Sunday English Service – 23 MAY 21

Transcript

In the early church, there was an old preacher in the town of Eversys, who, when he got too old, that he couldn’t walk. It seems they used to carry him, and they’d carry him and bring him in front of the people, and he would preach to them. And it seems that old preacher would often time preach the same message. Basically, the message being, ‘love one another’; let us love one another. That old preacher is the apostle, John. The Apostle John who wrote the Gospel of John and the epistles – 1 John, 2^ndJohn, 3^rdJohn, you know, in the New Testament. He is known as ‘The Apostle of Love’ because of his emphasis on love. Again, and again, he says in his epistles to love one another. Where did he get this emphasis from? Why did he play so much importance on this particular truth that we are to love one another? He got it from Jesus himself. Because Jesus gave it importance, he gave it importance and today, that’s why we want to give it importance. And I want to preach to you that same simple message, which says, “Love one another”.

This is a very important teaching in the New Testament, throughout the Bible and especially in the New Testament. It is important that we pay attention to this. No matter what season we are living in, but I think it is especially important in these times that we are living in, these very challenging times, this very challenging season in life. As we’re going through all kinds of challenges, this is very important because we need each other’s support. We need each other’s help. Don’t we? We can’t make it alone in this world. God didn’t mean for us to make it alone. We need each other. And so, this command is very practical and very useful for us to pay attention to and follow. So, let’s look at this — ‘Love One Another’ prayer. I want to look at it in four parts.

First, I want to see, I want to talk about why we should love our fellow believers. ‘Love one another’, means, love your fellow believers, right. That’s the meaning. Sometimes you take it in a very general meaning, you know, love everybody. Yeah, the Bible does tell us to love everybody, even our enemies, for example, but it tells us to love our fellow believers in a very special way. And so today, our message is focused on that. Why should we love our fellow believers? That’s first. Then secondly, we’ll look at what does it mean to love, right. When we say, “Love one another”, what is mainly involved in that? Thirdly, we’ll see how Christ’s love is very important because that’s the thing that is our motivation as well as our example and our pattern. Fourthly, when we love in the way that Christ wants us to, it will produce a very grand result, a very grand result. So, four things today. Why should we love? What does it mean to love? Christ’s love is our motivation and pattern. And the grand result of all this. Let’s begin.

Firstly, why should we love one another? There are many reasons we could tell you, but I’d like to point out two reasons. One is, God has commanded it — God has commanded it. Why should we love one another? Because God commanded it. It is there throughout the Bible, the Old Testament, the New Testament. The love command is there, and it is very prominent and important. In the Old Testament, for example, there are hundreds of commands, hundreds of commands. And yet, when Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment? Do you remember that? One guy came to Jesus, in Matthew chapter 22,verse 35,and he said, “What is the greatest commandment?” Now, if somebody had asked us that, we would be scratching our heads because there are so many commandments. What’s the greatest commandment? But Jesus replies, just like that, without hesitation. He says, in verse 37, He replies to that guy and He says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment”. What’s the first commandment? Love God. That’s the greatest commandment. Now, Jesus could have stopped there because that’s all the guys asked. The guy said, “What is the greatest commandment?”And he wanted only one answer and Jesus gave him the answer. He could have stopped there but Jesus did not stop there. He adds to that; He says. “There’s a second commandment, like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. On these two commandments, depend all the Law and the Prophets”. So, the guy says, “What’s the greatest…?” Jesus tells him, “The greatest: love God”, but doesn’t stop there and He says, “There’s another one just like it: love your neighbor. On these two, the entire Old Testament hangs, depends, revolves around.”

So, you can see the importance given to the love commandment. Not only does God command us to love Him and our neighbor, but He gives it much importance. Jesus gives it much importance and as the New Testament progresses, you will see Jesus, elevating even higher— this command to love. Just before going to the cross, while He is with his disciples in the upper room. Do you remember that very solemn night; the night that Jesus was going to be betrayed? He was with his disciples in the upper room, remember that scene? And then, Judas leaves the room, right. The one who was going to betray Him: Judas. He leaves the room and then, it’s just Jesus and His 11 disciples. And at that point, Jesus starts giving them some very important teaching and right there, in that, is the teaching on love: John chapter 13,verse 34.Picture that scene, that I just described to you. Jesus speaking just to 11 disciples after Judas has left the room. And Jesus says, in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another”. This command to love is an old commandment. Jesus says, “A new command I give to you: Love one another”. What’s new about this? There are several things new about it but one of the main things that’s new, Jesus is saying, “As I have loved you, you also are to love one another”. Just like I loved you, you love one another. He’s talking to His disciples; this is not outsiders; this is not the whole world. It’s only His disciples, only His true followers, not even Judas. He says, “You love one another”. And how should you love? “Like I loved you”. The old command said, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. However, you loved yourself, love yourself, love your neighbor. The new command says,“As Jesus loves you, love your fellow believer”. And so, why should we love our fellow believers today? Because Jesus commands it. It’s a command. It’s not a piece of advice, it’s not optional. No, it’s a command. Why should we love? Because God commands us to love. We are commanded to and out of obedience to Him, we love; out of love for Jesus, we love others. Because Jesus says, “If you love me, do my commandments. ”If we really love someone, we’ll do what they say, right. If we really love someone, we will do what they say. If we really love Jesus, we will do what He said. And the main commandment He gave, in the New Testament is, love one another. Right. So that’s one reason why we are to love because it’s a command. And we want to please Jesus, we want to honor Jesus by obeying His commands.

