A New Command
(John 13:34-35)
I. The Command of Love
A. A New Command
B. A Necessary Command
II. The Source and Measure of Love
A. The Source of Love
B. The Measure of Love
1. Service
2. Sacrifice
III. The Result of Love
Introduction
I’d like to begin this morning by getting some help from you. It always helps to know that people are with you when you’re preaching, so I often times engage those who are gathered in some form of participation. What I need from you is your thoughts on things that are of great importance. In particular, I want to know how you come to recognize when something is important. What makes it significant, more so, than another thing? What criteria do you use in your analysis? Give me some of your feedback.
[Possible answers: Who said it, did it, or valued it. The consequences related to it. When it was said or done.]
Today I want to take a look at one of the most important passages in the whole of scripture. These words were spoken by Jesus on the night He was to be betrayed. They were the words of a man who knew that His time was at hand—there was no time to lose, every word He uttered that night carried extreme weight. In these verses, Christ gives us a new command which, when obeyed, will make us into the most effective witnesses to the truth of Christianity that we can possibly be. (Repeat.) Are you ready? The key to reaching our community and our world for Christ is found in this three-word command of Jesus: “Love one another.” Please turn in your Bibles to John 13:34, 35.
The command to love one another is repeated by Jesus three times in three sentences. Each time He reiterates the command, it is to make a specific point. Thus, the outline for this sermon flows quite naturally from the text and is easy for us to remember. If you have a pen and paper handy, why don’t you just jot down these three points which spring forth from these verses: 1) The command to love; 2) The source and measure of love; and 3) The result of love.
The Command of Love
Jesus begins in v. 34 by giving His disciples the command of love: “A new command I give you: Love one another.”
A New Command
I find it intriguing that Jesus would state this command in the way in which He did for two reasons. First, He describes this command as a new command. How was this a new command? Hadn’t He instructed His disciples that they were to love each before this time?
I did a little research with a concordance and came to a remarkable discovery. Although Jesus had taught the Twelve much on the subject of love, He had never specifically commanded them to love one another prior to this occasion. He had told them of the importance of loving God. They were instructed to love their enemies. I suppose one could argue that by implication the command to love their neighbors also included one another. But the explicit command to love one another is given to the disciples for the first time, in John’s compilation of the life of Christ, at this instance.
I believe that Jesus gave His disciples this new command because He recognized an innate flaw that resides within the lives of all of His followers, including you and me. Without specifically commanding His disciples to love one another, there existed the very real possibility that this essential, nurturing activity would be neglected. Let me explain what I mean.
It seems to me that we are much better at and much more apt to deal with love as a noun or an abstract concept than as a verb. We prefer talking about love to demonstrating it.
I would imagine that there are several present here this morning that could name and give a brief definition for each of the three primary Greek words that are translated as the English word love. Many of you could tell me which chapter in the Bible contains the Apostle Paul’s description of love. Some of you could even quote those verses. That kind of knowledge is useful and has its place. However, the problem lies in the fact that we do not comprehend what love does by what it is; rather we recognize what love is by what it does. Let me say that again: we do not comprehend what love does by what it is; rather we recognize what love is by what it does. To know about love in our heads takes only understanding, but to know love in our hearts requires practice. Jesus’ command is that we love one another, not merely talk about it.
A Necessary Command
The second reason this command is so fascinating to me is because I find it hard to believe that Jesus would have to give His 12 disciples such a command as this. After all, they had spent the last three and a half years together in close contact with Christ and one another. Surely they should have come together as a family by now. But the events which unfolded that night may have, in fact, prompted Jesus’ teaching on this matter.
The occasion of this gathering between Jesus and His disciples was for the Passover celebration, the night that Christ would be betrayed and handed over to the Jewish religious authorities. If we were to take the time to turn over to Luke’s Gospel, we would discover that at the time when Jesus needed His friends the most, He could not count on their comfort. That night, they were too concerned about themselves. In particular, they were arguing over who would be the greatest in Christ’s kingdom (Luke 22:24ff). There was not much love being demonstrated toward one another.
Like His first century disciples, we also have a tendency to focus our attention on matters that cause division and disputes. Let’s face it, some of the hardest people to love are other Christians. That is why we are commanded to love—it’s hard for us to love one another.
