Love One Another
JOHN 15:12-15
Please turn with me in your Bibles to John 15. This morning we are going to be reading and reflecting on verses 12-15.
For the last several times we have met together we have talked about our union and communion with Christ. We’ve been fleshing out this idea of the vine and the branches. And this morning we are going to be reflecting on a thought that extends from that metaphor. It is our union and communion with one another.
We’ve said that a branch has a distinct union with the vine. And we’ve said that it is a life giving union. It is a picture of the great vitality that exists between us and Christ. But in the verses before us we are made to remember that each individual branch, because of its union to the vine, has a relationship to all the other branches as well.
One of the things that Jesus wants us to remember is that our life is not just about our relationship to him. We have a responsibility not just to maintain a healthy and vibrant relationship with Him, we have just as much a responsibility to maintain healthy relationships with other believers too. It’s not an either/or, but a both/and, you might say.
In our passage today, you’ll see that emphasized by Jesus’ emphasis on the need to love one another.
Let’s read together, John 15:12-15.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 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.
Let's pray...
Introduction
In our passage this morning, Jesus returns to a topic that he had taken up back in Chapter 13. If you were with us you may remember that when we studied that chapter we talked about to particular things. We studied how Jesus washed his disciples feet and we also looked at how Jesus issued a new commandment, i.e. a new command to love.
It would seem that Jesus was a little concerned about his little troop. They were an odd bunch. Not the kind of guys that you would probably pull together if you were planning on changing the world. They had a number of differences among them. There were political differences and differences of personality. Some were quite tumultuous when it came to their character.
Above all, they were young. I’ve mentioned repeatedly that the disciples were likely between the ages of 15-18. So you take a bunch of young, punk fishermen and give them some authority, and you can imagine how that goes.
So, to dial them in and get them on board with his mission, Jesus reiterates this message and makes it a constant refrain. He really drills it into them so that they realize how important it is that there be harmony between them.
And John sees some importance of communicating the same truths to us. We’ve said before that John is the apostle of love. One of his aims is that we be dialed in to this important truth as well. The theme of our lives is to be the theme of this passage; it is the theme of love.
And it is always good to consider this topic and have the idea of love really driven into our hearts and minds.
There are four things about our love for one another that we can learn from this text: It’s nature, standard, enormity, impulse.
I. Its nature [12a]
Love here is commanded. That means that by definition you can make yourself do it. It is not, in other words, a feeling or something that merely happens to you.
One of the things you hear today is that people “fell in love.” Or it was love at first sight. And what they mean is that they have lovey-dovey feelings for one another. But those who take this view and have these feelings usually end up falling out of love too. You will hear people say, “I just don’t love him/her anymore.” Or they’ll pick up their microphone and sing along with the Righteous Brothers, “I’ve lost that lovin’ feeling.”
But Jesus doesn’t care how you feel. Love is not defined by your feelings. It is not merely an emotion. It is a moral action. Or, as it has been said by some, “Love is a verb.” Love is something you do, not necessarily something you feel.
Now, it would be great if your feelings coincided with your love. That does make things all that much more dandy in life. But you have to understand, that love is not necessarily connected to or characterized by your emotional state.
That being said, you understand that you must love. You are commanded to love. You are to protect and cultivate love. You are to invest your love in one another and give your love to one another.
Since we have a number of couples in this congregation that will be getting married this year, let me borrow an illustration from the wedding service. When you are married, you take vows and you agree to do certain things. And there is one part of the service called the “Declaration of Consent.” And it goes like this, “Will you ____, have this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of marriage? And will you love her… comfort her, honor and cherish her, and keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?”
Now notice what was asked. When I perform a wedding, I do not ask, “Do you love her?” I ask, “Will you love her?” Because marriage is not based on your present disposition towards her. It is not based on whether or not you have a romantic connection. It is based on your promise to actively show love to that person through all your days together.
That part of the wedding service is getting at what Jesus is talking about right here. It is talking about the nature of love being something you will into existence and do.
And as it is in marriage, so it is to be in the congregation of Jesus Christ. Loving one another is your job. It is your duty. And it ought not depend upon whether your are inclined to or not.
