Loving One Another

• What kind of tree did this come from? (show maple and then oak leaf)
  • How on earth did you know without seeing the tree ???
• This evening I want to speak on loving one another
• You might think I am being too radical
  • In one church a man took me aside after I had preached and told me I was wrong
• You may disagree with me, but if you do, I want you to examine the Scriptures for yourself.
  • It is not my words, but it is what the Scriptures are saying.
• I believe that it is the Word of the Lord and when you look at the Scriptures fairly you will be compelled to come to the same conclusions.

1. The Test of Love

• The basic point I want to make this evening is this:

  On the Day of Judgment God is going to look at one thing and one thing alone as evidence that we are Christians. And that is, whether we have shown love to other Christians, particularly those in need.

• This is the unique evidence that we are true believers.
  • It won’t matter how many times we have been to church.
  • It won’t matter how many hours we have fasted and prayed on our knees.
  • It won’t matter how many times we have read through the Bible.
  • It won’t even matter if we have led others to the Lord, or if we have been missionaries.
  • Jesus says that there will be those who have cast out demons in his name and he will say, “I never knew you.”
  • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that even complete self-denial or martyrdom are worthless in and of themselves.
    “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”
• Nothing on that day will compare in importance to that one question: have I shown love to other Christians, especially those in need?
• so... Let’s look at some Scriptures:

Matthew 25

• Matthew 25 is a very clear and unmistakable description of the Day of Judgment.
  • Jesus comes in his glory, the angels with him, and he sits on the throne.
  • All the nations are gathered before him, everybody who has ever lived, and he divides them, the sheep from the goats.
  • As he divides them he says to one group,
    “for I was hungry you and gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.”
  • They reply, “When have we done this?” And Jesus responds,
    “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren,” (in other words, to other believers), “you did it to me.”
  • Because Jesus is living in his people, if we do something for another believer, we are doing it for Christ who is in them.
  • Then Jesus turns to the other group and says, “Depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
• The basis of judgment is whether they have or have not shown love to his people.

The fruit of faith

• This grates somewhat on us since we believe that justification is by faith and faith alone.
  • It sounds a bit like works salvation.
  • But we have to remember that this is only the evidence of what Christ has done.
  • We are not saved on the basis of works, we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
    • But we will be judged by our fruit.
    • Christ judges the tree by the fruit it bears, and this is the particular fruit that he has chosen to be the badge of true salvation.
• You may agree with my understanding of what this passage is teaching,
  • but feel that I have to balance it with other teachings of Scripture and not get things out of perspective.
  • I can show you that there is not a single description in the Bible of the Day of Judgment that disagrees with what I have just been saying.
  • It can be proved from virtually every major writer in the New Testament.

Hebrews

• First let’s look at Hebrews 6:4-6.
• This is a difficult passage about those who seem to be Christians falling away.
  For it is impossible to restore again to repentance

  those who have once been enlightened,

  who have tasted the heavenly gift,

  and have shared in the Holy Spirit,

  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God

  and the powers of the age to come,

  if they then fall away,

  since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm

  and holding him up to contempt.

• However, in the next few verses we see that the author is convinced that the Hebrews to whom he is writing are not false believers.
  9. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.
  10. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.
  • He says, “I am convinced that you will not fall away, that on the Day of Judgment you will be found to be true Christians.”
  • How can he know that the people he is addressing are not the kind of people who are going to fall away?
  • What is the distinguishing characteristic that tells him that on the Day of Judgment these people are going to stand and not be found to be false?
  • Then he goes on:
    11. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end
  • What amazing words. He is saying that if they want assurance that at the end they are going to be saved then they should be diligent to continue in this manner.
    • And what is the manner? —serving the saints.
• The teaching here as to what distinguishes the true believers from those who appear to be true but are false is exactly the same as in Matthew 25.

