Christ Gives A New Commandment

Transcript

GR 389
2/8/1981
Christ Gives a New Commandment
John 13:34,35
Gil Rugh

John chapter 13 in your Bibles this morning. John's Gospel and the 13th chapter. We've looked through this chapter with the exception of two verses that we're going to focus our attention upon today. In our last consideration, we focused attention on primarily two individuals—the man Judas and the man Peter. Both disciples—one a true believer in Jesus Christ and one not. We've seen that Judas, in spite of his repeated exposure to Jesus Christ, in spite of repeated opportunities to believe in Christ as the Messiah and Savior, he is set in his course of rebellion. And so he has turned and left to carry out the events that will lead up to the betrayal.

Peter, really a believer in Jesus Christ, one who has the zeal and enthusiasm and somewhat of an impatience. He is one who is desirous of indicating his loyalty to Christ. And at the end of the chapter Christ has told His disciples that He is leaving and they can't come with Him now. And Peter can't understand why he can't come now. And he comes to the point where he says 'I will follow You anywhere, even to death.' We noted Peter had crossed the line here from that assurance and confidence in the Lord and what the Lord would do to confidence and assurance in Peter. Peter was sure that he was reliable, sure that he would never turn. When he leaned upon the arm of the flesh, he found it was weak and unreliable, and Christ spoke to the fact that Peter would deny Him three times.

Now we want to focus our attention this morning on verses 34 and 35 where Christ gives the disciples a New Commandment. But note verse 33 for the immediate context. Christ has just said, "Little Children, I am with you a little while longer. You shall seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come', now I say to you also." It's in the context of announcing His departure. He is leaving this earth, returning to the Father. The disciples will be remaining behind to carry on the ministry. In this context He says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." I think the context is important. As long as Christ was on the earth, He was the embodiment of the character of God, literally God in the flesh. And in and through Him God’s character was revealed and manifested. And now as He leaves the earth, it is His intention that His disciples and followers be revealing and manifesting God’s character in their lives. Now it is true, they will not be God in the flesh in the way that Christ was. He was the God-Man. But as the Spirit of God takes up residence in their lives (in Acts chapter 2) in and through them, God's character is to be demonstrated and revealed. This ties to the concept of the body of Christ as well. Christ is the head and we are parts of His body. This has to do with our functioning in the gifts. It also has to do with our functioning and displaying the character of God. That the world is to look at us now and see God at work in our lives in conforming us to be like Jesus Christ.

In verse 34 He begins, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." Now it is not a new commandment from the standpoint of never having been given before. Look back in Leviticus 19. Interesting. Here we have a balance given as He talks about love and hate. Leviticus chapter 19 and verse 17. We’re over 1400 years before Christ when this is given. So you can see this is not new as Christ gives it. "You shall not hate your fellow- countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but you shall not incur sin because of him." You'll note. They are not to hate him, but they can reprove him. Some people today can’t disassociate reproof from hate and lack of love. Back in the beginning of the Old Testament, God said we are not to hate but to love, but we are also to reprove. As you study the thought further through the Old and New Testament, you find there if there is no reproof, there is no love. Proverbs says if you don't chasten your children, you don’t really love your children.

