What do you say when you know that this will be the
last chance you will have to say something to someone? How important are those words? Those words have to convey what matters most
and nail down the one or two things that need to absolutely remember. In
John 13:21-16:33, we get to sit in on Jesus’ last lesson at the Last Supper,
and His last change to speak and teach his disciples before His final and
victorious battle with death and sin.
Everything He says He has said before over their years together. True to
all last chance communications what matters most is reiterated. If they remembered and put into practice
anything, it needed to be this one thing.
When he [Judas] had left,
Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who He is, and God seen for who He
is in Him. The moment God is seen in Him, God’s glory will be on display. In
glorifying Him, He Himself is glorified—glory all around! Children, I am with you for only a short time
longer. You are going to look high and low for Me. But just as I told the Jews,
I’m telling you: ‘Where I go, you are not able to come.’ Let Me give you a new
command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another.
This is how everyone will recognize that you are My disciples—when they see the
love you have for each other.” John
13:31-35 MSG
#1 importance: Love
one another!
Jesus called it a new commandment. It is not new chronologically or something
that has never been seen or heard before.
Loving others is something they have known from the beginning.
For this is the message
which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 1 John 3:11
Even before they came to know Jesus, they grew up with the
Mosaic law which told them to love their neighbors as themselves.
You shall not take
vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall
love your neighbor as
yourself; I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:18
“New” commandment is about a new way of loving. Kainos: different than what was before. What makes it different is “as I have loved you.” They were to take all the ways they had
seen, heard and experienced Jesus loving them and apply it to each other.
1 John 3:11,12 says we are to love as Christ not as Cain.
For this is the message
which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not
as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did
he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. 1 John 3:11,12
We do not associate love with Cain. Yet how he loved is
the most familiar and common kind of loving.
How did Cain love? His love was based on feelings, thus easily
conditional and selective. In any given
situation, loving or not loving was justified.
Most of all, his love was centered in self: loving who, what, when and
how he wanted; loving what made him feel good and benefited him most. This is a very self-deceiving love as Cain
really did think he loved God and others.
However, it was all filtered through how he felt and how it impacted
him. This is scary, because Cain like
love comes so naturally. The feelings of
loving blind us to the direction that love actually is flowing.
We are to love as the Lord loves. How
does Jesus love?
Love is patient, love is
kind and is not jealous; love does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act
unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into
account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with
the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians
13:4-8a
Listen as Jesus tells you about His love:
My love for you is patient. There is so much
I’m waiting for … for you to want My will … for a cooperative spirit … for you
to confess … for you to forgive … for you to want the kind of relationship with
Me that I want with you. The thing is,
you know what I am waiting for.
My love for you is kind. I know exactly what you need and am ready and
willing to meet your every need with My abundant and sufficient grace. Most of
the time, I pour out My practical and bountiful love without your even being
aware that it is coming from Me. But
often I wait for you to ask so you can receive the full measure of the blessing
I have for you.
My love for you is never motivated by
jealousy. Yes, I am a jealous God who
demands that I be your only God. That in itself is for you benefit, not Mine. My
love is always given unconditionally.
Jealous love says, “What’s in it for me.” My love says, “What’s in it for you.”
I don’t brag about how much I love you. I
don’t love you to make Myself look good or feel good. My love is not motivated
by self-glory. I want to be loved by you because you want to, not because I go
around screaming at the world, “I am love, and you better love me back.”
Demonstrations of my love are never going to
be foolish, out of place or unnecessary.
That happens only when the motivation is not pure, and that goes against
My very nature.
My love is never motivated by what I’ll get
out of it. I love those who hate me,
those who reject me, and those who despite our special relationship forget I’m
around.
Because of my love for you, I am not easily
pushed to the point of punishment. Out of
love, if it is necessary, I will discipline and correct you, but it takes a lot
before direct punishment results. I find
no joy in seeing someone suffer.
I would never make anyone suffer just because
I was wronged. My love for you is too
great to be so vindictive. When it comes
to suffering, I want you to realize that any and all suffering you experience
rolls back on Me. I personally carry the weight and pain of it for you and with
you.
I also want you to know that just because I
love everyone does not mean I am not saddened by unrighteousness in the
world. It thrills me to see My truth
accepted and become a part of lives. It
is then My love can do its transforming work and enable you to become all I
designed you to be.
My love bears all things: all your cares … all
your burdens … all your concerns … all your joys.
My love believes all things. I see wonderful potential in every person. I
believe you can be all that I want you to be.
My love is full of hope. It is positive. It is
possible. It is the hope that doesn’t disappoint.
My love endures all things. Nothing will
change My love for you. That includes length of time, circumstances,
situations, and most of all whatever you do.
My love will never fail. It will never stop. It will never let you down.
I LOVE YOU!
Jesus asks you to simply love like that! He
knows that mere willingness doesn’t make it happen, so He makes available His
own Spirit to fill you with His love, passion and power. As the Holy Spirit
fills and flows through you, as you choose to partner with Him in loving as
Jesus loves you, every one around you “will
know that you are My disciples.”
They will see and experience Jesus.
They will see and experience God’s incredible love for them, just as you
have experienced His incredible love for you.
Making
It Personal
The original command was to love others as
you love yourself.
- · How would you describe that kind of love?
- · What happens to this kind of love if self-love is distorted?
The new command is to love others as
Christ loves you.
- · How does this standard differ from the original?
- · How would applying how Jesus loves you to how you love others change how you think, speak and act?
Do an honest assessment: Do you love more
like Cain or Christ?