Let's love one another as Our Lord has loved us!

“ Chu Yah Sih Kih Took Chook fook thai Kah!” These words in the Chinese Hakka dialect were the few last words of my father before he went to be with the Lord. Translation: “May The Lord Jesus Christ bless us all!”  How I treasure this blessed farewell greeting of my father unto me. It is forever engraved in my heart: Chu Yah Sih Kih Took Chook fook thai kah! Yes, May Our Lord Jesus Christ bless us all, as we love one another according to His Commandment He gave in His farewell discourse to His apostles shortly before He went back to His Father in Heaven.

It’s in the Upper Room of the temple in Jerusalem. The apostles are reclining at a Passover meal with the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. This would turn out to be their last supper altogether. The night before, unknown to the other apostles, Judas plotted the betrayal of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave. Earlier that day, Jesus sent Peter and John into the city to prepare the upper room, already furnished and ready, for that night’s meal. Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet. Judas has just left to betray the Son of God into the hands of sinful men, already having been paid by them. After Judas leaves, the Lord passes some bread, and then a cup. He has just instituted the Lord’s Supper. In this solemn moment, the Lord instructs the remaining eleven apostles. The Lord knows He is about to depart this world. He said in John 13:34-35:

 “I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”.

He repeated in John 15:12

“This is My command: love one another as I have loved you.”

And again in V17, “This is what I command you: love one another.”

What is the commandment exactly?

Note that Jesus’ New Commandment is not just ‘love one another’ but love one another as I have loved you. The Lord wants His disciples to love one another as He has loved them. So, the question is:

How did Our Lord Jesus love His disciples?

His love is really too high, too deep, too long, and too wide to understand and describe fully, but let’s see briefly a few ways Our Lord loved His disciples:

1. He fed them

Matthew 15:32  Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way,"

He multiplied bread and fish to feed thousands upon thousands.

2. He encouraged, comforted, consoled, sympathized and empathized with His disciples.

In John 11:35, Jesus wept with Lazarus’ family at his death.

He comforted His disciples with these words in John 14:1-3

1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

3. He forgave time and time again. e.g, Peter,…

4. He served humbly.

Go to the scene of the last supper on the eve of His crucifixion.

John 13:1

1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

John 13:4-5,12-15

4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” He asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. (By virtue of my status and rank and privilege as your Lord and Teacher, I am not obliged to wash your feet. But I “count you as more significant than myself” and serve you.) 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Firstly, Jesus laid aside His status and became a servant.

Secondly, His love involves practical deeds of helpfulness. In those days, almost everyone walked. The roads and paths were dirty. There were probably no socks and no sidewalks. Everyone’s feet were more or less caked with dirt. The dirty work had to be done. Jesus did it for those who should have been doing it for him. He laid down a sense of entitlement and served.

All these ways that Jesus loved His disciples demonstrate that He, the Son of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End truly sacrificed Himself for His disciples. He laid down His life for them.

John 10:11

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

John 15:13

No one has greater love than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Romans 5:6-8

V6 For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly.

V7 For rarely will someone die for a just person-though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.

V8 “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

Our Lord was love personified. He was the very embodiment of love Himself. 

I Corinthians 13:4-8

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails (ends).

Christ Jesus totally embodied this divine agape love towards His disciples. You can replace the word ‘love’ by His Name Jesus or by God. God Is Love/agape (I John 4:8). Jesus/God is patient, God/Jesus is kind…

How are we to love one another now?

I John 3:16

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters,

 (1) We ought to have such love for one another as to be willing to risk our lives to help each other - as in case of a pestilence or plague, or when we are in danger by fire, or flood, or foes.

(2) We ought to have such love for our brothers and sisters in Christ that we should be willing to die for them, as a patriot is willing to die for his country.