This is where you need to really grasp the character of true, biblical love. Our culture is so full of this sentimentality driven mush. And if you have any connection to this world you will be bombarded by this. I cannot help but say that Satan wants to indoctrinate you in this sappy view of love.
It is pushed through prime time television and the shows you’ll watch on Amazon. People will fall in love and emotions will run high. It is the kind of thing that is pushed by the homosexual agenda. People will tell you that you shouldn’t interfere with homosexuals if they want to be together or get married because there shouldn’t be anything that gets in the way of their love. Their love, though, is nothing more than feelings. I will even add that it is perverted feelings.
But it is everywhere in our culture. And it into this culture that Jesus speaks of the true character of love. Love is a determined course of action. Love is submission to the command of Christ. Love is the duty you owe to the Lord Jesus Christ and a determination to do good to another person because you want to please God.
And that brings us to our second point. Now that we understand something of the nature of love, let’s talk about the standard for our love.
II. Its standard [12c]
Notice that Jesus sets the bar rather high. He says that we are to love one another “as he has loved us.” That is the pattern for which we are to aim. That is the standard by which we are to measure our love. The love we are to show is to be the same kind of love that Jesus Christ has shown to us.
Now, notice how Jesus develops this. Before considering what Jesus says here, you really have to back up to verse 9. For Jesus says there, “As the father has loved me, so I have loved you.” When you come then to verse 12, you see Jesus saying that we are to love one another as he has loved us. So his love to us is essentially equated to the Father’s love for him.
That is the rule by which we are to be guided when it comes to relationships within the body of Christ. We are to love one another in the same manner. The Father’s love for the Son was of an infinite measure and intensity. Christ’s love for us has been the highest quality and caliber. And our love to one another is to be parallel to these.
I emphasize this so that you are not settled with anything less.
Years ago, when my wife and I were first starting out, we would go shopping together. We were so poor that shopping was considered our date night. We would dance in the aisles and skip along merrily together. But we were financially challenged, as you may say. She worked at a small Christian school and I was in seminary. So our income was quite meager. And one of the things we did to try and demonstrate some frugality was to buy the generic brand. The name brand stuff was much more pricey. So we went to the bottom shelf and picked up the canned peaches with the bland label. And we grabbed the paper towels that were a full dollar cheaper.
But let me tell you, when we got home, we found out that there are some places where you cannot scrimp. We were all set one night to feast upon the canned peaches that we bought. We dug our forks in and hoisted them to our mouths. But we soon found out that not all peaches are the same. There was a distinct incongruity between the name brand paper towels and the ones we got. It simply was not the same caliber. And we found out that if we really wanted to clean up the milk that spills, we’d have to make room in the budget for the Quicker Picker Upper.
Unfortunately, when it comes to relationships in the church, we find that there is often a cheap, knock off kind of love which is often shown. But we are always called to the highest and most noble form of love; a love that mimics the very love of Christ and the love which the Father poured out upon him.
What will it be like then? There will be tenderness and patience with one another, always willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt; always willing to overlook wrongs and patch things up with the love of forgiveness. There will be self-denial and self-sacrifice, a willingness to give and a willingness to let go. There’s no partiality between persons, but you give your kind regards and favors to any and all.
And you will be firm in your love as well. I do not want you to fall prey to the idea that Christ’s love is all sappy and does not impinge upon the lives of others. There will be people out there in the world who will tell you that you’re not being very Christ-like when you do Christ like things. When you speak against certain lifestyles or wrongs, people will say, “Aren’t you a Christian? Aren’t you supposed to love.”
Keep in mind that what passes for Christ like love out there is oftentimes that which is a twisted and completely distorted view of love. Our culture, mind you, is infatuated with love. It loves to talk about love. There is no denying that love is something that our culture treasures. But its love is one that has passed through the 19th century Romanticism and the sexual revolution of the 60’s. Add to that the fact that there’s been this emphasis on loving yourself and having a high self-esteem. So it’s considered unloving to correct someone’s math homework or tell them that their self-discovery, self-expression, and self-realization are wrong.
