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Please open your Bibles to John
chapter 13. This is 34-35. Looking particularly
at these verses, also in context with other scriptures. Words
of our Lord Jesus, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love
one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, ye have love one to another. Amen. And so the last number of years we've
going through the Westminster Confession as a summary of biblical
doctrine and considering that in the light of the Scriptures.
And one of those chapters, chapter 26, is of the communion of the
saints. We spent one evening just on
that subject in terms of beginning with the foundation of our duties
as Christians to each other is that we are brought together
in Christ. That is, we trust in Christ and
are united to Him, then we're united to one another. So there's
that union of the saints, by the grace of God, and living
together then as those united in Christ, that's where we speak
of communion, fellowship. Westminster Confession, there's
this statement concerning, in that sense, our duties as Christians
to each other. Saints, by profession, are bound
to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship
of God and in performing such other spiritual services as tend
to their mutual edification, as they're building up one another.
as also relieving each other in outward things according to
their several abilities and necessities which communion as God offereth
opportunity is to be extended unto all those who in every place
call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. So there's a summary there
of what it means to to be together as Christians and there is a
particular expression of that in particular congregations,
particular assemblies of Christians who know one another and see
one another day-to-day, week-to-week. They live together in these particular
duties, but also that we're to extend this love to all who profess
the name of Christ, particularly as they come across our path.
Well, we spent one evening on those things last year. God willing,
this year we'll spend 11. And particularly, considering
the practical outworking of those duties, what does it mean to
be together as God's people? What are our duties? And what
does it mean to love one another? As I mentioned, we'll be looking
at this in terms of some of the one another's of the scriptures,
particularly in the New Testament, We find many commands do this
to one another, for one another. And we begin this evening with
Love one another, which we can say, on the one hand, is the
summary of all of our duties. They all come under that duty
of love. Think of how Jesus summarized
the law and the prophets. All the law and the prophets,
he said, hang on, these two commandments, love God and love thy neighbor
as thyself. So love sums up, fulfills the
law. It doesn't do away with the law,
it sums it up. And so love one another in a sense sums up all
our duties, but also we can see it as the fountain from which
all our other duties flow. It's with this love that all
these other duties follow that and go along with it. And we're
enabled to do those duties if we have that love. So I want
to consider then these verses under three headings. Firstly,
there is Christ's commandment, then Christ's example, and then
Christ's reputation. So Christ's commandment, firstly,
a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. And perhaps the first thing that
we can We need to realise about this commandment is that it is
a direct order from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He
gives it to us and in all of the Bible is given to us. by
Christ, the Old Testament, given as the Spirit of Christ spoke
through the prophets, Peter says, and the New Testament, the apostles
and prophets laying their foundation of the Church. But this, there
are those things that are given us directly, in that sense, from
the mouth of Christ as it was upon the earth, and this as well,
as well as finding it throughout the Scriptures. And Christ says
it's a new commandment, a new commandment I give unto you, which leads us to ask, well,
did the duty of love to other believers only begin in the New
Testament? Did it only begin here in John
13? Did the disciples know nothing of this before? Was there nothing
of this in the Old Testament? Well, no, and yes. There is a sense in which it
is new, but there's a sense in which it is old. And we're helped
to understand this by John in his first letter. In 1st John,
chapter 2, in verses 7 to 11. Brethren, I write no new commandment
unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the
beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing
is true in him and in you. He that saith he is in the light,
and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that
loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none
occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother
is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither
he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. Now what's
that new commandment that he's speaking of here, which is old
at the same time? It's the commandment to love,
your brother, to love the brethren. This has always been the case,
that that is our duty. Cain, in hating his brother,
he sinned and he knew that it was sin. It's old because it was from
the beginning, but it's new. As John speaks of it, as Christ,
tells us because Christ was giving it anew and he was giving it
with his own particular example and with more motivation. See
there's always been, we look in the Old Testament, And we
see there in Leviticus 19, 18, those words that many people
assume is just Jesus came up with them, but they're not. Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. We see the same principle. And
we see what that looks like. What does it look like to love
your neighbor as yourself? We see what that means in God's
law and throughout the scriptures. But, even though that is the
case, we come to the New Testament and we do see a greater emphasis
in terms of teaching, in terms of instruction, in terms of commands
on love for one another. And so in that sense, it's given
a new context, and that's the context in which Christ has come. And a particular thing that makes
this commandment, puts it in a new light, is that there's
Christ's example, and we're going to go to Christ's example shortly,
but that He says, love one another as I have loved you, that He
also loves one another. So that gives us a new light,
more light, on what it is to love one another, and also There's
not only a clear example in Christ and His love, but greater motivation,
because God's love has been seen from the beginning as He has
saved sinners and called them to Himself, as we see through
the Old Testament Scriptures as well. But we see His love
most clearly in Christ, in the sending of His Son, in the fulfilling
of His promises, And so we're given that far greater reason
to love one another, seeing the love of God and knowing the love
of God for us. Again, I'm going to be going
back to 1 John a few times, a number of times, in 1 John 4, verse
10 and 11. Here is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us. and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. We're going to come back to that
later. We've learned something about
how we can love one another from that. But we see there Christ
sacrificed to take away our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. So you see, in this context,
it's a new commandment. And what is that commandment?