How can we lay down our lives for one another as Our Lord laid down His for us? Is it easy? Is it difficult? I think that it is neither easy nor difficult. It is just IMPOSSIBLE. Impossible without the Love of the Lord Himself dwelling in us. That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3: “You must be born again ” To be born again means that a person admits to God that he or she is a sinner, truly repents of sin, believes in or trusts Christ Jesus, and confesses faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. Natural, unregenerate humans do not have the ability to love as Jesus loved. To obey this new commandment, we must have God's life in us to manifest God's love through us. Without this new birth in Christ, we cannot love one another as we truly should. Only we in Him and His Love in us are we able to love one another as He loved us.

In John 15:5, Jesus says: “I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.” “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12–13). How do we love like that? Sacrificially even unto death? Only by being born again and remaining/abiding in Christ Our Lord!

John 15:9, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”

Now, how do you know if someone is born again? What is the sign of Divine Life in a person?

Apostle John said in 1 John 3:23, “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.”

In Apostle John’s mind, Jesus’ command to believe in Him, and His command to love each other are inseparable. So together he calls them one commandment: “This is His commandment (singular), that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has commanded us.”

A believer in Christ who does not love is a contradiction. Believer in Christ AND love must go together! One cannot truly exist without the other. No love-Not real genuine Christian. And no one can love truly sacrificially unto death like Christ did for His enemies without being a born-again Christian. A true genuine Christian loves. This is his or her new nature in God.

John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”

Divine Love is the sign of Divine Life. Divine love is the sign of having been born again. If you declare yourself openly to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus — your Savior and your Lord, then your love for others will be decisive in showing that you are real. So when Jesus says in John 13:35, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another," He meant that love confirms that your profession of faith in Him is real.

Again, this divine agape love manifestation is only possible if we are grafted into the life and love of Christ. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. When we abide in Him and He abides in us, we’ll then be able to love as He loved, because we’ll love through Him in His perfect love.

Our Lord does not tell His disciples that the world will know we are His disciples because of our political activism, or our thriving programs, or our rich talents, or even our right doctrines and theology. Now, I am not minimizing the importance of right doctrines and theology. But, Jesus Christ Himself, the Living Word of God declares that the world will know that we are His by our love, by the agape love that we manifest to one another.

So, brothers and sisters, this is what Jesus Christ, Our God is commanding you and me to do: “Love one another just as He has loved us” 

Conclusion      

Our Vision & Prayer:

O Lord God, may we believe in Jesus Christ and love one another as He, God Himself has loved us! May we, from this day forward: 

Accept one another (Rom 14:1-5; 15:7)

Bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).

Confess our sins to one another (James 5:16).

Devote ourselves to one another (Romans 12:10).

Esteem one another in love (Rom. 14:5; Phil. 2:3).

Forgive one another (Col. 3:13).

Give sacrificially to meet one another’s needs (1 John 3:16–17).

Humble oneself  toward each other (1 Peter 5:5).

Inspire one another to spiritual growth (Heb. 10:24).

Join together in faithful participation in our local church (Heb. 10:25).

Kindle holy affection to one another (1 Peter 5:14).

Love and comfort one another with the hope of Christ’s return (1 Thes. 4:18).

Make peace with one another (1 Thes. 5:13).

Not lie and deceive one another (Eph. 4:25; Col 3:9).

Oppose and fight fear together by growing in love (1 John 4:18).

Pray for one another’s spiritual and physical healing (James 5:16).

Quicken one another’s heart to forsake unbelief and hardness of heart (Heb. 3:13).

Reach out to one another in compassion (Col. 3:12).

Serve one another in humility (Gal. 5:13; I Peter 4:10).

Trust God instead of resenting one another (1 John 3:11–12).

Use Spirit-filled, Word-saturated music to teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19).

Visit one another and be hospitable without complaint (1 Peter 4:9).

Walk in truth together (1 John 3:18; 2 John 1:5).

Xceed one another in showing honor and affectionate brotherly love (Romans 12:10)

Yield and submit to one another (Eph. 5:21).

Zealously, seek good for one another (1 Thes. 5:15).

So help us, Father God!

In the Mighty Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.