But He goes on in verse 18, "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; 1 am the Lord." There's authority in what He has given, and you will see some of these concepts picked up in the New Testament. Not taking vengeance, not bearing a grudge, but on the other side, love your neighbor. So when Christ says to His disciples in the upper room almost 1500 years later, “A new commandment I give you, that you love
one another," it wasn't new in that sense that it had never been given before. But it is to be given added depth and dimension because as you turn back to John 13, Jesus says "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you." The measure of love is now given. It's as "I have loved you that you are to love one another." Now note here the focal point is on loving other believers. He is emphasizing that they are to love each other as His children. There is a place for our concern for the world, our love for the world in the way God loved the world in giving His Son for the sins of the world. But Christ is concerned here to focus our attention upon our responsibility to be loving one another as God's children. And that's the added dimension and depth given which enables Christ to say this is a new commandment. We'll see a little bit later that John picks this up in his first epistle, and he says it's an old commandment but it's also a new one. Old in that it was given back in Moses' day; new in that it is given added depth and dimension to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and His ultimate death. "I give you a new commandment that you love one another." It interests me that Christ talked about love here and He says, "I command you to love one another." Now in one sense, that seems to be an impossibility. We hear people make statements such as "I can't help it, I don't love them anymore." You often hear it in the context of a marriage relationship. There is no love here anymore. I am not in love with them anymore. And yet Christ says here, "I give you a command." He doesn't say "I want to make a suggestion before I leave. I've got some advice to give you." He says, "I have a commandment for you to obey and follow—that you love one another." He's talking about a kind of love here that flows from the will. A love over which I have control. I can decide to obey this command and love you. I can decide to disobey this command and not manifest love to you. Part of the confusion comes from the English language where we have the word 'love' and that encompasses all kinds of ideas. To a proper love within a marriage relationship, a family, etc. to an immoral relationship with two people meeting on an afternoon for immoral purposes. To make love, so to speak. The Greek language is much more precise. The word 'love' here is the word 'agapa-o'. A word that has to do with love that flows from the will. We're going to look at the details of this in a moment. Another kind of love that is dealt with in the New Testament is 'phile-o' and we're familiar with it usually we use the word Philadelphia as an example. Two words, love and brother, meaning brotherly love. Phileo-o love is a love that is mutual, reciprocal. We often call it family love. It is a love that involves a response or a mutual interaction. Interestingly, in the Bible it is said that God loves the world but any time it talks about God's love toward those who are not believers, it uses the word 'agape' or 'agapa-o'. It only speaks of God having a phile-o love for those who belong to Him, because there is no mutuality in the love of God toward unbelievers. When God loved us when we were in our sins and sent His Son to die for us, we were not responsive. We did not love God back. But now that we are His children and have come to believe in Christ as the One who died for us, we have a mutual love with Him. This phile-o love is not a lower love than agape love, it is a different kind of love. It is said in the New Testament that the Father and the Son, God the Father and God the Son, both have an agape love and a phile-o love for one another.

The third word that is used for love—it's not used in the New Testament— is the word 'erros.' We're familiar with it in words like erotic. It's the love of passion, sensual, sexual, a not-in-controlled kind of love. And tragic as it is, this is what is thought of most often in the world today when we talk about love. It is that out-of-control, flaming, burning kind of passion. That's what's played up in the movies and the romantic novels, etc. We couldn't help ourselves we were so much in love. Now there is a place for that kind of love, I should mention, in the marriage relationship. The word 'erros' is used in the Old Testament in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Song of Solomon would deal with an erotic kind of love, passion. Proverbs speaks of it when it tells a husband to be ravished or intoxicated with his wife always. So there is that place, but that is not what Christ is talking about. And that idea often carries negative connotations and is not used in the New Testament. We think of erotic as often having negative connotations. Agape is a love of the will, so when a person is talking about their love being out of control, they are not talking about the kind of love that God produces there basically, that is the fruit of the Spirit. Agape love does not function in an out-of-control situation. So it has nothing to do with our feelings as we're going to see. I have no feeling for that person. You know, Peter might have said to Jesus, 'You're giving me a commandment to love Matthew, but I have no feeling for him.' John may have said, 'I really don't have any feelings for Peter. He tends to grate on me a little bit. He's always talking.' "I give you a new commandment"—John, you love Peter. We tend to think today that is an impossibility. You know, you can't command me to love. I can't control my emotions. Now wait a minute, we're not talking about erotic love. We're talking about agape love—agapa-o love. Erotic love does not function in the way that I've been using it, totally out of control. When I talk about Song of Solomon, there it is controlled within the proper relationship.

Agape love. "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." That you exercise your will. When He gives a command, it is expected that I can make the decisions necessary to obey that command. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, lists the fruit of the Spirit. It begins by saying "The fruit of the Spirit is..." The first fruit mentioned is love. Agape love. So this love is that which is produced in the life of a child of God by the control of the Spirit. So my part, then, in obeying this command is to choose to submit to the Spirit and allow Him to control me so that this love may be produced in my life. Incidentally, I believe this is the beginning and is foundational love. It speaks of it as the highest love and it can also speak of it as the foundational love. Marriages get in trouble. People say they’re not in love any longer. The beginning point in putting that back together again is agape love. That is all that I can control. I cannot even control my wife's loving me, but I can exercise agape love in loving her. And through the exercising of this love, the Spirit can work to build a phileo relationship of mutuality and then, even the erotic aspect develops and flows out of that in the fullest fulfillment.

