In his book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, Ron Sider tells a very interesting story about a man named Virgil Vogt and an encounter he had with a troubled man seeking help:

One day a man with a serious drinking problem dropped in to talk with Virgil Vogt, one of the elders of Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston, Illinois. When Virgil invited him to accept Christ and join the community of believers, the man insisted that he simply wanted money for a bus ticket to Cleveland.

“Okay,” Virgil agreed, “we can give you that kind of help too, if that’s all you really want.” He was quiet a moment, then he shook his head. “You know something?” he said, looking straight at the man. “You’ve just really let me off the hook. Because if you had chosen a new way of life in the kingdom of God, then as your brother I would have had to lay down my whole life for you. This house, my time, all my money, whatever you needed to meet your needs would have been totally at your disposal for the rest of your life. But all you want is some money for a bus ticket…”

The man was so startled he stood up and left, forgetting to take the money. But on Sunday he was back, this time sitting next to Virgil in the worship service.[1]

I find this story compelling because of Virgil Vogt’s claim that those seeking help can a find a kind of help and love within the church that they cannot find in the world.

I find this story troubling for the exact same reason.

It is compelling because what Virgil Vogt told the man is true. It is troubling because the truth of what he told the man carries with it a condemnation of the shallow relationships and lack of love we often find in the church.

The church of Jesus Christ should be a place where shocking, radical, incarnational love is modeled to the glory of God and the winning of the nations.

It should be.

It really should be.

The first mark of the believer is love. It is a love given by, defined by and modeled by Jesus Himself.

Last week we saw Jesus calling His followers to live in an organic relationship with Him just as a branch lives in an organic relationship with the vine to which it is attached. And this relationship will, Jesus said, result in fruit. We considered the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5 last week. This week I would like for us to consider Jesus’ continuation of His amazing discussion of the fruit-bearing branches. In particular, I would like for us to consider the ultimate fruit of the Christian life, which is love.

The Lord Jesus begins with a simple and straightforward command.

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Notice, first, the audience to which Jesus commands love. They are His disciples. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” This is spoken to His disciples, to believers in Jesus Christ. This is spoken, therefore, to the church.

This means that the church should possess and model a kind of love that neither believers nor the world can find anywhere else. This is so, as we will see in a moment, because of the example of love we have been given. But, for right now, please notice that this is so because of a command from Jesus.

You are commanded by your Savior to love fellow Christians.

I repeat: You are commanded by your Savior to love fellow Christians.

Let me anticipate two questions you might be asking at this point.

1.      Does this mean that we are only to love Christians?

2.      Is love really love if it is commanded?

To the first question, no, the command to love fellow Christians does not mean that we love Christians exclusively or only. For instance, in the most beloved verse in all of Scripture, John 3:16, we find:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God does not limit His love only to His people. Neither did the Apostle Paul. In the beginning of Romans 9, Paul speaks of his love for his non-believing fellow Hebrews in a way that is powerful and convicting:

¹ I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. ⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. ⁵ To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

While Paul does not use the word “love” in that passage, it runs all throughout. If that is not love – a willingness to take on damnation for the sake of another’s salvation (were it possible to do so) – then I do not know what is.

So, no, the fact that Jesus commands His disciples to love one another does not mean that He is telling us not to love lost people. Far from it! But, as we will see, there is a unique quality to the love between believers that cannot be experienced until one steps into the fellowship of faith.

To the second question – “Is love really loved if it is commanded?” – I want to acknowledge that that is a reasonable and good question to ask. We are unaccustomed to think of love as a commandment, but consider the following:

·        The fact that love is commanded does not mean that this love should not be sincere.

·        There are times when love must begin with the commandment and then grow into sincere love. The commandment, then, may be viewed as prodding for us to take the initial step towards something that God will cause to take root within us as we obey.

·        I do not mean this in jest (though it may sound like it), but there are likely people in the body of Christ that you would not love were you not commanded to do so.

·        The command to love removes our hiding places, strips us of our excuses not to love and leaves us with no option but to love! Jesus commands His church to love one another because it is so fundamentally vital to the very essence of our relationship with Him and our mission as His body that He does not want us even to entertain the possibility of claiming to be a disciple without walking in love.

We are commanded to love every believer in Jesus Christ. This means that the refusal to love your brother or sister in Christ is nothing short of high treason against our King. The refusal to love is an act of disobedience.

J. Brown said the following about the necessity for Christian love:

“Every poor and distressed man had a claim on me for pity, and, if I can afford it, for active exertion and pecuniary relief. But a poor Christian has a far stronger claim on my feelings, my labors, and my property. He is my brother, equally interested as myself in the blood and love of the Redeemer. I expect to spend an eternity with him in heaven. He is the representative of my unseen Savior, and he considers everything done to his poor afflicted as done to himself. For a Christian to be unkind to a Christian is not only wrong, it is monstrous.[2]

It is monstrous…and it is disobedience…and it is sin.

Can you think now of fellow believers you do not genuinely love? Are you willing to love that person? Are you willing even to entertain the notion of loving that person?

