Add to brother-affection, love: To love one another has always been a work in progress… but, it is the purest demonstration of our being disciples of Jesus, His Body.
Great Commandment - a new command I give you…
Deuteronomy 6:5 & Leviticus 19:18 “5Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength…. 18“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
Not new, but, ongoing and eternal… Jesus is bringing forward God’s eternal heart and will
Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30,33; Luke 10:27 29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Then, Jesus reframes it…
John 13:34-35 “34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
…and explains what our loving actually expresses - love for Him and the Father… (Deut 15:7; Prov 14:31; 1John 2:5; 3:17; 4:12,17, 20)
John 14:15, 21,-24; 15:10-14 (1John 2:3; 5:3; 2John 1:6) 14:23 “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them… 15:10 “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."
Jesus’ commandment to the disciples with regard to now having experienced that love - no longer in theory, but in the flesh.
John 13:1,4,34 “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, showing them the extend of His love… he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet… a new command I give you: as I have loved you, so you must love one another”
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, but prior to the Spirit’s coming, the disciples clung to one another in fear, trying as they might to love one another - We’re trying, we are…
Acts 1 gathered in a room, together, grieving, praying, wondering what will become of us.
After Pentecost, the coming of the transforming Holy Spirit, God’s love for us, in us, and His love through us to Him and one another, with our cooperation, we can love as Jesus.
Galatians 5:13-15,22,25 “13You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh a ; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself…15walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh…22the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…25since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
This love, by the Spirit’s power and their devotion, is first demonstrated in the church.
Acts 2:42-47 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 4:32-37 32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. 36Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
The Church and its love were tested by scope, sin, persecution, and, prejudice… not much different than what we experience today.
Acts 5:1-11 the sin of Ananias and Sapphira
Acts 6:1-6 the increased scope of the fledgling church, including the proliferation of Grecian Jews and the stress involved in loving and serving…“In those days the number of disciples was increasing…” & “...the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.” (Lev 19:9; 23:22; Deut 24:19; Ja 2; 1Jo 3:17; Pr 3:27-28)
Acts 7; 11:19 the death of Stephen and the scattering of the church
Acts 10 & 11 Peter’s vision and subsequent visit with Cornelius and his family - entering his house and his having to explain to the other disciples his actions
Acts 10:28 “Peter said them” ‘You are well aware that it is against our Law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God…”
Acts 11:2-3 “So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
…and theological wranglings…
Acts 11; 17:17-26 (Rom 3; Gal 2&3; Heb 10)
Then Paul, instructing how we sould live, breaks down the Great Commandment in very real terms, expressing both the substance and the essence of the love we are here for one another and how we demonstrate it.
Romans 12:3-21
How will we love those among us?
With what gifts and talents might I bless my part of the Body of Christ?
Am I willing to receive the love of others - as sometimes it is hard to be served? (see Jesus and Peter in John 13)
Can I, will I, trust God to do what He promises to do, and in the meantime do what He is asking of me, empowering to do, and love sincerely?