If you have a relationship that is built only on feelings, you have nothing of permanence. We see this in the world. We want to make a glamorous movie star that appears in the erotic area to stimulate the passionate kind of love, but what happens after a few years? She has to be replaced, because there is not the same erotic aspect produced. That’s what happens in relationships if it is based on just a passion and the sensual. That wears off and wears thin, and pretty soon people are looking for someone else to stir up "the old flame.”
It can be there, but it must be built on the right foundation.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I want to spend some time this morning just looking at the details of this love again to remind ourselves of what it entails. I can measure myself very specifically to determine whether I am obeying the commandment given by Jesus Christ. There are concrete, definite ingredients in agape love. Things I must do, and I must not do; and that will tell me very simply if I am manifesting this love. If not, I know where to make the changes and I need to get about it.

We think of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 as the love chapter, and it is. It is the fullest most detailed description of love we have in the Scripture. It is dealing with agape love, that love that flows from my will. Paul shows in the opening verses, the first three verses, that no matter what you do, how great your ministry and gifts are, if you do not function in the sphere and realm of love you are nothing. It doesn't amount to anything. Then he gives the qualities that characterize agape love.

Beginning with "Love is patient." A word that means patient or forbearing interestingly, in the New Testament it is always used as patience with other people. This word is not talking about patience in circumstances, but patience with people. There is another word later on that will talk about being patient under difficult circumstances. I think it's interesting that he is going to talk about love, and the first thing he mentions is that we've got to be patient with one another—forbearing with one another. It has to do with 'long tempered as the way one person describes it. To bear with. The fact of the matter is, you are not always loveable! Now I am! And the better you know me, the more you know that statement is not true! None of us are loveable all the time! And that's pointed up here. Love is patient. You note, each of these qualities have to do with my responsibility personally. I cannot change you to be more loveable. But I can be patient and forbearing with you, manifesting love to you. I can't make you love me. But I can love you. So, to manifest agape love, I am to be patient, forbearing. That indicates there are going to be times when I'm going to want to be impatient with you. You're going to want to be impatient with me. I have to stop and say 'What's wrong?' Right away I want to say, 'This is what's wrong with him, Lord, that's why I'm impatient with him.' But I need to say, 'Lord, what's wrong with me? Why do I not have patience with him? Am I
allowing the Spirit to accomplish your purposes in my life and produce your love? Then I find the problem is not with the other believer. The problem is basically
my relationship with the Lord and having His character produced. "Love is patient. Love is kind." Word that can be used to mean loving, merciful, thoughtful. One person translated it "Love is sweet to all." It’s sort of like that. It gives the idea. Kindness, merciful. No room for unkind Christians. Intolerant Christians. We are to be thoughtful believers, treating one another with kindness, with understanding. No room for that spirit of criticism, that attitude that is so critical and destructive. We are to put people in their best light, we are kind to them. Now the fact that He has to say it indicates the flesh is not going to respond that way or want to respond that way. But I in the power of the Spirit am obligated to. "Love is kind, and is not jealous." Jealousy, envy. Can mean desiring to have what someone else has. Or even, grudging them having what they have. Sometimes we get envious or jealous that someone has gotten something and we would like to have it for ourselves. Other times we begrudge them having it. Now we usually put it in a spiritual package by saying 'Well, if they really had their priorities right, they wouldn't invest their money in that house, that car, or those clothes, or that vacation.' And often what I am manifesting is the spirit of envy and jealousy. I can't have it, and I don't expect to but I sure don't like the fact they have it. It is an indication there is a lack of love. Rather than being able to praise God that He has seen fit to bless them, that they can tour the world four times and I can't get out of Lincoln! Well, I'm so glad for them! Only the Spirit of God can produce that. The flesh is envious. The flesh is jealous. I want it and if I can't have it, I'm happier if you can't either! It's the old idea that misery loves company.

