The following article is based on a sermon preached by the author at the Palm Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church. The full sermon may be found here. Elements of the oral presentation have been preserved.
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, had come to the last mile of His earthly sojourn, and He took His disciples with Him to an upper room to break bread (see Luke 22:7-19). After all the chatter of greetings had died down, Jesus told them, “My end is approaching, so I brought you here to eat the last meal we will share in this manner. And I will not eat with you again like this until we eat together in the kingdom of heaven at the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
As I read the Scriptures it becomes clear to me that Jesus gathered His disciples together, not only for one last meal. I see that Jesus brought His disciples together to teach them, us, and the world the most important spiritual relational lesson we need to learn. It is found in John 13:34, 35. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
How poignant! And dare I say that never was a truth needed more by this broken world as this spiritual truth: Love one another.
The Reality
In my spiritual imagination I see Jesus looking down through the corridors of time to the world as it is today. I believe Jesus saw, throughout history, rampaging ominous powers threatening to break apart the brittle structures of our imperfect societies. I believe He saw all the sinister Machiavellian influences that rule the earth, such as greed and lust; all the corrupt philosophies and sinful ideas that crowd the doorways of our minds. I believe Jesus saw exactly where we are today in the world, in the home, in the church.
Jesus saw the divisions; the tendency in our human nature to build walls of separation instead of bridges of communication and understanding. I believe Jesus saw the polarization that has become the new normal in America and in the world. I believe He saw us drawing lines in the sand, replacing unity with division. And He saw that rather than dialogue with each other, we would retreat into ideological camps that serve the narrow self-interests of ethnicity and race.
I believe Jesus saw all this.
He saw that change, the eternal accomplice of time, would create among men fear and fragmentation. Jesus saw that empathy would be the first casualty of hate and that prejudice would leave the human race adrift in a sea of doubt and mistrust.
I believe Jesus saw all of this. He saw that the seeds of hopelessness and despair would find root in the fertile soil of ignorance and discontent. And yes, that right here in America, home-grown violence and extremism would become in vogue . . . right here in America, people who at one time were reasonable people would be unable to reason. And that fear and ignorance would poison the bloodstream of our body politic. I believe Jesus saw that extremism would become a servant to dogma and doctrine and that this world would be visited by a perennial plague of inequality and injustice for many.
Yes, church, I believe Jesus saw that in every nation and in every land, poverty would lead to stigmatization, which would then lead to isolation and exclusion, making opportunity a gift reserved for only the privileged few. I believe Jesus looked down through time and history and saw that our world would descend into factions and camps of the haves and the have nots . . . that we would descend into socioeconomic tribalism.
If love is not the badge of distinctive competence for the Christian church, the church has failed in living out its true essence and character.
Jesus saw what we call identity politics, and that it would become a battle-ax for ethnic factions vying for ascendancy and dominance . . . that people would use identity politics to pillory and ridicule their fellow man rather than promote racial harmony and healing, and celebrate the diversity of all the children of men made in God’s image.
Yes, I even believe Jesus saw that in our time nationalism would be on a collision course with what I call “resource migration.” What is resource migration? That’s desperate people scarred by scarcity pulling up roots and seeking for a better life where they can find more resources to build brighter futures. I believe Jesus saw that these waves of arriving immigrants would unleash in the hearts of many in developed countries emotions of fear and uncertainty. And in some, even bring out rage-fueled violence in those who fear they are being displaced or replaced.
And so Jesus, there in the upper room, before He left the earth, left us a word and a new commandment. One He prayed would echo across the divides and across the ages. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” (John 13:34).
The Command
This command to love one another has echoed through the ages, transcending the bounds of time and space. It is among the final formal teachings from Jesus—a divine directive whispered from eternity: love one another.
It is the only solution for every spiritual condition that threatens to destroy peace among men and peace in the earth: love one another.
This sacred ancient refrain still guides the followers of Christ as we travel this earthly pilgrimage: love one another. It is a call to live out, here on earth, an affection born in heaven.
