Background Passages: John 13:31-35; I Corinthians 13:4-8, 13
As Christianity entered its second century, the faith was spreading throughout the Roman Empire, especially in some of the largest cities like Rome and Carthage in North Africa. Though spreading rapidly, Christians were still held in suspicion by neighbors and ruling officials because they had abandoned behaviors associated with the prior pagan lifestyles.
Confusion about Christian teachings and political rumors designed to discredit this new faith caused Tertullian, a church leader in Carthage, to write a document explaining Christian practices and debunking the rumors against them. Tertullian wrote that the Roman government was so unnerved by the growth of the Christian movement that they sent spies into Christian meetings.
The spies, according to Tertullian, reported the following:
“These Christians are very strange. They meet together in an empty room to worship. They do not have an image. They speak of one by the name of Jesus, who is absent, but whom they seem to be expecting at any time. And my, how they love Him and how they love one another.”
After reading this historical footnote this week, I found myself wondering what spies from our government would say about the church today? Would they make the same declaration?
“My, how they love him and how they love one another.”
*****
Jesus had just stunned his disciples by confirming a close betrayal. He then dismissed Judas from the upper room near the end of the Passover feast.
“What you are about to do, do quickly.”
As the door closed, a somber silence filled the room. Seeing the confusion and anxiety on the faces of those he hand-picked to carry on his work, Jesus began to teach his most important lesson.
“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the son in himself, and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now. Where I am going, you cannot come.
“A new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, If you love one another.” (John 13:31-35)
What a defining moment! It’s as if Jesus took out his copy of the 10 Commandments and scratched a new word at the bottom of Moses’ list.
“A new command I give you.”
This was no subtle suggestion. No vague hint of something they might try. It was a God-given command written as indelibly on their hearts as the God-etched words inscribed on stone tablets.
“Love one another.”
The idea of loving others was not a new concept or even a new command. Recall the Pharisee who came to Jesus and asked him to identify the greatest and most important of Moses’ commandments.
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)
Jesus had taught his disciples to love God and to love others. In the hours before his death and his going to a place they “could not come,” Jesus knew they would need each other. He knew that in order to survive the persecution and scattering to come, his disciples and followers would need to love each other. Holding on to their fellow believers for support and aid.
“As I have loved you, love one another.”
How, then, did Jesus love them? How was he asking them to love each other?
Jesus’ love is sacrificial.
Just minutes prior to his declaration, Jesus demonstrated the kind of love they would need. As he took off his tunic, grabbed a bowl of water and a towel, Jesus took on the role of a servant to minister to their needs.
Christ washed the disciple’s feet, as a clear example of Christ’s humble, self-sacrificing love for them.
Then, just hours later, Jesus paid the ultimate price for his disciples and all humankind by dying on the cross for our sins. Jesus’ love for his disciples and for us was born of his humility and self-sacrifice.
What greater love can we learn than by following his example, as Paul proclaimed in Ephesians 5:2.
“Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Jesus’ love is forgiving.
The sacrificial love of Christ brought forgiveness of sin to all who would repent and receive his mercy and grace. Unmerited. Undeserved. Freely given.
If we love like Christ, we can forgive anything that anyone does to us. Nothing someone does to us is so heinous that we cannot forgive if we are acting with the same love with which Christ loved us.
I love this illustration from Baptist pastor and Christian author Wendell C. Hawley on forgiveness. He wrote about a group of Moravian missionaries who spent time among the Inuit tribes in Alaska. In attempting to explain the gospel, the missionaries found no word in the Inuit language for forgiveness. So, they invented one by combining words into “Issumagijoujungnainermik.”
This string of Inuit words strung together shares a beautiful expression of forgiveness that is roughly translated, “not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.”
To love each other as Christ loves us means that the hurt and emotional pain caused by others must be set aside as meaningless. Forgive and forget. Love means not being able to think about it anymore.
“By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus’ love is evident to all.
This is exactly the distinguishing love that Tertullian spoke about. “My, how they love him and love one another.” Such real, self-sacrificing, and forgiving love ought to be the mark or brand of a Christian. So evident in our expression of love to one another that others cannot help but note the difference in our behavior and those of the world around us. Because of what God has done for each of us, his love ought to overflow our hearts, naturally expressed to one another. It must be a love deeply felt and plainly seen.
This love is an overflow of what God has done in our hearts. This is to be the distinguishing mark of Christ’s followers. All people will know those who follow Christ if true love is always displayed by Christians. You must be known by your Christ-like love for others.
If loving one another is a command, listen to how Paul says such love is best expressed.
“Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…And now, these three things remain: faith, hope and love. but the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:4-8, 13)
One wonders what the world around us thinks when the church does not reflect those things even to other believers. What does the world think when we lose our patience with one another? When we get easily angered by our brothers and sisters? When the world sees us ticking off all the wrongs that have been done against us by a fellow church member?
What must the world think when love fails?
My church is studying a book by Russell Moore entitled Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel. He begins with the premise that the United States is no longer a Christian nation to and think otherwise is burying our heads in the baptistry. Though we may have once lived in a world that believed the culture should conform to the church, we now live in a world that believes the church should conform to culture.
It makes me wonder if our culture looked at how we treat each other within the faith and decided it could do better without us? If believers in Christ chose to love each other every day as Christ loves us, would our witness in the world be stronger? Could we then engage our culture without compromising or losing the heart of the gospel?
I suspect it took only a few moments after Jesus’ death on the cross for his disciples to realize the truth of his words. Their ability to carry on his ministry and their hope for the days to come depended on their love for one another.
I don’t think it is much different today. Our ability to carry on his ministry today and our hope for the days to come depends on our willingness to love one another as Christ loves us.
“A new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Let’s let the world know to whom we belong.
Let them say about us, “My, how they love him and how they love one another!”