Life Ministries

 “A New Command”

Luke 6:27-36  

John 13:30-35
    We have begun this New Year with a series of messages entitled “All Things New” that Concerns the Christian life and what becoming a Christian is all about…and, it’s all about becoming a “new” person. It’s about starting a new life. It’s about being “born again” or another way the Bible puts it “a new creation.” It’s all about the fact that becoming a Christian is more than just being saved; however, it is through our salvation in Christ that “all things become new! In fact, 2 Corinthians 4:16 tells us that we are “being renewed day by day.”
    It is one thing for us to change our outward appearance and attempt to restore our image, but in truth what we are doing is trying to make ourselves become or fit into what the world - and even the church - views as the standard mold of a Christian. However, only God can make us a new creation! Only God can transform us and conform us into His standard, which is the image of His Son Jesus. If you want to know how you are shaping up as a Christian, don’t compare yourself to anyone else - but only to Christ!
    Today I want to look at how we are given a ‘New Command” to follow. Let me begin by attempting to answer the question “Why is it that the church seems to have so little an impact on our society?”
    Some would suggest that the church just needs to “modernize.” We need to update and bring the church (usually meaning the building) up to the 21^st century. Proponents of this would say we need to learn how to market the church like the world markets its products. We need to find out what people want, and then give it to them. We need to do whatever it takes to “draw them in.” Now, I need to follow that up with the fact that some of this is true. We do need to modernize in many respects. I mean we have come a long way from outdoor toilets and typewriters! We live in a www.com world. But, let me also say that - in my mind - there are many ways in which the church scrambles to be more like the world it is trying to save! We need to do what needs to be done, and that which we can do…but my Bible says - and has always said - that “If I be lifted up…I will draw men unto myself!”  We must never lose sight of the fact that it takes more than new tables and carpet to draw people to the church. It takes much more than we can do! It takes lifting Christ and putting God first in all that we do; knowing that WITH God, all things are possible! And, as Jesus said in John 15; “no branch can bear fruit by itself…apart from me you can do nothing.”
    In this passage of scripture for today, Jesus suggests that the key to impacting our world is for Christians to “love one another.” This is a “new commandment” says Jesus. That means that it’s not an option. This is not so much something we “feel” as much as something we “do.” It’s not an emotion, it’s an action. There is a difference. You can’t command an emotion. I can’t say to you “I want you to feel love for Mrs. Crabapple, whether you want to or not!”…You cannot command an emotion. You can’t force someone to love another person. But, you can command an action. This is why I say, Jesus was talking about how we act toward one another. Those actions, as I have said in my book “In It For Life”, are described in all the other “one anothers” in the Bible. I find that there are about nineteen of them. But, let me take you a step beyond that and ask you to read 1 Corinthians 13 as it describes what love really is.
    So, in order to understand the command we must follow, we need to understand then, what love is and how Jesus loved us.        
    1^st. of all, Christ’s love was unconditional. He didn’t just love people that loved him back; he didn’t just love those who were nice to him; he didn’t just love “good” people; or “good looking” people; He loved the unlovely, He loved the rejected, He loved the outcast, He loved the dirty and the leprous. He loved them no matter how undeserving they may be. He knew all their weaknesses and their faults, and he loved them anyway. There are no “ifs” attached to authentic, unconditional love; and He calls us to love the in the same way!
    2^nd. His love was unselfish. He chose to love mankind, who had nothing to offer in return except for our frail and often times imperfect devotion.
    We think of the opposite of love being hate, but that’s not true. Hate, you see, is the absence of love not the opposite. The opposite of love is selfishness. To be unconcerned, or to ignore or neglect, and have our focus only on ourselves and our comfort and our well-being is the opposite of love. To only think about what I can get out of a relationship, or whether or not the relation-ship is fulfilling my needs, is totally selfish and is the opposite of love!  The love that Jesus requires in this new command is an unselfish action…not a feeling.
    3^rd. The love of Jesus was expressed in his many different actions. Jesus never said that “they will know you, because you SAY that you love one another. The people knew that Jesus loved them because they could see it in practical and concrete ways. True love, Agape’ love, which overflows into Koinonia love…which is fellowship,  is always serving; doing; ministering; providing; and just about every other “ing” word you can think of…because “ing” words are actions.
    There once was a Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy asks Schroeder if he knows what love is? He stops playing his piano, stands up and says; “Love, a noun, meaning to be fond of, have a strong affection for, or devotion toward another person. Then he sits down, and resumes playing his piano. Lucy gazes into space and says; “Well…it looks good on paper!”
    That’s the weakness of what the church calls “love.” It is well worded, but lacks warmth and a genuine and sincere desire to express itself.  When we love like Jesus commanded, it will not be mere talk about love; it will have nothing to do with how we feel about one another, nor will it be just singing songs about love; or simply putting up with one another and calling it love - because that’s what we really do - it will be expressed in ways that will show our true disciple-ship… because we are loving as Jesus loved us; unconditional, unselfish actions or expressions of love.
    If you are a Christian this morning, you must know that you are also given a “new command” to follow; “Love one another, as I have loved you…by this all men will know that you are my disciples.”
    So, I challenge you this morning to be sensitive to the needs around you. Be sensitive to those who need your love…and then do something. I’m not telling you anything that I myself am not guilty of…I am trying myself to get back on the right track of living under this new command; to “love one another.”
    Let me follow that with something we don’t often think about; In the scripture there is a story of some men who had a sick friend whom they could not heal…So they did something incredi-ble; they brought him, and lowered him through the roof of a house, to the one who could heal. The moral of this story is that “Sometimes we don’t have to be the healer…we just have to be the friend!”