This command to love one another is a fervent exhortation. It is not a call to sentimentalism. In truth, it is the highest spiritual duty of man to love one another. And it is a divine precept, one without which this earth would be uninhabitable.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7, 8). These words flow from the very heart of God. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (verse 11). This is indeed a reciprocal covenant. If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
This commandment binds us together as one humanity in kindness and affection. It is the embrace of a love divine. “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
If there is one place this truth ought to be lived out on the earth, it ought to be in the church. For God’s church, “love one another” is a divine calling and a spiritual duty.
One day a man was picking up his wife at church. When he arrived, he noticed the sign outside, which listed the Scripture text for that day’s sermon: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” At the church door the man asked, “Is the service over?” An usher, who apparently had listened carefully to the pastor’s sermon, responded, “The worship is over, but the service is only beginning!” Brothers and sisters, when church is over, the call from God to love one another has just begun. The worship may be over, but the service of love toward our fellow man is only just beginning.
And how do we live it out in the church?
When we show respect for one another; through service and self-sacrifice. And if love is not the badge of distinctive competence for the Christian church, the church has failed in living out its true essence and character.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies” (Matt. 5:43, 44).
The love born of heaven chooses forgiveness over revenge. Instead of a get even spirit and planning revenge, you show love to those who curse you; you show love to those who hate you; you show love to those who use you and those who persecute you.
To love one another is the most noble act of the human heart. And when you love God fervently and love one another completely, you fulfill and satisfy all the requirements of the law and the Ten Commandments. “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8).
Let this maxim rule your thoughts, your decisions, and your actions. When you are not sure what to do, ask yourself which path shows the greatest love and care.
There in the upper room Jesus was trying to teach us that we cannot have unity in the church without loving one another. “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Rom. 12:10). And “let brotherly love continue” (Heb. 13:1).
In God’s eyes a person’s value has no relationship to their wealth or position on the social ladder. I believe Jesus wanted us to tell the world that no matter where we originally came from, God expects us to love one another because we are all His children. Without the outstretched hand of love and brotherhood there will be no peace.
Jesus left us this word—a word He prayed would stir us to the depths of our souls; a word He prayed would carry us soaring high above the dark clouds of fear and mistrust; a word He prayed would remind us of our common humanity and remind us that all our destinies are intertwined; a word that would help humanity combat the societal chaos He knew we would see in our day.
What Love Looks Like
When Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you,” He did not mean that He was adding an eleventh commandment to the 10.
No. When Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment,” Jesus was saying, “I want to leave you with a fresh new understanding of a heaven-born law.” The servant of the Lord tells us that “self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven.”1 So this commandment was not new in the sense that it never existed. It was just new to us. Today we would call it a “paradigm shift” in thinking. Jesus was saying, “I want to show you the best way to live in harmony in the earth. Love one another. And as I have loved you, you must love one another.”
At first glance we might say that Jesus is asking the impossible of us, for how can we truly love others the way Jesus loves us. The Bible says that while we were still sinners Jesus loved us and died for us. He loved us so much He was willing to give His life to save us.
Here’s what the servant of the Lord says: “To love as Christ loved means that [1] we must practice self-control [meaning we don’t speak inadvisably, and we don’t act precipitously]. [2] It means that we must show unselfishness at all times and in all places. [3] It means that we must scatter round us kind words and pleasant looks. These cost the giver nothing, but they leave behind a precious fragrance. Their influence for good can not be estimated. . . . Genuine love is a precious attribute of heavenly origin, which increases in fragrance in proportion as it is dispensed to others.”2
“But,” the servant of the Lord continues, “while we are ever to be kind and tender, no words should be spoken that will lead a wrongdoer to think that his [wrongful] way is not objectionable to God. . . . Wrongdoers need counsel and reproof, and they must sometimes be sharply rebuked.”3
In other words, loving one another doesn’t mean that you run from the responsibility to tell the people who have been criminal and unethical, “You are wrong.” Yes, you may have to tell them, in a kind and loving way. The feeling that loving others means you can’t hold them accountable and chastise them kindly in love is, says Ellen White, a feeling of “sympathy [that] is earthly and deceiving.”4
You can’t feel so sorry for someone that you can’t tell them when they’re wrong. You don’t love them if you refuse to tell them they are wrong.