You are commanded to love one another.

Thankfully, this command is not issued in a vacuum or as an arbitrary and unrealistic command. Joined with the command to love is a startling example of love. Jesus says:

¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus will never command what He does not demonstrate. He calls us to love one another, and He does so on the basis of the great love He showed for us on the cross. And what is this great love Christ has shown? It is this:

He has laid down His life for His friends.

The cross is the greatest expression of love the world has ever seen.

Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” This actually is not the first time that Jesus uses this image. In John 10:11, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Jesus calls us to that which He does. It is as if He says, “I command you to love one another. But I do not command you to do something I myself will not do. In fact, I will show you the greatest expression of love on earth: I will lay down my life for you. If I will lay down my life in love for you, can you not do lesser acts of love for one another?”

Jesus has set the standard. Jesus has raised the bar. Jesus has demonstrated the love that is willing to die for another.

It is on this basis and in this context that we are called to love. We love each other because we all stand in the face of the shocking love of the cross.

In Romans 12, Paul gives a very moving description of what our lives together should be like:

⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

My immediate response to this? How? How can we love one another like this: with genuine love, with affection, with love that honors, with zealous love, with fervent love, with love that rejoices, with patient love, with constant love, with hospitable love, with forgiving love, with harmonious love, with humble love, with love that turns the other cheek, with peaceable love and with victorious love?

How can we do this? How can we love one another like this?

Jesus tells us how: by looking at and living in the shadow of his cross, by considering the staggering love shown to us and for us on the cross of Calvary.

You can love one another because He was crucified.

You can nail your bitterness and resentment to the cross because He was nailed to the cross for us. You can open your heart to love precisely because He opened His body to be crucified for us.

But there’s even more. His example of love on the cross is not merely there for us to observe. As a matter fact, on the basis of His demonstration of love, we are called into a relationship with the crucified-and-resurrected Jesus. Consider:

¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷ These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

We can love one another, then, not only because Jesus has offered us an amazing example, but more so because the example He set is the means through which we are brought into a relationship with Him as friends. If we know anything at all about friends, we know that friends affect one another for good and for bad. The nature of true friendship is reciprocal. We are therefore affected by the characters of those with whom we become friends.

When it comes to Jesus, friendship with Jesus means that His unbelievable, incarnational love – the love that He demonstrated on the cross – should “rub off on us,” so to speak. As we walk with our friend Jesus, we become more like Him. He influences our behavior with His…and His behavior was exemplified on the cross.

We love one another because we are friends with the Savior who loves. This means that the closer we walk with Jesus, the more natural this kind of love will feel. The further we move away from Jesus, the more unnatural this kind of love will feel.

I think one of the greatest examples of this truth came from St. Dorotheos of Gaza, from the 6^th/7^th century. St. Dorotheos depicted the Christian life using the image of a circle, a center, and rays moving either out from or into the center.

This is what he wrote:

Imagine a circle with its centre and radii or rays going out from this centre. The further these radii are from the centre the more widely are they dispersed and separated from one another; and conversely, the closer they come to the centre, the closer they are to one another. Suppose now that this circle is the world, the very centre of the circle, God, and the lines (radii) going from the centre to the circumference or from the circumference to the centre are the paths of men’s lives. Then here we see the same. Insofar as the saints move inwards within the circle towards its centre, wishing to come near to God, then, in the degree of their penetration, they come closer both to God and to one another; moreover, inasmuch as they come nearer to God, they come nearer to one another, and inasmuch as they come nearer to one another, they come nearer to God. It is the same with drawing away. When they draw away from God and turn toward external things, it is clear that in the degree that they recede from the central point and draw away from God, they withdraw from one another, and as they withdraw from one another, so they draw away from God. Such is also the property of love; inasmuch as we are outside and do not love God, so each is far from his neighbour. But if we love God, inasmuch as we come near to Him by love of Him, so we become united by love with our neighbours, and inasmuch as we are united with our neighbours, so we become united with God.[3]

What a beautiful and helpful image this is. Let me ask you to consider this image and place yourself within it.

Right now, where are you in relation to the center of all things, to the Lord God? Are you moving further away from the center or further into it. If you are moving further away from God, if, that is, you are not walking with Him and abiding in Him, do you not find that you find people harder to love? And if you are moving further into the center, do you not find that people are easier to love?

Now the church lives when all of the rays move into the center, becoming one, as opposed to moving out of the center, becoming many, becoming further from the center and becoming further from the other pilgrims on the journey.

The Lord Jesus has called us to love…deeply…profoundly…sincerely…radically…wondrously….and with all honor and glory to the Father.

The Lord Jesus has called us to love because the Lord Jesus has loved, because the Lord Jesus loves, because the Lord Jesus is love.

We will not live as a church until we love. We will not know the joy of the gospel of Jesus until we love. We will not see the church alive until we love.

Do you know the love of Jesus? If not, come to Him now and accept His love.

Do you know the love of Jesus? If you do but you have not been walking in it, return now to the love of the Lord.

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