"Love is not jealous." Now again, it's something I can control. I find this cropping up, so what do I have to do? I don't allow it to take root in my heart and mind, but rather submit myself to the Spirit of God so that His character is seen. "Love does not brag." There's a self-effacing quality about love. Humility. We saw this in the first part of chapter 13 of John where Christ demonstrated the humility of a servant in washing the disciples’ feet and said we are to demonstrate the true character. Being more impressed with others than ourselves. We looked then at what the Scripture said about esteeming others better than ourselves. Now I’m not bragging about myself, it ought to be more natural for me as a believer to boast about you. To brag about you and all that God has done in your life rather than trying to exalt self.

"Not arrogant," puffed up or conceited. We tend to think more of ourselves than we ought to think. We need the balance of other believers in our lives. I tend to get a distorted picture of myself. I think I'm more than I really am. Love doesn’t function in that realm. That's not love when I'm thinking of myself, and how important I am, etc. You can see how these things fit together. If I'm thinking that I'm better than I am and better than you are, then that opens the door for jealousy as well. Because if I am better, then certainly you don't deserve to have those things if I don't have them, and all these things begin to tie together. "It does not act unbecomingly." "It is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly." Dishonorably, disgracefully. Love has tact. Some people think love means being brutal, blunt. Walking up and telling a person, 'Look, I think in love that is an ugly shirt you're wearing.' That's not love. Love is tactful. Now we sometimes go the other way. We stand there and say, ‘Boy that is just a gorgeous shirt. Where did you get it?' And on the inside you're thinking, how could they wear such a thing? So there is a balance. But love has tact. And it is careful not to embarrass others, that's the idea. When you talk about indecent, love is not indecent. The idea of that which would cause embarrassment to someone else. Ever been in a situation where one believer has embarrassed another believer? The love relationship is broken down. I need to be careful. What happens is that I'm thinking of you. When I stop thinking of you, sometimes I blunder and embarrass you because I’m thinking about myself. But if I'm thinking about you that helps take care of this problem. ’’Does not seek its own." You see how many of these things fit together. It isn't jealous, doesn't brag, is not arrogant, doesn't act unbecoming, doesn't seek its own. They tend to overlap. They are not clear-cut lines. Striving for your own advantage. Love is the opposite of self-seeking. Agape love has as its central principle, seeking what is best for someone else. Now you can see that is just the opposite of the way the flesh wants to function. The flesh wants to look out for number one. The flesh wants to push me to the fore, but love doesn't seek its own. That's why it's only a person under control of the Spirit that manifests these qualities and characteristics. "Is not provoked." A word that means to not become irritated or angry. You don't become exasperated. One person said "it is not touchy, not easily offended." Ever know any touchy Christians? We say, touchy, touchy, touchy! You have to be so careful what you say, how you say it. You have to be careful if you're having some people over to your house that you invite them because if they found out, they're going to be saying 'Well, I had them over to my house and they didn't have me over when they had their friends over. They must not like me.' And touchy, touchy! No place for it! Love isn't easily offended. So you see what's happening here. I am losing my footing for having an excuse to say 'Oh, you did this!' Doesn't change the fact. I am not to be provoked, irritated, offended, or angry. 'But you don't understand what they did!' Doesn't really matter, does it? My responsibility doesn't change. You know, understanding this love takes a great burden off me. I don't have to be near as worried about what you're doing so I know how to respond. Because my response is settled. I won't have to worry about whether I should be offended at your action because there's no place for offense. So it doesn't really matter what you do. And even if you meant to offend me, you'll just have to think I'm sick. Because I didn't get it! Ever try to offend somebody and it looked like you just ran off and they missed it? Really irritates you, doesn’t it! That's the way we ought to be as believers—people may be going out of their way to offend us and irritate us and get on our nerves. Didn't even give it a thought. Don't become exasperated.

"Does not take into account a wrong." Interesting word here, take into account. It would be an accounting word where you keep a ledger of the fact. Love doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Some Christians are even like that, let alone unbelievers. They can tell you every time they've been offended or wronged in the congregation. They leave one church to go to another church, and they can give you the 35 reasons.

