Last week we talked about the relationship of Jesus to believers. We got into a lengthy discussion about the joy that only God can give. We saw that as God loves His Son Jesus Christ, so Christ loves us.
Tonight Jesus talks about the relationship of believers to believers. How believers relate to other believers is important. That’s because division will destroy a body of people quicker than any other single thing. Division destroys the body of Christ, the fellowship of believers, and the witness of believers.
Too many believers are known more for their grumbling, griping, complaining, and divisiveness than for anything else. Nothing cuts the heart of Jesus more than such self-centered and divisive behavior so the relationship of believers to each other is of critical importance.
READ v. 12 - 13. The supreme command of believers is to love one another. Believers are to love one another as Jesus has loved them. And Jesus is pretty clear about what He means. He loved man so much that He paid the ultimate price. He died and sacrificed His life for man. He paid the ultimate price of love by dying for His friends.
READ v. 14-15. Believers form a bond of friends. The supreme bond of believers is the bond of friends. It’s a spiritual bond founded by Christ Himself. But note two things:
1. Being a friend of Jesus is conditional. A person has to know and do His commandments in order to be a friend of His. In other words, there’s no way to be Jesus’ friend apart from knowing what He says. It’s His Word that tells us about Him. So we have to seek to learn His Word and do what He says in order to know Him and to become His friend. Friends relate and commune with each other. Friends share and respond to the word of each other. Friends rejoice when the word or conversation is that of joy. Friends help when the word or request is that of need.
2. The bond of friends is based upon revelation, that is, upon Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus revealed and made known exactly what God told him. It’s the Word of God that gives birth and structure to the bond of friends. So the friends of Christ are built upon and centered on the Word of God.
READ v. 16. Our supreme purpose as believers is to go and bear fruit. We, as believers, are the chosen and appointed of Christ, and we have been given the very same purpose of Christ Himself: to go into all the world and bear fruit among men. Let’s note two things about this great verse of Scripture.
1. Believers are chosen and appointed by Jesus. We don’t choose Him nor do we appoint and send ourselves out to serve Him. It’s God who approaches and draws us. It’s God who appoints us to live for Him and to serve Him.
2. Believers are chosen and appointed for three very specific purposes.
a. To go forth as ambassadors for Christ, proclaiming the message of God and Jesus Christ. Believers aren’t called to be an exclusive club of retirees who have it made and who can go about doing what they want, knowing they are eternally secure. Believers are the ambassadors of Christ in the world. Once they have been saved, their duty—their sole reason for being appointed and left in this world—is to deliver the message of their King.
b. To bear fruit.
c. To receive the things of God.
The conclusion is forceful and it’s found in v. 17. Love each other.
There’s a popular song that most people remember entitled “We Are Family!” That is how we should look at the church. We are FOREVER FAMILY. We live in a mobile, changing, lonely society. People are looking for family. The average person can expect to have twelve different jobs/careers in a lifetime. Often rootless people have nothing left but the church. We need to learn to love everyone who comes through these doors as FOREVER FAMILY. IF WE LOVE EACH OTHER, WE ARE OBEYING GOD’S COMMAND.
Jesus says, “This is my command: Love each other.” In Chapter 14, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Christian love is not a manufactured feeling. Christian love is learning to treat each other the same way God treats us. Love is a matter of the will, not of emotions. Jesus also said, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”(v.12) How does Jesus love us? He forgives us and he is kind to us.
We must choose to love. It is a conscious act of our will. Each of us must determine, “I will put him/her first. I will be kind to her/him. I will be patient.” The more we deliberately will to love one another, the more our emotions begin to change. Worship then becomes more meaningful when we are family. We want to spend time with family whom we love. Time flies when we are having fun.
IF WE LOVE EACH OTHER, WE ARE FULFILLING GOD’S LAW. Paul learned this lesson well and he wrote: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.”(Romans 13:8)
In the Old Testament God gave many laws to govern the land, to guide relationships to property and neighbors and to guide in worship. Jesus taught that love fulfills the law and covers all the important issues of life.
When we love our neighbor, we don’t break up his marriage and family. We don’t violate his property. We don’t defame his reputation through gossip and slander. John wrote: “I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”(2 John 5 & 6) Love doesn’t substitute for the law, but love fulfills the law. When we love each other as forever family, we meet the law’s requirements.
