Love One Another - (One Another Series #1)
 |
 |
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.
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
to smoke. 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 measures 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 done it 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 ofGod 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. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be
stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
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?
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.
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
to smoke. 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 measures 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 done it 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 ofGod 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. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be
stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
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?