Second reason. “Other believer”; why should we love fellow believers? Because they’re part of our family – because they’re part of our family. First reason is, it’s a command; the second reason is, they’re family. How can we not love them? They are family, they’re part of our family. You have two families. One is the physical family; one is your earthly family, right. That’s the family you’re probably with right now, watching this service. Maybe you’re watching from home, you know, your family. What we generally refer to as our family, our parents, children, husband, wife, you know, your family, earthly family, physical family is right there with you, but you also have another family. As a believer, you have a spiritual family, right. You have a spiritual family. We are all part, you and I and other believers, are part of the same family. The Bible says, “We are members of the same household”. Ephesians 2:19.The Bible teaches it in various ways. It says, “We are one body in Christ,” right. “Though we are many, we are one body in Christ.”1 Corinthians, chapter 12,“There may be several differences amongst us but what unites us, is greater than what divides us”. Ephesians chapter 4 talks about what unites us. Look at that Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 3 onwards: Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He says, “Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”, which means, you already have a certain unity, a unity given by the Holy Spirit. Believers already had a certain level of unity. He’s saying, “Keep that unity, preserve that unity, in the bond of peace”. And then he talks about what unites us – look at verse 4: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. So, there may be many things that divide us. Take a church like ours. Many people come, people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different mother tongues, come to our church, right. Different people from different races; there are a lot of differences. You want to see differences; there are differences amongst us. But the New Testament teaches that: greater than all these differences is what unites us.

There are several things that we share in common. What do we share? This message says we share many things. “We have one body” – we are part of the body of Christ. “We have one Spirit” – the Holy Spirit. “We have one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism”. Finally, Paul says, “Above all, we have one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all”. He says, all of us, we may have all kinds of differences, but we have one Father. We are all children to one Father, one Father. One Father, we have the same Father, we share the same Father. So, what I’m trying to say is, what you already know. We’re part of the same family; we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Do you have that sense, that we’re part of the same family? No matter what else may divide us, this thing unites us, Jesus unites us, the Father unites us.We are all part of the same family, under the same Father, having the same Father. So, why should we love one another? Because we’re the same family. So, why should we love one another? Two reasons, I gave you: it’s a command – it’s God’s command. We are to follow it. And we’re family.

As I was thinking about this, I thought of an illustration. What happens in real life? Like, you take a family. If there are small children – say, there are two small children, like age five, right, I’m talking about small children, right. Let’s say, there’s a boy and a girl – brother and sister. And generally, what happens is, when children are small, they’re fighting and they’re bickering and you know, they’re arguing and all that. And parents have to go and step in and stop them and we tell the child what? We tell that five-year-old boy, we tell him, we remind him, “This is your sister; this three-year-old little girl is your sister. You can’t be rude to her; you’ve got to be nice to her. You’ve got to share your toys with her, stop fighting, treat her nice, because she’s your sister”, right. We’ve got to, kind of, force him to treat her nice. Right. The boy doesn’t have a lot of love for his little sister, at that age. But he still begins to treat a nice. Why? Because the parents forced it; the parents command him. And so, he is nice to his sister, just because the father told him or commanded him, or the mother commanded him. That’s how it is when children are small but the same children, when they grow up, say when they’re twenty or thirty, or even older, what happens? Everything changes. Now, the parent doesn’t have to force them to love or show love. Now, the brother and the sister are showing and receiving love themselves, automatically. If they are, you know, how they are meant to be. I’m talking about good, healthy families.

When the children grow up, they begin to show love. Nobody needs to force them. Why? They get the sense that this is my sister, this is my brother, they belong to the same family, we share the same blood. I’ve got to show them love; I’ve got to help them out when they need my help. Same thing is true in the spiritual life. Spiritually, if we don’t have much maturity, if we are like small children, spiritually, we’ve got to be forced to love one another. We’ve got to be told, you know, it’s a command; you’ve got to do it and all that. But spiritually, if we mature, when we grow up, nobody needs to force us, nobody needs to tell us, it’s a command. We are loving one another. We are counting other believers as our brothers and sisters because we just have that sense. That is spiritual growth. This one thing, this one test, can show whether a person is spiritually grown or not. You don’t need many tests; one test is enough. One test, the love test. How do we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do we have a sense of love towards them? Does our heart go out towards them? Do we want to help them? Are they important to us? Do we see them as brother and sister and really want to, you know, serve them and things like that? Do we have real love towards them? That means we are spiritually grown, mature. And the opposite is also true if we don’t have much love towards our brothers and sisters in Christ, then no matter what we know or don’t know or experienced or not experienced, whatever the case may be if love is lacking, spiritual growth is lacking. This one thing shows, how much a person is spiritually grown. Whether they’re spiritual babes or spiritual giants.