But the love of Christ will not allow someone to indulge their desires or plunge them into ruin. It is true that Jesus was tender in most of his interactions with people. But Jesus would also get angry with the Pharisees. He would rebuke his disciples. He would call out to the masses and tell them to repent. And he did these things because he loved them.
So sometimes your love will be more vigorous than what the world may like. That’s because you are to love as Christ has loved us. The love of Jesus is your standard. It is the goal to which you want to strive. It is the pattern for your interactions within the body of Christ.
But there is one other dynamic of this love that we should mention. That is the enormity of your love.
III. Its enormity [13]
Verse 13 continues to be to me one of the most awe inspiring verses in all of Scripture. Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus calls you to love. You are to be proactive in this love. It is not dependent upon romantic feelings or how your mood is at the moment. It is commanded of you.
And your love must be of the highest possible degree, matching his love for you. You are not to settle for anything less than a love that is of the same caliber.
But here you find that Jesus gives you a distinct portrayal of the fullness of this love. How far is your love to go? To what extent ought you to love? Your love is to be so vast and so immense that you are to be willing to die. How much love should you show? Your love should be so great that you are willing to sacrifice yourself.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Jesus is drawing upon his own impending death and using that as the ultimate expression of love. And so we can see that his death serves as an example. It is indicative of the enormity of his love and he here is expressing the kind of love that we should be showing one another. And it should make us probe our hearts and measure the size and scope our love. We should ask ourselves how great is our love for the brethren? To what lengths are we really willing to go for each other?
And I say this because it is rather likely that you will not be called upon to jump in front of a bullet for me. You will likely not have to push someone out from in front of a speeding car and be dinged by it instead. But you are called to do little things each day that express that kind of love.
The enormity of your love can be expressed in something as small as a simple note that you were willing to write. Such a small act, yet it is indicative of laying down your life. There’s a dying to yourself because you took the time to do that.
Great love is not always expressed in great feats. The more I live the enormity of one’s love is almost always expressed in the most mundane of actions repeatedly done.
Now, mind you, I have watched a load of military documentaries. I could stand here and tell stories of how different men have given their lives in nothing less than monumental ways. Men valiantly held the line while against advancing enemies of overwhelming proportions which gave their buddies a chance to escape. I could tell you of heroes who charged the enemy to draw the fire away from the other guys in their platoon and they took bullets on their behalf. I could tell all kinds of stories like that to illustrate great love.
But I want you to think of this greater love in the everyday, lived body detail of normal life. And I want you to think of it more in terms of the daily self-sacrifice that you may really be called to show. Watching the toddler while their mom and dad have opportunity to converse. Moving down front so that the visiting family doesn’t have to make the march of embarrassment to the front.
These don’t seem as glorious. It will by no means get you a metal of honor. But it is great love in the eyes of God.
IV. It’s impulse
From whence comes this kind of love? You got to ask, can you whip up this kind of love? We’ve said that this love is of the highest caliber. It is a life denying, Christ mimicking love. And we’ve said that this is a love that you do, not feel. But can you just make yourself love like this? Can you go and do it? I’d say that it is pretty much impossible. At least it would be if you did not have the drive to do so.
What motivates this kind of love? Where does it come from? For this I would point you to verses 14-15, where Jesus says, “You are my friends, if you do what I command you.” And he adds, “No longer do I call you servants.”
What’s Jesus saying there? Well, he’s saying a lot of things, but one thing he is saying is that he has died for you. He’s just said that there’s no greater love that can be shown that one lay down his life for his friend. And in the very next verse he says, “You are my friends.” He’s saying that the death he is to die is for you. It is for your redemption. It is for your sake.
He is going to lay down his life as the supreme sacrifice. He is going to take the bullet on your behalf. He’s stepping in front of the oncoming train of God’s wrath and curse. He’s pushing you out of the way and taking the penalty which you deserve.
And it is when you realize that this is what Jesus has done for you. This is the love that Jesus has shown you, that (I would hope) should evoke within you an equal and opposite response of love.
