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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jason Sliger

The Commandment of Love - Part 1

Father in heaven, we enter into your presence tonight on the day that you have blessed and sanctified.

And Father, we do it for 1 reason, because we want to know you better.

So we invite you to be with us here tonight, and that you would take the message of your word and through the powerful medium of your Holy Spirit, that you would send it home to our hearts.

In John the 13th chapter, we find Jesus and the disciples in the upper room celebrating what would be the last Passover that would have any significance to it.

While they were up there in the upper room, as you may or may not know, the disciples were there bickering amongst themselves who would be the greatest, even in those final few hours with Jesus that was still a bone of contention.

Judas had already betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and he was there with the rest of the disciples crowding in around Jesus.

Just hours from this time Jesus would be in the Garden of Gethsemane, pouring out his heart to his father, asking that the cup would pass away from him, but nevertheless not his will, but the Father's will to be done.

A few short hours after his time in the garden, Jesus would be found standing before Pilate in 1 of the many mock trials that would take place before his ultimate crucifixion on the cross and then his ascension into the kingdom of heaven.

And as they're there in the upper room in this final time together, there is much that is probably running through the mind of Jesus that he wants to share with his disciples in these last few moments together with him.

And as you read John 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, you can peer into that conversation that Jesus is having with his disciples before he is hung on a cross and then ascends to his Father in the kingdom of heaven.

And as they're there in the upper room, there is a little piece of advice that I wanna pull out, and this is gonna kind of set us on a course in our time together studying.

So turn with me if you would, John chapter 13, we're gonna look at verse 34.

Jesus, as he is talking to his disciples there, he gives them a piece of advice.

He says this, a new commandment I give unto you that you love 1 another as I have loved you that ye also love 1 another.

Oftentimes this is referred to as the 11th commandment.

We understand that it has its foundation in the Old Testament to love 1 another as God hath loved us.

In fact, 19 times in the New Testament alone, by Jesus, by Paul, and by John, this theme, this concept is repeated throughout the Bible that we ought to love 1 another.

But I'm afraid that It's an unfortunate thing that in our world today, this type of love that Jesus is encouraging his disciples to have towards 1 another is sadly lacking in our world today.

Oftentimes, I think rather than loving 1 another as Jesus says we ought to, we rather put up with 1 another or we endure 1 another for the short time that we have together.

And I dare say that this has even crept its way into God's remnant church.

Now, the real bombshell comes in the next verse.

In verse 35, Jesus says this, By this, by what?

By loving 1 another as Jesus has loved us.

Now, before I read this passage, let me just explain something here.

You will know, the astute student will know that in other places in the Bible, Jesus says to love 1 another as we want to be loved.

But here he is saying not only to love 1 another as we want to be loved, but he's saying to love 1 another as he has loved us.

There's all the difference in the world there.

And then in the next verse, Jesus says this in verse 35, he says, by this, by us loving 1 another as he has loved us, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love 1 to another.

The greatest evidence that we can give the world that we are disciples of Christ is if we love 1 another as Jesus has loved us.

You see, back in the Bible times, disciples of different religious leaders, they had their way of distinguishing who they belonged to in terms of discipleship.

Sometimes they were distinguished by their dress, sometimes their habits, their customs, their rights, their different teachings that they had.

But for the follower of Jesus, what would set him apart to the rest of the world that he was a disciple of Jesus is that he would love other people unconditionally the way Jesus loved us.

The proof that we were disciples of Christ or we are disciples of Christ does not come according to Jesus by our theological arguments or the doctrines that we profess, important as those things may be.

But according to Jesus, the evidence comes from our love 1 towards another.

I want to flesh this out a little bit in our time together over the next couple of presentations.

If you're taking notes, jot down this reference, the Southern Review, January 1 of 1901.

As I was studying this concept of loving 1 another as Jesus has loved us, I stumbled across this reference and it's really not repeated that many times in the spirit of prophecy and it's a mind-blowing statement.

Southern Review, January 1 of 1901, it says this, he only who loves his fellow man to a purpose can know God.

In the book of 1 John, the Bible says, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.

So it's a biblical concept that she's talking about here.

So if we want to know God, she says we have to have love 1 towards another.

This is the reason that there is so little genuine vitality in our churches.

Why is there little genuine vitality in our churches?

Because there is little love in our churches.

In other words, vitality, strength, energy, having life.

The reason why there is little vitality, The reason why there is little life, little energy, little strength, if you will, is because there is an absence of the love that Jesus had towards us in the church manifested towards 1 another.

Now she goes on, that's not where she stops.

Theology is valueless unless it is saturated with the love of Christ.

What do you think of when you think of the word saturation?

You know, oftentimes if you are a husband or if you are a husband to be, a good thing to do is to get into the practice of washing the dishes.

And oftentimes, I will wash the dishes at home.

And there's this sponge that sits on our countertop, on our sink counter.

And in between the episodes of washing dishes, that sponge dries up until it kind of curls up on the edges.

But when you put that thing under the water, it soaks up all the water and it becomes what?

I'm not telling you, this isn't coming from me, this is from the servant of the Lord.

We believe in the spirit of prophecy, amen?

Valueless, unless it is saturated with the love of Christ.

She goes on and she says this, God is supreme.

His love in the human heart will lead to the doing of works that will bear fruit after the solimitude of the character of God.

And then she goes on and says this, in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, The Apostle Paul defines Christ-like love.

In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul defines what gives value to our theology.

He defines what brings life and vigor and vitality and energy into our churches.

And then she goes on, she makes this interesting little point, she says this.

It would be well to print this chapter in small type on in every paper issued in our presses.

You think she put value in 1 Corinthians 13?

You know, the other thing she said is that we should read that chapter every single day.

You think there would be a little bit more vitality in our churches if we did that?

You think there would be a little bit more value to our theology if we did that?

Then she says this, she quotes 1 Corinthians 13, and then she says this, this chapter is an expression of the obedience of all who love God and keep His commandments.

Listen to this, it is brought into action in the life of every true believer.

It is brought into action in the life of every true believer.

Now, before we get too deep into 1 Corinthians 13, I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

Oftentimes, the preamble, if you will, or the preface to 1 Corinthians 13 is left out in its reading.

As you know, the Bible was not written with chapter divisions.

1 Corinthians 12, verse 31, I want you to notice what Paul says right before he introduces this concept of love, his definition of Christ-like love.

1 Corinthians 12 verse 31, it says this, it says, but covet earnestly the best gifts and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.

This is the only place in scripture where we are told to covet something.

Now of course there's 2 types of coveting, obviously, here in the Bible.

There's the 1 that the Bible forbids in the 10th Commandment, and then there's the 1 that Paul encourages us to have.

He tells us to covet earnestly the best gifts.

The covenant that the Bible tells us not to have in the 10th commandment is a desire to possess the visible materials, the tangible things of this life that are owned by other people.

It is motivated by a sense of selfish desire for something that somebody else possesses.

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The Commandment of Love - Part 1

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