Love One Another

As a follower of Jesus one of my central desires should be to grow and mature in my faith and in my love for God

If we were all honest with ourselves I think we would all agree that our spiritual lives are not where they should be

That there is significant room for growth

At the start of our year I wanted to take a look at a few areas in which I believe growth needs to happen

Here’s the thing about growth and maturity - to grow and mature you must be willing to change

To change we must be willing to admit that we might be wrong

That is something that I think most people are willing to at least consider intellectually, but when it comes to actually doing it there is typically a lot of resistance

People generally do not like change, even if they know that change needs to happen

I mentioned this quote by Paul Rulkens last week -

“If you want results you’ve never had before, you have to do things you’ve never done before”

If I want different results, I need to do different things

Yet, as a whole, we still avoid change as much as possible

We get comfortable in the way things are, even if the way things are is not good

Last week I mentioned that people change when they learn enough that they want to, receive enough that they are able to, or hurt enough that they have to

Learn enough that they want to - someone discovers that they way they were doing things was wrong, and they willingly change

Receive enough that they are able to - Someone recognizes the need to change, wants to change, but does not have the necessary resources to change. Once they get the resources they need, change happens

Hurt enough that they have to - someone knows that they need to change, but they refuse to do so until they absolutely have to. Example: an addict that waits until they hit rock bottom to seek help

So, part of growth and change is identifying the issue - knowing what needs to change

This brings me to my topic for today

This topic is something that I think all of us need to improve, but at the same time many, if not most, of us think we’re doing okay with it

My topic today is Love

When I was thinking about this topic there was one verse that kept coming to my mind

I’m sure it’s one that all of you are at least somewhat familiar with

John 13:34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

I find it interesting that Jesus called this a new command

That the idea of loving each other was new to them, (even though Mosaic Law said that they were to love their neighbor as themselves)

I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that the Law of Moses had been twisted to the point that religious leaders took great delight in pointing out the faults in others?

In a system based entirely on following rules it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to love each other

Yet Jesus flat out says that everyone will know we are His disciples if we what?

If we love one another

This goes right along with the second greatest commandment in Matthew 22:39 - “love your neighbor as you love yourself”

There are two things that I want to define here

First – when Jesus says “love one another” who is the “one another” that Jesus is talking about?

It’s our fellow Christians

Other believers – people who also follow Jesus

I need to love everyone, but especially my fellow believers

It should be obvious to everyone that I am a Christ-follower if I love others who are also following Christ

Oh, how I wish this were true in the world today!

How I wish we would love each other

It’s really easy to love those Christians who believe exactly as I do

Those who act, and look, and think just like me are no problem at all to love – after all, they are the ones that are living their faith in the right way!

But those who look different than me, think different than me, and live different than me can be a lot harder to love

Yet that does not give me a pass to not love them

We all know that we should love each other

Many of us think that we do love each other

But reality is often much different (Westboro Baptist lady – “I thought I was loving them”)

Before I go any further I want to briefly mention another issue I see surrounding the fact that we should especially love our fellow Christians

There are those who use the excuse “well, they’re not ‘real’ Christians so I don’t need to love them!”

What this typically means is that either that group of people doesn’t believe exactly the same way at that person does, hence they are not “real Christians” or that particular group doesn’t think that some issue is a sin that another group thinks is a sin

I have 3 things to say about that

First - if you remember my message from last week I gave a definition of what sin is. Sin is anything that disrupts shalom, or perfect peace, between us and God and us and other people

The mere act of thinking that someone is not a “real Christian” because they do not believe exactly as you do disrupts shalom, therefore, it’s a sin!

Secondly - There are over 40,000 distinct Christian denominations worldwide. Yours is not the only one that gets things right

In fact, none of us get everything right - nobody has perfect theology

Third - last year I did a series called “Creed” that explored the basics of the Christian faith

In other words, what are the bare minimum beliefs that make someone a Christian

In short, as long as someone agrees with the Nicene Creed and Apostles Creed, I can call them a brother or sister in Christ

Of course, if I am looking for an excuse as to why I don’t have to love someone, I think I have some serious spiritual issues that need to be dealt with!

This brings me to my second point that we need to explore – what exactly does Jesus mean by loving each other?

