The most desired ambition of the popular culture is that of love. Love is the theme of more songs, more books, more poetry, more art and more movies than any other theme. And I believe this is so because it is the most essential need of the human condition. It is as fundamental to life as food and water, if not more so. God declared at creation that it was not good for man to be alone. It is an essential component of the human psyche. Everyone wants to know love.
However, human nature is not satisfied with unrequited love. Neither does this innate need for love find fulfillment in undesired love. In other words, one doesn’t find satisfaction in being loved by someone whom you don’t love in return. What satisfies this great human need is reciprocal love. Love of relationship, where each one loves the other, and they receive love in return.
This is the human condition because God created us for love. He created us for Himself. He loves us, and desires that we should love Him in return. The relationship that God wants to have with us is illustrated in the scriptures by the love of a husband and wife. In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul talks of marriage between a husband and wife, but says he is speaking of the relationship of Christ and the church. The church was designed to be the bride of Christ.
In the mystery of God, it pleased God to procure a people for Himself from all the nations of the earth to be the bride of Christ. In that purpose He appeared unto Abraham, and called him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and told him to go to the land that He would show him. After many generations, God raised up from Abraham’s offspring a nation, a chosen people, for whom He would be their God, and they would be His people. God established a theocratic government over His people, based on His law, given through the prophets.
But this was only Act One of God’s great plan. In Act One, the nation of Israel was not much different than the kingdom’s of antiquity that ruled through a feudal system of serfdom. Serfdom was a system of servitude in which the people were given a plot of land to tend and produce crops and herds, of which a percentage went to the King, and in return the King provided services and protections for the people. Jesus often uses the analogy of stewardship which is a form of serfdom as an illustration of that relationship with God.
However, the birth of Christ ushered in Act Two. And in this Act man’s relationship with God was changed from that of servanthood, or serfdom, to that of an intimate relationship. Believers in Christ were no longer servants, but bond slaves, having been set free by redemption, but cleaving to their master out of love. And as a result of that commitment, God actually makes us part of His family, adopting us as sons and daughters of God. And because we are His family, we are elevated to a position of heirs, heirs of God and co heirs of Christ. So that Peter might proclaim to the New Testament church, which was made up from people of all nations on the earth, in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Paul presents the same principle in Titus 2:14, saying, “Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”
Now this relationship is the subject of Christ’s teaching in this passage which is a continuation of the Upper Room Discourse, as they are walking to the Mount of Olives. He illustrated this relationship in vs.1 by the analogy of He being the vine, and we being the branches. His lesson that He taught in that picture was that we should abide in Him, and He in us. That relationship is the key to the full Christian life. The principle of “abide in Me and I in you” is the fundamental relationship out of which everything else flows, even as the life of the branch and it’s fruitfulness flows from it’s abiding in the vine.
In this chapter John describes three things that will happen when this principle of Christ abiding in us and we in Him begins to work in our lives. The first result is described in the opening verses which we looked at last week, which is the fruitfulness that abiding produces. We begin to grow more Christlike. We display the “fruits of the Spirit” which are the characteristics of Christ.
We look now at a brief paragraph in which our Lord describes the change that will happen in our relationships with each other within the community of faith as a result of abiding in Him. Then, in the last section of Chapter 15, Jesus states the relationship that we will have with a hostile world.
There are three points which Jesus makes in speaking of our relationship with others. The first is the mandate to love, then the motive of love, and finally the manifestation of love. Let’s consider first the mandate to love. Jesus says in vs 12, ““This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
It’s noteworthy that we are commanded to love. I believe that is because though the need for love is intrinsic, it’s not something that we do as we should. I’m sure we all think we are loving people, but I would suggest that the majority of the time we base our love for others on how much we like them. Our idea of love is based on a feeling of attraction towards someone, and that perspective limits love to only those we like. And we like certain people more than others, perhaps because we are like them, or we are attracted to them, or we think we can benefit from our relationship with them in some way.