Now I realize we change churches for one reason or another, all of us have. None of us began here, me included. We need to be careful that we're not keeping track of others, other believers in the body. They did this to me, and that's not all. A couple weeks later they did this. And it wasn't a month later that they did that. What am I doing? I'm keeping a record. That happens in our marriages sometimes.
People come for marriage counseling, and they can sit down and they can give you a list of all the wrong things that person has done over the last six years or sixty, depending! But love doesn't take into account wrong. It ought to be more like a person coming up and saying, I need to apologize to you. I really wronged you last week. 'You did?' 'Yes.' 'I don't remember it. I didn't keep a record.' It's not filed away up here for me to mull over and lay awake at night thinking, 'Oh boy, they did this to me after all I've done for them.' Probably, 'after all I've done TO them' would be more like it. It doesn't take into account wrongs. There's no place for it. Wash that out. You have to be careful. Those little tidbits are nice to mull over in our minds. Boy, they offended me. We think of 35 ways we might get back. But love doesn't take into account evil.

You note. We're talking about the relationship with other believers. In those relationships, there are going to be times when people do me wrong. He wouldn't have to tell me not to take into account wrong suffered if I wasn’t going to suffer any. He is talking about me manifesting love toward you even when you're doing wrong to me. Only the Spirit can produce that in the life.

"Does not rejoice in unrighteousness." Moving on. Human nature, fallen human nature, takes a certain delight in the tragedies that confront other people. We see this with public officials, especially ones that we didn’t vote for. They begin to get into a certain amount of trouble, and there can be a certain pleasurable feeling that creeps over us as we think, 'Uh, huh, they got theirs. Good.’ Even among believers. We look at a believer who perhaps has prospered and acquired many things, and there has been a spirit of jealousy. And something comes along and there’s a tremendous financial reverse. If we're not careful, underneath we can be a little bit happy about it. That now they’ll know what it’s like to be poor like I am. Good. Love doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, iniquity; moral difficulties overtake a believer and we say ’Uh-huh, I knew it all the time.' Love is never glad over unrighteousness.

Rather, "It rejoices with the truth." Agape love functions as God intends it never functions apart from the truth. That's why immoral relationships are not functioning with biblical love. They're functioning contrary to the truth. But love always finds its joy with the truth in the context of the truth, and it is inoperative when the truth is being shunned or avoided.

"Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Seems like he quickly summarizes this and ties it together with these four expressions—bears all things. It means to cover over in silence. To keep confidential. Peter eluded to this when he said "Love covers a multitude of sins." That's the idea. You stand, you endure something in silence. Often when we're offended, the first thing we want to do is tell some other believers how we were wronged. Love is willing to pass over things. But if I don't tell them they won't know that I was right. Yes, I know. But I am looking out for the other believer, and my purpose is not to tear them down or run them down. So we pass over it in silence. Now that doesn’t mean you can bear it on the inside. That would be ruled out with what we’ve already considered. You’re willing to pass it over and there’s no place for harboring it.

"Believes all things." We sometimes say that love is gullible. One of the things about functioning in this type of relationship is that you open yourself up and that makes us vulnerable. "Believes all things." We are trusting. Now that doesn't mean you have to be gullible in the bad sense. A person walks up and says 'Did you know that Gil Rugh is preaching in a red suit this morning?' Well, I saw that it wasn't red. Well, you have to believe it because I said it and love believes all things. It's not talking about that kind of foolishness. But you know, the flesh is suspicious. And we know how it functions in the world and it carries over among believers, in that people say things and what do we do? We're sifting it through our minds trying to decide if they really mean it. If they're really sincere. Among believers, we ought to be willing to believe and take one another's word. To accept that. "Love believes all things." Now that will open you up to be hurt because you will find yourself offended in cases where people told you something and you accepted it at face value, you believed it and they weren't telling the truth. Or they were using you. But I can't control you. I can only control me. I'm responsible to be the person God wants me to be. Not primarily responsible for you being the kind of person God wants you to be. I can be helping in that. I can be encouraging in that. When we talk about agape love, the responsibility rests on me.

