November 15th, 2020
John 13:31-38
“Love”
Call to Worship: Psalm 100
Aux. texts: Matthew 22:35-40 & 1 John 4:19-21
Service Orientation: God is Love. Jesus really loves. Jesus’ real disciples must really love.
Bible Memory Verse for the Week: By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. — John 13:35
Background Information:
- By comparing these two passages (vv. 15 and 34) it becomes clear that in vv. 1-20 Jesus illustrates the new commandment which he issues in v. 34. (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 257)
- Beginning in 13:31 and running through the end of chapter 16, Jesus gave a farewell address to the eleven apostles (Judas having been dismissed [13:27, 30]). The Lord’s final charge to the men who would carry on His work included instruction, promises, warnings, and commandments. In this opening section of that address, the Lord highlights the premier mark of those who are His true disciples–namely, sincere, selfless love. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 86)
- The word love is used only twelve times in John 1-12, but in John 13-21 it is used forty-four times! It is a key word in Christ’s farewell sermon to His disciples, as well as a burden in His high priestly prayer (Jn 17:26). (Warren W. Wiersby, Be Alive, 29)
- The consensus is that the man who sat that night in the seat of honor, who was close enough for Jesus to simply reach over to him and give him a piece of bread, was Judas. If that is so, then the disciple who was honored that night was the disciple who proved most treacherous to Jesus. (R.C. Sproul, John: An Expositional Commentary, 237)
- (v. 31) “Now” points to present circumstances. Now that the betrayal is under way the glorification of the Son has begun. (Leon Morris, The New Int’l Commentary on the NT: John, 560)
- (v. 33) By using this form of address here in 13:33 Jesus implies that the disciples, though spiritually immature, are, nevertheless, very dear to him. (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 252)
- (v. 34) The Law required love of one’s neighbor, which was a fleshly relationship; Christ enjoins love to our brethren, which is a spiritual relationship. Here, then, is the first sense in which this “commandment” was a new one. (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 748)
- (v. 34) How can Christ call it “a new command”? The answer is that it was raised to an entirely new level and given an entirely new significance by Jesus. We can say that it is given a new object; it is to be exercised according to a new measure; it is to be made possibly by a new power. (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 4, 1039)
- (v. 36) The Gospels are full of Peter! No disciple spoke as often as Peter. Our Lord addressed him more than any other of his followers. No disciple was reproved by Jesus as much or as strongly as Peter was. He was also the only disciple who thought it his duty to reprove Jesus! He was impulsive, one of those souls who acted first and thought afterwards. No disciple ever so boldly confessed and encouraged Christ–and none ever bothered our Lord more than he did. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: John, 327)
- (v. 36) In all four lists of the apostles given in the Gospels, the order of the names varies, but Peter’s is always first and Judas’ is always last. All the Gospels testify to Peter’s primacy. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: John, 327)
- (v. 38) Rooster-crowing served as a time-indication. Mk 13:35 indicates that it marked the third of the four “watches.” These four were as follows: “evening”: 6-9, “midnight”: 9-12, “rooster-crowing”: 12-3, “morning”: 3-6. Hence, what Jesus means seems to be that before 3:00 am Peter will deny him three times. (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 256)
The question to be answered is . . . What does real love look like?
Answer: God glorifies Jesus and His sacrificial love because Jesus exemplifies real love. Not the love Peter brags of having.
Scripture teaches us that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16). This means that a proper understanding of God’s character is intimately connected with a proper understanding of what love is. I can think of no more simple and powerful way for Satan to corrupt our understanding of the very character of God than by twisting and distorting our understanding of what love is and is not. Consistently throughout Scripture we see that God created gender, sexuality, and marriage as metaphors that reflect truths about his nature and his relationship with the church. This means that matters of “sexual ethics” are never merely questions of human behavior. Rather, in an incredibly powerful and formative way, they instruct (or corrupt) how we understand the very character of God and of our relationship with him. — Dr. David Diener
The Word for the Day is . . . Love
You have to work hard to offend Christians. By nature, Christians are the most forgiving, understanding, and thoughtful group of people I’ve ever dealt with. They never assume the worst. They appreciate the importance of having different perspectives. They’re slow to anger, quick to forgive, and almost never make rash judgments or act in anything less than a spirit of total love. . . . No, wait—I’m thinking of golden retrievers!