To love one another. What does that mean? What does
it mean to love one another? love we'll spend monthly through
the year we're going to be considering in essence fleshing out what
that means as we consider different scriptures of these one and others
but as we think about love we need to realize a number of things
especially in contrast to what the world says often about love
Because in the world, if you speak to people about love, they
say, well, they might just, love means I really like something,
or I really like someone, or I have feelings for them, or
such things. But love is not mere feelings. True love involves
feelings, it involves the affections, it involves the whole person.
But it's not primarily, or wholly, feelings. And this is true whether
we're thinking of love for God, Love for God, as the Bible describes,
is not having nice thoughts and feeling good about God. We're
to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul
and all our strength and all our mind. It's the whole person
directed to God and devoted to God, much more than feelings. And it's the same when it comes
to men. And we see something in terms of what the Bible says,
again I'm going to go to the letters of John, about love that's
not just feelings from statements like this. In 2 John 6, this
is love that we walk after His commandments. So love involves
keeping God's commandments. In 1 John 5 verse 2, by this
we know that we love the children of God. And I say, well, what's he going
to say? Because we feel, we feel nice, we have nice thoughts about
them, we have nice feelings for them, we like them. No. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. So you see, so love is, it's
not a divorce from feelings, but it's not mere feelings. It's
also not mere words. Again, the Apostle John, 1 John
3, 18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed and in truth. That means show your love
by actions. That's where true love is seen.
It's also not, I mean, there are those who say, okay, it's
not feelings and it's not words. It's action. Love is action.
It's just doing the right thing for others. Certainly it involves
action. But it's not mere action. It's
not mere deeds. What does Paul say about this
in 1 Corinthians 13? He talks a lot about love, about
charity, about love. He says, So there's deeds, aren't
they? Good deeds. So you can do all
those good deeds. You can help other people, but
it doesn't mean necessarily that there's love there. So what is love? I'm sure there
are many different definitions in terms of biblical teaching
that people have come up with, but I'm going to say that love
is affections and words that show themselves in action for
the good of the other. Now, as regards God, if we're
talking about particularly our whole being directed to Him and
devoted to Him and living for Him, that's what it is to love
God. But as we think of love for others,
it does involve our heart and our mind directed to others,
seeking the good of others and doing good for others. So that's
something about what love is. And when we come to Christ's
example, want to explore that a bit more, what that looks like.
But, who is the one another? Jesus says, love that ye love
one another. This is, this, even though This statement, this
command, is related to the commandment, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. It's not the same. It's more
particular. See, love thy neighbor as thyself,
that extends to all men everywhere. And with particular application
is, as people come across our path, think of the good Samaritan
helping that Jew on the side of the road in Jesus' parable.
