Love One Another - (One Another Series #1)
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another;
as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
2 John 1:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new
commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that
we love one another.
1 John 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is
true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true
light now shineth.
2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is
in darkness even until now.
Introduction:
A woman in her late 60's had been a smoker for 50 years. She tried
all sorts of gimmicks to stop smoking; every program on the market
was attempted, but nothing could make her stop - until, that is, a 75
year old man proposed to her. He said the one condition was that he
would not marry her as long as she continued tosmoke. She quit that
day and has never smoked since.
Love is stronger than willpower.Love will change you.That is why God
commands us to love one another. If we love one another, we will treat
each other better, help each other more, care more for each other, and
be happier with each other.
I. A New Commandment
Jesus said, "I'm giving you a new commandment�"
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another;
as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John repeats and confirms this in �
2 John 1:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new
commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that
we love one another.
Think about the purpose of man:
Ec 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God,
and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
What commands are we talking about? Well, the 10 Commandments come to
mind. And Jesus boiled those down to two :
Matthew 22
36 Master, which [is] the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
If you examine the 10 Commandments, you will notice that the first 4
deal with love for God; the rest deal with love for our neighbor.
So, who is your neighbor?
Lu 10:29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And
who is my neighbour?
At this point, Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan.
A neighbor is someone who needs your help, and a good neighbor is one
who gives that help.
Why did Jesus give a new commandment to love one another?
Possibly because people were not doing it; and possibly because He has
called us to a new degree of love.
1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another.
Jesus brought a new definition to the word love - it is self-sacrifice.
Isn't that so much different from the world's ways. It's every man
for himself. That is not the way God planned it.
Galatians 6:10 tells us:"As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good
unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."
Jesus said: "John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if
ye have love one to another.
The early church had some trouble loving one another, as we see in 1
Corinthians 6:7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you,
because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take
wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
He is saying that it is better to ignore some personal injuries, some
insults, some unkindnesses, some wrongs ... than to bring open shame
to the whole church by squabbling.
1 Peter 4
8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for
charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
To cover, here, means to hide or veil. It means that we forget wrongs
done to us; we choose to not give them undue attention. It is the
same as the Lord sending our sins away from us - taking them as far
as the east is from the west.
Forgiveness literally means that we don't think about the wrong
anymore. We put it out of our minds - no grudges, in fact, hardly
even acknowledging that a wrong has been done. (Now that is not
condoning sin. It is forgiving the sinner. Some things, we can
overlook; some things we can confront and immediately forgive; some
things, we'd might as well forget about.)
We were not put here for our own pleasures. We were created to love
God and to share that love with one another. How can we share that
love with one another in practical ways? I challenge you this week
to think of ways to express love to the brethren, and then � do it!
II. How can you love God and not your neighbor?
1 Jo 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a
liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen?
4:21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth
God love his brother also.
But God is so easy to love. True, but love is not dependent on the
lovability of the person loved. Love is dependent on the amount of the
love of God you are willing to let flow through you.
God gauges your love by the way you love those who are not easy to love.
Mt 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say
unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have doneit unto me.
How you love those around you is how you love Him.
How do you love? How do you do it? How so you love the way Jesus
commands?
By obeying Him -
John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and
his commandments are not grievous.
1 John 2: 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of
God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
By giving ourselves -
1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down
his lifefor us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Now here is where it gets practical:
17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need,
and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the
love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word,
neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
And here is a Biblical description of true love -
1 Corinthians 13
4. Charity suffereth long, (patiently endure)
and is kind; (uses kindness - is nice and pleasant)
charity envieth not; (earnestly desire or covet)
charity vaunteth not itself, (boast or self-display)
is not puffed up, (inflated or proud)
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly,(act unbecomingly or embarrassingly)
seeketh not her own, (selfish)
is not easily provoked, (angered or irritated)
thinketh no evil; (calculated wrongdoing)
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, (unrighteousness)
but rejoiceth in the truth; (righteousness)
7 Beareth all things, (covers or protects)
believeth all things, (trust)
hopeth all things, (confidence in God)
endureth all things. (Hangs in there)
8. Charity never faileth: (never quits, gives up, loses hope,...)
So, how is your love life?
John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye
have love one to another.
The world will believe the church when we start loving one another in
a Biblical way and in a way that they can see the love.
They will accept our gospel when they see that we love them.
It is a true saying that, "people don't care how much you know until
they know how much you care."
People will not accept the fact that Jesus laid down His life for
them until they see us modeling the same behavior.
Do we truly love one another?
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