So, where are we today? We can assess ourselves and see where we are today. Based on this one thing, this is so important. And no matter where we are, whether we are spiritual babes or spiritual giants, we’ve still got to love one another. The command is for us, right. The teaching is for us, right. If we are spiritual giants, we don’t even need to be told; we are doing it. But if we are spiritual babes, we need to be told and we should do it. The command applies to all; the teaching applies to all, whether babes or giants, in Christ. What I’m trying to say is, nobody’s left out of this. Nobody can say, you know, I’m a believer in Christ; I love Christ, but I’m not so interested in these other believers. No, no. There is no option left in the New Testament for a person like that. The New Testament does not say, you can believe in Christ, love Christ, follow Christ, but you can kind of ignore the other believers. No option like that. In fact, the New Testament teaches very clearly that if a person has no love for their fellow brother or sister in Christ, he’s probably not a real believer; that’s what the New Testament teaches in 1 John. I don’t have time to read the verses, but you go read 1 John, the entire book, again and again, will teach that, especially certain verses, like 1 John 4:20 and 21, right. Very clear teaching that, where there is no brotherly love, love for your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, if there is really no love, then, the person may not be a true believer at all because if a person really believes and follows Jesus Christ, they will have love for their fellow believers. So anyway, the point is very simple. Why should we love? We should love because it’s a command, they’re family, and the more spiritually grown, we will love. And today, we need to love. We need this reminder. I think we all need this reminder, including myself, that we are to love one another. So that’s first: why should we love?

Secondly, what does it mean to love? We are saying, “Love one another”. The Bible says, “Love one another”. Jesus says, “Love one another”. What does it mean to love? I think it’s important to say this and remind ourselves of this today because the moment we say “love”, in the world, they often associate love with a feeling, right. The feeling of goose bumps and feeling of this and that, right. And all that may be there. I’m not discounting that entirely, but in the Bible, that is not given much prominence. Love is not merely a feeling in the Bible. In the world, love is a feeling or, you know, love is just being so elated that you open your mouth and say,“I love you” or something like that. In the world, sometimes, they take it like that, either as a feeling or a saying, right. Again, that is not discounted entirely but it’s not given much importance in the Bible. Just mere verbal expression, just saying with words is not very important, not the greatest thing. In the Bible, love is not merely a feeling or a saying, it is an action. Love is an action. What does it mean to love? It means to do something for the good of another person. Oftentimes, giving of yourself, to do some good for the other person. Love is an action; it’s an act, where you help another person so that they can be well so that they can be taken care of. With their interest in mind, you do something. That’s what love is.It’s an action. Love does something, love acts. This is how God shows His love, right. God doesn’t just have a good feeling toward us. God doesn’t just say, you know, with words, that He loves us alone. No! “God so loved the world that He gave…” He does something; he gives; He gives what is precious to Him :His Son .How does Jesus love us? Christ died for the ungodly, right. He gives His own life. God gave His Son; the Son gives His life. This is how God shows His love, by doing, giving, acting. And that is how we also ought to love.

So, when we say, “love one another”, it involves, very importantly, action. Without action, there is no love. The Bible is very clear about this.1 John 3:17;1 John 3:17,If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in Him? It’s saying if a person has the world’s goods – that is money, possessions – if a person has things and sees his brother, who’s in need, and they are able to help him, they can actually help him, easily, but they don’t do anything to help their brother in Christ. How can they claim to have God’s love abiding in them? John says, in the next verse, verse 18,“Little children, let us not love in word or talk”. Do you see that? “Let us not just love in word or talk, but in deed” – in action – “and in truth”. Let us love in action, with action, indeed. So, you’ve got to do something. I’m just reminding you, reminding myself, reminding all of us, that “love one another” is one of the most important teachings in the Bible. We need to be reminded of that today. And we need to realize what it means to love. It is to do something for the good of another person; it is to do something to help them, do something with their best interests in mind. Right. And so, we’ve got to do something. Just say, “Do something”. Do something to help the person. You know, today, we can do a lot of things to help our fellow believers. I know, in many ways, it’s challenging to do many things; you can go out and there’s so many restrictions and all that but, even while sitting at home, you can do a lot to help other believers out. You can serve them, even while sitting at home. In many ways, you can do things, right. For example, you can pray for them. I’m talking about serious praying for them, serious prayer, effective, powerful prayer, fervent prayer. You can pray for believers who are in great trouble, in great need and sick, who are sick and who are going through a lot of challenges. You can pray for them, right. Another thing you can do is, you can encourage them. This is a very important thing; encourage them. Today, many people need to be encouraged, they need a word of encouragement. And this is very important.

According to the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 5:11. It says, “Encourage one another and build one another up”. Encourage one another. Part of loving one another is encouraging one another. A lot of people are down and discouraged today, by all their challenges, circumstances, sickness, problems, all kinds of things, that have just discouraged them, just oppressed them. They need a lot of things, and they could use a lot of help, but one simple help they could use is, somebody needs to encourage them with a few powerful words, remind them of the promises of God, remind them saying, “Don’t worry, God is with you; don’t worry, we are praying for you; it’s going to change, it’s going to get alright. ”That word of encouragement will just give them hope, make them fight another day. They need that. Maybe you could give them that. Encourage one another – I’m talking about, what kind of actions you could do, even from your house very easy to show and demonstrate your love for your fellow brothers and sisters.

