ENGAGE
For all of us there will come times in our lives when we attempt to love other people in the manner that we have been learning about for the past 8 weeks, in which the other person is going to reject those efforts. I can almost guarantee that if you’re a parent you either have experienced that or you will in the future. I don’t think I know a single parent who hasn’t heard their children tell them “I hate you” on more than one occasion regardless of how well her or she has loved his or her children.
But that is not the only relationship in which others are going to resist or reject our efforts to love them with the love of Jesus. We are in good company when that happens, aren’t we? After all, Jesus did the most loving thing anyone could do for another – He died on everyone’s behalf – and yet multitudes have continued to reject Him every day for nearly 2,000 years. And yet, Jesus keeps right on loving those people even after they have turned away His love.
TENSION
We don’t do that nearly as well as Jesus does, do we? When others resist our efforts to love them, our natural reaction is to just throw in the towel. But if we’re going to love like Jesus loves, we have to learn to move beyond those natural tendencies and to persist in our love even when we really don’t feel like doing that.
So as we wrap up our current sermon series this morning, let’s see what we can learn from the example of Jesus about how to persevere in loving others.
TRUTH
We will complete our study of Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 by looking at his last two descriptions of Biblical love:
Love…endures all things. Love never ends…
(1 Corinthians 13:7-8 ESV)
Let’s look at both phrases in a bit more detail. The verb “endure” is a compound word that literally means “to remain under”. In secular Greek it was a military term that was used to describe an army holding its position at all costs.
“endure” =
“to remain under” =
“perseverance in the face of difficulties”
That means that we hang in there even in those difficult circumstances that occur when someone rejects our love.
Now let’s look at the phrase “never fails”. The word translated “never” is a compound word that carries the force of “absolutely never”. And the verb “to fail” more literally means “to fall”. That verb can be used in a literal sense to describe some object like rain or a tree falling down. But when used metaphorically like Paul uses it here, it indicates something that no longer functions according to its intended purpose.
“never fails” =
“will never fail to function”
We know that we can count on God to be the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So since God is love, that means we can also count on the fact that genuine Biblical love will never fail to operate even in the face of the most difficult circumstances.
Once again this morning, there is no shortage of passages we could look at where Jesus exemplified that kind of love in His life. But let’s look at the account we find in chapter 13 of John’s gospel account:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He 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. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”
(John 13:1-20 ESV)
Before we focus on the main theme from this passage, I want to spend a few minutes discussing…
AN IMPORTANT “SIDE-NOTE”
One of the things we notice in this passage is that a couple of the people identified here were really reluctant to accept the kind of love that Jesus offered:
• Perhaps the most amazing aspect of Jesus’ love here is that He washed Judas’ feet, knowing that only a short time later, Judas would leave to go betray Him. We’ll see what that shows us about how to love like Jesus in a moment. But what I want to point out right now is that even after experiencing Jesus love Him by washing his feet, Judas still rejected Jesus’ love.
• We don’t have time to look at his reaction in detail, but there is also a sense in which Peter is reluctant to receive Jesus’ love here. While that reluctance certainly flows out of Peter’s respect for Jesus, it nonetheless amounts to a rejection of Jesus’ love for him. And had it not been for the gentle rebuke by Jesus that caused Peter to change his mindset, he might have very well missed out on the blessing of receiving Jesus’ love.
Both Judas and Peter rejected Jesus’ love at least to some degree. Maybe it is just because I really struggle in this area, but it seems to me that we’re often guilty of reacting in the same way when someone tries to direct an act of love toward us. For a long time in my life I just tried to pass that off as humility. But in reality, responding like that is actually a result of my pride. My sense is that is what was going on with Peter here. In his mind it was OK for the other disciples to let Jesus wash their feet, but Peter he wasn’t going to let Jesus do that because he wanted to show that he was more devoted to Jesus than they were.
When I refuse to receive an act of love from someone else, what I’m essentially saying to the other person is that I’m self-sufficient enough that I don’t need their help. That is nothing more than pride rearing its ugly head. And what is even worse, when I reject someone else’s genuine attempt to show love to me I may actually end up robbing the other person of his or her joy.