I can’t help but say that Jesus does not just command this love, in his vicarious death he gives us the impulse for it as well.
For the last several times we have met together we have talked about our union and communion with Christ. We’ve been fleshing out this idea of the vine and the branches. And this morning we are going to be reflecting on a thought that extends from that metaphor. It is our union and communion with one another.
We’ve said that a branch has a distinct union with the vine. And we’ve said that it is a life giving union. It is a picture of the great vitality that exists between us and Christ. But in the verses before us we are made to remember that each individual branch, because of its union to the vine, has a relationship to all the other branches as well.
One of the things that Jesus wants us to remember is that our life is not just about our relationship to him. We have a responsibility not just to maintain a healthy and vibrant relationship with Him, we have just as much a responsibility to maintain healthy relationships with other believers too. It’s not an either/or, but a both/and, you might say.
In our passage today, you’ll see that emphasized by Jesus’ emphasis on the need to love one another.
Let’s read together, John 15:12-15.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 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.
Let's pray...
Introduction
In our passage this morning, Jesus returns to a topic that he had taken up back in Chapter 13. If you were with us you may remember that when we studied that chapter we talked about to particular things. We studied how Jesus washed his disciples feet and we also looked at how Jesus issued a new commandment, i.e. a new command to love.
It would seem that Jesus was a little concerned about his little troop. They were an odd bunch. Not the kind of guys that you would probably pull together if you were planning on changing the world. They had a number of differences among them. There were political differences and differences of personality. Some were quite tumultuous when it came to their character.
Above all, they were young. I’ve mentioned repeatedly that the disciples were likely between the ages of 15-18. So you take a bunch of young, punk fishermen and give them some authority, and you can imagine how that goes.
So, to dial them in and get them on board with his mission, Jesus reiterates this message and makes it a constant refrain. He really drills it into them so that they realize how important it is that there be harmony between them.
And John sees some importance of communicating the same truths to us. We’ve said before that John is the apostle of love. One of his aims is that we be dialed in to this important truth as well. The theme of our lives is to be the theme of this passage; it is the theme of love.
And it is always good to consider this topic and have the idea of love really driven into our hearts and minds.
There are four things about our love for one another that we can learn from this text: It’s nature, standard, enormity, impulse.
I. Its nature [12a]
Love here is commanded. That means that by definition you can make yourself do it. It is not, in other words, a feeling or something that merely happens to you.
One of the things you hear today is that people “fell in love.” Or it was love at first sight. And what they mean is that they have lovey-dovey feelings for one another. But those who take this view and have these feelings usually end up falling out of love too. You will hear people say, “I just don’t love him/her anymore.” Or they’ll pick up their microphone and sing along with the Righteous Brothers, “I’ve lost that lovin’ feeling.”
But Jesus doesn’t care how you feel. Love is not defined by your feelings. It is not merely an emotion. It is a moral action. Or, as it has been said by some, “Love is a verb.” Love is something you do, not necessarily something you feel.
Now, it would be great if your feelings coincided with your love. That does make things all that much more dandy in life. But you have to understand, that love is not necessarily connected to or characterized by your emotional state.
That being said, you understand that you must love. You are commanded to love. You are to protect and cultivate love. You are to invest your love in one another and give your love to one another.
Since we have a number of couples in this congregation that will be getting married this year, let me borrow an illustration from the wedding service. When you are married, you take vows and you agree to do certain things. And there is one part of the service called the “Declaration of Consent.” And it goes like this, “Will you ____, have this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of marriage? And will you love her… comfort her, honor and cherish her, and keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?”
Now notice what was asked. When I perform a wedding, I do not ask, “Do you love her?” I ask, “Will you love her?” Because marriage is not based on your present disposition towards her. It is not based on whether or not you have a romantic connection. It is based on your promise to actively show love to that person through all your days together.
That part of the wedding service is getting at what Jesus is talking about right here. It is talking about the nature of love being something you will into existence and do.
And as it is in marriage, so it is to be in the congregation of Jesus Christ. Loving one another is your job. It is your duty. And it ought not depend upon whether your are inclined to or not.