"Hopes all things." Agape love sees the bright side. There is an element of truth in what is called the power of positive thinking. And this would be it. Love sees the bright side of things. It doesn't despair. It just amazes me just how negative we as believers can be. No matter what God does, we can find something wrong. God multiplies blessing upon blessing, and what do we do? We sit down and see the problems that are connected with that blessing. We could do the same thing here. God continues to add people. People come to trust Jesus Christ. They come to study the Word, and we sit down and complain about how much it costs to make more room. Now wait a minute. If more people come, it’s just going to compound the problem. And not only that, it is so hectic to get in and out of the parking lot, it’s hardly worth it! What do I do? All I can see is what is wrong. What is wrong? What are the problems? If God had an uncle die I didn’t know I had and he left a hundred million dollars, I’d be saying ’You know much taxes there are on a hundred million dollars?' This is not functioning in agape love. Love sees the bright side. And in talking about dealing with other people, as I look at you, I look at you to see the potential. Looking at a Christian, helping a Christian, they stumble and we give up and say 'There's no hope. One stumble after another.' No, love sees the bright side.
It sees what God can do in that life.

’’Endures all things." Here’s that word that has to do with not only enduring with people, but enduring with circumstances and situations. It means to abide under. It's a compound word. It means to endure or to abide under. Note here. You are to be manifesting love under difficult, trying circumstances. Now if this wasn’t true, it wouldn't be difficult to love. So we’re talking about loving under trials. We're not talking about that resigned giving up—I can’t do anything about it so I’ll go along. But we're chafing all the while. No, we’re going along with God's attitude with the mind of Christ under difficulty. Even manifesting agape love may not change the circumstances. It may not change the other person. Praise God, I am free to be what He wants me to be regardless of what someone else does.

We want to look at some other passages quickly that John wrote just to see how he reinforced what Jesus said and develops it. Christ has said two things: I command you to love one another just as I loved you. That is the standard of love. There is no limitation. I can never come to the point where I can say ’I’ve run out of patience.’ How long did Christ love me? He's loved me with an eternal love. How long did He love you ever before you came to believe in Him? We sometimes think, 'I’ve been patient for years with this person trying to manifest the right kind of love.' But you may have been 30 years old when you came to trust Christ. You may have been 40, but He still loved you. He still loved me and He'll love me for all eternity. He loved me to the point of being willing to die for me when I had no interest in Him. While I was yet a sinner, He demonstrated His love in dying for me. I’m to love other believers with the kind of love He had for me. You say, 'That's not possible.' You're right, humanly speaking, it's not. That's why only the Spirit of God can produce this in the life of the child of God as we submit to His Spirit.

Look over in First John. Second thing Christ said in John 13 was that "By this will all men know that you are My disciples." The identifying mark of a Christian is that we love one another. That's what sets us off from the world. Now knowing that's the case, we want our testimony to make an impact upon this city, where do you think Satan will marshal his forces to attack us? Obviously in the area of our love because this is what identifies us before the world as followers of Jesus Christ. So churches become infamous as places where bickering goes on. Back-biting and fighting, divisiveness, hurt feelings, offended people, and the testimony is ruined.

John takes these things in his first epistle (we can't read all the section) but let's pick up a couple of portions. Chapter 2, verse 7. "Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you..." You see what John says. It's a new one but it's an old one. "...which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another." John simply applies that test. If you don’t love other believers, you don’t love God. You may say you love God. John says you're a liar. That’s the evidence that you’re in the darkness. Some people come to Indian Hills who don’t love other Christians. It’s a chore. It’s just to get out their religious "obligation" on Sunday morning. Come and sit and get home, but I sure wouldn’t want to have anything to do with those people through the week. Now only I know on the inside what my real attitude toward true believers really is. If I really love them. Not if I tolerate them for one hour on a Sunday morning, but do I really love them in light of what we saw in First Corinthians chapter 13? That’s really an indication of whether you're a believer or not. John applies that test. Look over in chapter 3 of First John, verse 14. "We know that we have passed out of death into light because we love the brethren." This love for other Christians is indicative of the fact that we’ve passed from death unto life. That's how I know that I'm a child of God. I've trusted Christ as Savior. That's manifested by the fact that I love other Christians. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." Verse 16, "We know love by this; that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." And there's what Jesus has said and is now applied. A new commandment that you love one another even as I have loved you. John says "He laid down His life for us, we ought to be willing to die for other Christians." Now, that means everything up to and including dying. In other words, there is no limit on the sacrifice that I am willing to make for you. Now it's easy to say but hard to put into practice. Peter was willing to say "Yes, Lord, I'll die for you" but it was hard to maintain a testimony for Him before a servant girl by a fire in the dark. "Oh, Lord, I'll die for you." Yeh, and I'd die for other believers but I sure hate being inconvenienced by them on Sunday afternoon or Wednesday morning or whatever.