So before we see how to love the way Jesus loved here, let’s first develop an important principle about how to receive love from others:
• Don’t rob someone else of joy by refusing to receive an act of love
With that principle in mind, let’s now turn our attention to Jesus. The overall theme of this passage is summarized at the end of verse 1 when John writes “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”
The phrase “to the end” indicates that Jesus’ love for His disciples continued right up until He took His last breath here on earth. And there is no doubt that Jesus did that. Even in the midst of His own suffering He made sure that the disciples wouldn’t be arrested along with Him. He made arrangements for John to give His mother, Mary, a home and take care of her. He even reached out to a dying thief because He was concerned about his eternal destiny.
But the word “end” there could also be translated “uttermost”. The idea is that Jesus’ love for His disciples was complete, full, and perfect. He loved them with the total fullness of His love.
So in both senses of the word “end” we see Jesus loving His disciples with a love that endures all things and which never fails. And, as we have already seen, He does that even for those who resist His love. So we learn here that…
When I love like Jesus loves
I persist even when others resist
APPLICATION
HOW TO PERSIST IN LOVE EVEN WHEN OTHERS RESIST
1. Know who I am and whose I am
In verse 1 and 3, we find two descriptions of what Jesus knew about Himself that enabled Him to persist in His love even in the face of resistance and even rejection.
In verse 1. There John tells us that Jesus knew that His hour had come and that He was about to depart this earth and return to the Father. Then in verse 3, we find that Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into His hands, that He had come from God and that He was going back to God.
There are several different Greek words that can be translated “to know”, but the one that John uses in both these verses is a verb that means “to perceive” or “to know fully”. The idea here is that Jesus has a complete understanding of who He was – the Son of God who had come to demonstrate His love by dying on the cross to pay for the sins of all mankind” - and whose He was – He was from the Father and was going back to the Father. I’m convinced that John provides us with those details because they are a significant reason that Jesus was constantly able to continue to love others even when they did not accept His love.
Every single aspect of loving like Jesus that we’ve discussed for the last 8 weeks goes completely against our human nature. And the fact is that we often don’t feel like loving other people like that. So the only way that we can love like Jesus is to know for certain that who we are – disciples of Jesus and children of God – and whose we are – that we don’t belong to ourselves because we were purchased by the blood of Christ, as we are reminded by the words of Paul:
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV)
Loving others like Jesus requires a change in mindset in which I know and acknowledge that I can’t just live my life the way I feel because of who am I am and whose I am as a result of what Jesus has done for me.
Possible action step:
• Am I completely confident that I am a child of God because of my faith in Jesus alone? If not, talk to the Pastor or one of the Elders about that.
When I love like Jesus loves
I persist even when others resist
And that requires that I know who I am and whose I am.
2. Have the heart of a servant
In those days, people wore sandals, so as they walked along the dusty roads their feet would get dirty. Therefore, when someone entered another’s house, one of the host’s servants would wash his feet. But in this case, apparently all the disciples had been too proud to take on that menial task.
So as they got ready to eat, Jesus got up from the table and proceeded to love His disciples by doing what one of them should have done earlier. And I have to imagine that when He took up the basin and the towel and those disciples realized what He was about to do, they began to look around at each other thinking that one of them should have done that, although each of them thought that it should be one of the others and not them.
There are some who have attempted to take this event and make it into a religious ritual. Perhaps some of you have even been in a church where foot-washing is practiced. But it is clear here that was not Jesus’ intention. Jesus tells His disciples that this is merely an example of the kind of love that they ought to have for one another – a love that is focused on serving rather than being served.
That is a principle that Jesus had taught His disciples on more than one occasion, but since they still hadn’t “gotten it”, Jesus gives them this one last object lesson to show them the importance of loving like that. As Jesus reminds them in verse 16, a bondservant is not greater than his master. A bondservant serves his master with no expectation of getting anything in return and he continues to do that even if the master shows no appreciation or even rejects that service.
