"A new commandment
I give to you," says Jesus, "that you
love
one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should
love one
another. By this all people will know that you
are my disciples,
if you have love for one another."
I want to draw three things out this passage today…
FIRST OF ALL I would like us to notice that love is not an option for followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus
says, "A new commandment I give to you ..." Not a new suggestion, not a new recommendation. Not a new option. A new commandment!
Why is it a commandment? Because
there is a part of every one of us which rebels against the idea of pure, unconditional love.
Despite the example that many of us have received in the form of other people’s love for us, there is a part
of us that says such love is out of place in the world in which WE live. There is a part of us that says, "Sure, love is great
- up to a point...."
It is good that love is not seen an as option but as a command, because
were it only an option many of us might end up thinking that it is good enough to love only our friends and our family and
to simply ignore most everyone else, even hate those we take issue with. It is not.
We are called to love others in the way the Christ loves us;
To love our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ in the way that parents
love their children. We are called to love without condition, to care for, and to pray for others--
- regardless of their attitude towards us,
- regardless of what they may or may not deserve,
- regardless of whether or not they are related to us by blood, or by
ties of affection and common interest.
Love flows from an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude that we are greatly
loved by God, as shown to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Gratitude for the many blessings of life,
of salvation and fellowship and answered prayer. Love flows as a response to
what God has done, is doing, and will do for us.
Such an attitude of gratitude makes Jesus’
command to love, not an unreachable ideal, but a reply… an answer… to Divine Grace.
THE SECOND THING I want to draw from the text, follows from this attitude of gratitude.
Our ability to love is derived from our relationship with Jesus Christ.
The Apostle John tells us "We love because He first loved us." We are able to love because He first loved us. Understanding
this is critical to our ability to live out the Christian life of love.
Moses gave 10 commandments. The
Pharisees added a few thousand more. The Romans added a whole lot more again.
Jesus acknowledged all the commandments, but He suggested there was only one that made sense of all the others. He calls it a new commandment; "Love one another as I have loved you."
Love does not happen in a vacuum.
Love is something that is passed from one person to another. It's a relationship thing. It's something that has to
be a shared experience. Psychologists tell us that a child who does not receive love will never be able to truly give love.
There will always be a void there, a terrible void that can never be filled. On the other hand, a child who has received the
proper amount of nurturing as an infant and as a toddler will have a sense of security and trust that will last them all their
lives.
This is also true with regard to Jesus’ commandment to love. If we try to keep Jesus’ new commandment to love without first nurturing our
relationship with Him, we are doomed to fail. We draw our ability to love others, in the way that Christ loves us, from our
connection to God. We get it from the love that Christ is able to pour out upon
us when we are in relationship with Him. Without that connection, without that
love, our faith is simply a rather selfish exercise in living. It has no
real power.
"A new commandment I give to you," said
Jesus, "that you love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should
love one another. By this will all people know that you are my disciples, if
you love one another."
We can keep the commandment to love one another
as Christ loves us
only by nurturing our relationship with Him.
How?
How can we do that? How do we open our lives
to Christ?
We open our lives to Christ when we pray.
If we are not prayerful we are closing our ears to His call.
We open our lives to Christ when we immerse ourselves in His Word.
If we are not reading His Word, whose words are we following?
We open our lives to Christ when we gather together with others who believe
that to worship Him, and to fellowship and to work together for Him in the world, is the way of love.
If we are not committed to being a community, how can anyone say, "See
how these Christians love one another."
THE THIRD THING I want you to notice about today's Gospel text is that love is the Christian's most important witness to the world. The most important way of witnessing for Jesus Christ is not an evangelistic campaign.
It is not having an altar call. It is not how well we advertise our services.
It is not how many programs we have going on in church. It is not how many youth or how many families or how many seniors
we have. It is not how Presbyterian or otherwise we may be. People will only know we are Christ's followers if we have love
for one another.
Now we all know that things happen in church life that cause faction
and dissension. There are always people in every congregation whom we don't see
eye to eye with. That's true for every church.
If we go searching for a church where that is not so, we will not find it. And even if we did, as soon as we walked
through the door we would ruin it!
The glory of the church is found when we, this incompatible, sometimes
prickly, sometimes wrong, sometimes hurt, bunch of frail and fragile people find the love of Jesus in such a real way that
we rise above our prejudices, our likes and dislikes, and see each other through His loving eyes.
In the short time that I've been pastor here, I've found out some things
that haven't been so good which have happened in the history of this church. Disagreements between people, with pastors, between families or different groups of
people with different ideas of what the church should be. It would be easy to sweep those things under the carpet or pretend
they never happened.
How much more glorious to say, through the love of Jesus Christ, we are
rising above these things. That the past is the past. That through forgiveness and acceptance of our own responsibility to
love each other as we are loved by Christ, we are moving on. That we are not perfect, but we are growing in the things that
matter, in faith and hope and love. “And the greatest of these,” writes
Paul in his awesome Corinthian hymn, “is love.”
Think about how Christ gave Himself for us!
- how He served us,
- how He bent down and
washed the feet of His disciples,
- how He gave His time
and His energy and His attention to them, and
- how for them (and
for everyone) He endured, without protest, false accusations, slander and a death upon the cross of Calvary. Pepsi isn't the real thing. Neither is Coca Cola. God's love is the real thing.
Consider how the love of Jesus Christ is laid out before us in these
gifts of bread and wine. He gave all that we may give all to His service. He was broken so that we can be made whole. His
blood was poured out that we may know God’s heart bleeds for all those who feel alienated from His love.
A psychology professor once did survey to find out what people think
of those who wear eyeglasses. Shoppers in a mall were asked to look at pictures
of men and women with and without glasses and rate them according to certain characteristics. The result? Men wearing glasses
were considered more intelligent and more trustworthy than those without.
In the rating of women for intelligence, however, glasses made no difference. But glasses did add an air of success. Women with glasses were generally considered
more competent than those without glasses. After the survey was completed, the
professor bought himself a pair of fake eyeglass frames to wear at counseling sessions.
He wanted to look intelligent!
The point? There are a lot of fakes in this world, but there are some
things in life you cannot fake. Putting on a pair of fake glasses to make ourselves look intelligent or competent would not
fool anybody but ourselves.
Real Love cannot be faked.
It has defining characteristics, the characteristics of Jesus Christ. It produces a fruit that cannot be mistaken, a fruit
that keeps on growing and spreading and changing your life, changing your world, and changing your church; it produces…
love
and joy
and peace
and patience
and faithfulness
and gentleness
and self-control.
Such things are the mark of a real disciple. "By this they will know
you are my disciples" - says Jesus - "if you have love for one another." May we hear His one command, rise above
our personal limitations and be the sort of people whose lives are molded by love that is stronger than death.
Help us, Lord,
to be the Real Thing!
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt
