Loving Each Other is Essential to the Mission

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.   “A new ^{(Kainos: Fresh)} command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:33-35

CONTEXT: Jesus had just washed the disciples’ feet ate with them as het sets the context for his finally teachings to those whom he would entrust with the mission of reaching the world with the life-giving message of the gospel. And it’s in this context that he drops the most important thing the disciples would need to know concerning the Mission: LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

1. LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS’NT .

Command language: You Must – not optional.

• The Apostle Peter must have gotten the memo:

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8

 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.  1 Peter 1:22

• The Apostle Paul got the memo:

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:10

• The Apostle John got the memo:

 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1John 4:11-12

2. LOVE AS A NOT A .

• I love is a “more than a feeling.”
• If your brother is cold and you don’t offer him your coat your love is meaningless.
• Loving people is huge because we all need to be loved.

Illustration: The Good Samaritan. Luke 10:25-37

• People need this kind of love from time to time.

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1-2

3. A BIBLICAL PROVIDES CLEAR OF .

Love in community is the focus of Jesus teaching here among his future leaders. Love must work among you men if it is to work at all.

The world will know that you’re my followers if they can see that you love one another. And love is something people can see and hear.

• Biblical Picture of Love: The Church in Corinth was full of Spirit gifted people who had been baptized into the body of Christ, but they were lacking the one thing that creates a life-giving community-LOVE.

 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

• THE LOOK OF LOVE

1. Patience with people who aren’t at our level.
2. Love expresses itself in kind gestures.
3. Love is not about itself-boasting or pride.
4. Love doesn’t dishonor others with words of gossip or slander.
5. Love has a long fuse. Not easily angered.
6. Love forgives rather than harbor resentment.
7. Love celebrates righteous living not sinful actions.

Love seasons its words with GRACE! 

^“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:5-6

• Loving People is the best way to WIN PEOPLE TO CHRIST.

• Love in the early church was a priority. They meant together around a meal known as the “Agape Feast.” And they took care of one another’s needs in practical ways. They would even sell their own possessions to help another brother out. Acts 2:41-47