What does real love look like?:
I- God glorifies Jesus and His sacrificial love because Jesus exemplifies real love. (Jn 13:31-32, 34; see also: Mt 5:43-46; 22:35-40; Mk 12:28-33; Lk 6:27-35; 10:27; Jn 3:16; 10:11; 13:1-17; 14:15; 15:12-17; 17:5; Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:14; 1 Cor 13:4-8a; Eph 5:2)
Love’s highest expression is self-sacrifice. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 86)
The Greek word agape (love) seems to have been virtually a Christian invention—a new word for a new thing (apart from about twenty occurrences in the Greek version of the OT, it is almost non-existent before the NT). Agape draws its meaning directly from the revelation of God in Christ. It is not a form of natural affection, however, intense, but a supernatural fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). It is a matter of will rather than feeling (for Christians must love even those they dislike—Mt 5:44-48). I t is the basic element in Christ-likeness.
Read 1 Cor 13 and note what these verses have to say about the primacy (vv. 1-3) and permanence (vv. 8-13) of love; note too the profile of love (vv. 4-7) which they give. (James Packer; Your Father Loves You)
Here you may say, “I don’t like the idea of the wrath of God. I want a God of love.”
The problem is that if you want a loving God, you have to have an angry God. Please think about it. Loving people can get angry, not in spite of their love but because of it. In fact, the more closely and deeply you love people in your life, the angrier you can get. Have you noticed that? When you see people who are harmed or abused, you get mad. If you see people abusing themselves, you get mad at them, out of love. Your senses of love and justice are activated together, not in opposition to each other. If you see people destroying themselves or destroying other people and you don’t get mad, it’s because you don’t care. You’re too absorbed in yourself, too cynical, too hard. The more loving you are, the more ferociously angry you will be at whatever harms your beloved. (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 176-77)
God loves you right where you are but he doesn’t want to leave you there. — Max Lucado
Until Judas left, Jesus spoke under painful restraint. The presence of the betrayer prevented the outpouring of His heart. When Judas departs, the cross is as good as accomplished. The Satan-filled man will see it to the bitter end. Jesus is relieved. Not merely of Judas’ presence, but He has triumphed (within His Spirit) over the consequences of the betrayal, His glory in the cross. Jesus glorified the Father by continuing to love Judas, refusing to betray him to the disciples. God’s love was manifested when Jesus’ heart didn’t change, even though Judas yielded to Satan. (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on John, 230)
It is a strange thought that the supreme glory of God lies in the Incarnation and the Cross. There is no glory like that of being loved. Had God remained aloof and majestic, serene and unmoved, untouched by any sorrow and unhurt by any pain, men might have feared him and men might have admired him; but they would never have loved him. The law of sacrifice is not only a law of earth; it is a law of heaven and earth. It is in the Incarnation and the Cross that God’s supreme glory is displayed. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 148)
Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to both Judas and Peter, but he did not change the situation, nor did he stop loving them. In the same way, Jesus knows exactly what you will do to hurt him. Yet he still loves you unconditionally and will forgive you whenever you ask. Judas couldn’t understand this, and his life ended tragically. Peter understood, and despite his shortcomings, his life ended triumphantly because he never let go of his faith in the one who loved him. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 283)
Though the crucifixion was the point of His greatest humiliation (Phil 2:8), it was also the event by which He is most glorified (cf. Jn 17:4-5; Phil 2:9-11). His entire ministry pointed to the cross (Mk 10:45), making it the glorious climax of the life He lived perfectly in keeping with His Father’s will. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 86-7)
Jesus was glorified through the cross in several ways. First, His death purchased salvation by satisfying the demands of God’s justice for all who would believe in Him. Paul wrote to the Colossians that God, “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. . . has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col 2:14; cf. 1:19-22; Rom 3:25; 5:8-9; Eph 2:16; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). The death of Jesus Christ also destroyed the power of sin; by “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:3; cf. 6:6). Finally, His death destroyed the power of Satan, ending the reign of terror of “him who had the power of death” (Heb 2:14; cf. Isa 25:8; Hos 13:14; 1 Cor 15:54-57; 2 Tm 1:10; 1 Jn 3:8). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 87)
But we don’t ponder how much his anger is also a function of his love and goodness. The Bible tells us that God loves everything he has made. That’s one of the reasons he’s angry at what’s going on in his creation; he is angry at anything or anyone that is destroying the people and world he loves. His capacity for love is so much greater than ours–and the cumulative extent of evil in the world is so vast–that the word wrath doesn’t really do justice to how God rightly feels when he looks at the world. So it makes no sense to say, “I don’t want a wrathful God, I want a loving God.” If God is loving and good, he must be angry at evil–angry enough to do something about it. (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 177)
We need to further explore the power of human love to feed our divine love. Rather than seeing marriage as a cosmic competitor with heaven, we can embrace it as a school of faith. Maximus the confessor (580-662) observed that the love we have for God and the love we have for others are not two distinct loves, but “two aspects of a single total love.” Jesus suggested the same thing, when in response to a question about the “greatest” commandment he declared that there is not just one, but two–not only must we love God, but also our neighbors. (Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, 267)
Love in response to goodness is not love, it is reward. You don’t earn love. If you earn it, it isn’t love. So when the Bible talks about love and grace, it is always in the context of sin and rebellion. The Prodigal Son is not the exception of love, but the very definition of it. (Steve Brown, Born Free, 138)
When some trial or affliction comes upon us, especially if it is the direct result of fidelity to Jesus Christ, it would make all the difference in the world if we saw that the cross we have to bear is our glory and the way to a greater glory still. For Jesus there was no other way to glory than through the Cross; and so it must ever be with those who follow him. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 82)
Here we are face to face with something which is of the very warp and woof of life. The greatest glory in life is the glory which comes from sacrifice. In any warfare the supreme glory belongs, not to those who survive but to those who lay down their lives. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 148)
In medicine it is not the physicians who made a fortune who are remembered; it is those who gave their lives that healing might come to men. It is the simple lesson of history that those who have made the great sacrifices have entered into the great glory. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 148)
Holy anger is the counterpart to love. Both are part of the nature of God. Jesus’ love for the man with the withered hand aroused His anger against those who would deny him healing. Jesus’ love for God’s house made Him angry at the sellers and buyers who had turned the temple into a “den of robbers” (Mt 21:13). (J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, 69)
God sent the Son to become a man–as man was created to be, without sin. As the Son of Man, he was to take the place of sinful man and make the sacrifice for all sins. Therein lay his glory and the glory of God, who sent him. (Gary P. Baumler, The People’s Bible: John, 193)
There are NO levels or degrees of AGAPE love. It is either present or it is not. To segment or to designate it to greater or lesser degrees is to either pervert or totally misunderstand AGAPE love.
Agape doesn’t love somebody because they’re worthy.
Agape makes them worthy by the strength and power of its love.
Agape doesn’t love somebody because they’re beautiful.
Agape loves in such a way that it makes them beautiful.
(Rob Bell; Sex God, 120)
God’s magnificent moral splendor is displayed by Jesus’ act of obedience, so God is glorified in Jesus. At the same moment, Jesus is glorified as he resumes the glory he had with the Father before the foundation of the world. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 281)
II- Not Peter’s love . . . now. (Jn 13:36-38; see also: Mt 26:33, 56, 69-75; Mk 14:31; Lk 22:33; Jn 21:15-19)
Vanstone says, In false love your aim is to use the other person to fulfill your happiness. Your love is conditional: You give it only as long as the person is affirming you and meeting your needs. And it’s nonvulnerable: You hold back so that you can cut your losses if necessary. But in true love, your aim is to spend yourself and use yourself for the happiness of the other, because your greatest joy is that person’s joy. Therefore your affection is unconditional: You give it regardless of whether your loved one is meeting your needs. And it’s radically vulnerable: You spend everything, hold nothing back, give it all away. Then Vastone says, surprisingly, that our real problem is that nobody is actually fully capable of giving true love. We want it desperately, but we can’t give it. He doesn’t say we can’t give any kind of real love at all, but he’s saying that nobody is fully capable of true love. All of our love is somewhat fake. How so? Because we need to be loved like we need air and water. We can’t live without love. That means there’s a certain mercenary quality to our relationships. We look for people whose love would really affirm us. We invest our love only where we know we’ll get a good return. (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross, 98) {Bold purple emphasis Pastor Keith}
We need to remember, however, that Peter was on the verge of denying Jesus, and all of the disciples, every one of them, would abandon Him in the night. Despite the best of intentions, they did not have the strength to stand firm for Jesus. We, too, are equally prone to fall. In fact, every time we sin, we commit cosmic treason against our Lord and Savior. (R.C. Sproul, John: An Expositional Commentary, 237)
In the church of Jesus Christ, we discover that the people we love and with whom we fellowship are different from us. The more there is of the love Christ exhorted us to have, a love for one another, the greater will be the diversity within the body of Christ. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: John, 326)
Peter is about to say that he will die for Jesus if necessary. It is true, of course, that their love was not as strong as they thought it was. Peter would not die; in fact, he would deny his Master. The others would scatter at the moment of the arrest in Gethsemane. Nevertheless, they did truly love him. And yet, just as certainly as they loved him, so it is certain that they did not really love one another with anything even approaching that intensity. On the contrary, they were actually jealous of one another. They were disputing over who should be greatest. They would not wash the others’ feet. In this situation Jesus, who is about to be taken from them, points out that now it is precisely one another whom they must love. (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 4, 1038)
