Love One Another
Series: The One Anothers: The Church’s “Body Builders”
Chuck Sligh
May 1, 2022
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to John 13:34.
INTRODUCTION
I want to begin by sharing with you a very special letter I found taped to my office door after a week away when I pastored in Wiesbaden. Though it was only 13 short lines with 38 words, most of which were misspelled, and missing all punctuation marks, it’s one of the most precious letters I’ve ever received. It read:
Dear Pastor I Love You
Verey verey verey
verey verey
verey verey verey
verey verey verey
verey verey verey
verey verey verey
verey verey verey
verey verey much much
much much much
much much
Love Jenny
very much
Oh, it’s nice to be loved, isn’t it? Love is the most precious commodity any of us has. it’s the greatest gift we can receive or give. It’s the most intimate feeling we can share. After all, as the song accurately says, “love makes the world go ’round.”
Why is love such an awesome thing? Because it’s rooted in the very nature of God, and we are His image-bearers. John tells us twice in his first letter that “God is love.” And love is a subject Jesus taught and demonstrated every day He walked on this earth.
Last Sunday we began a series on some of the “One Another” statements and commands of the New Testament, starting last week with Paul’s reminder that we are members of one another and therefore we should see both the importance of our ourselves and of many other people of various backgrounds and points of view in the local church.
Today’s “one another” command comes from the mouth of Jesus in our text this morning: “A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another: as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
I suppose there aren’t many more important teachings in the New Testament than this one. Jesus Himself said that love was part of the weightier matters of the Law. He also said love for God and love for our neighbor are the two greatest commandments.
The Apostle Paul reiterated the importance of love when he said in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am only as noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.”
With all this in mind, it’s not surprising that 17 of the 58 “one another” commands—about one-third of the total—are for God’s people to love one another. So, nothing more worthy of our time and study this morning than this text.
In a sense, you can say that all the “One Another” statements and commands hinge on this one command for us to love one another.
What I’d like to do is just break this verse down into its two parts and apply it to our lives.
I. NOTICE FIRST A PRECEPT TO OBEY – Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another.…”
Up to this point in His ministry, Jesus had taught his disciples to love GOD with all their being, to love their NEIGHBORS as themselves, and to love their ENEMIES. But this is the first time Jesus had given them this command to love ONE ANOTHER, so it truly was a new commandment.
Why is this new commandment needed when God’s people already had the commands to love their neighbors as themselves? Well, if you take a look at Jewish religious, social and political life in the first century, you’ll find there wasn’t a whole lot of love goin’ around.
• Politically, they weren’t loving their enemies: most deeply hated the ROMANS.
• Socially, they didn’t love their neighbors as themselves: most Jews despised their neighbors to the north—the SAMARITANS.
• Religiously, the people were divided between Pharisees and Sadducees; and even between the students of Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai.
• And they were greatly divided over issues of practice: dumb stuff like…How much effort you could expend to get your ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath? and How many paces you could walk on the Sabbath without it being considered work.
Simply speaking, they didn’t love one another. Jesus knew that very shortly the church would be birthed, so He calls his disciples back to the basics—because if we can’t love ONE ANOTHER, then we certainly can’t love God, our neighbors, foreigners, and our enemies as we should. And as a church, if we don’t love one another WITHIN our church body, we can forget trying to share Christ’s love with our community OUTSIDE our doors.
II. NOTICE SECOND, A PATTERN TO FOLLOW – Jesus goes on to say, “…as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
The word “as” is the Greek adverb ?a??? (kath-os'), which means “in the same manner.” He’s saying, “In the same way I have loved you, love one another also.”
Moms and dads, when you provide an object lesson for your children (let’s say you’re trying to show them how to tie their shoes) what do you do?—First you demonstrate it yourself and then you say, “Now, you do it just like I did it.”
That’s what Jesus is telling us. He says to us, “I have shown you how to love. Now you love one another the way I have loved you.”
And when you look at Jesus’ love, there are three adjectives you can use to describe it.
• The first word to describe Jesus’ love is UNDENIABLE.
People could debate about whether Jesus worked miracles by the power of God or the power of Beelzebub (another name the Jews had for the devil). They could debate whether or not He broke the Sabbath. They could debate whether or not He was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the other Old Testament prophets come back to life.
But one thing that was UNDENIABLE was His love for people. When Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, the crowds said, “Behold how he loved him.” The Bible says Jesus looked at the rich young ruler and even as he walked away from following Jesus, we read that Jesus LOVED him. Jesus provided concrete examples day after day that He loved people—in His teachings, His miracles, His healings, and His acts of service. Jesus’ love was UNDENIABLE.
Believer, can that be said of you? Would people say, “Man! No doubt about it, Bob really does love people” or “Wow, Linda truly loves people. It’s real. It’s genuine.”
This is what Peter was talking about in 1 Peter 1:22 – “Seeing [that] you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in unfeigned [i.e., not fake or put on] love of the brethren, see that you love one another fervently with a pure heart.”
If you would love in the same way as Jesus loved, it’s got to be REAL; it’s got to be something that flows from your life daily.
Illus. – One of Susan’s and my dear friends from college was Mark and Susie Redmond. Susie found out in her 30s that she had rheumatoid arthritis, a slow terminal disease that becomes increasingly debilitating and painful. Mark faced years of care, all while having to continue to teach in their church’s Christian school to support Susie and their two children.
In the beginning, things were bearable, but as time went on, it became increasingly apparent that Susie would need more care…care which they could not afford on his meager salary. That’s when his church stepped up things they were already doing. Several times a week for about 12-15 years until her death in her late 40s, Grace Baptist Church in South Bend, Indiana, prepared meals for the Redmond family; provided her with care during the day when Mark was at school; took Susie to her appointments and the swimming pool where she had daily therapy sessions.