Another thing the New Testament says that we ought to do is, another action is, “Bear one another’s burdens”. You see this in Galatians 6, verse 2:Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. The law of Christ, that Paul is talking about here is, the law of love. Paul’s the one who says if fulfil love, you fulfil the law. This is the law of Christ: love. So, he says, “How do you fulfil love, the law of Christ?” You do it by bearing one another’s burdens, that’s one way of fulfilling love, showing love. Bear one another’s burdens—what does that mean? It means to sympathize with one another; sympathize with those who are going through various trials and troubles and challenges; empathize with them and try to make their burdens lighter. That’s what it means to bear another person’s burden. You know, our fellow believers, their burdens become so heavy that they’re not able to bear it. They are weighed down by it, it is pushing them down, and you see that, and as a fellow believer, you have love for them. The New Testament says, “Bear one another’s burdens”. That means, make that burden lighter. Take a little load off their back. You know, you can do it in various ways. It depends on what kind of problem the person has, right. You can take a little bit of their load off their back; you can bear and take it away and make their burden lighter, and you can help them out in that way, by doing something, helping them, serving them, praying for them, encouraging them. Whatever it is, there are various ways. Do something and serve our fellow believers. So that’s what it means to love. You’ve got to have action.

Now, let me also say this because I emphasized action so much. Let me also say, by way of qualification, that just because there is action, does not mean there is love. Just because there is action, does not mean God will be pleased. No. What I mean by that is because, you know, in the world, sometimes, they just want to show the outward action where actually, they’re doing it with a different motive. For example, in the world, sometimes people will give charity, and help people for their own motives. It’s not out of love. They give charity so that they can get a snapshot or photo taken, and then put the photo on social media, and then appear to be very charitable and appear that they’re helping everyone. So, their motive is not to really help out the other person, to serve the needs of the other person. Their motive is not in the best interest of another person. Their motive in their heart is to show themselves to be helping and charitable and full of love and like a good person. Right. So, that’s why I say, that outward action alone is not enough. It is necessary, but it has to be accompanied by a pure inward motive. You see, God looks at the action. For God, you can’t just say, “I’ve got a feeling of love in my heart”. No, you’ve got to have action, right. But at the same time, for God, action alone is not enough; outward actions are not enough. He looks at the heart, the motives, why you’re doing what you’re doing. The world only looks at the outward actions; God looks at the action, and the motive behind the action, which no one else can see but God can see. Unless the motive is pure, He’s not pleased. Why we do, what we do, is as important as, what we do. So, both, you know, it should be an action out of a pure motive. You should have the best interest of the other person in mind. What does it mean to love? It is to act, do something with their best interest in mind. It’s a pure motive.

So, we saw, why we should love. We saw, what it means to love. Thirdly, Christ’s love is our motivation and our pattern. Christ’s love. Now, I want to talk about Christ’s love because, you know, see… Where are you going to get the motivation to love one another?

You know, so long, so far, I’ve given you reasons why we should love. I said, you know, the Bible commands us, Jesus commands us, they’re family, and all this but really, that is not enough motivation to love. Just saying that you know, here’s a rule saying, “love one another”, does not motivate a person. Rules don’t motivate us, do they? The government puts rules; people don’t follow half of the rules. God gives commands; people ignore them. They know the command is there, but they still don’t do it because the command itself, makes clear what God wants, but it doesn’t give us the motivation to do it, oftentimes. So, we know it is commanded and we still don’t do it. So, just having a rule or a law or a command is not enough motivation; just having a sense of duty, you know, like we say, “This is your family, take care of your family”, right. No. People, even though they know it’s their family and they have that sense of duty—“I’ve got to, you know, take care of my family”, they still neglect their family. See how many families are lacking love today? What I’m trying to say is, just knowing that it’s right and it’s the law and it’s a command and it’s a rule and it’s your duty, is not enough motivation to actually do it. So, where are we going to get the motivation to love one another? The motivation will come only by looking at the love of Christ. Christ’s love is the motivation. Christ’s love is the motivation. By looking at Christ’s love for you, when you see how Christ has loved you, that’s what will motivate you to love others. Have you experienced Christ’s love? Have you been amazed by His love for you? Have you had a personal experience, my friend? I believe I’m talking to believers and so, I think you have experienced. But what is your reaction, as I’m talking about Christ’s love, right now? What is your reaction right now? How are you responding to this? Are you saying, “Well, Christ’s love is amazing”? Are you thinking, just the mention of Christ’s love still amazes me? I’m amazed by how much Christ loves me. Is that your reaction today as I’m talking about this? Or is your reaction something like this: I’ve got a thousand problems; what do you mean, “Christ’s love”? It seems so distant to me. Yeah, I’ve experienced it in the past, but now I don’t even know if He loves me. I am surrounded by problems .Is that your reaction? It’s very important what your reaction is because unless Christ’s love seems big to you, amazing to you, you won’t be motivated to love others. If your problems seem big to you, and if you’re doubting Christ’s love for you, there’s no motivation to love another person.

