John 15:9-12 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Introduction.
This lesson continues with our series on what John says. This week I will be discussing the command from Jesus in John 15 to love one another. I spoke on a similar topic when I last conducted the lesson. So those of you who are observant will probably notice that I will be revisiting thoughts that I have previously shared with you and exploring a few new areas where reflection on my previous lesson took me.
The first of these reflections is this. In general we were all born with certain abilities such as sight, hearing and sensitivity to heat and cold etc. I would also argue that we were born with a predisposition to love. In the early days of our childhood love came naturally to us. We were not afraid to express our love for one another. How often have you seen a small child run up to another child and throw their arms around them or to reach out and hold their hand, or a group of kids walking primary school holding each others hands. Our usual reaction to these sights is usually “isn’t that cute”.
At a young age it is a natural expression to display love and affection and by enlarge we are comfortable with it. This is the way that God intended man to love from the beginning, for love to be a natural act displayed to one and all. So what happened to us that we need to be commanded by Jesus to love one another? The answer is that the world happens to us, sin infected us and as we grew more accustomed to sin we found it far easier to find fault with one another than to love one another.
Gods Command.
From the very beginning when God provided the law for his people he has placed love for one another at the heart of his law.
Lev 19:15 “'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly. “'Do not go about spreading slander among your people. "'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbour’s life. I am the Lord. “'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbour frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.
When God created the law he did so for the benefit of his people. That they may have instruction and rules to live by that would bring his people closer to him. To place such a provision and emphasis for love in the law shows how important our love for one another is to God. How it is bound to his law and in bringing us closer to him.
Ok we get the message, but unfortunately all too often we don’t. I believe that one of the main reasons why God places such emphasis in the law on loving one another is because he knows that all too often we fail miserably at carrying it out. Ask yourself this question, do you think of love for one another as an emotion or a command? In my better moments I would answer that I know that it is a command from God set out in his law but all too often I can let my emotions over rule my heart. God knows that we have difficulty with our love for one another. When we think of love all too often we think that it is something that we should hand out to only those who deserve our love, how arrogant is that.
Let’s be honest at times all it takes is for someone to look at us in the wrong way or say something that rubs us up the wrong way for us to take an instant dislike to them and thoughts of loving one another are the further things from our mind, how petty is that. That is how easy we can find it to dismiss one of the main building blocks in our pursuit of knowing our father and why he has placed such a large provision for loving one another in his law.
Jesus Command.
John 15:9-12 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Reinforcement, Not a New Command.
When we looked at this command in Leviticus we did so under the authority of the Old Testament, the old covenant. With the arrival of Jesus on the earth we entered a new phase of our relationship with God through the life and death of his son, a new covenant where the son embodies the law.
There is new and there is new in the sense of if I were to go to the shops and by a new pair of trainers they would be new to me but they wouldn’t actually be new. The only really new trainers existed when the person who came up with the idea of the trainer made the first pair. All other trainers that came after the first pair were copies or improvements of the original.
This applies to the new command that Jesus gives us concerning our love for one another. This command is directed at the disciples so that the world would come to know them by the love that they had for one another and that they were followers of Jesus.
When God first set out the command for us to love one another he did so through the words that he told Moses to speak. Under the new covenant, these words became flesh in the form of Jesus and the same command was given but this time we can see this command carried out in perfection in the way that Jesus lived and died for all.
Consequences of Failing to Obey This Command.
Jesus clearly states the consequences that await us if we fail to apply ourselves to his command to love each other as he loved us that we will not remain in his love if we fail to apply ourselves to this command.
I do not know about you but that is a prospect that sends a shiver up my spine. Even the thought of disappointing Jesus fills me with dread and guilt, but not remaining in his love that is a prospect fills me with despair. Whenever I am going through a difficult patch in my life, I take strength in the knowledge that Jesus loves me. With that love in me, I feel like there is nothing that I cannot get to grips with because he is my strength.
Without his love, I would be nothing, just another sinner among many with no hope and no future, just counting down the days to oblivion. I would have no one to blame except myself because I know what Jesus demands of me. He demands of each and every one of us to love one another as he loved us.
Jesus Life Embodies This Command.
So how did Jesus love us? Think on this for a moment, who did Jesus shower his love on! Was it only for those who followed him? Was it only on those who proclaimed the word of God? No, Jesus showered his love on all. This included people that society and even the church turned their noses up at, sinners one and all, thieves, prostitutes, lepers, adulteresses, tax collectors, peasants and the list goes on. Jesus loved all because it came natural to him. Jesus loved all because he way obeying his fathers command. Jesus loved all because he was God in flesh. Jesus loved all because God is love.
I want to take a few moments to look at the account of the thief on the cross as recounted by Luke. I love this because it reminds us that it is never to late to find salvation through Jesus. Jesus had a thief hanging to his left and to his right .The question that I have been pondering over for the last few weeks is did Jesus love the thief who repented any more than the thief that did not repent.
Jesus granted salvation to one and not the other, so surely this means that he loved one more than the other. Hardly John tells us that "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. One repented and accepted Jesus love while the other rejected Jesus. This does not mean that he was loved any less; it means that through his unwilling to accept and love Jesus that he did not benefit from the full scope of Jesus love and the ultimate benefit of Jesus love is salvation.
A Command Not Limited to the “Family”.
This command to love one another is not just a command limited to those in the family of God. It’s far, far bigger than that.
Lev 19:34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.
I am the Lord your God.
God expects and commands of us to love every one. If there were exceptions to this command God would have made it clear to us. God expects us to treat those not in the family, aliens exactly the same way that we would family members or rather our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we go back to look at the command that Jesus gave to the disciples it doesn’t say anything about loving those not in the family. It is a direct command to the disciples to love one another. Does this mean that the law set out in Leviticus is not longer relevant? Hardly, Jesus commands the disciples to love one another as he loved. Jesus love was a perfect love for all. By obeying his command to love others as he love, them we are or rather shouldn’t be left in any doubt that this is a love for all and not just a select few.
Obeying This Command Leads to Obedience of Other Commands. How far up your list of obeying commands from God does to love one another come. Is it somewhere near the top, nestled in the middle or dead last? Rom 13:9 The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbour as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
By putting this commandment as a priority the natural result is that we will not be in any real danger of breaking any other of Gods laws or commands. If you have love for one another and by that I mean in the way that God expects us to have love for one another you will not be tempted to commit adultery or to steal or to covet because a true love for one another would make breaking these commands and laws impossible and obedience to them a natural behaviour.