Peter cannot follow now, not only because it is not the time for him to die (cf. 21:18-19), but because only Jesus, the Lamb of God, can offer the sacrifice that deals with the world’s sins. Only he can reveal the Father perfectly, and be glorified in the presence of the Father with the glory he had before the world began. But Peter will follow later, not as a second lamb of God, but in the sense that he will follow Jesus in death, and join him in glory. (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 486)
But that was not the end of the story for Peter. Christ’s love for him would not let Peter slip away (cf. Jn 6:37, 39; 10:28-29). After being restored by Jesus (Jn 21:15-17–note the emphasis on love in Christ’s restoration of Peter) and filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4), Peter became the leader of the early church. He fearlessly preached the gospel (Acts 2:14-36; 3:12-26), and wrote two epistles in which he distilled some of the painful lessons he had learned (cf. 1 Pt 4:7; 5:5). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 93)
No one will ever know the terrible anguish of soul that Peter went through then–the nauseous darkness and confusion of those seventy-two hours of the grave. Something died inside Peter that night! Simon the natural man with all his self-assured presumption was about to die. Peter was beginning to know himself. He was defeated and disconsolate that night, but God was not through with him! (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: John, 332)
When we envision Peter speaking so boldly and then imagine his cowardice later that night, each of us must feel a twinge. We recall, perhaps, a number of times when we had bold intentions for Jesus that melted into cowardly denial when we were tested. The cock crows for us too. (Gary P. Baumler, The People’s Bible: John, 195)
Peter’s foolish, though well-intentioned boast was the first thing that led to his failing the test of loyalty to Christ. Another contributing factor was his failure to “keep watching and praying that [he might] not enter into temptation” (Mt 26:41). Those two manifestations of his pride and overconfidence plunged Peter into the depths of cowardice and remorseful despair (Lk 22;61-62). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 93)
Peter wanted to follow Jesus and be loyal to Him. But Jesus was forced to show him his inability, in his own strength, to remain faithful. So He predicted that Peter, before the sun rose, would prove himself much more Judas-like than he could wish. (R.C. Sproul, John: An Expositional Commentary, 236)
Today’s culture glories in self satisfaction, teaching that if one is not personally and fully satisfied, he or she therefore has a right to break off the marriage relationship. But this is not God’s teaching. God’s teaching is that we are to die to self in order that the other person might be fulfilled and that it is only as this begins to happen that we ourselves find satisfaction. (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 4, 1047)
Evidently Christ’s words subdued Peter, who remained uncharacteristically silent through the rest of the Lord’s farewell discourse (Peter does not reappear in the narrative until 18:10). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 93)
The worse sin toward your fellow creature is not to hate him, but to be indifferent toward him. That is the essence of inhumanity. — George Bernard Shaw.
Someone has properly said that the opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is indifference. It’s safe to say that few, if any, parents have hated their child, but many have been indifferent to their child’s interests. When you never get up from the chair and walk across the room to look at something that has been laid out in Legos or blocks, when you never admire a picture that has been colored within the lines, when you never listen with interest to a new song that has been learned, you set a negative tone of rejection. (Jay Kesler; Ten Mistakes Parents Make With Teenagers, 82)
Though not one of the disciples knew his own heart, yet while all were ensnared, Peter went much farther: he denied that he even knew the Master at all; see on 18:15-17; 18:25-27; cf. Mt 26:69-75. (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 256)
“God’s help is near and always available, but it is only given to those who seek it. Nothing results from apathy . . .” (Life Lessons with Max Lucado: Books of Ezra & Nehemiah, 23)
Jesus knew Peter in all his love. He knew that whatever Peter did he loved him. If we would only understand that often when people hurt us, fail us, wound us, or disappoint us, it is not the real person who is acting. The real person is not the one who wounds us or fails us, but the one who loves us. The basic thing is not his failure, but his love. Jesus knew that about Peter. It would save us many a heartbreak and many a tragic breach if we remembered the basic love and forgave the moment’s failure. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 152)
Worship Point: Worship the God of the Universe Who through Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can empower us to truly love like Jesus. (Jer 31:31-34; Jn 13:34; Rom 5:5; Gal 5:22-23; 2 Tim 1:7)
Because Christians have been regenerated by the power of the Spirit (Ti 3:5-7), they are those who truly love God and love others (cf. Rom 12:9-21; 1 Cor 13:3-8; 1 Pt 1:22-25; 1 Jn 4:7-11). They are those who are enabled to obey the greatest commandments–“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is like this, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:30-31). Unlike the unredeemed, who hate God and love themselves (cf. Eph 2:1-3), Christians love the Lord (cf. Jn 8:42) and also love others (cf. Phil 2:1-5). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 84)