What’s the solution? You need to remind yourself of Christ’s love.You need to meditate on Christ’s love, my friend. We all need this. We all need this. See, true believers have already experienced the love of Christ. But the thing is, today, our love of Christ may not seem big to us; problems may seem big to us. We need to go back and remind ourselves of the love of Christ; we need to meditate on it until it seems bigger than everything else. Meditate on the love of Christ. Let me remind you of the love of Christ, for you and me. When the Bible talks about God’s love, Christ’s love, how does it talk about it? It says, “When we were unworthy”. Let me put it like this: when we were unworthy, when we had no beauty, when we had nothing to be desired, when there was nothing desirable in us when we were looking ugly and unworthy, Christ loved us. When we were sinners, when we were enemies of God, when we were weak, when we were ungodly, Christ died for us. Isn’t that what Romans 5:6 – 8 says? Christ did not die, because He saw a spark of beauty in us. No! There was no beauty in us for Him to see and love us for that beauty. We were ugly; sin was covering us. Even the filthy miry clay of sin, you see. Nothing to be desired. At that time, when we were sinners, when we had nothing good going for us, when we were ungodly, when we were far away from God, enemies of God, Christ died for us. That is Christ’s love, my friend.

Think about where you would be, where I would be, without His love. Where would we be without His love today? We would still be sinners. If Christ never loved us, we’d still be sinners, we’d still be far away from God, we would have no hope in this life, and no hope for all eternity. We would have a meaningless life today, a powerless life today, without any hope. And we would have no hope for all eternity, we would rot in hell, for all eternity. Without the love of Christ, that would be our lot. Thank God, Jesus loved us, so that today, even if you may be in a thousand problems – I don’t know what you’re going through – but maybe even you’re surrounded by a thousand problems, but there’s one problem you don’t have: you don’t have the sin problem. Meaning, you’re not a sinner, because Christ has redeemed you, He’s washed you, He’s cleansed you, you are not far away from God, you have come near to God. You are not a people without hope. No matter what you are going through, you still have got a hope in this life, and hope for all eternity because Christ loved you and He still loves you. No matter what problem you may be going through, you have one problem, you don’t have one problem. What’s that? You’re not on the way to hell. That’s the most terrible problem, that’s the worst problem to be in- on the way to hell. If you’re a believer in Christ, you may have a thousand problems, but thank God, you don’t have this terrible problem. You are not on the way to hell; you are on the way to an eternity with God in heaven. All because of Christ’s love for you, all because Christ died for you and me on the cross of Calvary.

Where would we be without His love? Are you amazed by His love, as you consider this, as I’m reminding you of this? Are you amazed by his love? Does His love seem big to you, my friend? Meditate on His love, until it seems big to you, because the more you meditate on His love, I tell you, it’ll have an amazing effect on you. Your heart will be filled with thanksgiving. No matter what problem you’re going through today, I tell you, meditate on the love of Christ, and the heart will be filled with thanksgiving. It’ll give you faith. Faith will rise in your heart when you meditate on the love of Christ. You’ll tell yourself; you know if Christ died for me when I had nothing good going for me when I was so far away from Him. Now, will He not love me and help me out, now that I’m close to Him, now that I’m following Him now that I’m living for Him? Will He not come to my rescue? Faith will rise in your heart. Thanksgiving will overflow; faith will rise. Not only that, when you meditate on Christ’s love for you, it will motivate you to love others. It will have a transforming effect on you so that you are, then pushed, motivated. It’s like you get a push, that’s what motivation is. You’re pushed; somebody’s pushing you, you know, motivating you. This love of Christ for you will motivate you to love others. Christ’s love will have that kind of an effect on you. When you meditate on it, you will be transformed. See, this is the way to be transformed as a Christian. How do you grow in loving others? What is the Christian way to grow in loving others? What is the Christian way? How do you grow in this matter of love? By fixing your gaze upon Christ’s love.

So, what’s the way to change as a Christian? What’s the way to be more and more transformed as a Christian? You keep looking at Christ; the constant looking and gazing at Christ will change you. It’s like these little children, they’re always looking at their superheroes, right. Whether it be Superman or whoever their superhero is, they’re looking at these people and they’re looking so closely and intently, with great interest and eagerly, they look and look and look and before they know it, without even them realizing it, they start acting like their super heroes. They start running like them, start trying to jump like those superheroes, start trying to walk like them. Do this, talk like them, you know, just without much effort, they take on those traits. Right. That is how you become more like Christ – by gazing at Christ. This is not some, just children example I’m trying to give you, this is Bible teaching.2^ndCorinthians 3:18 talks about how we are transformed. Look what it says, 2^nd Corinthians 3:18:We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. How are Christians transformed from one degree of glory to another? By beholding the glory of the Lord; by gazing at the glory of Christ. By meditating on His greatness, His beauty, His love, you become more and more like Him. The Holy Spirit – while you are meditating – the Holy Spirit transforms you into His image, more and more, from one degree of glory to another.