It takes no effort at all to find the fault in another, and even less effort to publicize it. It’s not surprising to any of us when we hear that our names have been dragged through the mud and the person responsible for maligning us greeted us so cheerfully on Sunday morning. It’s not easy to love another believer when we feel that he/she has received credit for doing something that should have been credited to our account. Having a loving disposition toward someone we feel is being given special preference over us doesn’t come very easy.
Love is achieved through effort. Love can get messy. Love is costly. Love requires sacrifice. Love leaves us defenseless.
Although loving one another is not the easy thing to do, it is the necessary thing to do for Christ’s kingdom is a kingdom of love. We are commanded to love one another because it is fundamental to our relationship to God. Loving one another must be the earmark of our lives if we are going to be of any use in the kingdom of God. “A new command I give you: Love one another.”
The Source and Measure of Love
After giving us the command of love, Jesus goes on to describe the source and the measure or extent to which this love is to be manifest: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
The Source of Love
We find the source of our love for one another by way of inference. It is not explicitly stated here, but it is nonetheless evident. Jesus Christ is the source of our love. Again, He addresses His disciples in this manner, “As I have loved you.” It is on the basis of His love for us that we are empowered and enabled to love one another.
One writer has rightly pointed out, “Before we can minister in love, we must be mastered by Love.” I believe that all too often we fail in our efforts to love one another because we fail to get back to the foundation of our love. We try to love one another in our own strength and according to our own love and it becomes this tremendous struggle.
Before you and I can overcome in love, we must be overcome by Love. We must be convinced of the Father’s love for us. We must see ourselves as accepted and loved by Him—right now, just the way we are. Then we must accept His love and allow ourselves to be “baptized” by that love and operate under the principle of “As I have loved you.” It is only as we acknowledge and submit to Christ as our source of love that we will be able to carry out His command of love.
The Measure of Love
Jesus then goes on to describe the measure or the extent to which this love is to be manifest: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” The way we are to love one another is to the same degree that Christ loved us. To what extent did Jesus demonstrate His love? Let’s begin by considering the love He showed on that night as He gave His disciples the command to love one another.
John 13 opens by informing us that the time of the unfolding of these events was just before the Passover Feast. As the evening meal was being served, Jesus silently rose from the table and performed an act that left His disciples dumbfounded. He assumed the role of a servant. John describes this for us in vv. 4-5: so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
What I picture in my mind is the Twelve discussing the matter of who would be the greatest in Christ’s kingdom, while failing to notice what Jesus had begun to do. As Jesus knelt down to wash the first disciple’s feet, this one probably, without thinking, simply allowed Jesus to perform this humble service, and kept on talking about the topic of interest. Of course, I have no idea of what really happened that night, but I imagine that somewhere along the line one of them finally realized who was washing their feet. And then a great silence fell upon the room. All were embarrassed, too embarrassed to say a word. That is until Jesus came to Peter.
When Peter realized that Jesus intended to wash his feet as well, he showed that he was not going to dishonor Christ by allowing Him to perform such a servile task. But after explaining the significance of this act, Peter enthusiastically accepted Jesus’ offer. We read on in the Gospel of John and find that Jesus was not only willing to demonstrate His love through acts of servanthood, but His ultimate display of love was as a sacrifice. The measure to which the disciples were to love each other was the same measure to which Jesus had loved them—in service and sacrifice: “As I have loved you.”
The first aspect of the love of Christ that we are to demonstrate to one another is serving them. “To love as Christ loves is to let our love be a practical and not a sentimental thing” (Charles Villiers Stanford). To reiterate what I said earlier, loving one another has a lot less to do with talking about love and a lot more to do with walking out love. Love is essentially an action. R. Ainsley Barnwell defines love in this way, “Love is forgetting of oneself in the service of another.” To love means stepping out of our “safe zones” and entering into the life of another. It involves becoming vulnerable. It seeks the highest good of the one being loved.
The early Church Father, Augustine, pictured love in these words, “Love has hands to help others. It has feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see the misery and want. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. This is what love looks like.” Jesus commands us to love one another—one aspect of love is serving one another.
The second aspect of the love of Christ that we are to demonstrate to one another involves sacrifice. It’s going to cost us something to love one another. It may be time, money, comfort, reputation or something else. And any time we open up ourselves to loving one another, we leave ourselves open to pain—the pain of rejection, misunderstanding or abuse. There’s a good chance that our love for one another will not be reciprocated or appreciated. But we cannot love one another without offering ourselves to the one we love.