The great preacher Donald Grey Barnhouse observed, “Love that gives upward is worship, love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace” (Exposition of Bible Doctrines Taking the Epistle to the romans as a Point of Departure, vol. 1, 72)
“Love is SACRIFICIAL Action!” Love always pays a price. Love always costs something. Love is expensive. When you love, benefits accrue to another’s account. Love is for you, not for me. Love gives; it doesn’t grab. (Dave Simmons, Dad, The Family Coach, 123-4)
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin or your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable…The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers…of love is Hell. (C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, 169)
God saw Abraham’s sacrifice and said, “Now I know that you love me, because you did not withhold your only son from me.” But how much more can we look at his sacrifice on the Cross, and say to God, “Now, we know that you love us. For you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from us.” When the magnitude of what he did dawns on us, it makes it possible finally to rest our hearts in him rather than in anything else. (Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, 18)
Not only would such love bring unbelievers to Christ, it would also keep believers strong and united in a world hostile to God. And such love, enabled by Jesus’ love for them and by the coming Holy Spirit’s power in them, would allow them to love all those for whom Christ died, and unite them with Christ spiritually. Then one future day, all believers would be united physically with their Savior. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 282)
Its newness is bound up not only with the new standard (“As I have loved you”) but with the new order it both mandates and exemplifies. It is possible that there is an indirect allusion to the new covenant that was inaugurated at the last supper (1 Cor 11:25; cf. Lk 22:20), the new covenant that promised the transformation of heart and mind (Jer 31:29-34; Ezk 36:24-26). (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 484)
Gospel Application: Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:12-13). But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners (His enemy), Christ died for us. (Rom 5:5-8; 8:35-39; Phil 2:1-11; Eph 5:2)
At the cross, the love of God through Christ was put on display in an unsurpassable and eternally unique way (cf. Jn 3:16). Earlier in this chapter, the Lord had illustrated His humble, sacrificial love by washing the disciples’ feet (13:5-15). Now He pointed to the far greater demonstration of His sacrificial love–the cross. It is this infinite expression of love that undergirds the Lord’s subsequent command. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 89)
If you do not believe in a God of wrath, but only in a god of love; then what did it cost for your god of love to really love you? When you understand the wrath of God, you better understand the love of God because you understand what God was willing to do for you because of Your Sin. —Tim Keller
So often at the back of things it is our happiness that we are seeking. But Jesus never thought of himself. His one desire was to give himself and all he had for those he loved. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 149-50)
There was no limit to what his love would give or to where it would go. No demand that could be made upon it was too much. If love meant the Cross, Jesus was prepared to go there. Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that love is meant to give us happiness. So in the end it does, but love may well bring pain and demand a cross. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 150)
Christ had displayed a love superior to the faults of its objects, a love which never varied, a love which deemed no sacrifice too great. (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 748)
Spiritual Challenge: You can only really love when you have been loved and then to the extent you have been loved can you love (1 Jn 4:7-21). We love much when we realize we have been forgiven much. (Lk 7:47)
Love begets love — Shirley Marsh 3-27-13
In the end; we will conserve what we love, we will love what we understand, and we will understand what we have been taught. — Baba Dioun; African environmentalist
Of course, to love like that is impossible apart from the transforming power of the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34). It is only “because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom 5:5; cf. Gal 5:22) that believers can love as Jesus commanded. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 89)
By logical syllogism we deduce a very important fact. If a person is not loving, John says, he or she does not know God. How will that individual become more loving, then? Can we grow in love by trying to love more? No, our attempts to love will only end in more frustration and less love. The solution, John implies, is to know God better. This is so simple that we miss it all the time: our means for becoming more loving is to know God better. (Marva J. Dawn, Truly the Community: Romans 12, 146)
The fact is, I need God to help me love God. And if I need His help to love Him, a perfect being, I definitely need His help to love other, fault-filled humans. Something mysterious, even supernatural must happen in order for genuine love for God to grow in our hearts. The Holy Spirit has to move in our lives. (Francis Chan, Crazy Love, 104)
I don’t know about you, but I cannot simply muster up more love. I can’t manufacture patience just by gritting my teeth and determining to be more patient. We are not strong or good enough, and it doesn’t work that way. None of us can “do goodness” on our own, much less all the other elements that make up the fruit of the Spirit.
But despite our inability to change ourselves in this way, to simply become more peaceful or joyful, we expend a great deal of effort trying. We focus on what God wants us to do and forget the kind of people He wants us to be.