So, what I’m saying is, meditate on Christ’s love. Do you want motivation? Meditate on Christ’s love, because He’s not only our motivation, He’s also our pattern. See, we meditate on Christ’s love, we keep looking at Christ’s love, for us. Why? So that we will not only be motivated but so that we will be led into following the same pattern of love. Jesus wants us to have His pattern of love. How are we to love one another? Jesus is very clear in that verse: John 13:34 – that’s the main verse for today, right. John 13:34, Jesus is very clear how we should love. He doesn’t say, love however you feel like it. Love in whatever way seems right to you. Love in the best way possible, or love, you know, look at the world and see how they love best and learn from them. No. He says, “Love one another as I have loved you”; that’s the pattern, that’s the model. Our model is Christ. “Love one another as I have loved you” – that’s why we look at Christ’s love so that we will be motivated, but so that we will also follow the same pattern. If you keep looking at this pattern: Christ’s love for you, you will start going according to that pattern of love.

What was the pattern of Christ’s love? What were the unique characteristics of Jesus’s love? Jesus’s love is the highest kind of love. There is no love like His love. It’s unique and it’s just on a different level, isn’t it? Do you feel that way? Let me mention some unique characteristics of Jesus’s love because that’s our pattern. Let me mention some unique characteristics of his love. Several are there but certain things, I’ll point out quickly. For example, His initiative. If you look at the love of Jesus, the way Jesus loves us, you will see that He is the One who takes the initiative. Did you take the initiative? Did I take the initiative? Did we go to Jesus and say, “Please love us; please help us.”No! Before we took a step, He took a huge step toward us. Before we repented, before we called out to Him, before we were even born, He left His glorious throne and came down from there, all the way to this earth and lived among us as a Man. He faced what we face, and then suffered and died for us. He takes the initiative; He comes forward. In the world, usually, when they show love, they won’t take initiative. They’ll wait for the person in need, to ask. Please help me. I’m in great need, you know. Please help, please give me funds, or please give that or this and then only the person will give. That’s how it usually works. But Jesus takes the initiative, before we asked before we took one step towards Him, He took a thousand steps toward us. He takes the initiative, and what an initiative. He came down from there to here.

So, let me mention another unique characteristic of Jesus. His love is humility. He came down all the way from there to here. Nobody has shown humility in loving us like Jesus, because nobody has been as high as Jesus was – the Son of God, on the glorious throne of heaven. Nobody has been so high, and nobody has come down so low like Jesus has, to love us. Our Lord Jesus comes not just from His throne down to this earth, but all the way to the cross. That’s how low He went.He not only humbled himself. But Philippians chapter 2 says, “He humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross”. He allowed Himself to be humiliated so that He can love us and help us and serve us. What humiliation. I mean, forget about humility, He went through humiliation. It’s really difficult for us to have humility, even in ordinary situations. You know, when an employee talks against the boss, the boss gets really upset because the boss has a certain ego. When our juniors speak against us, we get a little upset because how dare they speak against us? But Jesus, He was not just the boss, He was not just a senior, He was the Creator. And these fellows mocked Him. I’m talking about just before the cross, He was mocked, He was spit upon, He was slapped, He was insulted, He was stripped. Think about it. He was beaten. The fellow who was mocking Him, Jesus is the One who made his mouth itself, gave him the power to speak itself. And with that power, he’s mocking his Creator. The fellow who’s beating Jesus; Jesus is the One who made his hands. The One who gave him the life and energy with which he then beats Him.

Unbelievable humility Jesus displays, keeps quiet, doesn’t open His mouth, just bears it all, so that He can make a real difference in our lives so that He can pay the price for our sins so that He can give us salvation. Only He can do that! Only He can give us salvation! And only through this way, by an act of suffering and humiliation, death on a cross. And so, He’s willing to do anything to serve us in a deep and meaningful way. He went through it, to accomplish a great purpose. He didn’t just go through it, you know, just to be humiliated. No, no, He went through it to accomplish a great purpose: salvation for mankind. These are Jesus’s unique characteristics. There is no love like His love. You can’t compare His love with anyone’s love. The initiative of it, the humility of it, the sacrifice of it, the willingness to sacrifice anything, to offer a meaningful solution to our problem. So many traits, I can go on mentioning, but I think that that’s enough. That’s the pattern that Jesus tells us to follow. He says, “Love one another as I have loved you”. Unbelievable, that Jesus would tell us, to love like He loved. Isn’t that unbelievable? I mean, imagine what would happen if we loved like Jesus loved. I’m not talking about the whole world, loving like Jesus, no, no. I’m talking about believers. The command is to believers, the command is not to the whole world. Remember the command, when Jesus originally gave it, was to His 11 disciples – His true disciples – not even Judas, His 11 disciples, in that upper room. And today also, His command goes out, not to everyone, but His true disciples, because only they can truly fulfil this because this is a monumental task. This is a very difficult thing to do, to love like Jesus loved is extremely difficult. It’s not a joke. Extremely difficult, but that’s what Jesus tells us to do.

