” So when love leaves, how will men and women know what true, divine love looks like? They will see it in the relationships Christians have with one another. This is our most powerful witness.
I found a teaching that fascinated me this week. Chrysostom was a popular preacher around AD 400. And people in the church wanted pastors to perform more miracles like Jesus did, because they were sure such would lead to great conversions. He disagreed.
Chrysostom: “Even now, there is nothing else that causes the Greeks [non-Christians] to stumble, except that there is no love…. Miracles do not so much attract the Greeks as the mode of life; and nothing so much causes a right life as love…. We, we are the cause of their remaining in their error. Their own doctrines they have long condemned, and in like manner they admire ours, but they are hindered by our mode of life” (The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol. XIV: Homilies on the Gospel of Saint John and Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 266).
We do not witness effectively because of great spiritual gifts or grand financial giving, not by superior intellect or a glib tongue or sharp wit—these a few may have. But even the poorest and least educated Christian can be filled with love and witness powerful to the reality of following Jesus.
4. We Are To Love One Another As Jesus Loved (John 13.34b)
John 13.34b: “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
I think Jesus means for us to search the Bible until we can describe his love and imitate it to others. If so, how does Jesus love?
We can see an example by substituting “Jesus” for “love” in 1Corinthians 13: “Jesus is kind and patient; Jesus does not insist on his own way and is not rude. Jesus is not irritable or resentful. Jesus bears all thinks.
Then we assess ourselves by asking hard questions: am I patient with those who offend me, sticking with them and continuing to speak and encourage? Do I insist on my own way, or enable others to have their preferences met? Am I easily irritated by sinful behaviors, or do I quickly overlook those and continue to believe and hope the best in every new situation?
To obey Jesus’ new command then, we would go through the whole of the Scriptures, with emphasis on the Gospels, to watch Jesus love people. We will leave off doing so until another day.
Before we conclude this morning, I think I should show you the other side of what we must do to understand love like Jesus’ showed: we must put off that which hinders. For example:
4.1. We Cannot Love Those We Cannot See
Matthew 7.1,3,5: “Judge not, that you be not judged…. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye…? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
A judgmental spirit blinds us to the people we could love. When we jump to conclusions about motives and imagine we understand another’s reasons, we are no longer able to see past the log in our own eye.
4.2. We Cannot Love Those We Consider Worse Sinners
When a woman washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, Simon was unimpressed.
Luke 7.39: “he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.’”
Jesus then said, “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”
Then Jesus said, “Simon, this woman wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. She kissed my feet and anointed them with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little” (Luke 7.40-47).
A condemning spirit hinders love because it pulls us away from people.
4.3. We Cannot Love Those Who Will Not Stay
Jesus, love in a human body, the perfect example and expression of divine love, is teaching on the importance of love, seconds after Judas walked away.
One of the difficulties of being a pastor in our time and place is that niceness and tolerance are disproportionately valued. Congregation members can convince themselves that the pastor should get along perfectly with everyone, never causing problems and certainly never creating conflict. I’m not sure that is where we want to be. Certainly, part of my calling is to live at peace with all people, as much as it is in my power. Hebrews 12.14: “Strive for peace with everyone….”
At the same time, the Bible warns the faithful pastor that the church will be constantly in danger from those who have “an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people” (1Timothy 6.4-5). We must have nothing to do with “foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels” (2Timothy 2.23).
Titus 3.9-10: “Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.”
Because the church is a place where we try to love others, those who are divisive and bitter and argumentative sometimes use our compassion to demand attention. But as the verses I just quoted make clear, we damage the church and her members when we fail to set limits and to require a godly response to our love. That means we will be accused of being unloving. But just because an accusation is leveled does not make it true. Please know that we cannot love those who refuse a God-honoring, Christ-exalting relationship.
5. Conclusion
After I sent out my request for prayer this week, a couple of you noted that we do a good job of welcoming visitors, in other words being friendly. That is a great start on love and you are to be commended for doing so. Jesus welcomed people. Is that all Jesus is asking of us? Is that the fullness of the applications and implications of this new command?
When considering questions like that, I think the best way is to prayerfully determine the top few areas God would have me improve. From this list, which would you prioritize for us?
1) Put off gossip; love only speaks to the one who offends us
2) Put off slander; love only says that which is useful for building up
3) Put off letting the sun go down on your anger; love keeps short accounts by quickly resolving conflict
4) Put of bitterness; love knows that others will never treat us as we think we deserve
5) Put off clamoring; love is tenderhearted and forgives those who offend us
6) Put off the pride which demands a perfect response from others; love humbly recognizes that “She did not treat me as badly as I deserve”
7) Put off the malice toward those against whom you have a justifiable complaint; love forgives as the Lord has forgiven you
8) Put off a complaining spirit; love prays in the Spirit about everything
9) Put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, and be thankful.
Walter came home excited because a fellow worker had apologized for something he had done several years before. Walter told his wife, and she responded with a curt, “Oh, whatever.” He was initially taken aback, stung by his wife’s response, felt like retaliating with the well-deserved cold-shoulder.” Instead, he waited a few minutes and then asked her about where to place the furniture they had recently purchased. In other words, he maintained a positive relationship and interest in his wife, even though she had responded badly. Why?
He remembered that he had said some truthful, but hard words to her a couple of days before. He also knew she was having a hard time in a relationship with another friend. And she was not feeling well. So he put these together and simply allowed love to cover her offense.
Three verses to consider as we ask if we are loving each other in the way that imitates Christ and witnesses to the world.
Proverbs 10.12: “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”
Proverbs 17.9: “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.”
1Peter 4.8: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
I received an email this week telling me that I have caused a “preponderance of offenses over the last two years” and that you (as a congregation) may be “starting to reach the limit of their patience.”
I ask your forgiveness and I pray that God will show me what needs to be corrected and give me the grace to turn from my weaknesses and failures. At the same time, I remind you that pastors are to boast in their weaknesses so that the power of Christ might rest in me. I am weak at love, and weak in causing offense. May you be so full of the grace and power of Christ that you are able to love your pastor, covering over a multitude of offenses and sins. And may such covering love be a distinguishing mark of every relationship in this church.