Instead of mustering up more willpower, let’s focus our energies and time on asking for help from the One who has the power to change us. Let’s take the time to ask God to put the fruit of His Spirit into our lives. And let’s spend time with the One we want to be more like. (Francis Chan, Forgotten God, 148)
The more we recognize the depth of our own sin, the more we recognize the love of the Savior; the more we appreciate the love of the Savior, the higher his standard appears; the higher his standard appears, the more we recognize in our selfishness, our innate self-centeredness, the depth of our own sin. With a standard like this, no thoughtful believer can ever say, this side of the Parousia, “I am perfectly keeping the basic stipulation of the new covenant.” (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 484)
The attitude of love would be the bond that would keep them united and would be the convincing demonstration that they had partaken of his own spirit and purpose. He had loved them without reservation and without limit (13:1-5) and expected them to do the same. (Frank E. Gæbelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 9, 142)
Sometimes we say that love is blind. That is not so, for the love that is blind can end in nothing but bleak and utter disillusionment. Real love is open-eyed. It loves, not what it imagines a man to be, but what he is. The heart of Jesus is big enough to love us as we are. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 150)
The only way you can become holy is to live from the Holy. The only way to become pure is to live from the Pure. The only way to become good is to live from the Good. The only way to become loving is to live from Love. The only way to become truly giving is to live from the Gift. And the only way to become godly is to live from God. You don’t attain heaven. You let heaven, through your life, touch the earth, touch every part of your world. . . on earth as it is in heaven. (Jonathan Cahn, The Book of Mysteries, Day 136)
It’s one thing to believe God’s love when you believe you’ve given Him cause and reason to love you. But it’s something else entirely when you’ve given Him no cause and no reason. But love needs no cause or reason. And God needs no reason to love you. He loves you because He is, and because love is. You can’t cause God to love you anymore than you could cause God Himself. Love loves without cause, except for the cause of love. So in your darkest pit, in your most unworthy, undeserving, sinful, and ungodly state, when you’ve given God absolutely no cause or reason to love you, He will love you still. And it is then, when you receive that uncaused love, that amazing grace, that it will change your life. . . and allow you to manifest the miracle to others. (Jonathan Cahn, The Book of Mysteries, Day 326)
“Love follows knowledge.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1300)
Now, it is this acquaintance with God that brings us into the knowledge of his character as a holy, loving, and faithful God; and it is this knowledge of his character that begets love and confidence in the soul towards him. The more we know of God, the more we love him; the more we try him, the more we confide in him. (Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, 98)
C.S. Lewis confessed that he too struggled with how to truly love the sinner while hating the sin. One day it suddenly became clear: “It occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life–namely myself. However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact, the very reason why I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things.” (Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, 171)
I can’t make myself love God, but I can come to know him better. And because God is love, the more I come to know him, the more my love for him will grow. Love is a by-product of knowing. So I can spend this day loving God. And tomorrow I can seek to love him a little more. This is a life “rich toward God.” (John Ortberg, When the Game is Over It All Goes Back in the Box, 30)
There is an indivisible linkage between loving God with all your soul and loving God with all your mind. Wonder and curiosity are spiritual cousins. When the soul stops wondering, the mind stops learning. And vice versa. A lack of wonder breeds a lack of curiosity, and a lack of curiosity breeds a lack of wonder. Either way, when you stop learning, you start dying intellectually. But the spiritual implications are more profound than that. When you stop learning, you stop loving. Why? Because loving is learning more and more about the one you love. True love is never satisfied. It always wants to know more about the object of its affection. The more you love God, the more curious you become. When it comes to loving God with all your mind, curiosity is both the cause and the effect. (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 91-2)
Rabbi Aaron the Great used to say: “I wish I could love the greatest saint as the Lord loves the greatest rascal.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, 424)
Having been profoundly impacted by Christ’s example and been the direct beneficiary of Christ’s sacrifice, Peter instructed his readers to “love one another from the heart” (1 Pt 1:22), since they had been redeemed “with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1:9). They were those who had “tasted the kindness of the Lord” (2:3), and who had Christ as “an example for [them] to follow in His steps” (2:21). Thus, they were to “above all, keep fervent in [their] love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (4:8). (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 93-4)
Love for our neighbor consists of three things: to desire the greater good of everyone; to do what good we can when we can; to bear, excuse and hide other’s faults. (John Vianney as quoted by Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 282)
Spiritual Challenge Questions:
- What does Jesus mean when He tells us “As I have loved you, so you must love one another”? (Jn 13:34) How did Jesus love the disciples . . . us?