What’s most difficult He tells us to do? He expects us to do it. It looks like He thinks we can do it. That’s the amazing part to me. I look at myself in the mirror and I think, there’s no way I can do that, but He looks at me and He says, “This is how I want you to live. I want you to live like Me, love like Me”. Jesus is telling you; He wants you to live like Him, love like Him. And I know that Jesus not only expects this from us, but Jesus knows that we can do it. With His help, we can do it. It’s extremely difficult, but with the help of Jesus, with the help of the Holy Spirit, when we meditate on Christ’s love, it will transform us and we can do this, my friend. Believers can follow this command. I’m not saying we can love equal to Jesus, on the same level. No. We can love like Him, similar to Him, according to the same pattern, right. Something like Him, we can love, which is very different from the way the world loves. We can love like Him. Because He’ll help us. Imagine what it would look like if believers loved if all believers loved like Jesus loved: loved one another. I’m not talking about loving the world even. I’m talking about loving one another, that’s all. Forget about all believers, just take one church. Imagine if a large percentage of the church – of one church, believers in one church – loved each other like this, what that would look like, how amazing that would be. This is the vision that Jesus has for us. I’m just here to remind you of this, my friend. Imagine if we took the initiative, before others asked, if we saw their need, and reached out to help them. Imagine if we were willing to humble ourselves for a great purpose. Imagine if we were willing to make sacrifices for a great purpose to meet needs in a deep and meaningful way. Imagine if we did this for people who didn’t deserve it. This is what Jesus calls us to do, commands us to do, expects us to do, empowers us to do. Jesus is our motivation and our pattern. You’ve got to draw strength from His love only. Otherwise, there’s no chance.

So that’s third, right? So, we spoke about why we should love, what it means to love, and how we’ve got to draw motivation and the pattern from Christ’s love, right. Fourthly, the grand result. If we do this, when this happens on a significant scale, level, this will produce a very grand result. It will be a powerful witness to the world. Our love for one another will be a powerful witness to the world, pointing them to Jesus; powerful witness to the world pointing them to Jesus. Look at Jesus’s own words in John 13:34.You know, John 13:34 is the main verse for today, right. Now, I want to read those two verses there, John 13:34 and 35.You’ll see Jesus, talking about what an impact this will have on the world. John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another”. And then, look at this, verse 35:“By this”—by what?“By this”, means by you loving one another; “All will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”. By this, all will know – some translations put it like this: “By this, the world will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”. Jesus is saying, “If you actually do what I tell you to do, if you actually follow my command, if you actually do this, the world will know that you are My disciples”. What is He saying? He’s saying, “The world will see the love you show amongst one another, and connect you to Me. The world will see your love and through that, they will see Me. When you love one another, you will actually be projecting Me to the world. When you love one another, you will actually be showing Me to the world. Your love for one another will become a witness to Me in front of this world”. What is He saying? He’s saying, “The world will see our love for one another, and be attracted to Jesus”, that’s what He’s saying. Let me say that again. The world will see our love for one another and be attracted to Jesus. We all want to reach the world, we want to reach the lost, we want to lead the unsaved to Christ. What’s the best way to do it? Let me tell you, one of the best ways, according to the New Testament is, by simply loving one another. Forget about loving the world; I’m talking about loving one another. Just by loving one another, we show a powerful witness in front of this world. The world sees Jesus through that.

Sometimes we think in a warped, distorted manner and we think that doing this or that may impress the world, doing this or that may attract the world to Christ, you know. We think our grand events or grand this or that, may attract the world to Christ. We think sometimes our very holy-looking dress, clothes, may attract the world to Christ. Sometimes we think our disciplined life will attract the world to Christ. Sometimes we think our bhakti, as they call it in Tamil, you know. Our religion or let me put it, like, our piety – being very pious. We think that will be a powerful testimony to the world, but it simply isn’t. The truth of the matter is those things don’t really attract the world to Christ. They are not impressed by our piety, they are sometimes not even impressed by our so called, you know, ‘discipline’. You know, the Pharisees had great discipline and great piety. They prayed regularly, they fasted regularly, they gave tithes of everything they had. They were very disciplined, tried to follow all the laws, and appeared to be doing so. One group of people are impressed by them, but it didn’t really lead to any transformation of anybody, you see. What was wrong with them? They got several things, you know, it looked like they got several things right nut they had several things wrong about them and one of the main things is, Jesus points out, they did not have love. They did not have mercy. They did not have compassion. He says, “Woe unto you, Pharisees! ”Jesus tells them, “You tithe your mint and cumin and dill and every little thing, but you neglect the weightier matters of the law: mercy and justice”. What I’m trying to say is, we sometimes misjudge the whole thing, and we think our piety and our pious behavior will attract the world to Christ. No, my friend, that’s not enough! What will attract the world to Christ, is our love for one another. Jesus is very clear: “By this, they will know that you are my disciples”. Sometimes, we think signs and wonders are the best attraction to Christ. No, signs and wonders, are something God Himself gives, along with the Gospel; He says, in My name you will cast out demons, you’ll heal the sick, and you will do this and that. All this will happen, wonders will happen, signs will happen, miracles will happen”. And yes, people do get attracted, they do come to Christ and all that is true, but yet, the Bible reserves a higher place for love than even signs and wonders. See, we got things upside down, many times. We like the display of power; we like to show that power; we’re impressed by the power because we think the world is impressed by the power; we’re wanting to show the power. Jesus says, “Show the love”. It’s not that we should not show the power, or we should not show the miracles. I’m saying, this is very neglected— the love is completely neglected. Whereas, in the New Testament, it receives the prime place, really, the top place. “By this, they will know that you are My disciples”.