Who is your neighbor? Your neighbor's the one in need. And there is love required to
all. And Jesus even teaches us, doesn't
he, in the Bible shows love for our enemies. But this is a particular love
for the brethren. And we see this in the next verse. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. So Jesus
is talking to his disciples and he's speaking of their love for
one another. Now that doesn't mean that there's
no love to be shown to others. Paul says in Galatians 6 verse
10, I do good to all men, especially to those of the household of
faith, is a priority. And this is what the Bible speaks
of as love of the brethren, brotherly love. Hebrews 13 verse one, let
brotherly love continue. Why is it called brotherly love? Now Jesus doesn't mention the
word brotherly here, it's elsewhere, but this is what he means when
he says love one another. It's called brotherly love because
believers are brothers and sisters in Christ. They're members of
the same family, of the family of God. And this takes us, in
that sense, underneath the duty to the foundation, and that is
when God saves a sinner, that sinner is justified, is forgiven
of his sins and set right in the sight of God, as we've been
considering recently in Romans. There's the law court, there's
God as the judge, forgiving sins and pardoning and declaring righteous. But then we see Instantaneously,
God as Father adopting the justified sinner into his family, into
the family of God. And whenever a sinner is brought
into the family of God, what does he find but that there are
others there. And so it's not just him and
God, it's not just her and God, it is the family of God. That's the reality that undergirds
this command. that if you are, in the language
of Christ, if you are His disciple, if you're following Him, if you're
trusting in Him, then you find yourself in the church, you find
yourself in the band of disciples, and you have a duty to each other.
If you're a child of God, you find yourself with other children
of God, and that makes you brethren, it makes you siblings. And your
duty and your privilege is to love, to love one another. And just as there's obligation
in our families to love one another, so in the family of God. So we've
got motivation here to love one another. Christ commands us.
And it's a good commandment. And then we have Christ's example. That you love one another as
I have loved you, that you also love one another. All that Jesus says, as I have
loved you. We can say that all that Jesus
has ever done for his disciples have been out of love for them. Providing for them, teaching
them, admonishing them, comforting them. all that he had done but
as we think as we look at these verses in this chapter there
are two things in particular before us that Jesus is referring
to and we go back to the beginning of the chapter there in verse
one now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that
his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto
the Father Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved
them unto the end." And when it says He loved them
unto the end, I don't believe it's speaking of the foot washing.
I'll come to the foot washing in a minute. That was an act
of love. This is speaking of love to the
uttermost, love to the greatest extent, and it is looking to
the cross. It is Christ looking to His death
for His disciples, for His people. And we see even in verses just
before our text, in verse 31, that when He was gone out, Jesus
said, now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him.
If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself
and shall straightway glorify Him. He's thinking of the cross. Christ was going there to glorify
God in his death as he gave himself in love for his own. He loved them to the end. And
so if we think of this example, as I have loved you, we are to
be thinking of the first instance of Christ's death. We see this more in a couple
of chapters after, John chapter 15. This is my commandment, that
ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
but the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. For I have called
you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have
made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, that your fruit should remain. that whatsoever
ye shall ask of the Father in my name, whom I have given you,
these things I command you, that ye love one another." You see
there the example then of Christ's death. His love shown, He's pre-empting,
He was going to lay down His life for them. Love one another this way. And I mean, we read before there
from 1 John 4, 10 and 11, where it speaks of God giving His Son propitiation. Listen again, here
in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God
so loved us, we ought also to love one another. When we think of Christ dying
for the sins of his people, dying for the appreciation for our
sins, there is his love willingly laid in his life. But who is
he doing it for? Who did He do it for? Well, we
were yet sinners. A propitiation is a sacrifice
to take away anger, wrath, to satisfy justice. Christ died
for sinners. The love of God is seen in Christ
being given and Christ died as a love for the unloved. God's love was not conditioned
on the loveliness, on the helpfulness, on the whatever beauty of those
that He showed that love to. Now He would by His grace bring
forth love from them, that we would love Him as He first loved
us, but it's love for the unloved. And so Christ's example, when
Christ says, as I have loved you. There's a willingness, as we
think, okay, what should our love look like? There's a willingness,
needs to be a willingness to give our lives for one another.
Not to save one another, we can't, Christ is the only saviour, but
to give our lives, if necessary, to take the bullet, as it were,
to protect one another. But there's also the aspect,
not quite so hypothetical for us, of love to those who are
unlovely, at least in our eyes. Love to those who don't deserve
it. Love to those who have done us
wrong. Love to those who maybe cannot
repay us, cannot invite us back, cannot help us in return. So
that's the first aspect, as we think of when Jesus says, as
I have loved you, that we're looking to his death, the ultimate
sacrifice, but also love for the unlovely there. But the second aspect is in terms
of the foot washing. He would love them to the uttermost,
to the end, on the cross. But then there is also the example,
which we read there, of His getting down and washing their feet.
