John 13:31-35


John 13:31-35
31 Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; 32 if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. 33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The Beatles wrote a song many years ago entitled: “All We Need Is Love.”  I am certain that they did not have this passage in mind when they wrote the lyrics to that song.  I am also certain that their statement is not theologically correct.  We certainly need more than love.  However, this passage demonstrates that love is pretty important.  Jesus has repeatedly told His followers that His time had not yet come.  Now, the language changes and He tells His disciples that His time has come.  His disciples thought He must be talking about the establishment of His kingdom.  He was talking of His glorification through death resurrection and ascension.  It was always God plan for Jesus to die, raise again, be glorified in heaven and then return to establish the kingdom.  Now Jesus reveals to them that they will not be able to immediately follow Him in His glorified state.  They will join Him eventually, but for now they would be separated.  However, in His absence Jesus gives them clear instructions as to what is expected of them and continues to be expected of us: Love.   

THE PRIORITY OF LOVE: Jesus makes the priority of every believer very clear.  We are to love one another.  The two commandments of loving God and loving our neighbor can easily be reduced to this one, of loving one another.  The reason for this is that the only way we can honestly demonstrate our love of God is by loving one another.  John teaches us in his epistles that if we say we love God but don’t love others, that we are liars.  The Bible is a very large book with many commandments, both positive and negative.  At times, we can forget some instructions from Scripture or even be ignorant of some of them.  This one is different.  He has given us one command that we simply must not forget.  It is essential to our identity as believers.  We must love one another.  There are a multitude of ways in which we can demonstrate this love and we must be intentional about doing just that.  If there is some bitterness or broken relationship in our lives, making these things right must be our priority.

THE PATTERN OF LOVE: There is really nothing new about the commandment to love one another.  However, what is new about this commandment is that it is no longer to love others as we love ourselves, but it is to love others as Jesus loves us.  Jesus always have pure motives behind His love.  He loves unconditionally and sacrificially.  He is the pattern of love that we must follow as we strive to obey this command.  None of us will ever be able to love as fully and completely as He has loved us, as we are imperfect. The love of Jesus is what the Holy Spirit is producing in our hearts as He empowers us to love others.  We must never wait for others to love us before we love them.  We cannot require others to be lovable for us to love them.  There is never an excuse to be unloving to a brother or sister in Christ.  If Jesus could love from the cross and calls us to follow His example, there is really no room for us to respond to the unloving with anything but grace and kindness as we strive to emulate the love we have experienced from Jesus.

THE POWER OF LOVE: The mark of a disciple is that he is like his master.  Jesus told His disciples 
that their love for one another would be what marked that they were His disciples.  In fact, all men would know that they are disciples because of their love for one another.  The implications of this are that if we do not love one another, we will not be recognized and disciples of Jesus.  The authenticity of our faith and relationship with Christ is demonstrated by our love.  Our message will impact others to the degree that we demonstrate love.  Paul taught in I Cor. 13 that no matter what kind of sacrificial acts we perform or eloquent words we speak; if we don’t have love, we will be like an annoying sound to our hearers.  The power of our testimony and the impact of our ministry will be directly impacted by the way we love one another.

APPLICATION: Don’t allow the essential of loving one another get lost in the midst of our busy schedules and many responsibilities.  No matter how difficult it may be to love some people in our lives; make the commitment to show them love in an intentional and proactive way.  Understand that our attempts to reach others with the Gospel will only be successful to the extent that we love one another.

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