Now, think about it. When we truly love, like Jesus loved; if we truly love like Jesus loved anything like that, something close to that, the world will be shocked. The world will be amazed. Because the world does not see love like that; they can’t imagine love like this; they can’t imagine, for example, love across all boundaries of race and religion and, you know, race and caste and culture and, you know, things like that. See, the world thinks, in the world, usually people will love people, who are like them. Generally, we love more people, who are like us right, similar to us, people from our town, our background, our mother tongue. We will be nice to them. We see somebody different; we are a little hesitant, we back off a little, we don’t know what they’re like and we can’t get along and this and that. When the world sees a church, where people from different backgrounds are coming and they’re mingling and they’re getting along, and they’re having a certain unity and not only that, they are showing love to one another, they are helping each other out, they’re serving one another, you know. When one person is troubled, the other person is lifting them up, bearing the other’s burdens, irrespective of differences with caste and socioeconomic status and this and that; when the world sees that it is amazed. It cannot digest that; it cannot comprehend that. How can a group love like this, they think?

But that’s exactly what Jesus calls us to do. That’s the church, that’s the community of believers. We come from various backgrounds, various, whatever, castes, races, mother tongues. All these differences are there, but then, we are one in Christ. And we love each other, and we serve each other, and we help each other. And, when we do this, this is a powerful witness in front of this world, especially today. When we live in a time where, you know, everybody’s trying to divide people. They divide people based on caste, based on this and that, they divide, divide, divide, and if the world sees the opposite of that, where people are uniting, irrespective of all these differences, and they’re loving one another, my friend, that will have a huge impact on the world. Think about it. You want a strategy of evangelism; you want a strategy to save the last, to reach out the lost for Christ; you want to show Jesus to the world. I don’t think there is a better way to do it, than this. Certain, according to the teaching of the New Testament, there is no better way. It’s not enough, if we preach the love of Christ to people. We are called to show the love of Christ. And let’s begin by showing love towards one another.

I encourage you to pray and ask God to lead you, to apply this in your life. Depend on the Holy Spirit, meditate on Christ’s love for you. God will lead you, even in difficult times like this; even in difficult times like this, God will lead you to make a real difference in this world. When you apply this, you need some caution, you need some wisdom also. Some people, in the name of loving one another, they will act recklessly. They say, I’ll go here and do this and that, you know. No, you can act recklessly. You can’t act without wisdom; you need God’s wisdom, you need God’s guidance, you need to do things God’s way, not in a fleshly way again. We are all about the flesh, many times. I’ll do this and that and show the love and you know. No, no, no. Wait upon God, pray to Him, ask Him for His guidance, depend on the Holy Spirit. Don’t do it in a fleshly way but do it with divine wisdom. Do it in a way where your motive is pure, your heart is pure. You’ve got wisdom and you’re acting with God’s wisdom. Show God’s love, let Him lead you, even in difficult times like this.

You know, in history, in Christian history, pandemics have been, times when Christians have shown great love. We have never gone through a pandemic before, our generation. This is the first time we are going through something like this but if you look at Christian history, Christians have gone through pandemics many times. I’m talking about Christian history, you will see, several pandemics, several epidemics and plagues and things like that. You will see, one of the things that stand out in Christian history, if you look, is when these diseases were raging in the world and pandemics or epidemics or whatever you want to call them, Christian love has shined brightly. The love Christians show towards one another, the love Christians show to outsiders. People who the world ignores and doesn’t take care of and, you know, doesn’t really care about the poor and downcast. That is where Christians have shown their love and really stood out. And the world has taken notice; the world has become attracted to Christ through that, you can see. Right from the early church, that period, I’m talking like in the 280 ADs. Plagues have come and people have been amazed by the level of love shown by Christians. And they say that the very concept of medical care and preferential treatment being given for the sick, the very notion that the sick have to be taken care of. There’s got to be somebody to take care of them and nurse them and give them— that very idea itself, comes from Christianity because before that, the Romans just used to leave the sick to die. That’s it! It was the Christians who brought in the very notion that these people need to be cared for and things like that, you know. And that’s where the very idea of a hospital came from. Public hospitals and all that. It’s in Christian history. History has proven, has proven again and again, that times like these are opportunities for Christians to show love and thereby, show Christ. I think we all have a genuine desire to show Christ to this world; be a powerful witness.

We have an opportunity. Forget about loving others out there in the world. I’m saying, “We can first love one another. We can begin there. We can begin in small ways”. I’m saying, “We can begin right inside our house”. I’m not telling you to break the rules and go out. No, no. Like I said, “Don’t act recklessly”, right. Some people are all about acting recklessly, ignoring all the rules and the laws that the government puts for our own good. No, no. We should not be irresponsible citizens in that way. I’m saying, “There’s a lot we can do, right inside our homes, itself. And for the rest, may the Lord lead you”. Depend on Him, His guidance, His wisdom. Right. But let’s look at the times that we are living in as an opportunity to love others. And through that, glorify the name of Christ, in this world.

Let us pray.