Now, we'll just read again verses 12 to 17. So after He had washed their
feet and taken His garments and was set down again, He said unto
them, Know ye what I have done to you? He call me master and
lord, and ye say, well, for so I am. If I then your lord and
master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's
feet. For I have given you an example,
that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord, neither
he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know
these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Now this is not the occasion
to spend much time on it either, but this is not a sacrament to
be practiced as some have done. It's an example of sacrificial
service, of lowliness, of humility, Let's think of the situation,
and perhaps children too, because it's a little bit different than
our situation. We, I know some of us, we do
wear thongs, we wear sandals, we walk about and our feet get
dirty, but we're talking about roads that weren't paved, generally,
you know, dusty roads, dusty feet, coming from a journey to
someone's house, as the disciples had done, and everyone's got
dirty feet. and also not only are they often
not sitting at a table with their feet nicely under the table covered
by a tablecloth, they're perhaps on lounges where their feet are
sort of up almost in the next person's face and so it was a
proper thing to do then for your feet to be washed and that was
generally left to a servant particularly in the houses where they had
the servants or perhaps the the lowliest person in the company
But here they were at the supper, it would seem that no one was
there to wash their feet, and no one among the disciples was
going to go and do it. So Christ got down, laid aside
his outer garments, took the towel, put it around him, and
went and washed his disciples' feet. Now the whole conversation
with Peter and so on, that's something for another time, but
what Jesus is saying here, what I have done for you, that's how
you're to be one to another. And so what we're talking about
is not a sacrament, I will do this once a year and make us
feel special about these things. This is about loving one another
enough to do hard, even menial, lowly, dirty things for one another. We can think of that literally,
cleaning the toilet, changing the nappy, cleaning up the mess,
whatever it is, whether it's a child's mess or some accident,
doing the thankless task stooping low, or it could be in more of
a proverbial, you know, figurative sense, the lowly job, the thing
that no one sees and no one promptly will notice. And what we learn as we think
on Obviously Christ's love and giving himself, that is greater
love of no man than this. That's the height of love, a
willingness to die for another. But sometimes when we're thinking
about love, and we're thinking about love like Jesus, we can
leave it there in the hypothetical. Yes, of course I'd be willing
to lay down my life for other members of my family and members
of the congregation and another believer. I'd jump in the way
of the bullet or whatever it was, And there can be a willingness
to die. But something that we learn from
Jesus washing the disciples' feet is that love is not only
a willingness to die, but it's a willingness to live for one
another. And in that sense, I mean, Jesus
describes, and the Bible describes the Christian life as daily dying,
doesn't it? So these things aren't in conflicts,
We're to daily die to self, to deny ourselves, to put ourselves
not first, to think of the things of others more, before the things
of ourselves. Think of others more highly than
of ourselves. And Jesus shows us that love
is not just about intention, but about action. That it needs
to be worked out. Now another aspect though, before
moving on just to verse 35, that I wanted to mention, in
a number of the verses that I've referred to, also from 1st John,
2nd John, show this connection between love and the law. Love is the fulfilling of the
law. Upon the commandment of love,
love God, love your neighbour, hang all the law and the prophets.
It sums up the teaching of the scriptures. And we read there
in 1 John 5 too, by this we know that we love the children of
God when we love God and keep His commandments. So how That's
how we know that we love the children of God, if we love God
and keep His commandments. So what that teaches us is that
one of the ways in which we love one another is by keeping God's
commandments. And I want to think with you
about that very briefly, just going through the commandments,
so that you realize that love for one another isn't some airy-fairy
up there. It's very concrete and real.
