Love One Another : Love like Jesus

preached on August 12, 2018

To begin, I’d like to lay a foundation for what we are as a church

We’re going to take 4 weeks to look at some guiding principles.

What are we as a church?

What do we do?

Last time I was here we talked about Jesus as the Most Important Thing in our lives. So this short series is a look at what that means when we make Jesus the Most Important Thing as a church. 

Ultimately, when we make Jesus the Most Important Thing in our church, it means one simple statement:

Love One Another

Jesus said this in John 13:34, turn with me now.

A New Command

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.

It is significant the placement of this ‘new command’ in the story of John. Chapter 12 tells the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the proclamation that Jesus has come to save the world. Then, at the beginning of chapter 13, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. Though He is King and ruler, He is also the Servant. He did not come to assert his authority over humanity like a bullying pagan god. He is not Zeus waiting to throw lightning at the first sign of disrespect. He came to offer Himself up as the atoning sacrifice. His whole life was a life lived in love, but His greatest act would come at the cross when He willingly gave up His life. Though He did nothing wrong, He took on our sin so that we can be saved. 

Saved from What?

If you ask the average Christian, “What are we saved from?” you’ll probably hear ‘from hell, of course’. And they would be right. The Bible says to die in sin is to die apart from God. God’s dwelling is in Heaven, and in Heaven there is no sin, no sickness, and no corruption. We cannot enter Heaven with sin all over us.

Psalm 24 asks and answers: 

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and pure heart.

In our sinful state, we are corrupted creatures that are prone to destroy ourselves. That’s why the world is the way it is—sin has destroyed the natural order of things. It is through the work of Christ on the cross that we can receive the cure for this sin. By putting our faith in Jesus, we can receive forgiveness and cleansing of our sin disease. But we aren’t just saved from hell—though that would be enough.

We are also saved from sin itself. Like I said, sin is a corruption. It breeds rebellion against God. When the Bible talks about sin, there are a few varieties, but they all boil down to two categories—‘Sin’ as a state of being and ‘sin’ as acts against God. Our ‘Sin’ (think capital S) is the corruption that destroys our life and soul. It’s what makes us wander away from God, and in many cases not even think about eternity. It brings about ‘sin’ (think little S) which are actions against God—lying, cheating, stealing, etc. 

Some theologians like to argue (because that’s what theologians do) whether the Atonement was propitiation or expiation. It has to do with how you should translate the Greek word, hilasterion. A fun little Bible study is to look up Romans 3:25, 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:10 in different translations and see if they use ‘propitiation’ or ‘expiation’. Many modern translations will actually use ‘atoning sacrifice’ to just bypass the argument altogether. Ultimately, the question is “Does Jesus cleanse us from sin or does He pay the price for our sin?” 

If you just thought in your head, “Isn’t it both?” you are correct! The New Testament uses both the imagery of cleansing and appeasing when talking about the Atonement. And though grammar arguments can get very boring (unless you’re a language nerd like a few of us in the room), this argument helps answer our question ‘saved from what?’. Christ’s death on the cross saves us from both the disease of sin and the acts of sin. We are saved both so that we can go to heaven, but also so that we no longer sin here on earth. In heaven, sin no longer exists, on earth though, we still have to suffer its existence. That means that even though we receive the forgiveness and cleansing of sin, we may still act in sinful rebellion if we so choose.

But you are called To choose wisely

We are called to live in Christ. So when we look at our verse today, and Jesus says ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another’, this is a call out of sin. Sin creates love’s opposite—hate. Yoda was almost correct. You remember the line: “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” Actually the first step in that downfall is ‘sin’. Sin is what causes us to fear, to be angry, to hate, and to suffer. Love is its opposite. 

But Jesus doesn’t use ‘love’ to mean a hippy, sing kumbaya around the campfire type of love. The Greek word is agape. It is a sacrificial love that puts the needs of the other person above the needs of the one loving. 

Jesus didn’t need to heal, but the blind needed to see, the crippled needed to walk, and the deaf needed to hear. 

Jesus didn’t need the storm to go away, He was fine sleeping. But the disciples needed peace.

Jesus was doing fine in Heaven, but His Creation needed to be healed and remade.

That’s agape.

The commandment really isn’t all that new. God has been telling His people to love one another since Genesis. But ‘new’ can mean ‘something different’ or ‘something fresh’. Jesus is refreshing the commandment. Before, God’s people had to love the best they could given the sorry state of the world. Now, we love with Jesus helping us love. We have a fresh pot of love brewing inside us.

What does this Love look like?

We’ve already talked a bit about the next line. 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.