But the command of Christ is quite different than the typical concept of love. The Lord puts it as a command because real love, according to God’s standard of love, is a decision to act for the benefit of someone else no matter how you feel about him or her. Love is based on a commitment, not a feeling or an attraction. Love is a decision, thus it can be commanded.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extrapolated that principle of deciding to love out to it’s furthest possibility. He declared that we should even love our enemies. Matthew 5:43, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” If we are to be like God, then we must love like God loves.
That’s the example that Jesus gave to us, that even while we were enemies of God, He died for us on the cross. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” So then in like manner should we love those that are unlovable, that are unattractive, that are not like us, even those that are opposed to us.
Notice that Jesus has given only one commandment, that you love one another. In Matthew 22:36 Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” All 612 commandments found their root in those two commandments. And now in this statement, Jesus is saying those two have now become one for those that have believed in Christ.
John explains how that consolidation is possible in 1John 4:20, in which he said, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” So we understand that our love for God is evidenced by our love for one another.
So that is the mandate, the commandment, that we love one another. Next let’s look at the motive for love. Jesus doesn’t just give us a command which we must do grudgingly, but He gives us a motive, that we might be compelled to love, and do it cheerfully. That we might be enabled to obey this command. And that motive is found in the words, “as I have loved you.”
That raises the question, how did Jesus love His disciples? The answer is found in vs.9. “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you.” So we love one another as Christ loved us, and as the Father loved Christ. In other words, love flows out of a heart that is conscious of being loved. As John said in 1John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”
Think about vs.9 for a moment. As the Father loved Jesus, so Jesus loves us. That’s amazing. Jesus was sinless. Jesus was perfect. Jesus was one with the Father and had been with the Father from eternity past. And yet that kind of love is the same kind of love that Christ had for us. That love Christ had for us compelled Him to suffer to a degree far beyond what we can imagine, as the holy, righteous God humbled himself to become our servant, to shed his blood on a cross, that we might be reconciled to God, that our dirty sins transferred to Jesus, so that His righteousness might be transferred to us. That is how God can love us as He loves Jesus, because we are righteous and holy in His sight, even as Jesus is.
That love is our motivation. It constrains us, controls us, compels us to do what is pleasing to Him. 2 Cor. 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ constrains us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” When we really come to understand the love of God for us, then we should have no problem loving one another as He has loved us.
It’s like a young man that falls in love with a girl. He is madly in love her, and he knows that she loves him with all her heart as well. In that kind of relationship, there is nothing that he wouldn’t do for her. I knew a young man once who ran 30 miles one way to see his girlfriend. He didn’t think it was a big deal. Great distances sometimes separate young people who are in love. Yet it doesn’t affect their love for one another. As the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Love flows naturally out of a heart that knows love.
Not only does Jesus give us a mandate to love and a motive to love, but He also tells us how love will manifest itself. How does love, God’s kind of love, manifest itself when it is worked out in life? The kind of love Jesus is talking about is manifested in deeds.
He states three ways in which true love will be manifested: First, love is sacrificial. Vs.13, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Even though Jesus will die for His friends, He is not necessarily talking about dying for someone, like the kind of ultimate sacrifice one might make on a battlefield. You can only do that once and then you can’t do it again. Rather, He is describing a lifestyle, a process. There are varying degrees of “laying down your life.” It simply means to give of yourself, to take part of your life and to give it on behalf of someone else. It is not putting yourself first, or your needs first, but being willing to lay down your prerogatives, your rights, even your self preservation for the sake of someone else. That is the first way love appears. Love will be manifested by sacrificial, self-denying service.
The second manifestation of love is found in what Jesus says in vs14, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
This is the new relationship that I was speaking of in my introduction. Jesus is lifting these disciples up from the level of servants, who must obey because it is to their best interests to do so, to another, more intimate, level. The level of friends who want to obey because they have been brought into an intimate relationship with God.
James said in James 2:23, that “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God.” Abraham believed God. And God called him his friend. That’s an amazing testimony. To be called the friend of God. The intimate of God. Moses was another man that had a relationship with God as His friend. The Bible says that he talked with God, as a man would talk with his friend. We have that same tremendous opportunity; to be the friends of God.