As concrete as washing one another's feet, doing the menial things
for one another, but as concrete also as keeping the commandments
of God. So that if we think of the commandments,
when you worship and serve the one true God and don't go after
other gods, you're not leading others into idolatry. You're
loving them by worshipping God and worshipping Him first. When
you worship God His way, not worshipping idols, not going
after things that He hasn't commanded, you're not leading others into
false worship, you're not imposing on their consciences what God
doesn't. When you love God and use His name in a right way, You're loving others by, in that
sense, giving, by hearing you say right things about God and
not, rather than blaspheming God. When you keep the Sabbath,
you enable others to rest. You provide opportunity for others
to worship God and seek Him. Children, when you honour your
parents, when you obey your parents, you're loving your parents. Parents,
when you raise your children in the nurture and ambition of
the Lord, all this under the fifth commandment, you're loving
your children. When we submit to lawful authorities,
we're loving them. When they rule in a godly way,
in a lawful way, they're loving their people. When you don't
kill someone, you're loving them. When you rather protect their
life and preserve it in a lawful way. When you don't commit adultery,
when you guard your heart and your eyes and your marriage,
you're loving others. Loving your wife, your husband,
but loving others by protecting their marriages and their chastity. and so on. When you're not stealing
other people's property, when you're obeying God by not stealing
other people's property, by working hard, you're loving others. When you tell the truth to others
and about others, you're loving them. When you're not coveting
what belongs to others, but rather are content and rejoicing in
what God's given you and what God's given them, you're loving
them. Can you see? These things, this is what the
Bible means when it speaks of, this is how we know we love the
children of God, when we love God, we keep His commandments. Love fulfills the law. As we learn to love from Christ
and from His Word, to love one another. And then thirdly, Christ's
reputation. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." In brief, the mark of a Christian is love, brotherly love. We could also talk about, Jesus
doesn't speak of it here, love for enemies. Certainly that is
something, that turning of the other cheek. Blessing those that
curse. That's a characteristic of a
disciple of Christ, but here particularly brotherly love. Why love? Why not faith? Why not doctrine? Why not obedience? Or love? covers all of these
things. Because how, ultimately, do we
see faith? We can hear faith, a profession
of faith, but where does it become evident? How can we be sure that
there is faith? When it works in love. When it
bears fruit. And, yes, sound doctrine, but sound
doctrine, to have sound doctrine is to love God with all your
heart and soul and mind. And love is obedience to God's
commandments. Love one another. That's how
they'll know that you're my disciples, that's what Jesus is saying. So that's the test. Now it's, it's not all about
feelings. At all. But, if, but you are
to consider your feelings. If you, if you're looking down
the pube, as it were, or thinking of other professing Christians
and its bishops and resentments, hatred effectively, in your heart, but you're covering
that over with smiles and actions, that's a problem. It's not just
about feelings, but consider your heart, consider your affections. On the other hand, it's not enough,
is it? To be all smiles, to be all warmth,
and no, no follow. The Apostle John,
again, in his epistle, and he is called the Apostle of Love,
isn't he? Different times. But he speaks
of these things, and we need to realize Love is not, and love
for one another is not a side issue. This is about life and death.
Not about how we gain eternal life, we can't. But about whether we have eternal
life. In 1 John 3, 14, to 18. We know that we have passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his
brother is a murderer, and he knoweth that no murderer hath
eternal life abided in him. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
indeed in the truth. So it's such an important The
question is, do you love the Brethren? Do you love those who love Christ? How are you showing that? Also we can ask, well, how can
we have this love? It means that God will work in
us. 1 Peter 1.22-23 Seeing that ye
have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love
one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. It means that we must be born
again by the Word of God. That's the only way that there
can be this unfamed love. What is unfamed love? It means
sincere love. Love that is not with hypocrisy.
It's not just an external thing where the heart is burning. within,
it is sincere love from the heart. And if Peter says that you have
loved one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again,
that's where it comes from. And we need to be born again. But also as those who are born
again, We need to be seeking grace and asking that God would
enable by His Holy Spirit that we would put away that bitterness
and put away that hatred and put on love and walk in love
as Christ has first loved us. And sometimes you might have
heard it said, you might have said it, you can choose your
friends but not your family. And the idea being, well, we
just need to put up with our family, learn to love them. Perhaps that would help. Also
thinking about brotherly love. So we don't choose our family in that sense. The
church is God's family. And if you are a Christian, If
you are trusted in Christ, then the church is your family. There
are those that God has placed you with in your immediate family. There are those that you might
come into contact with or have contact with from time to time
who are in the wider family. There are those you might meet
who come from far away and sometimes it can be that immediate, you
discover that there's a common faith and a love for Christ and
that immediate fellowship. It's a beautiful thing. We need to be thinking and remembering
that the church is not A social club. The church is not about
getting together and spending time with people that are like
me. And people that I like. The church is a family. And it's where God has placed you. And those who are with you
in that church, as much as they profess Christ, they are your
brothers and sisters. Jesus says, love them. Love them. As I have loved you. Amen.
Love One Another
Series Love One Another
Christ's Commandment, v.34a.
Christ's Example, v.34b.
Christ's Reputation, v.35.
| Sermon ID | 126251216321509 |
| Duration | 45:02 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | John 13:34-35 |
| Language | English |
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