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Jesus said to His disciples, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Jesus said to his disciples, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another. Well, how was that a new commandment? Jesus explains, just as I have loved you when we understand the text.
This is when we understand the text, a daily study in the word of God that we may be conformed to the image of Christ. Visit our website at www .utt .com. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the gospel of John. And I never did quite finish chapter 13 last week. So let's come back to that. Chapter 13, starting in verse 31. When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you, you will seek me. And just as I said to the Jews, so now I say also to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
A new commandment I give you that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterward. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. So what we had looked at last week was mostly from verses 31 through 35.
Judas going out and then the new commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples. And so I come back to that again, verse 34. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
And I mentioned that this is something that I get asked about fairly often. If the command to love one another was even in the Old Testament, and indeed it was, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, that comes up several times.
So if that commandment was even in the Old Testament, why is it a new commandment to love one another? Because up until Christ came, we had not been given an example of love like this before. The sacrificial love that Jesus showed to his own disciples is the kind of love that they were to show one another.
1 John 3 .16, by the way, this is 1 John 3 .16, not John 3 .16, but 1 John 3 .16. By this, we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And specifically when we're talking about brothers there, we're talking about one another within the body of Christ.
We who share the same spirit, who have the same Lord, the same baptism, the same God and father of us all, who is over all and through all and in all, these are our brothers and sisters in the Lord. And we show a genuine charity toward one another first before we show to anybody else.
I mean, there are gonna be ways and opportunities that we show love for people who are outside the body of Christ, but we show the most love and affection to people within the body first, right? I mean, you take an example from your own family.
In your job, when you make money, who do you support first? Who does that paycheck go to support first? Your own family, right? Before you take that money and you give it to anything else, you give it to your church or even to a charity or anything like that, the money is first used to support your own family.
And that is such an obvious concept that the apostle Paul even says in 1 Timothy 5, 8, if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Why is he worse than an unbeliever? Because even unbelievers understand that you care for your own first. You care for your own family before that money goes to support or care for anyone else. So just as the way that works in your own household, so it is in the household of faith as well.
In fact, Paul told the Galatians, let us take every opportunity to show kindness to everyone, especially to those of the household of faith. So that's first where we show our love and affection for our own brothers and sisters in the Lord.
For as Jesus said in Matthew 25, that which you do to the least of these brothers of mine, you do also unto me. We are to have a love and an affection for each other within the body of Christ. That's where our affection should be first before it's to anybody else.
And like I said, there will be opportunities for you to show love to people who are even unbelievers. And in so doing, we need to take the gospel with us. It's not enough to simply do a kind act for somebody else, especially for someone who is an unbeliever, but they must hear the gospel.
There's nothing more important, more loving that you can show to an unbeliever than to give them the gospel, which gives life. So you have an opportunity to show love and kindness to them. And hopefully that opens their heart, opens their mind up to want to receive what it is that you have to say.
This is a gesture of kindness, of love that you have shown to them to open a door to be able to share the gospel. Ultimately, that's what you want to be able to get to there. You want them to come to understand the life-saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sins and rose again from the grave that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
The fact that you did something nice for them is not the gospel. That doesn't really preach anything to them at all. Even a person who is an unbeliever can do something nice for somebody else, but your act of kindness or generosity gives you that opportunity to be able to share the life-saving good news of Jesus Christ with that person.
But first and foremost, we are caring for members of our own household, of our own family of faith. And this is a sign even to unbelievers of the love that Jesus has for his own when his own are showing that love to each other.
Coming back again to 1 John 3 and going on to verse 17. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
The deeds that we do are going to display that our heart really has been filled with the love of God in Christ Jesus. Romans 5, 5, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
So the love that we love with is not a love that's even our own. It is a love that has been given to us by God. And a few verses later after that in Romans 5, verse 8, God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So once again, he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Going on to 1 John 3, 19, by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.
For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.
The love of God that has been poured into our hearts that we show to one another. It's a love that's not even our own. It has been given to us by God. 1 John 4, 19, we love because he first loved us. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.
For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. Such a beautiful sacrificial love that Jesus has shown for his own disciples.
Greater love has no man than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. That's John 15, 13. And that's coming up a little bit later on in this upper room discourse that Jesus is having with his disciples.
A new commandment he has given to them that they love one another. Just as I have loved you, he says, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
When we show the kind of sacrificial love that Jesus showed to us, when we show that to one another, this is gonna be one of the signs to people who are outside the body of Christ. That there is a love that exists here among the people of God that is unique.
It is sacrificial. It is not self-serving or self-seeking, rather it is looking out for the needs of others. It is showing a kindness and expecting nothing in return. This is the kind of love that we are to have for each other within the body of Christ.
And this kind of love that Jesus has shown to us transforms everything. It changes everything about who we are and the way that we live in all areas of our lives. Not just in our faith, not just in church, but even in our marriages.
When we understand the kind of sacrificial love that Jesus has shown to us, it changes the way we love our spouse. We understand Ephesians 5 .22, wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. Now you have the feminist movement in the world today that hates a passage like this.
Wives submit to your husband? No, no, that was some sort of Greco-Roman thing back in the first century. Paul was being influenced by the masculinity that existed around him. That's not what wives need to do.