We can say that we love someone, but do our actions match up with our words?

The word Jesus uses here for love is the Greek word agape

Agape is an unearned love

A love that you do not have to do anything to get – it’s just there

Very much like the love a parent has for their child and the love God has for us

Jesus is telling us that we should love our fellow believers whether they’ve “earned” our love or not!

Whether we feel they “deserve” our love is irrelevant, we must love them

Yet what does love look like?

The best explanation about love in Scripture is found in 1 Corinthians 13, which is commonly known as the “love chapter”

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul talks about the importance of loving

1 Corinthians 13:1-8
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

I can be the world’s best preacher and teacher – but If I do not have love I am just making noise

This is why screaming at someone and telling them they are going to burn in hell doesn’t make for effective evangelism

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

I can hear the voice of God, I can understand every aspect of Scripture, I can have faith to move mountains

But if that is not bathed in love, I am nothing

3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

I can give away everything and even die for my faith

But without love it’s useless

What Paul is saying here is that I can follow all the rules and know everything there is to know about the Bible

But if I do not love other people it will do me no good at all – “I gain nothing”

So then, what does this Agape love look like?

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Patient – for some people this is pretty easy, but for others it is not (siblings, the annoying person in your class, etc

Kind – whatever happened to being nice?

And remember what momma says “If you can’t say anything nice …”

Does not envy – “how come they get to have a boyfriend/girlfriend/x box, tablet, laptop, car, whatever”

Does not boast/is not proud – “Look at how awesome I am!” which really means “I’m better than you”

5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Rude – glad none of us have a problem with that!

Seriously though - we are commanded to love our neighbor, and especially our fellow believers

Think about the fact that love is kind and that love is not rude before you post anything on social media

Self seeking – selfishness. This is the root of virtually every sin and every problem in the world

If you always have to have your own way, if you can never admit that you are wrong, if it’s always all about you, then you are selfish

Not easily angered – how are we doing with that?

Keeps no record of wrong – “yesterday you did this, last week you did that, last year this happened, back in kindergarten you called me a name!”

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Does not delight in evil – ever notice how we are fascinated with bad news?

Especially when it pertains to people we really do not like

How quickly do we as believers pounce on a Christian celebrity that makes a mistake?

How many churches crucify their pastor simply because they mess up?

There are “ministries” – and I use that term loosely – whose entire purpose is to examine the lives and messages of famous preachers in microscopic detail just so they can point out how wrong these preachers are

Instead of delighting in evil Paul says we are to

Rejoice with the truth – we need to rejoice in the truth, in the good things about our fellow believers rather than rejoicing in finding all that’s wrong about them

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Protects – If I love someone I am going to protect them

Their life, their reputation, their interest

If I hear someone talking smack about them I will stick up for them

If I hear someone gossiping – even if what is being said is true – I will do my best to stop it

Trusts – unless the person has proven themselves untrustworthy, if I love them I need to trust them

Hopes – yes that person has faults, but I can always hope for the best (in prayer, of course!)

Perseveres – love doesn’t give up

That doesn’t mean I need to put up with an unhealthy relationship – far from it

That doesn’t mean that I need to hang out with people who annoy me or who believe very differently from me

It does mean, however, that I will always love them

8 Love never fails.

Let’s wrap things up by going back to John 13

John 13:34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Jesus said to love each other, but He also gave another specific instruction

“As I have loved you, so you must love one another”

How did Jesus love us?

Yes, He died for us – that’s a no brainer

But think about it for a moment

Jesus loved disciples that fell asleep on Him in His greatest time of need

He loved disciples that ran off when He was arrested

Jesus loved Peter, who openly denied Him 3 times

Jesus even loved Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him! (He even washed Judas’ feet!)

If Jesus can love us with all of our faults and failures, why can’t we love each other?

Jesus said people would know we were His disciples if we love each other

He didn’t add on to that statement

He didn’t say “unless they are annoying, then it’s totally okay to not love them”

No, Jesus said very directly to love each other

It’s not optional

How different would things be if everyone did this?

How different would our communities and our world be if Christians everywhere loved each other despite our differences?

I don’t know, but I’d love to find out!