This is My command to you: Love one another.“I command these things to you, that you may love one another.These things I command you, that ye love one another.These things I command you, that ye may love one another.
3 sermons cite this verse
… And this is what he tells his disciples. It's as simple as his invitation to go and fish for people. He says, this is my commandment for you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Jesus shares this commandment when they're seated together. he shares this commandment with them knowing that just moments earlier a couple of those disciples were arguing contending over which one of them was the greatest he shares this commandment of love with with these disciples knowing that one of them you know a few hours earlier had betrayed him for a fee to his death he shares this with this group of disciples this passage of love, knowing that one of them was going to deny him publicly in just a few hours, and that all of them would eventually abandon him at his actual darkest hour. And rather than writing them off, rather than separating himself from them, he draws closer to them. He humbles himself before them. He washes their feet. He gives them bread. He offers them wine. He says, this is my body. This is my blood. I am sacrificing everything for you. And then he calls them. …
… These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command you, no longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. I've called you friends for all that I've heard from my father. I've made known to you. 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. Okay. I love this passage. I love it more than I've ever loved it. Just the words that he uses. It feels nothing like do and don't. It's like the natural response. That's why he says, if you love me, you'll obey what I command. So it's just like when I think about if my daughters are taken away, my natural response is to go after them. Why? Because there's love there. …
… And he says, beginning in verse 12, This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I've called you friends. For all things that I have heard from my Father, I've made known to you. And so I want us to see how he's expressing his friendship and how he expresses his friendship to us. And one of the ways he has expressed his friendship is in his sacrificial love for us. before the world ever began, Jesus Christ planned to lay down His life sacrificially for you and me. What He did is that when we were enemies to Him, He laid down His life in love for us in order to make us His friends. So that Jesus Christ is the possible friend of every single person. …