Introduction
My Favorite Illustrations (Superiority of Christian Love)
Christian love rises above human differences to show itself in absolute loyalty to others in their need. Christian love looks on other persons through the eyes and with the heart of God. Christian love respects others as persons who are objects of God’s love.
The truth of this quote is astonishing.
As Christians how can we not love others? We have received the greatest blessing that one can receive.
We have been loved to the extreme.
Jesus came and died because of His deep love for all people. We have received this love in our salvation.
Who are we to not love others?
What is more, this text is telling us to love each other.
How horrific it is that fellow believers, even with deep differences theologically, do not love one another.
Is that demonstrating how we are to be to a world that does not want Jesus?
No! We are giving them more and more reasons to not want the Lord. We are being used by Satan when we do not love. We have become his pawns.
He uses us to divide because we are good weapons for him.
If he can get the body of believers to divide and become bitter at one another, then the world will not want to be a part of this.
They see us fighting and bickering and say we are just like them maybe worse.
There are too many people out there who have been hurt by the church. As Christ followers we should hurt deep inside every time we hear of someone being hurt by the church.
Granted there are some who say they have been when they were just disciplined, but many have been used and abused by the church.
There are many scandals out there of harm and hurt in the church. Too much harm and hurt.
The world sees this and just distances themselves from us more and more.
When this happens Satan is laughing and eating it up because those beloved creations of God are becoming his more and more and running from God more and more.
Simply, “If we can’t love one another, we can’t love others.” This is the big idea of this brief section of Scripture we will look at today.
Jesus had just spent time demonstrating what love was for one another.
He stooped and washed the feet of the disciples as a servant and not a Lord (John 13:1-20). In this section we see that He even washed the feet of Judas the one who was to betray Him.
Jesus knew but He washed his feet anyway. He loves that much. He stooped to the level of servant not only to the faithful disciples, who later abandon Him save one, but to the one who despised Him.
This is love of the utmost. Jesus did it even for the one who did not love Him.
What amazing love that is. Not only that but Jesus died for all people.
Romans 5:6-8 “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
This is love. We need to understand that love is not emotion but action. We love by doing and being involved, not just a feeling and saying it.
This is what we see in the text for today John 13:34-35 “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. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Command: Love One Another (John 13:34).
We see that we are commanded to love. Jesus says it is a new command but it is not new because nothing like it had never been said before.
In the Mosaic covenant there are two love commandments Deut 6:5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Lev. 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.”
We see in other Gospels that Jesus said the whole of the Law and the Prophets, the OT, were summed up in these two commands (Matt. 22:37-39; Mark 12:28-33; and in Paul Rom. 13:8-10).
So it is not new in this sense but it is new in the sense that we are to love “As I loved You.”
This commandment is presented as the marching order for the disciples and for us now. They were the new gathering messianic community brought about by the love of Christ for humanity.
Christ has made it possible for us to know true love. He is love 1 John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
If we are to truly say we are God’s children but we do not love one another we are lying and not fully following God at best or not His at all at worst.
We see in another writing of John’s that 1 John 4:20 “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
We need to give more than we receive. In that is the love of the Lord coming out of us. In that is the love that He wants us to put out. In that is the love that will reach the lost of the world in a way that will draw them.
Much like this little comment from a sermon from John Henry Jowett from 1 Peter 4:7-11
Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes (Love)
There is love whose measure is that of an umbrella. There is love whose inclusiveness is that of a great marquee. And there is love whose comprehension is that of the immeasurable sky. The aim of the New Testament is the conversion of the umbrella into a tent and the merging of the tent into the glorious canopy of the all-enfolding heavens … Push back the walls of family love until they include the neighbor; again push back the walls until they include the stranger; again push back the walls until they comprehend the foe.
This is what the new command of love is that Christ tells us about here.
We need to be loving of one another so we can expand out and draw in others. Even draw in those we do not like at all.
When we do this we will be:
Known by our Love (v. 35)
Christ is telling us here that it is through our love that others will see Jesus the most.
If we are not loving but bitter and insulting, then we are not imitating Christ as we should be.
When we behave this way we will drive people away.
Just as Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 13:1-2 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
Without love for others and showing that love, we are nothing. We may have perfect doctrine and be able to explain all the intricacies of the Bible but without love, it is pointless.