James

• James is dealing with a similar situation.
  • There are some people in the church who may not be saved.
  • What is it that distinguishes these people?
  • In James 2:14 he says,
    What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
    • In other words, here are people who profess to be Christians, but how can we distinguish whether they truly are?
  • He continues:
    15. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
    16. and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
    17. So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
  • James is saying that faith inevitably works itself out in love for the brethren.
• When James is talking about works, he is not talking about the works of the law,
  • he is talking about works as the fruit of faith,
  • and the context of the whole of James and particularly this chapter is particularly that of showing love to fellow Christians.
  • In the beginning of the chapter James takes the church to task because
    • when two people come in, one with filthy clothes and the other obviously wealthy,
    • they show favouritism to the wealthy brother and shun the brother who is poor.
  • This is the context in which he is making his distinction between true faith and false faith.
• Once again, the acid test of true faith is whether or not people are showing love to Christians, particularly to brethren in need.

You can’t fake it

• Why is this particular work chosen as a test? Because this is the one work that cannot be faked.
  • You can fake anything else, but this you cannot fake.
  • Even some preachers have turned out not to be Christians.
  • Some evangelists have made shipwreck of their faith. Some have apparently done wonderful things for God and it has been empty.
  • Bill Gates has done great charitable works, spending billions to eradicate malaria, which is worth nothing if it is done for his own satisfaction, not for God
  • Love for friends and family is not sufficient.
    • Of course we should love our friends and our family, but even unbelievers do this.
  • It does not distinguish the sheep from the goats.
• What distinguishes true believers from false, is showing love to other believers, particularly those who are in need, particularly the unlovely.
  • Love for poor people in general is not sufficient.
  • The point of each one of these passages is,
    • Love for my brethren, my people, love for believers.
  • There are some unbelievers who do amazing things for the poor.
  • There is a well-known individual who did wonderful things for the poor and gave a tremendous amount of energy for them, but had a reputation among co-workers for being difficult to get on with.
  • The most telling test is how we relate to those we live with and are involved with on a daily basis.
• Why is this the one evidence that Jesus chooses to distinguish the sheep from the goats?
  • It is quite simple really: it is a test of whether Jesus Christ is living within us.
  • You see, Jesus Christ has given his life for his people; he died on the cross out of love for his people.
  • If he is living within us, then his love will be alive in us.
  • If Jesus is in us, then when we look at another believer, that love that poured his life out in sacrifice on the cross will be evident in us.
  • We will see them as a person for whom Christ gave his lifeblood.
• So “Christ in us” cannot help but be demonstrated in love for other believers, because it is the same love that he showed on the cross.

1 John 4

• 1 John 4:12 says:
  12. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
  • Now let’s take this idea of God’s love being perfected in us and move on to verse 17.
  17. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
  • This is an incredible verse. What is John talking about? Could we really be confident in the Day of Judgment?
    • We are not cringing and afraid that really we are not true believers.
  • Courage or confidence on the Day of Judgment, is based on the love that has been perfected in us,
    • the love Christ has given us for one another.
  “If we love one another God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us.”
  • Once again, another author of Scripture is telling us that on the Day of Judgment the one thing that will count above all else,
    • is whether we have love for one another.

1 John 3

• In 1 John 3:16 we read:
  16. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
  • There you have it perfectly put together.
  • This is how we know what love is all about:
    • Jesus laid down his life for us, so as he lives in us, we lay our lives down for our brethren, his people.
    • (Of course Christ’s death was far more than an example, but it was nevertheless an example.)
• Verse 17 goes on:
  17. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
  • How can someone possibly be a Christian if they shut up their heart towards another person for whom Christ has died?
  • Christ’s love for his people will flow from us.