IF WE LOVE EACH OTHER, WE ARE FOLLOWING GOD’S TEACHING.
To be able to live the life of holiness we must love each other. “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:5) Any person can carry a Bible. Almost anyone can sing a Christian song. Anyone can attend worship services. So how do we know if a person is a real Christian? Jesus said the evidence of Christianity is this: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”(John 13:35)
John, who had followed Jesus during all of Jesus’ ministry wrote: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. EVERYONE WHO LOVES HAS BEEN BORN OF GOD and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.”(1 John 4:7-8) Jesus’ new command was to, “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34) Do we really love everyone who is here with us tonight in this service?
IF WE LOVE EACH OTHER, WE ARE EXPRESSING GOD’S NATURE. Time and time again, throughout the Bible we see that “God is love.” When we invite Jesus into our hearts, his Holy Spirit puts God’s nature into us. We become His children. We become children of the King.
The Apostle Peter, who had also spent three years or more with Jesus, and had been forgiven by Jesus wrote: “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. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”(1 Peter 1:22 & 23) Do we love everyone who comes through the doors of our church “deeply, from the heart?”
Listen to this true story from a pastor.
“I can remember a time while I was a young and poor college student of being invited to preach at a church without a pastor. I was to preach and my wife was to sing in the morning worship service and also in the evening service. I was about eighty miles from home. After the service all of the congregation thanked me and many said, “We will see you tonight.” One young single parent came up to my wife and me and said:
“You will need to eat and to rest before tonight. I don’t have much, but please come to my apartment for the afternoon.” When she searched her cupboards all that she could find to feed us was about one half pound of cheese slices and some macaroni, from which she made a small pan of macaroni and cheese, which she served with glasses of ice water to her son, my wife, to me, and then to herself. I’ll tell you, that was one of the best meals I have ever eaten. She shared her best. She had little but love to share. My wife and I understood, because a short time before, we had some out of work and newlywed college friends, who had been living on tomato soup and crackers, over to our apartment several times for dinner. We did not have much, but God blessed them and us as we cared enough to love and to share.
How are you sharing God’s love with our congregation? Are you aware of those who are lonely? Those who are in need? Those who need a hug or a handshake, a card or a phone call. What is the old saying? “Blood is thicker than water.” The church is joined together through the blood of Jesus.
We must never gossip about our forever family. We must not grumble about these forever friends. Hey, they may just be our next door neighbors in Heaven. We must not take advantage of them. We must realize that we are no better than they are. We must not put them down and make excuses for our own shortcomings, our own sins.
We must be sensitive to their pains, fears, disappointments, setbacks, losses… At times love will lovingly confront the wayward. At other times love will forgive a multitude of sins. James wrote: “Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”(James 5:20)
One preacher had preached a message on the gifts of the Spirit when after the service one lady came up to him after the service and told him that she had the “gift of criticism.” And she meant it. And she did it all the time.
When we love, we will take time to listen. We will share not just in their sorrows, but we will rejoice with them when they are blessed and obtain more money, adulation, popularity, position than ourselves. Love is kind.
All of us have different worship styles. Some like to raise their hands and others to sit on their hands. Some like to say amen, while some nod their heads. Some like long sermons and some want short ones. Some like the old hymns and some the new praise choruses. Was it John Wesley who said: “By all means, save some.”???
One person’s treasure is another person’s junk. When I visit each of you in your homes I find that each of you have different tastes in clothes, furnishings, foods, TV programs, reading subjects, hobbies… And yet, when we all come together for such a short time on Sundays to worship, we put aside our differences and unite in our worship. We want our brother to be convicted, helped, or blessed and affirmed. We don’t want to be guilty of quenching the Spirit. People need to see Jesus. We want Jesus to be praised.
I think it was Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn who pricked their fingers with a pin or a knife—Rubbed the blood together and symbolically became “blood brothers.” As Christians, we are joined together by the blood of Jesus Christ. We bear his name.(CHRISTian) We are covered by his blood. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. Blood brothers. I am so blessed to be able to be a part of such a loving church family. Keep up the good work.