- What kinds of expressions of love did Jesus demonstrate that were considered offensive by His contemporaries? By 21st Century Americans?
- Since God’s essential nature is love God is incapable of thinking or doing anything that is not loving. How do you answer critics of God’s condemnation, judgement and wrath in light of this statement?
- Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:12 “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold . . .” Are we seeing that today? Why or why not?
So What?: Jesus says, “The world has every right in the world to discredit Christianity and our faith if we fail to love other Christians (Jn 13:35). We love because He first loved us (Jn 21:15-17; 1 Jn 4:19). Do you know how much you are loved? (Jn 13:34-35; 15:12-13, 17; Rom 12:9-10; 1 Thess 3:12; 4:9-10; 2 Thess 1:3; Gal 5:13-14; Eph 4:2; 1 Pt 1:22; 3:8; 4:8; 1 Jn 2:4-11; 3:10-20; 4:7-21; 2 Jn 1:5)
In John 13 the point was that, if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he is not a Christian. Here Jesus is stating something else which is much more cutting, much more profound: We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’ claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians. (Francis A. Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian, 15)
Do people see petty bickering, jealousy, and division in your church? Or do they know you are Jesus’ followers by your love for one another? Love is more than simply warm feelings; it is an attitude that reveals itself in action. How can we love others as Jesus loves us? By helping when it’s not convenient, by giving when it hurts, by devoting energy to others’ welfare rather than our own, by absorbing hurts from others without complaining or fighting back. This kind of loving is hard to do. That is why people notice when you do it and know you are empowered by a supernatural source. (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 282)
The church is not to let pass what is wrong: but the Christian should suffer practical, monetary loss to show the oneness true Christians should have rather than to go to court against other true Christians, for this would destroy such an observable oneness before the watching world. This is costly love, but it is just such practicing love that can be seen. (Francis A. Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian, 29)
Love will find a way. Indifference will find an excuse.
Love is not verified as real love until it manifests itself in the face of that which is not lovely.
Every time you refuse to forgive or fail to overlook a weakness in another, your heart not only hardens toward them, it hardens toward God. You cannot form a negative opinion of someone (even though you think they may deserve it!) And allow that opinion to crystalize into an attitude; for every time you do, an aspect of your heart will cool toward God. You may still think you are open to God, but the Scriptures are clear: “The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20). You may not like what someone has done, but you do not have an option to stop loving them. Love is your only choice. (Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlegrounds, 70)
Nothing costs as much as caring . . . except not caring. (Our Daily Bread 11-20-13)
The church may be orthodox in its doctrine and vigorous in its proclamation of the truth, but that will not persuade unbelievers unless believers love each other. In fact, Jesus gave the world the right to judge whether or not someone is a Christian based on whether or not that person sincerely loves other Christians. (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John 12-21, 91)
They could not then know how Jesus was even loving Judas. Though Judas was his enemy, the Savior reached out to him. Within the church if we are to love one another as Jesus loved us, we must reach out in reconciliation, love, and forgiveness to those who are wronging us. And when that is done, it becomes a convincing argument for the gospel. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: John, 326)
The church is . . . made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is no common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together . . . because they have all been saved by Jesus Christ and owe Him a common allegiance. . . . They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’s sake. (D. A. Carson; Love in Hard Places, 61)
Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
Jesus turns to the world and says, “I’ve got something to say to you. On the basis of my authority, I give you a right: you may judge whether or not an individual is a Christian on the basis of the love he shows to all Christians.” (Jn 13:33-35) (Francis Schaeffer; The Mark of the Christian, 13)
If I fail in my love toward Christians, it does not prove I am not a Christian. What Jesus is saying, however, is that, if I do not have the love I should have toward all other Christians, the world has the right to make the judgment that I am not a Christian. (Francis Schaeffer; The Mark of the Christian, 13-14)
Christians are spiritual providers, not consumers. The NT assumes that Christians ask, How can I serve? rather than What’s in it for me? All Christians are to hold each other accountable (Mt 18:15-20). All Christians are to encourage each other in faith (Heb 10:23-25). And all Christians are to love deeply and sacrificially (Rom 12:1-13). Spiritual consumers commit to a congregation to the extent that commitment benefits them; spiritual providers commit because of the benefit they’ve already received in Christ. (Mark Dever & Jamie Dunlop, The Compelling Community, 165)
“Stoicism” has never been a Christian philosophy. If truth be told, we serve a passionate God who feels deeply.