Application: laying down our lives

• John is very practical in 1 John 3:16-18
  • The remarkable connection made in verse 16 is between Christ’s death on the cross and our sacrificial love for one another.
  • We all know the verse,
    • “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matt 16:24)
  • I believe that this verse is generally misunderstood and the essence of taking up our cross is actually loving the brethren.
  • But why is it described as a cross?
    • You may say, “It is not hard to love other believers. Why should that be a cross?”
    • Let me tell you that
      • Real love is hard.
      • Real love is a cross.
      • Real love is giving our lives and denying ourselves,
      • Real love is loving the unlovely.
    • It is denying everything that we naturally want to do, for the sake of others.
• Although the idea of love is simple, putting it into practice is a kind of death to self.
  • It cannot be done but through the power of Christ.
• To be very practical here, the place to start is with our spouse if we are married, or our nearest family members if we are not.
  • Every marriage is composed of two fallen human beings living closely together.
  • We should see this as a God-given opportunity to deeply minister to another.
  • That is where love has to start,
    • and then move on to our close relatives and friends.
  • If we are only prepared to show love to people that we don’t know very well, it counts for nothing.
  • We should then look for opportunities to show Christ’s love to others in the church.
• As the Lord has shown me these teachings in Scripture, I have been forced to rearrange the priorities of my life.
  • This love must be my number one goal because I see it is Christ’s number one goal for me.
  • We have to rearrange the priorities in our lives and determine what is really important.
  • If we do that, we will look for opportunities to show love.
    • We will be on the alert.
    • We will be sensitive.
    • We will see needs and see people.
    • We will select times and places where we can show the love of Christ.
• In the first-century society when Christ was on earth there was tremendous poverty and physical need.
  • In these days in the West we don’t quite have the same needs, and I believe that now we see a greater amount of emotional need.
  • There are people who are devastated, who have been through horrific situations in their lives, such as violence, abuse, bereavement, or marriage breakup.
  • They have been destroyed emotionally.
  • And that can be as much of an opportunity to show Christ’s love as to people who are hungry or naked or sick.
• There are also believers in other nations who have huge physical needs
  • We have been helping the Christians in Mexico
  • They are just as much the part of the body of Christ as the Christians around us
• Now, all of the passages that we have looked at are clearly speaking of love to other believers,
  • and if we are to be true to Scripture, that must be our first priority.
  • However, there is a wider application.
  • This message has an application in evangelism when we see things from the perspective of God’s sovereign grace.
  • God has died for his people, many of whom are not yet saved, and we must be willing to show them love by bringing the Gospel to them.
  • This was the attitude of Paul who on his missionary journeys was willing to give his life for the people for whom Christ died but were as yet unsaved.
• In conclusion, we must see people as Jesus sees them.
  • When his mind is in us we will look at our fellow believers and see them as the beloved ones for whom Christ has died.
  W-e will be able to say to our brethren, “Jesus has hung on the cross for you.
  • His life-blood has been poured out for you.
  • The fact that he loves you so much makes me want to love you.
  • You may look horrible to me; you may be irritating to me; you may have dreadful faults.
  • Your constant craving for attention is so annoying. But Jesus loves you, and I love you because he loves you.”
• But we don’t want to be legalistic about this and turn Christianity into a performance religion
  • That is for next time!
  • I firmly believe that this should not be a “guilt trip” message!
  • I don’t want to send you out with your tails between your legs, ashamed at how unloving you are
  • Jesus will commend you on the day of judgement
    • because if he is in you, you cannot but bring forth fruit
    • notice that the “sheep” didn’t actually think they had done very much!
• I want to end with one of the things that has moved me so much as I study this.
  • When I realize that Christ loves me so much that he wants other Christians to love me, it really thrills me.
  • He didn’t stop loving me on the cross.
  • In fact he continues to love me so much that he is going to judge other Christians on the basis of how much they loved me.
  • Isn’t it wonderful that his love for me is so abiding?
  • I am so precious in his sight that he wants others to love me, and he wants to love me through other people.
  • He set his heart on me. his love for me is not some cold mechanical concept, as if I am merely a name on the list of those he saved.
  • He died for me, but now his love for me continues from day to day.
  • As we put this love into practice, we will experience the love of Christ through one another.
• In John 14:21,23 Christ tells us that if we obey this command to love one another, then we will experience the presence and love of God in our hearts.
  • I truly believe that as we exercise this love then we will know more and more of the experience of his love to us and the assurance that he loves us,
  • and on that great day he will say “Come and be with Me for eternity. Enter into my love.”