I mean, wives can lead in their homes just as much as husbands can, et cetera, et cetera. You know, that's the way the feminist movement is gonna be. But that's because they do not know the love of Christ.
That's why they speak that way. Why it's why they say that wives don't need to submit to their husbands because they don't understand Jesus who submitted to the will of the father and gave his disciples an example of submission unto God.
We as his church, we are the bride of Christ and we are to submit unto Christ as we saw Christ submit unto his father. So as the bride, we submit to the Lord and wives are to be a picture of that kind of submission that should exist among the whole church submitting to Christ.
So wives are to submit to their husbands because the love of Christ compels them to. Submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself its savior.
Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Verse 25, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church? He gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.
So Jesus did this for the church laying down his life for the church. The husband must do that for his wife and recognize that Christ sanctifies the church by cleansing her by the washing of water with the word.
Husbands, that means it's your responsibility to lead your wives with the word of God, teaching her and raising her up according to what is said in the word that she might come to understand the word of God.
That responsibility falls upon the husband before it falls upon anyone else in the household. And then the husband likewise is to also raise up his children in the training and the admonition of the Lord just as we know that Christ has done this for us.
So we must do this for our own children. Jesus referring to his own disciples as little children. And so as Jesus had taught his disciples, so husbands, you must teach your children. And then there is also a way that children come to understand obedience because of the way that Jesus was obedient to the father.
We read in Ephesians 6, one, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.
Fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. And this is all according to the love that Christ has shown for us. It transforms everything.
It even changes the way you do your job. When you go to work and you are thankful for the work that you do, you are grateful and you give glory to God in your job because Christ gave glory to God in all that he did which even cost him his own life, which he did to the glory of God the father.
So if Jesus laid down his own life for the glory of God, how much more should you also do your job to God's glory? This is what we have in Colossians 3, bond servants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. So we are to be grateful for the job that we have been given, the money that has been given to us for this job that we have has not actually been given to us by our employer.
It has been given to us by God. He has blessed us with this, that we might be able to make a living and support our families. And so we work first for the Lord before we work for any man. And knowing the love of God that has been poured into our hearts, we can be grateful for that.
We can give glory to God because Jesus even gave glory to the father in going to his own death. Going back again to verse 31, now is the son of man glorified. This is John 13, 31, by the way, now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me and just as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples when you have love for one another.
This love by the way that we have for each other is counter cultural. It is not the way that the culture says that love should be. It is the way that God says love should be. The way that we love in our marriages is gonna be counter cultural.
A man and a woman loving one another till death parts them, that there would be nothing that come between them. What God has joined together, let man not separate. This is the kind of love that we are to display for each other.
It's not the way that the culture says love should be. Love between a husband and a wife in a Christian marriage that is built upon the solid rock of Christ is gonna look different than the way the rest of society says a marriage should look like.
Because we love one another the way that Christ loves us with a sacrificial love. The way we love one another in the church is not gonna be love the way that culture says that love is. The way that we love people outside the church is not gonna be the way that our society says that love is to be.
We are gonna love in such a way that is following the example of what Christ set for us. Even when they were unbelievers crucifying him on a cross and hurling insults at him, Jesus said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
And we must even have that kind of love for each other. The Lord Christ said that love is the fulfilling of the law. And the apostle Paul repeats this in Romans chapter 13. You know the commandments. You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet. In any other commandment, they are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
When we love one another, we are fulfilling the command of Christ that he has given to his disciples. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. And in so doing, we are keeping the law to the glory of God.
Verses 36 through 38. Let's finish up this section. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterward.
And this is foreshadowing the fact that the disciples themselves are gonna lay down their lives for the gospel of Christ as they've seen Christ do for them. So they also are gonna do for the benefit of his church that the world would come to know the gospel through the sacrifice, even that the disciples had made after the example of their Lord.
Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. And Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
And this, once again, is Peter trying to give his little Sunday school answer, trying to say, no, no, I would never do anything like that. I would lay down my life for you, just like he was doing earlier, just like he was saying, Lord, I'm not gonna let you wash my feet.
Jesus said, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. And Peter says, well, then not just my feet, but also my hands and my head, do the whole thing. And now he gets to this part where Jesus is saying that you cannot come with me right now.
And here, Peter is trying to push the issue. No, I would even lay down my life for you. No, on the contrary, Jesus is about to lay down his life for him. And this would be the hardest lesson that Peter would ever learn in his life.
But it's this kind of sacrifice that we have come to see from our Savior, that we might have a sacrificial love for each other. And in so doing, we are fulfilling the command, love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Our Father God, we pray that you would work out this love in our hearts, a love first and foremost for our God in heaven, because he has given his son, you have given your son Christ to die on the cross for our sins, rising again from the grave that we might be justified before you.
Such a wonderful gift of mercy and grace that has never been seen in all of creation anywhere else. And you have done this. For our sake, he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
And so I pray that you would work in our heart, a desire to love you and to love one another, that we would understand these two commandments are the fulfilling of the law. We show that we love God when we have love for each other.
So I pray that you give us a heart of repentance, a heart that desires you and in desiring you, our God, we also show love to each other, for you have loved us through Jesus Christ, our savior. In his name we pray, amen.
This has been, When We Understand the Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.
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