Love One Another

A famous saying goes: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” An overview from the internet is helpful for all of us. “The saying ‘you can't teach an old dog new tricks’ is a common saying that suggests it is difficult to teach older individuals new skills or change their habits. However, while older dogs may take a bit more time and patience to train, it's still possible to teach them new tricks with the right approach.” Now, I’m not here to quibble about who might be considered older in this room, especially now that I’ve reached half a century. The focus on this is teachability. And that’s a great question for all of us in this room. Have you achieved “expert mode” in your life and are being informed by Jesus? Or are you still teachable? You may prefer how you’d like information to come your way, but if Jesus Himself wanted you to move and change a certain way, could He budge you? We all know the Sunday School answer is, “Yes, of course, Jesus could break through.” But, as we’ve gathered here today, are you ready to change? Are you prepared to consider a new way of life? Are you ready to hear God’s Word and put it into practice? 

I’m pressing the opening of this sermon in this way, because the subject matter we will cover today is one in which many of us in this room think we’re doing well. And, I’m hoping somehow God can break through that to give us new, fresh ways of living this. We are launching a short series of sermons on John 13-17, the Upper Room Discourse. I’m tempted to call this series One-ology, a theology of how Jesus moves the people He’s saved to being one. Unfortunately, we’re more influenced by the cares of our day and age than by Jesus. We excuse our failure to be one as other people needing to get with the program and see things my way. We’ve built up extra-Biblical ways of behaving in our minds and excuse that way as God’s way and, unfortunately, aren’t listening to Jesus very well. So, I have a heavy burden on my heart in this.

An essential understanding for us is moving from Jesus to the Gospels. A time gap existed between Jesus’s life and the Gospels' writing. Specifically, there were 30 years before the first Gospel was written. You might remember from the book of Acts that churches were established and were sent letters to center their lives on the good news of Jesus and all the implications that went with this. After the Apostles sent their letters, the Gospels were written. John’s Gospel was the final account of Jesus’s life written. His primary intention was to stabilize the churches in the Gospel delivered by the Apostles, continuing the “proclamation to the entire world” mojo of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. Written a long time after Peter and Paul died, John wrote that the one new Church promised by Jesus might mature into a worldwide witness that would bring glory to God. You’re likely aware of John's purpose statement, that we might believe Jesus is our King, the Son of God, and have life in His name. The final verses remind us that John wasn’t writing an exhaustive account, but was writing things Jesus did for our benefit. Why would a church with the Gospel and striving to live in light of it need an account of Jesus’s life and a compelling picture of what it means to be one? We need this because we would easily not try to be one. Other priorities and secondary matters would try to cloud out Jesus’s intentions for us. 

So, we’re coming to the Upper Room. This is the most foundational of the discourses in this book of John. This new community Jesus is building will have one foundational new commandment: love one another as Christ loved them. It is the foundational proof to the watching world that they are Jesus’s true followers. Do you love others as Christ has loved you? Does anyone in the watching world look at your love for others in the church and feel compelled to go all in with Jesus? Maybe you’re not on Jesus’ page as much as you might pat yourself on the back and assure yourself you are. This is where we’re headed today. Join me today as we hear Jesus call us to a love the world has never seen… Read John 13:34-35 (This is God’s Word; thanks be to God)

Jesus calls us to a love the world has never seen…as I. Jesus defines this love. (13:1, 34; 17:25-26) 1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 34 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. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

I love how the Upper Room events are introduced in John’s Gospel. Do you see that in 13:1? “Before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father,” is a timestamp establishing that this took place when nearly all was done. All that was left was for Jesus to go to the cross, rise again, and return to heaven. But, before that, He takes time with His followers. Or, as John puts it, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” So, Jesus’ heart for His followers will emerge in these chapters 13-17. They are an expression of His love for those who are left in this world. And that includes people like you and me. Jesus loves us today by helping us see what kind of love and life He envisions.

Look down at 13:34, which we read just a moment ago. Jesus gives a new commandment to His own who He is loving to the end: they are to love one another. Now, that really isn’t a new commandment. We’ve been told in other places in the Bible to love one another. Even some NT letters written before this Gospel get to that. What’s significant for us, though, is how Jesus defines what loving one another embraces: “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Sometimes we excuse our lack of love as being: Oh, you know how they are, or you know how difficult that person is to love, but I don’t read a loophole in Jesus’s words here. He’s the standard. We’re to love one another like He loves us. 

If we go to the end of this section in chapter 17:25-26, we get more insight into how lacking in sentimentality this command to love another is. When Jesus is wrapping His High Priestly prayer, He prays and says, “Righteous Father, even though the world doesn’t know you, I know you. And, these followers of mine know that you have sent me. I’ve made known to them Your name and will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.” Jesus will make the Father’s name known as He goes to the cross and rises again. The effect of this will be that God’s love won’t just be a dreamy idea we aspire to, but a love we live, coming from Christ who lives within us. So, let’s say you’re already trying to find an escape clause. Jesus is so committed to our loving one another that He says part of His mission in being sent to earth was so that God’s love would be in us as Jesus lives through us. When we are overwhelmed thinking we can’t love others, Christ is in us saying, “Yes, you can! I’m empowering you to this end with a love I’m defining.” Are we trusting Him? Are we living out of the reality of Christ in us? Jesus defines what it means to love one another, and it’s centered in Him, not you or me.