This is where you need to really grasp the character of true, biblical love. Our culture is so full of this sentimentality driven mush. And if you have any connection to this world you will be bombarded by this. I cannot help but say that Satan wants to indoctrinate you in this sappy view of love.
It is pushed through prime time television and the shows you’ll watch on Amazon. People will fall in love and emotions will run high. It is the kind of thing that is pushed by the homosexual agenda. People will tell you that you shouldn’t interfere with homosexuals if they want to be together or get married because there shouldn’t be anything that gets in the way of their love. Their love, though, is nothing more than feelings. I will even add that it is perverted feelings.
But it is everywhere in our culture. And it into this culture that Jesus speaks of the true character of love. Love is a determined course of action. Love is submission to the command of Christ. Love is the duty you owe to the Lord Jesus Christ and a determination to do good to another person because you want to please God.
And that brings us to our second point. Now that we understand something of the nature of love, let’s talk about the standard for our love.
II. Its standard [12c]
Notice that Jesus sets the bar rather high. He says that we are to love one another “as he has loved us.” That is the pattern for which we are to aim. That is the standard by which we are to measure our love. The love we are to show is to be the same kind of love that Jesus Christ has shown to us.
Now, notice how Jesus develops this. Before considering what Jesus says here, you really have to back up to verse 9. For Jesus says there, “As the father has loved me, so I have loved you.” When you come then to verse 12, you see Jesus saying that we are to love one another as he has loved us. So his love to us is essentially equated to the Father’s love for him.
That is the rule by which we are to be guided when it comes to relationships within the body of Christ. We are to love one another in the same manner. The Father’s love for the Son was of an infinite measure and intensity. Christ’s love for us has been the highest quality and caliber. And our love to one another is to be parallel to these.
I emphasize this so that you are not settled with anything less.
Years ago, when my wife and I were first starting out, we would go shopping together. We were so poor that shopping was considered our date night. We would dance in the aisles and skip along merrily together. But we were financially challenged, as you may say. She worked at a small Christian school and I was in seminary. So our income was quite meager. And one of the things we did to try and demonstrate some frugality was to buy the generic brand. The name brand stuff was much more pricey. So we went to the bottom shelf and picked up the canned peaches with the bland label. And we grabbed the paper towels that were a full dollar cheaper.
But let me tell you, when we got home, we found out that there are some places where you cannot scrimp. We were all set one night to feast upon the canned peaches that we bought. We dug our forks in and hoisted them to our mouths. But we soon found out that not all peaches are the same. There was a distinct incongruity between the name brand paper towels and the ones we got. It simply was not the same caliber. And we found out that if we really wanted to clean up the milk that spills, we’d have to make room in the budget for the Quicker Picker Upper.
Unfortunately, when it comes to relationships in the church, we find that there is often a cheap, knock off kind of love which is often shown. But we are always called to the highest and most noble form of love; a love that mimics the very love of Christ and the love which the Father poured out upon him.
What will it be like then? There will be tenderness and patience with one another, always willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt; always willing to overlook wrongs and patch things up with the love of forgiveness. There will be self-denial and self-sacrifice, a willingness to give and a willingness to let go. There’s no partiality between persons, but you give your kind regards and favors to any and all.
And you will be firm in your love as well. I do not want you to fall prey to the idea that Christ’s love is all sappy and does not impinge upon the lives of others. There will be people out there in the world who will tell you that you’re not being very Christ-like when you do Christ like things. When you speak against certain lifestyles or wrongs, people will say, “Aren’t you a Christian? Aren’t you supposed to love.”
Keep in mind that what passes for Christ like love out there is oftentimes that which is a twisted and completely distorted view of love. Our culture, mind you, is infatuated with love. It loves to talk about love. There is no denying that love is something that our culture treasures. But its love is one that has passed through the 19th century Romanticism and the sexual revolution of the 60’s. Add to that the fact that there’s been this emphasis on loving yourself and having a high self-esteem. So it’s considered unloving to correct someone’s math homework or tell them that their self-discovery, self-expression, and self-realization are wrong.