Verse 17, a practical application. "Whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." Easy for us to talk about the love that we have for other believers. Easy to preach about it. Easy to sing about it. Hard to put into practice. To love one another. And that love includes all those principles and practices we talked about in First Corinthians 13. It's much easier to talk about love than to manifest love. And there are particular situations where it is particularly difficult, and that's where God wants to build me to further maturity. And manifesting love to that person who is most unlovable to me, in that situation that is most difficult for me to accept. That's where maturing really takes place.

You can read down through the rest of that section. Over in chapter 4, same thing beginning with verse 7. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." And then the evidence of love, that His Son died for us. Liberals have picked up on this idea and said love is the key thing, but it's not love functioning in the context of truth. It's not love produced by the Spirit of God in our lives. So it isn't the love that God is talking about. The now the love that John is talking about is the love we have for one another which is a result of the working of the Spirit of God in our lives as His children.

Many other verses in the New Testament. I encourage you to take your concordance, like Young's Concordance. Look up the word love; it will break it down for you. Agape love, Phileo love. Make a list and just read through the New Testament on what God says about love. It pervades the epistles that Paul writes and that Peter writes. That John writes, about our relationship with one another. It's central to all that we do. We need to be concerned this morning—Are we a local body of believers obeying the command that God gave? He is the head, we are the body. He is the Lord, we are the servants. He says "I command you to love one another." Measure yourself in light of 1 Cor. 13. Are there any believers in this body that you are not functioning according to the principles of 1 Corinthians 13 with? Any believers with whom you have a grudge? That you've allowed to offend you? That you've become irritated with? That you've become impatient with? Then it becomes a matter of settling that between you and the Lord. Doesn't matter what they've done. That's the beautiful thing about this love. I don't have to sit down and say "Lord, this is what they did to me. This is what they did and how they treated me." All I have to do is say, "Lord, produce your character in my life. I can be what you want me to be regardless." Even the most difficult Christian can be an occasion for God to work in my life to produce more of the beauty of His character in loving them.

One other point. Perhaps you're here this morning, and the love we've been talking about doesn't characterize you because you don't belong to Him. You can't build this up. You can't produce this in your own power. It's something which is produced by the Spirit of God who resides within the one who has trusted Jesus Christ. Have you ever come to place your faith in Jesus Christ as the One who died for you? If not, you can right now. You're a sinner for whom Christ died. If you will believe that fact, He'll cleanse you from your sin, take up residence within your life and then He begins that process of producing the beauty of Himself, His character, in and through you. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the greatness of our Savior, the greatness of your love, the greatness of His love. Father, love has been lived for us that we can look at Him and understand something of what love entails. Lord, that there was no limit to His love. The height, the depth—there is no limit to your love for us. Lord, how small we often are as your children. Lord, as we fail to love one another with your love, we pray that each of us in this body might be open to have the Spirit of God examine us in light of what we've considered this morning to see if truly the beauty of your character is evident in our relationships with one another. May we love one another with your love. Lord, make us willing to make the adjustments that need to be made that we might be characterized by that unity in love and truth that will make our testimony for Jesus Christ have its intended impact upon this city that many might be drawn to Jesus Christ.

I pray for those who are here who cannot have this love because they do not have this relationship with you, that the Spirit of God would use your Word to cause them to see their need for faith in the Son of God who loved them and died for them, for we pray in His name