So even though Jesus was God in the flesh, and even though He was considered to be Lord and Teacher by His disciples, He loved them with the heart of a servant, expecting nothing in return. And because of that, He was able to keep on loving them even during those times when they resisted or rejected that love.
Do you want to have a better marriage? Then keep on serving your spouse even when he or she does not appreciate or acknowledge that service.
Do you want to raise children who will grow up to love and serve Jesus? Then just keep on serving them even if they tell you that they hate you.
Do you want to have good relationships with your co-workers? Then just keep on serving them even if they reject those efforts.
Do you want to be a part of a church where people have genuine love for each other? Then just keep on serving others regardless of how they respond.
Possible actions step:
• Ask God to reveal any relationships where I have stopped serving others because I haven’t received anything in return. Ask God to help me love those people with a servant’s heart.
When I love like Jesus loves
I persist even when others resist
And that requires having the heart of a servant.
3. Leave the results to God
I’m not going to spend too much time here since this is a principle that has come up several times throughout this series. But once again we see here that Jesus just kept loving other people regardless of how they responded to Him and then He just trusted God for the results.
Sometimes, like in the case of Judas, some people still chose to reject the love that Jesus offered. So we certainly shouldn’t expect that our own meager attempts to love like Jesus won’t often have the same result.
But other times, like in the case of Peter and some of the other disciples that were at the table that evening, the love of Jesus ended up completely transforming their lives. In many cases that sure didn’t happen immediately, but eventually it had a tremendous impact.
As Jesus points out in verse 17, our blessing does not come from how other people respond to our love. It comes from being obedient to Jesus command to love others as He has loved us. And knowing that frees us up to keep on loving and serving others regardless of their response.
Possible action step:
• Ask God to help me to persist in loving those who have resisted my attempts to love them and just leave the results to Him
When I love like Jesus loves
I persist even when others resist
And that means that I have to just keep on loving people and leave the results to God.
INSPIRATION
The more that men hated Jesus and resisted His love and desired to hurt Him, the more it seems that Jesus manifested His love for them. Instead of responding like we would normally do with resentment and bitterness, Jesus just kept on loving them even more.
Can you imagine how different our families, and our workplaces and our churches and our communities would be if we followed that example of Jesus? Can you imagine how our world could be transformed if everyone persisted in their love even when others resisted?
Obviously we can’t force anyone else to act like that. But what we can do is to individually and as a body, make a commitment to love like Jesus loves even when others reject that love. And as we do that we might not be able to change the entire world, but perhaps, we can change a few lives and those people can in turn influence a few more lives. And if we as disciples of Jesus keep loving others like that we will eventually make a noticeable deference in our culture.
ACTION
For the last 8 weeks we have been learning how to love like Jesus. As we bring this series to a close I want to challenge all of us to put into practice the things that we have learned. But no matter how hard we might try to do that, we will fail if we try to do that on our own. We obviously need God’s help to love people like Jesus does. Fortunately, as part of His loving us to the end, Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to permanently dwell in our lives and be our helper as we work to love others like this. But He won’t force us to yield to His guidance and leadership in our lives. We have to choose to do that.
So it seems appropriate to end this series with a time of prayer, both personal and corporate. So I’m first going to give all of us some time to pray individually, asking God to reveal the practical steps that each of us need to take as individuals to apply what we’ve learned and then asking that we would yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit as we attempt to love others like that.
Once you’ve had a chance to do that I’m going to ask you to join together in a corporate prayer in which we commit as a body to loving others like Jesus and asking for God’s help to do that.
[Prayer time]
Corporate prayer:
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for loving us even when we haven’t loved You.
Thank you for demonstrating Your love for us through the life, death and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus.
It is our desire as individuals, and as a body to love others in the same way that Jesus loves us.
But we are weak and we need Your help to do that.
We ask that through the Holy Spirit You would reveal to us those people that You want us to love and that You reveal specific ways that You want us to serve them.
And we ask that You would help us to be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit regardless of how others respond.
As we love others like Jesus, we pray that You would receive glory and that those who don’t know You would be drawn to You.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
