A NEW COMMANDMENT


A. "LOVE ONE ANOTHER"
  1. A mark of light: 1 John 1:7; 2:9
  2. A sign of spiritual life: 1 John 3:14; Matt. 24:12
  3. The badge of a true disciple: John 13:35
B. THE NEW COMMANDMENT
  1. Opinion of some people:
    1. They think that this love was not required in what is called the Old Testament - Matt. 5:43
    2. But the Bible facts are to the contrary - Lev. 19:18, 34; Ex. 23:3
  2. The Ten Commandments are an expression of God's love:
    1. This is revealed in the two great principles stated by Christ in Matt. 22:34-36
    2. Love to God and love to man is the very heart of the Ten Commandments - Deut. 6:5, 10, 12; 30:6; Rom. 13:10
    3. The implanted love to God and man is the motive power which enables us to keep God's law - 1 John 5:1-5; John 14:15; 15:10
  3. Why the new commandment?
    1. "Love one another as I have loved you".
    2. Our Lord demonstrated true love in His life while he sojourned in the flesh - John 13:1
    3. He showed the beauty of loving one another. Even the Jews had to say, "Behold how He loved him" - John 11:36
  4. What our Lord wants us to know about love:
    1. That it is a living principle which reveals itself in the life of the partaker of the divine nature.
    2. That when it possesses us it will motivate and control our thoughts, words, and actions as truly as it did in the life of the Son of man.
    3. This is the great secret of a true Bible Christian - 1 John 4:12
C. HOW CHRIST LOVED
  1. He loved first:
    1. "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" - 1 John 4:10
    2. "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" - verse 11
    3. He loved just the same; that means that even while we were God's enemies, Christ died for us - Rom. 5:10
    4. That is why He says, "love your enemies" - Matt. 5:44
    5. He loved to the end; that means that He loved in spite of all the encounters of the unlovable in us - John 13:1
  2. Let us take this commandment to heart:
    1. The world believes in the theory - "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth",
    2. But the one who is possessed with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who loved first, who loved to the very end, will love as He loved.
  3. It must be repeated that what is new in the commandment of our Lord is:
    1. The personal application of the love of God in our daily life.
    2. A demonstration that we are truly partakers of the divine nature.
    3. Putting into practice the great principle of Bible Christianity - Jas. 1:22; 1 John 2:4-7
    4. A sign that we have passed from death unto life - 1 John 3:14
  4. The divine principle of love has always been the same - in all ages:
    1. God is love - 1 John 4:8
    2. With Him there is no change - Jas. 1:17
  5. It was when the Son of God came into this sinful world, which is full of hatred:
    1. That He demonstrated with His own life God's love - seen and experienced by the disciples.
    2. That He truly said, "Love as I have loved you".
    3. "For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you".


Design © John Bryant 2011