The people of Grace Baptist took up money and built a whirlpool to put next to their bedroom because the hot water alleviated her pain, and they also helped with the mounting medical bills from their 20% deductible on their health insurance. Here was a church where their love was simply undeniable!
To love like Jesus, we too must love in such a way that it cannot be denied. By His clear teaching and actions, Jesus left no room for doubting His love; …and neither should we!
How can our love for one another be undeniable?—By SHOWING love! Biblical love is not an “ooey-gooey” emotional thing like romantic love. The love the Bible talks about is ACTION-ORIENTED.
Why do I say that?—Well, because Jesus commands us to love, and you cannot command an emotion. I can’t say to you, “I command you to be sad right now.” No, sadness is an emotion which you can’t just command to come or go at will; you just either are or you aren’t sad. You can do and think things to help you not be sad, but you cannot command it by sheer force of your will.
Yet Jesus DOES command us to love. Why?—Because love, in God’s scheme of things, is wrapped up in our actions—in what we do. That’s why John says in 1 John 3:18 – “My little children, let us not love in word or talk; but in deed and in truth.”
So, the only way for your love to be undeniable is, like Jesus’ love—to manifest your love in CONCRETE ACTIONS towards people.
• The second adjective to describe Jesus’ love is UNSELFISH.
Too often we love for selfish motives: “If I’m nice to this person, then I might get something in return.”
Illus. – A lady wrote this note to a boyfriend she had broken up with a couple of weeks earlier: “Dearest Jimmy, No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie... P.S., And congratulations on winning the state lottery.”
Illus. – Susan and I were visiting a pastor friend who went around and made a big deal about helping the widows of his church. Going with him once, I was touched—until he told me—without even blushing—that he was hoping they would leave him in their wills. He ended up losing his church and every church after that as well. I wonder why!
Jesus taught us to give, expecting nothing in return. He taught us to give without blowing a horn or even letting our right hand know what the left is doing. And Jesus practiced the kind of love and giving He taught about.
Paul sums up the ministry of Jesus in Philippians 2 by saying He literally emptied Himself and made Himself of no reputation. Jesus was not concerned about earthly wealth and fame. He just loved us with complete unselfishness.
And speaking of the Apostle Paul, he learned this lesson well from Jesus. Listen to what he wrote to the Corinthians in his second letter to them: 2 Corinthians 12:14-15 – “Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.”
Paul says, “It doesn’t matter how I’m treated in return. I’m going to love you unselfishly, no matter what, whether you deserve it or not!” That’s what it means to love even as Christ has loved us.
• And lastly, the third adjective to describe Jesus’ love is UNCONDITIONAL.
This may be the hardest way for us to imitate Christ. All too often we put conditions on our love. We say, “I will love you…IF …”
Even husbands and wives who have pledged to love “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part” start putting conditions on their love soon after the honeymoon.—
“If you don’t let me do this, I’ll just divorce you.”
“If you don’t stop doing that, I’m hittin’ the road, Buddy.”
But when you look at Jesus, you see a picture of unconditional love. John 3:16 says, “For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”
Did the world love Him in return?—No.—John 1:11 says, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
How do you rate on the love test of unconditional love?
Illus. – A little girl wrote a letter to God that said this, “Dear God, I bet it’s very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it. Sarah.”
We’re like that, aren’t we? We love people BECAUSE!... Because of what they DO for us. Because they HAVEN’T done anything hurtful to us. Because they’re sharp or cool or have great personalities or aren’t terribly irritating.
But Jesus calls us to UNCONDITIONAL love…
• to love others even if they’ve never done anything for you, or ever will…
• to “bear with one another in love,” as Paul puts it in Ephesians 4:2, which means…
• to put up with the idiosyncrasies of others
• to spend time with the ones who aren’t the beautiful people; or who are in a lower economic bracket than you
• to love the person with a somewhat annoying personality trait
• to even love your ENEMIES—like, say, someone who has done or said something hurtful to you.
Can you still love them despite their actions? God wants you to love them UNCONDITIONALLY.
CONCLUSION
Yes, God calls us to “love one another” in His church. So, how can we apply this message to our lives personally?
Let me make a couple of quick applications:
Number 1, love one another by DOING loving things.
Giving to someone in need; cutting the grass of the wife of a soldier who is on a mssion or deployed or at a school; keeping someone’s children in the midst of a problem or crisis; preparing a meal for someone who’s been in the hospital. These are only a sampling of how we can love one another by DOING loving things. Actually, the list is endless, isn’t it?
A second application is this: Love one another UNCONDITIONALLY.
• That guy who’s not your favorite person: Go out of your way to be kind to him.
• From time to time, seek out the lady who has to go on and on about her problems and ailments and marital woes—and listen with care and compassion and attentiveness.
• Go talk with the guy who always smacks his gum annoyingly.
• And the lady who said hurtful things?...Follow the steps of Matthew 18, and restore fellowship with her, and work things out with her, and forgive her and keep working on the relationship.
What will happen if you do this?
The answer to that is found in the verse right after our text (verse 35) – “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one…another.”
While false rumors were spread by Roman authorities about the Christians—that they were cannibalistic and incestuous—to undermine them, this became a common byword about Christians: “Behold, how they love one another!”
How will our community, our friends, and our co-workers be convinced that we REALLY are true disciples of Christ?
• By how often we attend church?—Hardly: they’ll think that’s just fanaticism.
• By the things we do or don’t do for God?—No, they just don’t get that.
• By what we give up and sacrifice for God?—No. That just makes them pity us.
Jesus says people will see the reality of our faith by how WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER. God help us to do it at Grace Baptist Church.