Our passions are what make us come alive. The apathetic person is a pathetic person. While we often fear our passions because they can carry us into an affair, a fight, or some other destructive behavior, the solution is not living a less passionate life but finding the right things to be passionate about. (Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage, 222)
Love to God will expel love to the world; love to the world will deaden the soul’s love to God. “No man can serve two masters”: it is impossible to love God and the world, to serve him and mammon. Here is a most fertile cause of declension in Divine love; guard against it as you would fortify yourself against your greatest foe. It is a vortex that has engulfed millions of souls; multitudes of professing Christians have been drawn into its eddy, and have gone down into its gulf. (Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, 56)
In a consumer relationship you relate to a vendor. And you have a relationship as long as the vendor is giving you a product at a good price. But you are always looking to an upgrade. And so you say to your vendor, “We have a relationship. But, you better keep adjusting to me because if you don’t meet my needs, I’m out-a-here because my needs are more important than the relationship.” . . . But a covenant relationship is exactly the opposite. . . . A covenant relationship says, “I will adjust to you because I have made a promise. And the relationship is more important than my needs. My needs are less important than the sustenance of the relationship.”
Now if two people get into a relationship, one as a consumer and one as a covenanter; that will be bad for the covenanter; that covenant will be exploited. (Tim Keller message “Love and Lust”)
We are not to make a covenant relationship with the world and be unequally yoked (2 Cor 6:14).
If you get into a covenant relationship . . . you finally have a zone of security, a zone of safety, a place where you can finally be yourself. You see in a consumer relationship you are always marketing, you are always selling yourself, you’ve got to perform, you’ve got to meet the other person’s need or they’re out. But in a covenant, in a marriage . . . you can finally have a zone of safety, you can finally get rid of the facades, you can finally let him know, her know about your insecurities. You can finally be yourself. (Tim Keller message “Love and Lust”)
When you are committed to a person in spite of your feelings, deeper feelings grow. For example: The other covenant relationship is the relationship between parents and children. . . . In parenting you get very little back, for a long time, and they never catch up. You give and you give and you never get back. It is not a consumer relationship at all. You adjust to them. . . . What is weird is you do it and you are so invested in your children so that even when they in no way act in a lovable way, you love them. There is a deeper richer kind of feeling because you are invested in them. And in the same way, if you treat your marriage . . . as a covenant relationship, if you are committed in spite of feelings, deeper feelings grow. (Tim Keller message “Love and Lust”)
Jesus asked His disciples to display steadfast love, love that stands up when push comes to shove. He drew attention to the betrayal by which He would actually be glorified, and in that context He demanded from His disciples and all who would follow Him a love that has no place for treason. (R.C. Sproul, John: An Expositional Commentary, 236)
If we do not move in divine forgiveness, we will walk in much deception. We will presume we have discernment when, in truth, we are seeing through the veil of a critical spirit. We must know our weaknesses, for if we are blind to our sins, what we assume we discern in men will merely be the reflection of ourselves. Indeed, if we do not move in love, we will actually become a menace to the body of Christ (Mt 7:1-5). (Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlegrounds, 75)
Love is the badge of Christian discipleship. It is not knowledge, nor orthodoxy, nor fleshly activities, but (supremely) love which identifies a follower of the Lord Jesus. As the disciples of the Pharisees were known by their phylacteries, as the disciples of John were known by their baptism, and every school by its particular shibboleth, so the mark of a true Christian is love; and that, a genuine, active love, not in words but in deeds. (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 749)
It was a glorious band of brothers and sisters that sailed the oceans and marched through the continents to both dungeon and throne with the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ! One of the reasons they succeeded is that mankind, severed from one another, longing to come together, witnessed real love among the followers of Christ–and especially among believing Jews, the narrowest, most bigoted, most intolerant nation on the face of the earth. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: John, 325)
Orthodoxy without principal obedience to this characteristic command of the new covenant is merely so much humbug. (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 485)
At the risk of confounding logic, it is not so much that Christians are to love the world less, as that they are to love one another more. Better put, their love for each other ought to be a reflection of their new status and experience as the children of God, reflecting the mutual love of the Father and the Son and imitating the love that has been shown them; their love for the world is the love of compassion, forbearance, evangelism, empathy–since all true Christians recognize they can never be more than mere beggars telling others where there is bread. (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 485)
They were all to forsake him in his hour of need. They never, in the days of his flesh, really understood him. They were blind and insensitive, slow to learn, and lacking in understanding. In the end they were craven cowards. But Jesus held nothing against them; there was no failure which he could not forgive. The love which has not learned to forgive cannot do anything else but shrivel and die. We are poor creatures, and there is a kind of fate in things which makes us hurt most of all those who love us best. For that very reason all enduring love must be built on forgiveness, for without forgiveness it is bound to die. (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 150)
JESUS:
LOVE EMBODIED