Jesus demonstrated love by serving others in what they needed. And this is the mark of a healthy church. How well its members love one another. Paul gave us a description of love that usually is recited at weddings, but don’t let Hallmark ruin the chapter for you. Hold your finger in John, but turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13. We’ll read just a bit—verses 4-7. 

Love is patient and kind;       Are you patient with other Christians? Are you kind?

love does not envy or boast; Are you more concerned with what you want or have than what others need?

it is not arrogant or rude. Are you a jerk? Don’t be.

It does not insist on its own way; Are you like a toddler who pitches a fit every time they don’t get a cookie?

it is not irritable or resentful; Can you move on when things don’t go right? (BTW, this is my struggle)

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, Are you a ‘gotcha’ person? Or happy to hurt others?

but rejoices with the truth. Do you enjoy the truth? Do you enjoy goodness and mercy?

Love bears all things, believes all things, Can you endure the hard times in life, because you know the love of God can get hopes all things, endures all things you through them? Do you have a group of fellow Christians to share the load? 

I once heard a story of a mom who asked her son if he really loved others. She said that Jesus loves us this way. We can substitute ‘Jesus’ where it says ‘Love’. “Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus does not envy or boast.” Likewise, if we want to love properly, we have to put our names in there and see if it fits. So I would read, “Justin is patient and kind. Justin does not envy or boast”. So the mom asked her son, “Can you put your name in those verses and not be a liar?” It’s an interesting exercise. Can you put your name in those verses and not be a liar?

That’s loving one another just as Jesus has loved us.

How the world will Know

The last verse for today is very important for the life of a church. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. How are people supposed to know who is really following Jesus? 

By how they love one another. 

Notice, it isn’t necessarily how they love outsiders, though that is important. It isn’t how they love their family, though that too is important. It is how the members love each other. Can you look around this room and say, “I love that person…and that person…and that one too”?  Are you patient with the members of this church? Are you kind to the members? Are you happy with their successes? Do you help them bear their failures?

I have been overwhelmed with the greeting my family has had the last few days. There is always nervousness when heading to a new place, and even more so when heading into a new church. But when I saw a dozen people or so ready to help unload a truck, I was impressed. And then, more people trickled in with food and tools. We’ve been able to get the house organized in record time. We’re not done, of course, but I can walk around without tripping which is awesome. I even found my socks!

You may not know how big and important a warm greeting like that is. All I can say is thank you.

Let’s show that kind of love for each other. From the littlest babies to our rugrats in elementary to the teenagers safely stowed underground and up to the sort of grown up, the grown, and the really grown. Regardless of what age bracket we will admit to, let’s put each other’s needs ahead of our own. Let’s be patient with one another and kind to one another. Let us bear each other’s burdens and rejoice in each other’s successes. Let us embrace the truth that we are all sinners in need of God’s grace, but thankfully we serve a God who has met that need through His Son.

But How can we?

How can we love as Jesus loved? He had no sin, and we are corrupted by sin. That is a great question, because the truth is: you cannot give what you have not received. You cannot give a God-type love to others if you have not received it yourself. If you love the idea of each of us loving like Paul described, but have never experienced that for yourself, it may just be that you have missed a step. We cannot live a life freed from sin if we are still bound to its prison. Ask yourself: Do you remember when you surrendered in faith to Jesus? You may not remember the date and time, that’s not as important as, do you remember a time before you trusted Jesus and the time after you trusted? That’s called being saved. That’s the moment of decision when you stopped trusting in yourself, or your family, or your government, or society or whatever it is that you trusted to make you whole. 

Because society won’t make you whole, it will only compel you to be like popular people.

The government can’t make you whole, it only wants your taxes and compliance.

Your family won’t make you whole. It will get you real close, though, because a healthy family is the closest thing on earth to being right with God. But a family without Jesus is still a broken family.

And you can’t make yourself whole, because you are the one missing something.

We are only whole when we realize that we have wandered from the One who makes us whole. God created each of us to be with Him. The thing that you’ve been missing your whole life is God. He is the success that always eludes you. He is the family that you’ve always wanted. He is the relationship that truly fulfills you when all the other boyfriends and girlfriends and spouses have failed you. The reason nothing on this earth will satisfy you is because you were made for something not of this earth. You were made for God.

Sin has broken that connection. It has corrupted your heart and caused you to destroy the good things in your life—your relationships with others, and more importantly your relationship with your Creator. Jesus came to break the cycle of sin by cleansing you of that sin disease and forgiving you of your sin actions. Through His death, burial and resurrection we can be made right with God. First, we receive His love, and then, as more and more of His love is poured into us, more and more can spill out and into those around us. 

That is the new commandment: to love one another, as Jesus has loved us.