“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

What is Love?

Can we establish something before we dive into this week’s passage? The world does not comprehend what love is. It certainly thinks it does, and because love has a simple, clearly defined definition with an infinite number of different nuanced applications, the world thinks it can shape love however it sees fit. This is revealed in music and poetry that span centuries, teaching that love can be summed up in longing, in attraction, or in desperation. Artistic expression offers us pain, obsession, physical gratification, or even just the undefined, warm fuzzy feeling you might get with thinking of someone. The world removes the guardrails from what love means, and in losing structure, loses meaning, so that they might define love however they choose. Romans 1:18-32 speaks to this, in that humanity ignores the calling card of God that is stamped on creation itself, choosing to honor the passions of their flesh, and so are given up to sinful pursuits and debased minds. We get this confused sometimes because, while things might not be as they should, every secular marriage doesn’t end in divorce. Every parent who isn’t a Christian doesn’t abuse or mistreat their child. But just because people behave in a way that roughly models proper behavior, or morality doesn’t mean that they truly understand it. Jesus states in Matthew 7:9–11

“Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Just because someone can behave lovingly, or peacefully – just because they don’t act out extreme evil, doesn’t mean that they understand love. And this isn’t some grand effort to pat myself on the back – none of us understand love by our own power. 1 John 4:15–19 tell us,

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.”

While all of this is incredibly relevant, I want to draw your attention to two points in particular. Firstly, that God is Love. As much as I hate to break it to them, it looks like every power ballad the 80’s had to offer got it wrong. Love has many, far reaching effects and implications, it has more influences and applications than our mortal minds can wrap themselves around, but it’s singular, foundational definition is that God is Love. So if the way you’re defining or acting out love doesn’t quite line up with that, you may want to reassess some things. The second thing (and this assists greatly with understanding something that is so great and above us in its perfection), is to see that we are only able to love because God first loved us. Love isn’t something we devised and implemented on our own, but was taught to us, was imparted to us by being poured out on us so that we might know and share as we have been given. Just as we are called the light of the world in Matthew 5:14, this is not a light that originates from us and our own good works, but from The Light of the World who shines through us in the Spirit. We only have it because it started with God. So, bearing in mind that we can glean no wisdom from the world, and that the Bible is the sword of the Spirit, the God-breathed Word imparted to us, lets look at today’s passage and see how Scripture can teach us the true implications of Love.

1.      Love with Sacrifice

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

As we continue in John’s Gospel, it bears remembering where we are chronologically. The Passover meal has finished, and Judas Iscariot has departed to fetch the religious leaders and accompanying Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus. While John does not record it, the other three Gospel accounts show that the Lord’s Supper has been established, and in the aftermath of the meal and this monumental event, Jesus continues to teach. We are mere hours away from the cross, from the completion of the work of the Christ to die for the sins of man. In these final lessons before the cross, there is a directness and a clarity that’s not always seen in some of Jesus’s other teachings. It’s not that one is better than the other, or that the words of Christ should be weighed and measured as though some might be worth disregarding in favor of others – as Jesus Himself said, quoting Deuteronomy 8:4, when Satan sought to temp Him in Matthew 4:4  

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

But we do see that this teaching after the final Passover had a different air, and perhaps a different urgency than others. The hour is close at hand, and here we see Jesus give a commandment. Matthew 22:37-38 shows Jesus clarify as to what the greatest commandment is,

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

He immediately follows up in verses 39-40 by stating,

“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

These aren’t new commandments that Jesus is giving, He is simply granting clarity to show the pillars that hold up the entirety of the Law that are already in existence. Jesus says in Luke 22:20, at the institution of the Lord’s Supper,

“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Just as the blood of Christ established a new covenant, so Jesus’s words at the start of today’s passage present us with a new commandment – a new commandment, immediately followed by the steps needed to apply and live out the orders given.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

How is this achieved? How does one show love as Christ has shown His perfect love for us?

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

This sentiment is later echoed in what has long been my favorite Bible verse, 1 John 3:16,

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

My first tattoo was intended to serve as a reminder of this verse, paraphrasing its sentiment: Sacrifice Defines Love. Do you love your wife? Your husband? Your mother, father, brother, sister? Do you love the one to whom you are joined to as a brother or sister in Christ? The ones with whom you will spend eternity, praising and glorifying the Father as the unified bride of Christ – do you love them? Would you die for them? This isn’t me telling you to doggedly pursue an opportunity to become a martyr, it’s a matter of your assurance in the Spirit. By the provision of God, do you have the peace that the life of your earthly body is less important than the good of those to whom you’re joined to in Christ – that your life is worth sacrificing to those in need. In doing this you must also avoid the trap of playing to extremes. Do you live sacrificially for others? Because while the work of Christ was finished on the cross, He did far more in the way of laying down His life than just die. There was never before, and has never been since a man born like God made flesh. There was no honor high enough, no station worthy of the King of the Universe, and yet Jesus did not sit an earthly throne, but was born humbly in a manger, raised as a carpenter’s son. He did not rub elbows with the religious elite of the day and covet titles and accolades as those who made up the Sanhedrin did, but stood opposed to them in the name of Truth. He was rejected in His hometown, mocked by His own siblings, and chose His closets disciples from among the dregs of society. God laid down His life from the moment He stepped foot on the unrighteous earth, beginning work that would end with the crucifixion and be sealed with the empty tomb. This is about much more than dying for others, but a call to live humbly, lovingly in the Spirit, sacrificing for others, to the point of death if that is what is required of you. Remember that while we’re called to love our brothers and sisters in Christ differently, and specifically called not to love the ways of the sin stained world, Romans 5:6–8 reminds us,