And one other thing: To love others the way Christ loves us also means you focus your love and attention on those who need it most. You focus your loving attention on “the least of these.” The servant of the Lord says, “God desires His children to remember that in order to glorify Him, they must bestow their affection on those who need it most.”5 And that’s why I believe it is a mistake to neglect the inner-city communities of our nation, because God expects us to give love to them that need it most: the most unfortunate and the disadvantaged.
The servant of the Lord says, “Those who have the most disagreeable temperament, those who try our patience most, need our love, our tenderness, our compassion.”6 And she says, “None with whom we come in contact are to be neglected. No selfishness, in look, word, or deed, is to be manifested to our fellow beings, whatever their position, whether they be high or low, rich or poor. The love that gives kind words to only a few, while others are treated with coldness and indifference, is not love, but selfishness.”7 Moreover, to shower your affection only on your friends is “selfishness, which has no place in the life of Christ. . . . Our love is not to be sealed up for special ones. Break the bottle, and the fragrance will fill the house.”8
Love one another.
The Witness
To love as Jesus loved is a new vision of love for us because in Christ we have a new example of how to love. That’s why Jesus said, “Love one another; as I have loved you.” That means Jesus is not asking us to do something that He has not done Himself. As I have loved you means we need to look at how Jesus loved us and love each other like that.
Jesus loved the publicans and the sinners. He loved Nicodemus, who would meet with Him only privately at night (John 3:1-21). He loved Jerusalem. He loved the multitudes. He loved the soldiers who led Him out to Calvary. He loved those who nailed Him to the cross. He loved Judas, who betrayed Him. And He loves you, too: unfaithful, erratic, unpredictable you. You who cannot be counted on to always do what’s right—He loves you, too. And He said, “Love one another; as I have loved you.”
This is the badge by which the true followers of Christ will be recognized; they will love one another. And this is what would distinguish the followers of Christ from the world. That’s why Ellen White says, “There is nothing that can so weaken the influence of the church as the lack of love.”9
A friend of mine once told me that so many times we who are Christians forget that it’s more important to be nice than it is to be right. And when we are right, it’s even more important to be nice. And it is more important to love than be loved.
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
We have mistakenly concluded that as followers of Christ we ought to be known by our dress, by our denominational language and God talk, and by the strength of our organization. But Jesus says, “No! I want you to be known as My children by the way you love one another.”
The best sermon we can present in this selfish world is loving one another. When selfishness, pride, gossip, hypocrisy, intolerance, and strife are found among those who call themselves Christians, it brings disgrace on the church and draws the derision of the world. But show me a church where there is love, and I will show you a church that is a power in the community.
One day while strolling through the park, a preacher struck up a conversation with a soap salesman. They soon began to talk about faith and religion. The soap salesman said, “The gospel you preach doesn’t seem to have done much good after 2,000 years. There is still a lot of evil and wickedness in the world.”
The preacher pointed to a little boy making mud pies. He was grungy and dirty. And so the preacher said, “Well, I can see that that soap you sell hasn’t done much good either. And even though it’s been around for a long time, there are still a lot of dirty hands and faces.”
“That’s true,” said the soap salesman. “But soap is effective only when it’s used and when it is applied.”
To which the clergyman replied, “So it is with the command to love one another. It is of no use if it is not applied.”
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1898, 1940), p. 19.
2 Ellen G. White, in The Youth’s Instructor, Apr. 12, 1900.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ellen G. White, in The Gospel Herald, July 1, 1898.
7 E. G. White, in The Youth’s Instructor, Apr. 12, 1900.
8 Ibid.
9 Ellen G. White, That I May Know Him (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1964), p. 153.
