They Will Know Us By Our Love

Last week as we talked about how the World is Watching, we live our lives as an advert. And when you seen an advert, all you know, all you can assume is what you see. Like the people on the Indomie advert, you don’t know anything about the child, or the woman. All you know is that they are telling you that Indomie is good.

So as you go out and live your life as an advert, what you say, what you display by your actions, will tell the story of who you are, and what you believe.

But if you are a Christian, it is important to show that your life is a changed life. It’s different because of Jesus. And you will show that difference wherever you go.

Why? Because we have a responsibility to do so. Last week we were reminded of our responsibility...

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

New Living Translation (Chapter 1)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

It’s pretty simple. Christian’s speak of Christ to others. If you see yourself as a Christian, your responsibility is to live like one…and speak like one.

Why? Because the world is watching, and time is closing in. Tuesday night we talked about it. We don’t know when Jesus will return. It could be today. Tomorrow. Nobody knows. But what we do know is that the Bible tells us to be ready. And being ready means going about the Lord’s work. There should be an urgency (Tuesday) about us. Not wanting any of our friends to perish. We want to snatch them from the fire. (Jude 23)

Jude 23 ESV

23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

This morning I want to bring another way be live as Christians knowing that the world is watching.

Open your Bibles to John 13

The World is Watching…so how do we live?

John 13 is the time that Jesus has with his disciples before he is arrested in the garden and taken before the officials and Pilate. When John 13 begins there are 12 disciples sitting around listening to Jesus, but by the end of John 13 there are only 11.

John 13 begins with this beautiful picture of humility and love, and Jesus displays it to his disciples by washing their feet. It is an example. He is showing them how to love one another.

Then as you move down to verse 21, Jesus reveals that one of the 12 would betray him. We know now, looking back, who that would be…Judas.

But at verse 31, this is what I want you to see this morning...

John 13:31–35 (ESV)

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Look at that verse 35 again...

THE WORLD WILL KNOW US BY OUR LOVE

We all know what Jesus said that the greatest commandment is, yes? We are to Love ______ and Love ________?

Matthew 22:37–39 (ESV)

37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

When Jesus was speaking these words, “to love your neighbor” pointed to everyone you may pass or see. Everyone, believer or un-believer. But here in John 13 Jesus is speaking of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Those who are believers among us.

Why?

Because the world is watching, and the way we treat each other as Christians will show the world how we really are. Our actions towards other believers will show the world who we belong to.

They Will Know Us By Our Love.

This morning, lets look at how Jesus showed and spoke of the importance to loving our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and how that will help us be a witness when the world is watching. But we will also look into one of John’s letters as he talk about this same thing....loving one another.

So we will be here in John 13 but we will also be in 1 John 3

I want you, in your Bible, to put one finger in John 13, keep it there, the put another in 1 John 3, and keep it there. We will be going to these two places.

A New Commandment was new to them. (John 13:34)

John 13:34 (ESV)

34 A New Commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Up until this time, they only had the Hebrew Scriptures. The Old Testament. I want you see see something.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (ESV)

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Did you see what was there and what was not there? There are two parts to Jesus’ words in the great commandment. Love God. Love others. But here, in the Hebrew Scriptures, the only Sciptures the people had before the New Testament was written, it only talks about the people love for God. It doesn’t mention loving others.

That’s why when Jesus told the man that came to him that the most important command was to love God.....BUT....just important was to love others.

And now he says I have a NEW COMMANDMENT FOR YOU…LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Love one another is different from Love God and Love others....no he is adding to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. The one another he is pointing to is other Christians.

Because when the world is watching, and they see us maltreating even our own fellow Christians, what are they to think. They don’t want any of that for themselves. Why follow a God whose followers hate each other?

His new commandment was for us to love each other, within the family of God.

It was a new commandment then, but very soon it was not new anymore. As John is writing his 1st letter to a group of Christians far away (about 50 years later), he reminded them that they knew they were supposed to love their fellow believers in Christ.

1 John 3:11 (ESV)

11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

This New commandment was not new to them. They had known about it from the time they came to salvation.

1 John 3:14 ESV

14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

And this new commandment should not be new to us. Love for God, people, and our fellow believers should show the world Jesus Christ. It should be part of our witness.

2. A New Commandment gives us a fresh understanding

John 13:34 (ESV)

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Jesus is changing everything they thought they knew about religion. The Scriptures had been passed down. Remember the verses from Deuteronomy. Tell your children. When they rise. When they go to sleep. Fathers and Mother were told… Love God. Love God. But now, they are reminded to not only Love God. Then Love other people. But now, to love one another.

And the reason for us to do this....Jesus. Jesus. What he did you, you will now do for other. He sacrificed by his death and resurrection, and you will sacrifice for loving your fellow believers in Christ.

In the next Chapter of 1 John he writes,

1 John 4:7–12 ESV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Think about it this way. When we love one another, the world will see a perfect picture of Jesus Christ. John said it…no one has seen God, but when we love, God is perfected in us. We will show God to the world, and best the best witness possible.

When you don’t think you can be a good witness. When you don’t think you have the words to say. Understand…when Christ is in you and you love one another, you have taken the first step.

But remember this, John also writes:

1 John 4:19 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us.

The new commandment gives us a fresh understanding.

3. A New Commandment gives us a new identity. (John 13:34-35)

John 13:34–35 (ESV)

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

As a believer in Christ, our ultimate goal should be to become a disciple. Sometimes we think of disciples and we think of only the 12. We think, I could never be like Peter. I couldn’t have faith to walk on water. I couldn’t be like John and be beaten for my faith.

But a disciple, is a follower. A disciple is some one who follows a teacher. But not just any teacher. THE teacher. The teacher that can give LIFE. And when we follow him, learn from his through his life and teachings in the Bible, we become a disciple of him. But in being his disciple…we love one another.

Our identity as a disciple of Jesus Christ means that we love one another. The world will know us by our love.

But John gives us one more thought as we try to love one another. Look at verse 18

1 John 3:18 ESV

18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

John is saying that it is good to understand that because of what Jesus did for us, we love one another. But he reminds us that love is not just talk…it is action.

You can say you love someone, but until you show you love someone it is only talk.

There is an old saying for a President of the United States. He said,

“People don’t care what you know until they know you care.”

You can say I am a Christian…and you can say it over and over again, but until you show you are a Christian, then it’s only talk talk.

The World Is Watching. The World is Watching You. Are you loving one another? If not, they will not care what you haver to say with your mouth.