D.A. Carson has written that “ it is a privilege which, rightly lived out, proclaims the true God before a watching world. That is why Jesus ends his injunction with the words, All men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Orthodoxy without principal obedience to this characteristic command of the new covenant is merely so much humbug” (Pillar Commentary, John, 485).
A perfect example of the powerful work of the Christian love for another is found in a writing by Tertullian. He was an early church father who wrote about a century after John. The pagans of his day marvelled at the love of the Christian fellowship, especially in the face of ferocious persecution.
Tertullian wrote, “it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another…how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves will sooner put to death” (The Apology, vol 3 Ante-Nicene Fathers, 46).
It was because of the love that they each had for one another that the pagan hate-filled world saw Christ.
They did not have to share Christ with them because they saw Christ in them. This is what Jesus was telling His disciples then and us now.
Maybe you struggle to love others like that. That is understandable. We are sinful people who love sin and ourselves more than others.
C.S. Lewis give us good advice writing in his book Mere Christianity:
“Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”
What a practical way to learn to love one another. If we do this we will begin to be like the Christians that Tertullian wrote of. And when we do this we will begin to:
Support Each Other
Just as the believers that Tertullian wrote of strengthened each other through love, we must do the same.
We only have one another in this world. We are family. We are, all who have believed in Christ, children of God.
As such, we need to stick together and love one another.
The world hates us. Jesus said in John 15:18-19 ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
The world hates us. The world wants nothing to do with Christ or His followers.
We are hated by all and many of our brethren suffer great persecution in the world.
This too is what is guaranteed for Christians. Paul tells us as much when he wrote in 2 Tim. 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
It is because of this why we must have love for one another.
If you are not loving other believers not only will the world reject Christ because of us, but we do not have our support system in place.
We can only depend on one another in this crazy world.
When things get brutal and persecution comes like that in the first century church we need one another.
We need to Rom. 12:13 “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”
We need to love each other and when we can love one another, then we can truly love the world.
If we do not have love we are nothing. To quote Paul again, 1 Cor. 13:1-3
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 (ESV)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Even if I give everything for the cause of Christ if I do not love my life and what I have done is of no value.
Our love for one another and for others is what sets us apart as Christians. If we do not love not only are we disobeying God but we are misrepresenting Him too.
If we do not love we are not presenting Jesus Christ as He is to be presented to a world that says it is about love and compassion but hates anyone who is not in their ilk.
If we are not loving one another, then we are showing the world that we are like them, we only love those who are like us we are no different than the world.
Just as Christ said in Luke 6:32-35 ““If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”
This is how we meet the new command and show the world that we Christians are different.
We are different because we love everyone and strive to show them the same love Jesus showed.
That He is the way of salvation. He is the only way. He died so we could live. He did it all so we don’t have to suffer. It is Christ alone and His deep love for us. We must love that way to support one another and to share Christ to a world that needs Him more than they even know.
Conclusion
My Favorite Illustrations (Sermons in Shoes)
In Birmingham, Alabama, many years ago lived a Presbyterian pastor, James Bryan. Throughout the city he was known as “Brother Bryan.” There were many preachers stronger in pulpit oratory, but none preached better sermons than he did with his life. Like Jesus, he went about doing good.
It was a common thing for him to come home on a cold day without his overcoat. He had given it to some poor man who had none. One spring day he was driving a horse and buggy through the countryside. He saw a farmer standing dejectedly in the field. It was time for his spring plowing, but his only horse lay dead. Brother Bryan unhitched his horse and gave it to the man, and then walked home.
It was fitting that when his biography was written it was called A Sermon in Shoes. John Donne might well have had persons like him in mind when he said, “Of all the commentaries on the Scriptures, good examples are the best.” Go, and do likewise!
What a way to live out the amazing love that has been given to us that have believed.
Jesus did so much more for all of us wicked wretches, how can we not go and love more too?
But it is only because of Christ that we are able to love this way. Jesus has given all for you. He has died for you and rose again for you. He did this so you could have forgiveness of sins and live forever with Him.
If you feel a need for this love, a pull at your heart, please today believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Jesus loves you so much He died for you and because of this you can have everlasting life in glory with Him.
Will you today believe in Him for that life? Will you let the world go and place your faith in Him?
He is worth it and His love is so amazing you will feel it and know it at all times even in the depth of despair as long as you always seek Him in everything. He is for you not against you. The world is against you not for you.
Today believe and know Jesus as your savior. You will not regret it if you do.