Once again, I can’t help but think of a young couple in love. They have no problem spending hours talking to one another. It’s amazing to see a young couple in love and how much they speak to one another, and then on the other hand see a couple who have been married for 20 years, and how little they speak to one another. That reminds me of another adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” That’s not in the Bible however. And that isn’t something we should aspire to. That’s a love that has grown cold.
But we should be so in love with Christ that we talk to Him without having to be coerced. We should desire to spend time alone with God. Jesus said He has made known to us all that He heard from His Father. And Jesus had perfect communion with His Father. So from Christ’s perspective, He has communicated perfectly to us. We need to reciprocate. We need simply to start spending time alone with God, and when we do that, our lives will manifest a love for one another. We will love what God loves, and hate what God hates. Because we are intimate friends of God. And because we are intimate friends of God we will do what He commands us to do. If I ask a stranger to take me somewhere, or go out of his way for me, or give me something that I need, I can’t expect much of a response. But when I ask a friend, I can expect that my friend will do what I ask, because of our relationship. So God expects us to do what He commands, because of our intimate relationship with Him.
Then the third manifestation of love follows in vs.16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” First note that the love of God towards us is deliberate. He chose to love us, even though we were sinners. He deliberately sought us when we were in rebellion to Him. God’s love, and by extension our love, is not based on attraction, but on a decision.
Secondly, Jesus is saying to these men, “Wherever you are, remember that I put you there.” That is what He meant by appointed you. It means strategically placed you. And He is saying this to us, too. “I strategically placed you right in the midst of those difficult people you have to work with, so that amidst the difficulty, the pressure and the pain you might become an example of Christ; gracious, loving, patient, merciful. So that you might bear fruit, that is that you might bear the image of Christ.
Furthermore, when you are bearing fruit, bearing the image of Christ, then whatever you ask in my name the Father will give it to you. Personally, I think that this promise is related to the promise of loving your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. When you pray in Jesus’ name then you are praying according to His will, according to His purpose, His ministry. Jesus prayed for those that nailed Him to the cross. When we pray for people according to the will of God, God will provide it.
There’s an old story in mythology about a knight who encountered a hideous dragon in the forest. And disregarding the ugliness of the monster, a bold young knight walked up to it and kissed it three times whereupon it became a beautiful maiden. And, of course, they lived happily ever after. MacLaren who told the story comments, “Christ kisses his enemies making them his friends. And if he had never died for his enemies, he would never have possessed his friends.” Or as John puts it, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”
In vs.17, Jesus restates the commandment again. ““This I command you, that you love one another.” The fact that He said it twice emphasizes the absolute necessity that we take it to heart. The longer I am in the ministry, the more I am convinced that this is the way to victory in the Christian life. This is the way to effective evangelism. This is the way to overcome addictions of every sort. We must show the world the love of God by loving one another. We must love sacrificially, deliberately, without concern for what we can get out of it, without consideration of how much we like someone. We must love even those who hate us, or hateful to us, forgiving them as God has forgiven us. Giving love sacrificially even though it means that we give up things that are important to us in order to love them.
And we do this by starting with knowing the love of God for us. The more we know the love of God for us, the more we will want to love one another. The more we know the love of God, the more we will want to obey God. And to love one another is the way to obey Him. And to obey Him is to love Him.
God said in Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” When a couple become one flesh, then they have one mind, one heart, one purpose. They are united. They abide in one another. Love then comes naturally. As the body of Christ we are all united in Christ as the church. Love should come naturally. And as we love our neighbor, Jesus said we should love them as we love ourselves. So that our love for our neighbor comes naturally because we naturally love ourselves. We are commanded to love one another. But to do so, we must come to know the love of God for us. And God has chosen to exhibit that through His people loving people. That knowledge of God’s love is almost too much to comprehend. But when we consider how much He loves us we find joy and fulfillment and it over flows in love to those around us.
So as we leave here today, I would remind each of you to love one another even as Christ loved the church. And I would like to read from Romans 8:28, which is a great summary of the love of God towards us, that you might be motivated to go forward from here and love one another.
Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”