The measure of our love for one another is the measure by which Christ displayed his love for us. “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
The Result of Love
Jesus concludes by telling His disciples what the result of this kind of love would be: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Did you catch that? It’s powerful! The result of Christians loving one another is that the Church becomes the greatest witness to the world, without even saying a word. When we choose to obey this new command of Christ, the world will have to take note and be attracted to the Savior.
Rodney Pickett makes this observation, “Love is the identifying mark of Christianity. In a world of hate, envy, and anger, love sticks out like a healthy thumb. When anyone walks away from an encounter with us, that person should remember our love, not our convictions.”
The world is looking at you and me. We are on trial. Those outside of Christ are trying to determine if Christianity is for real. They’ve heard the evangelists and the preachers deliver grand expositions concerning what life in Christ is all about. They have some idea of what the Bible teaches on the matter. But all of that information is not going to amount to anything if they don’t see living examples of the truth. The evidence they are weighing in the balances is our lives and conduct, not our words.
William Barclay, a man who had a profound way of making biblical truths come alive, once said, “It is when men see that we are prepared to suffer for the faith which we say we hold, that they will begin to believe that we really hold it. If a thing costs us nothing men will value it at nothing.” The world wants to see Christians living like Christ commanded them to live: loving one another. Not a love comprised of mere words or emotional fervor, but a love for one another that is willing to spend itself in order that love may be known. That is the love of Christ: a love of service and sacrifice in which the lover seeks the highest good of the one being loved.
Albert Camus, the existentialist philosopher whose beliefs led him to conclude that “Life is absurd,” made this telling statement: “What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out loud and clear…in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man. They should get away from abstraction and confront the blood-stained face history has taken on today. The grouping that we need is a grouping of men resolved to speak out clearly and pay up personally.”
I don’t know about you, but when I hear those words they grip my heart and cause me to cry out, “God, make me such a man.” What Camus longed to see in his day and what the world is longing to see today is Christians who are deeply committed to following Christ. Christians who are actively living out what they believe. Christians who love one another.
Jesus was deeply concerned that His disciples got a hold of this truth concerning the necessity of loving one another, especially as it relates to their witness to the world. Not only did He repeat this command three times in the verses we looked at, but John records that Jesus reiterated this command a number of times throughout that night. In John 14, while giving His disciples some words of comfort about His soon departure and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, Jesus reminds them of the importance of obeying this command. Then in chapter 15, in the context of explaining the intimate relationship that exists between Himself and the believer, Jesus once again commands them to “Love one another as I have loved you” (v. 12).
Did Jesus’ command have an impact on His disciples? After His death, resurrection and ascension, we read in the book of Acts that the believers in Christ came together in such a way that they made an unprecedented impact on their world. 3,000 joined their ranks on the Day of Pentecost. We read at the end of Acts 2 that no one was needy among them. And as a result of their continued witness, Luke records, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (v. 47b). What was one of the keys to their effectiveness as witnesses of the gospel of Christ? Without a doubt it was their obvious love for one another.
Church history goes on to tell us that 11 of the 12 disciples died martyrs deaths. They all died continuing in the faith and love of their Savior. Only one was spared. His name was John. John had a nickname: the disciple of love. John was so profoundly affected by this teaching of Jesus that he made it his ambition to proclaim this command of Christ wherever he preached. The command to love one another had such an impact on John’s life and ministry that in his first and second epistles he repeats this command six times.
Conclusion
Some of the last words spoken by Christ to His disciples before ascending into heaven was a command to make disciples of all nations. But before His death He taught them how to gain an audience with those to whom they were commanded to reach. The way that they were going to create a hunger in the hearts of the people around them was by first obeying this new command: Love one another.
Christ’s command to His disciples is still the same. He expects all of His followers to be active in making disciples of all nations. And His strategy is still the same. The way that we attract people to Christ is by showing them that our faith is not just doctrines and creeds. The key to effectively reaching our world with the gospel, beginning right here in Port Crane, is by following Christ’s command to love one another.
Love for one another is not an option. Love for one another is costly. Love for one another changes the world. Let’s make it our ambition to give our neighbors a reason to believe that Jesus truly is the way and the truth and the life. Let’s make that message clear by loving one another.
