It is no easy task…
For the last two weeks at Christ Community Church in Daytona, we’ve been looking at the new commandment in John 13.
Years ago a South African author named Andrew Murray wrote these words:
The subject of love … is one of the most difficult and profound of themes. It is no easy task to ascend to heaven and there behold the heavenly glory as an ocean of holy, all-embracing love! …. and then to return to earth and see how, among men, instead of brotherliness, hared with all of it sad results has characteized the history of mankind. Think of the state of the world at present, and then realise the power that the Evil One has to divide even God’s children from each other in bitterest enmity. What a task … to try to recommend this love and to find an entrance for it in men’s hearts! And how shall we above all, persuade God’s children to believe that this life in the love of God and in love to the brethern, is not only possible but a plain duty, and worth the sacrifice of all to possess and to proclaim it.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35
Larry is the senior pastor at 
I appreciated today’s sermon on loving “as I have loved you”, a standard which has haunted me as well. Since our growth group is studying Philippians, in my devotions last night I looked over and was challenged afresh by Philippians 1:8 “God can testify how I long for all of you WITH THE AFFECTION OF CHRIST JESUS.” Paul then prays that their (and our) love would abound more and more. I was convicted at how dissimilar my love (for even my wife) is from how Christ loves.
Just as my devotional reading fit randomly into your sermon, the section of a book I flipped to after reading Philippians last night said this (p 145 of Donald Bloesch’s “God The Almighty”):
“God loves not in order to enhance or adorn himself but simply because he wills to give of himself unreservedly to those who are inferior to himself. Agape is not the urge to possess and to enjoy but the readiness to serve without condition. Agape love, says Anders Nygren, is unmotivated in the sense that it is not contingent on any value or worth in the object of love. It is spontaneous and heedless, for it does not determine beforehand whether love will be effective or appropriate in any particular case. It is a lost love, a love that ‘squanders itself’. It ‘wants to radiate out into the realm of lovelessness’.
Like you said today, loving the lovely can be self-serving, a far cry from Christ’s sacrificial “pattern” demonstrated by his foot-washing, which, powerful as it is, merely serves as a small directional sign pointing to the next day’s ultimate expression of love at the cross.
Thankfully, this “new command” is not issued without the “power” to carry it out. Bloesch continues: “Once agape streams into a person’s life that person is enabled to participate in this creative energy that transforms and heals. We can love with agape through the power of God’s grace.” I know I need the power of God’s Spirit to even begin to love without looking for what I’ll get out of the relationship. God help us!
Your two points on Jesus’ pattern and his power were really clear and I have been thinking alot about it. God is love. This is important to remember when we are so subceptable to believing what we are feeling is love. Scripture must define love for us not the other way around.
Hey Larry,
I’ve been following along via podcast and have benefitted greatly from this sermon series. I’m reminded of Colossians 3:12-14 how God both affirms our position in his love first and then calls us to clothe ourselves with love second. The balance of knowing his love and living his love is easier said than done!
I’ve been telling our kids to make love a verb, then describing it’s attributes with biblical virtues, attitudes and actions.
Once again I find myself dependant upon Christ to love these students as Christ loves me! Thanks for the sermon series, miss you all.
Thanks for all the great comments guys. You’ve given me a lot to think about and it’s all good.