Secondly, II. Jesus’s love compels our love. (13:35; 14:23-24)

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 23 “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

Having seen how Jesus defines our love throughout these chapters, we can now examine how Jesus directs or compels our love. There’s an element of our mission that is to be seen in our love for one another. As we love one another like Jesus has loved us, we’re told in 13:35, that by this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Some of us have difficulty seeing how our love could be this witness because we don’t love as Jesus says. If you’re consistently complaining about your experience of church down with the people you hang out with, do you think Jesus will wow them? If you love your family a certain way and treat God’s people another way, is Jesus really popping? If all the people of the church get on your nerves, the watching world won’t wonder why you’re following Jesus, because you’re acting like an unbeliever, someone who the good news hasn’t changed. And, lest you think I’m just meddling in your affairs, these are my issues, too. Jesus is setting a bar here that is compelling us to be aware of the mission in the way we love one another.

Over in 14:23-24, we get an illustration of how we try to explain a command like this away. Jesus, answering a question about how He will show Himself to His followers and not the world, says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” Some of you are already grading on the curve, thinking, whew, enough of that love talk, of course no one can keep God’s Word, so I know I’m on sound footing here. Jesus is saying that we demonstrate we love Him to a watching world by keeping His word. What’s the word or “commandment” that this passage is getting at? Loving one another. We demonstrate a love for Jesus by our hearts’ willingness to do what He says. When we offer excuses and refuse to follow Jesus’s command to love another, we are NOT showing love to Jesus, because we are not keeping His words. And, Jesus’s words aren’t just something He’s crafted, but what the Father has intended. Jesus isn’t letting us off the hook. He’s compelling us to love another so that the world can see how distinct we are as His people who love Him. 

This leads us to see third and finally, III. Jesus’s sacrifice is our standard. (15:9-13) 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Augustine famously put the conundrum he found in trying to follow Christ as, “Give what you command, O Lord, and then command whatever you will.” This is where Jesus calls us into this love the world has never seen in chapter 15. After defining love and compelling it to come out of our lives, He orients us into His love. Love is part of God and goes from the Father to Jesus to us. So, we remain there. We find the love that Jesus gives us to be wholly satisfying. Then, Jesus returns to the commandments—like the command to love one another—as the way we remain in His love, like the Father and Jesus lived. This is the path to joy. And, to make sure we haven’t lost the scent, Jesus says again, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” So far, so good, then Jesus points to His work on the cross: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” So, Jesus commands what He wants from us and gives us what He commands. He’s not only embodying love but also giving us a description of what this looks like. 

This should encourage all of us to trust in Jesus and His command. We show that Jesus’s pathway to joy can be trusted when we love one another. We believe that when Jesus says sacrificial love of one another is great, He’s not embellishing reality. These are the kind of heart issues we must overcome. I’ve heard people say that they don’t trust people, so they can’t love them. And Jesus is inviting us to believe Him. He’s setting sacrifice as the standard.

On top of that, we don’t have to be paralyzed or languishing in how we have failed to love. When Jesus speaks of the great love that lays down its life for friends, this is what He’s done for you and me. We no longer must live under the guilt of not loving well or be ashamed because of what our love looks like towards others. We can enter the forgiveness and freedom that Jesus has purchased for us by laying down His life for us. His sacrifice is our standard in that He frees us to step into ways of love we never have before. And this leads us into a way of love that the world marvels at. 

In conclusion, today we’ve seen Jesus call us into a love the world has never seen…

I. Jesus defines this love. (13:1, 34; 17:25-26)

II. Jesus’s love compels our love. (13:35; 14:23-24)

III. Jesus’s sacrifice is our standard. (15:9-13)

Jesus has laid down His life for sinners. Like we sang earlier in this service, we needed rescue. But everything changed when Jesus died and rose again. We continue to revel in the good news of what Jesus did for us. Today, turn from lesser loves to trust Him. He’s worthy. He’s the One who embodied love by laying down His life for you.

Trusting Him enables us to live this life of loving one another. Remember, this isn’t about you, it’s about Jesus. Some of you are so in your own heads that you can’t hear what Jesus says. And I’m inviting you to believe in Jesus. Let Him define love for you. Allow His love to compel you. This is His will for you in this church: you love one another as He has loved you. And this sacrifice is the standard. It blazes a path showing us what love is. His sacrifice also atones for all the times we’ve messed up love (and if you’re like me, that’s a lot). Let’s love Him then, and quickly move to love another. This comes as we know Christ and make Him known. Let’s be a people the world marvels at because we love one another out of our hearts to glorify and enjoy God forever.