But the love of Christ will not allow someone to indulge their desires or plunge them into ruin. It is true that Jesus was tender in most of his interactions with people. But Jesus would also get angry with the Pharisees. He would rebuke his disciples. He would call out to the masses and tell them to repent. And he did these things because he loved them.
So sometimes your love will be more vigorous than what the world may like. That’s because you are to love as Christ has loved us. The love of Jesus is your standard. It is the goal to which you want to strive. It is the pattern for your interactions within the body of Christ.
But there is one other dynamic of this love that we should mention. That is the enormity of your love.
III. Its enormity [13]
Verse 13 continues to be to me one of the most awe inspiring verses in all of Scripture. Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus calls you to love. You are to be proactive in this love. It is not dependent upon romantic feelings or how your mood is at the moment. It is commanded of you.
And your love must be of the highest possible degree, matching his love for you. You are not to settle for anything less than a love that is of the same caliber.
But here you find that Jesus gives you a distinct portrayal of the fullness of this love. How far is your love to go? To what extent ought you to love? Your love is to be so vast and so immense that you are to be willing to die. How much love should you show? Your love should be so great that you are willing to sacrifice yourself.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Jesus is drawing upon his own impending death and using that as the ultimate expression of love. And so we can see that his death serves as an example. It is indicative of the enormity of his love and he here is expressing the kind of love that we should be showing one another. And it should make us probe our hearts and measure the size and scope our love. We should ask ourselves how great is our love for the brethren? To what lengths are we really willing to go for each other?
And I say this because it is rather likely that you will not be called upon to jump in front of a bullet for me. You will likely not have to push someone out from in front of a speeding car and be dinged by it instead. But you are called to do little things each day that express that kind of love.
The enormity of your love can be expressed in something as small as a simple note that you were willing to write. Such a small act, yet it is indicative of laying down your life. There’s a dying to yourself because you took the time to do that.
Great love is not always expressed in great feats. The more I live the enormity of one’s love is almost always expressed in the most mundane of actions repeatedly done.
Now, mind you, I have watched a load of military documentaries. I could stand here and tell stories of how different men have given their lives in nothing less than monumental ways. Men valiantly held the line while against advancing enemies of overwhelming proportions which gave their buddies a chance to escape. I could tell you of heroes who charged the enemy to draw the fire away from the other guys in their platoon and they took bullets on their behalf. I could tell all kinds of stories like that to illustrate great love.
But I want you to think of this greater love in the everyday, lived body detail of normal life. And I want you to think of it more in terms of the daily self-sacrifice that you may really be called to show. Watching the toddler while their mom and dad have opportunity to converse. Moving down front so that the visiting family doesn’t have to make the march of embarrassment to the front.
These don’t seem as glorious. It will by no means get you a metal of honor. But it is great love in the eyes of God.
IV. It’s impulse
From whence comes this kind of love? You got to ask, can you whip up this kind of love? We’ve said that this love is of the highest caliber. It is a life denying, Christ mimicking love. And we’ve said that this is a love that you do, not feel. But can you just make yourself love like this? Can you go and do it? I’d say that it is pretty much impossible. At least it would be if you did not have the drive to do so.
What motivates this kind of love? Where does it come from? For this I would point you to verses 14-15, where Jesus says, “You are my friends, if you do what I command you.” And he adds, “No longer do I call you servants.”
What’s Jesus saying there? Well, he’s saying a lot of things, but one thing he is saying is that he has died for you. He’s just said that there’s no greater love that can be shown that one lay down his life for his friend. And in the very next verse he says, “You are my friends.” He’s saying that the death he is to die is for you. It is for your redemption. It is for your sake.
He is going to lay down his life as the supreme sacrifice. He is going to take the bullet on your behalf. He’s stepping in front of the oncoming train of God’s wrath and curse. He’s pushing you out of the way and taking the penalty which you deserve.
And it is when you realize that this is what Jesus has done for you. This is the love that Jesus has shown you, that (I would hope) should evoke within you an equal and opposite response of love.
I can’t help but say that Jesus does not just command this love, in his vicarious death he gives us the impulse for it as well.