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Completing the circular quality of His commandment, Jesus tells His disciples,

“You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Sequentially we can see, “love one another as I have loved you,” leaning on the understanding that the very pinnacle of Love is “that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Only for Jesus to make this final clarification, that you are His friend if you follow His commandments.

2.      Love as One Called

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

Did you just do a quick scroll back to the top to see if I just jumped the middle of the passage? That’s okay, that just means you’re paying attention. As much as I love keeping structure and going in order, the way we left off that first point raises some questions, and they’re answered in today’s section, just not in the verses that immediately followed, so, here we are. Jesus tells the remaining eleven disciples, and through Scripture, us today, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” To say that being called a “friend of God” is a big deal may be the greatest understatement ever. This is God we’re talking about. Alpha and Omega, Lord of Hosts, Creator of all reality, the King of heaven, the One who walks the depths with all authority. His holiness is incomprehensible, His righteousness is beyond our mortal grasp, and He calls us friend? To put it in perspective, out of the entirety of the Old Testament we only see God call two people “friend.” Abraham in Isaiah 41:8,

“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;”

And Moses in Exodus 33:11

“Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend…”

Two of the most prominent figures that God used in the establishment of His people, and Jesus opens this up to everyone – if “you do what I command you.” But this sounds like too tall an order, similar to Leviticus 19:2,

“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”

To be holy as the Lord is holy, to obey the commandments of Jesus without deviation or error – it’s too much, it’s unattainable for sinful man to reach so high. It also can dance dangerously close to salvation through works if we take it without context. What did Jesus just command? “That you love one another as I have loved you.” It also grants some clarity to consider what Jesus says in John 6:29,

“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

You don’t operate as a lone individual, given the Law and set loose to figure it out on your own. As Jesus says in today’s passage,

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you…”

Which reminds of the assurance given in John 10:14,16,

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me…” “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

We are specifically called, appointed, and to what end?

“… that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…”

The harvest you bear while roaming the wilderness will be nonexistent. But we are not called to bear fruit at random, chasing our own ambitions. Raised in Christ, we are placed in a sort of spiritual Eden, walled off and guarded from the world, given order and structure, and blessed to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, working in the Spirit, in obedience to God so that we might glorify Him.

“… so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

In this obedience, all needs are met, all requests are known, and all blessings received. It is from here, eyes opened in the Spirit that we love. Not guessing as to what is right in our flesh, and living by the morality of the fickle mob, but kept and guided by the work of the Spirit within us. We’re able to know love, to express, and receive love because we are called, made new, given life and raised up to know the Truth of God. In this we are blessed, in this He is glorified.

3.      Love with Freedom

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s been a little while so it may merit repeating. When the Bible references “servants,” “slaves,” or “bondservants,” this isn’t the same thing as the slavery we know from the transatlantic slave trade and the slavery that once existed in the United States. From an Old Testament cultural and economic standpoint, it was not uncommon for a poor person to sell themselves into servitude. Given the treatment that the Jews faced in Egypt, God had very specific provisions within the Law for the ethical treatment of slaves. Slavery wasn’t necessarily even lifelong, as the year of Jubilee, which occurred every fifty years, required the release of slaves. All that being said, it doesn’t mean that being a servant or slave was desirable, and being someone’s servant certainly wasn’t the same thing as being their friend. What we have to understand in being called to love like Christ, and in being raised up and called friend, given such transparency into the plans of God, is that we love from a place of freedom. Jesus says in John 8:34–36,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

The world cannot know love because the world is enslaved to sin – and how can that which is oppressed by wickedness know that which is righteous? How can they know God who is Love? In Christ is liberation, redemption, and transformation. By the forgiveness of His blood we are set free, we are loved and by His love we know Love. In our freedom we are called, lifted up as more than conquerors over the sinful world, and delivered to a position where we can live sacrificially without fear, loving with the assurance given by God and God alone. As He speaks to His disciples just before His time on the cross, Jesus shows us that He is our model, our example, and our teacher. It is by Him that we know Love, by Him that we can understand true sacrifice. This perfect picture of Christ is summed up beautifully in Hebrews 12:1–2, reminding us where we are to fix our eye and find our assurance,

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

This world may bicker and squabble, theorize and philosophize as to the true meaning and nature of love, but they fumble in the dark for something beyond their comprehension. We as Christians may know Love because He first loved us. He loved us enough to come into the world, He loved us enough to die, and He loved us enough to take up His life again – and in Him we are saved for now into eternity.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnoplYPbq4