Have Love for One Another!

With summer break just days away, I know you have been practicing your sandcastle building skills. If a sandcastle building beach vacation is in your future, you need to know the right amount of sand and water to mix in your bucket to build a stellar sandcastle. Your mom and dad might have shown you their sandcastle secrets, so that at the beach you can build on your own as a testament to their time with you.

Building a sandcastle takes more than just sand, water and a bucket. You may have all you need to build a stellar sandcastle, but without love whatever you build crumbles. You may shout out your sandcastle skills or call others to see your work, but any praise they might have will be washed away by your pride. Or you may move mountains of sand to build a sandcastle colony to give away to other kids to make their own but leaving them to boast about how great your gift was to others tarnishes the gift. Without love even the most impressive gifts are nothing as Paul taught in our New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians 13,

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

The Corinthian congregation was gifted with what so many other Christians desired to have, but without love for God, even those good things would become idols and prideful traps.

Love is so important to Jesus that he gave his disciples the command to love during the last night he spent with them before he died. After Jesus gave the disciples the Lord’s Supper from the Passover meal, and Judas had left, Jesus told the eleven that he was going away. He was going to a place they could not go, at least not yet. While they waited to join Jesus in heaven, they were to follow the command he gave in our Gospel reading from John 13,

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

This command to love was not new as if God had not wanted us to love one another before this. Instead, the same love God has always desired mankind to have for one another would be characterized by Jesus’ sacrifice, a love that gave everything to us who did not deserve it. Jesus gave this command with confidence in his love working on and through them to love one another.

Without love, we are not Jesus’ disciples. Jesus loved you as he loved his disciples by giving his life on the cross to save you from your sins. His love worked for you. Now you are to love as he has loved you. Jesus gave this command confident that you would keep it because of his love. So, as Christians we are able to keep this command, but we do not always keep this command. We do not always love one another. The love Jesus commands us to have gives, and gives when it has not been earned or deserved. So, when we are not giving, we take by craving, coveting and conniving. We stop giving when we no longer feel we have something to give, which reveals the great danger of not having love to give to one another. We love because Jesus gave his love to us, so when we are not living with love, we are not filling up with Christ. As Christians, we can show love and not show love but living without love long enough leaves us without our identity in Christ.

Jesus loved you. Jesus loved you every moment to forgive every moment we did not love him or one another. At no point are you so empty of love that Jesus does not love you. Even Judas who betrayed Jesus was shown love by Jesus when he called him out for the evil he planned to do. Jesus still loved Judas and still died for Judas’ sins even though Judas had turned from him. The other eleven disciples wanted to continue being with Jesus, but they could not walk the path to the cross with him. The disciples would not need Jesus to be with them as he had been before because his greatest act of love saved them. While Jesus was with his disciples, he loved them, and with his sacrifice for sin on the cross, they saw the depth of his love. The early church also saw the depth of God’s love as Peter shared that the gift of faith was not only for Jews, but also for Gentiles who were not descendants of Abraham or living according to the laws given through Moses in our reading from Acts 11,

15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?” 18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Jesus’ sacrificial love is for all people. The Holy Spirit calls people to repentance, faith and life who have not earned or deserved it. When you fear you have not loved others enough or have let God down with partiality or pride, when you fear God’s love for you has ended the cross and empty tomb stand as the powerful, lasting testament to Jesus’ love for you. Jesus loved you, saved you and has given you life with him in heaven forever.

As Jesus loved you, love one another. We love one another because Jesus loved us as he said in John 13,

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

You can think of it like this, God did not make you to be a garbage disposal. The purpose of a garbage disposal is to take, and it has an endless appetite. The devil and our sinful nature want us to take and empty others for personal gains that amount to nothing. Instead, God filled you up with Jesus. You are a Jesus faucet. God filled you with love and light to give. Your purpose is to give and pour out on others the love of God. You will be satisfied at the end of each day when you have loved others and seen blessings shared, rather than lamenting your emptiness and what others did not give you. Jesus alone fills you up at your core, not others or things or experiences. And God does not want it to be a mystery why you have love for others. When you live out what is described in 1 Corinthians 13,

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

God wants those you love to know it is done because of the sacrificial love Christ has shown you. Everyone in your life needs to be loved and loved as Jesus loved you.

With summer break just days away, a sandcastle building beach vacation might be in your future. Your mom and dad might have shown you their sandcastle secrets, so that at the beach you can build on your own as a testament to their time with you. While Jesus was with his disciples, he loved them, and with his sacrifice for sin on the cross, they saw the depth of his love. Jesus gave his disciples the command to love as he had loved them. We too live in the results of Jesus’ love for us that saved us. His command to love is for us too, and as Jesus fills us with his love, we have love for one another. Amen.