SESSION 4
A Life of Love
Question 1:
When have you been asked to do something that seemed overwhelming at first?
THE POINT
Remaining in Christ means our relationships are marked by love.
THE PASSAGE
John 15:9-17
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
Some things just can’t be done without some level of experience. Imagine trying to bake a cake when you’ve never seen a cake nor tasted one. Or imagine being told to quarterback a professional football game when you’ve never watched a game of football. No amount of discipline will get a cake out of your oven if you don’t have a concept of cake. No force of will is going to move your team down the field if you don’t know what a football is.
In this session, we’ll see Jesus’ command for us to love. Most people see the value and the virtue of this command, but do we really know what love is? In his book, Rethink Your Self, Trevin Wax points out that what people often mean by love is simply the support of others for the version of themselves they have created. He suggests people tend to look for affirmation of the identity they desire, but is that real love? 1
Jesus wants us to taste and see His love. Only then can we love one another well.
JOHN 15:9-11
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.
10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
KEY WORD: Remain (v. 9)—To remain in Christ means to stay; abide; live with, in, and for Him. It is a spiritual and organic union with Him.
Who doesn’t want joy? That’s why, for many of us, verse 11 is such a favorite passage. “ ‘I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.’ ” That is a stunning statement: Your joy may be complete. Who doesn’t want complete joy? We all do.
We don’t just want it; we are desperate for it. For too many, the search for complete joy is an exhausting, seemingly impossible pursuit. You may have a closet full of supplies from all the hobbies you’ve embraced and then forgotten, hoping one of them would fill some empty spot in your life. Maybe you check your bank account three times a day hoping to see a more satisfying sum on the bottom line. Skydivers even jump out of planes for the thrill and pursuit of joy. And then there are CrossFitters—those who pursue fitness to the extreme and seem to pursue joy by pursuing misery! 2
Those outside the Christian faith may question whether complete joy is possible, but God lovingly created us to live in joy. Jesus pointed us to the way we can experience this joy, and it’s found in three words.
Love. Jesus said, “Remain in my love.” Jesus’ love is the key to our joy. That makes glorious sense when we remember what His love is like. Jesus came to earth because of His love for us. He came to teach us of the Father’s love and to express that love through His actions and miracles. He showed us love in His response to our sin. In His love for us, Jesus took all our wickedness on Himself. He was nailed to a cross. He died. He was buried behind a boulder. And because of His love for us, He came out of the tomb and wasn’t dead anymore so that we could have victory. This is the One, our Rescuer, who declared, “ ‘I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.’ ”
Remain. We are to remain—continue, abide, tarry, dwell—in Christ’s amazing love for us. When we remain there in His love, our joy can be unbroken, but it’s important we remain. Leon Morris writes: “He commands them to continue in his love. It is possible for people to live without being mindful of Christ’s love for them and so break the closeness of the fellowship. Jesus commands them not to do this.” 3 It’s that fellowship with Jesus that brings the joy we’re looking for.
Keep. Because of Jesus’ love, we remain in Jesus’ love. And because of Jesus’ love, we obey His commands. Jesus called us to “keep my commands,” which simply means we should obey the One who loves us. And as we obey His commands, we remain mindful of His love, further compelling us to obey and remain or abide in the love that first led us to obey and abide. It’s an incredible cycle of living in His love.
All of us want complete joy—and Jesus wants us to have it. That is why He calls us to dwell in Him and obey Him. When we do what He has called us to do, we experience His love and joy over and over again. Complete joy.
Question 2:
What has led you to experience joy recently?
JOHN 15:12-14
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
On July 27, 1993, Javier Sotomayor set the world record for the running high jump at 2.45 meters—more than eight feet!—a record he’s held for almost thirty years. 4 My oldest daughter is four feet, ten inches, and I know there’s no way I could jump over her without hurting her. What if Javier Sotomayor commanded me to jump as high as he has jumped? I’d be overwhelmed because I couldn’t do it.
This is what I thought of when I read Jesus’ command to love like He loves, “ ‘This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.’ ” How can we love as Jesus has loved?
Jesus is the world record holder for love. No love has ever been higher, deeper, wider, or stronger than the love of Christ. No love has impacted more people. The disciples, when they heard this, must have thought it was like being asked to high jump eight feet. They knew what Jesus’ love looked like; they had seen the love of Jesus up close and powerful. They’d seen Him heal diseases, mend bones, and silence demons for the people He loved. They’d seen Him weep, teach, and feed. They knew how sparsely He lived. They’d seen Him serve thousands for nothing in return. They didn’t know it yet, but Jesus was about to show them just how far His love would go when He died on the cross for them. With this perfect and extreme example of love before them, they had to weigh the magnitude of what Jesus was saying: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
How do we love as Jesus loved? Though the example of Christ seems unattainable, the answer is simple: We try. We experience the love of Jesus (I have loved you) and we obey (love one another). We look at Jesus, and we try to be like Him.
Question 3:
What does it practically look like to love others the way Jesus loves us?
Sure, we probably will never jump so high. We will never love so wonderfully. We may not be able to love to the degree Jesus loved, but we can love in the same manner. We may not see the same impact from our love, but we can share the same heart. We love as we have been loved. That’s the mandate. Be loved and be obedient.
Jesus then clarified His directions in the next sentence. “ ‘No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.’ ” That means the love Christ wants us to have for one another is active. That means our love should be sacrificial. Loving as Jesus loved means having “skin in the game” for the needs of others. It means sacrificing something of ourselves for the sake of others. Obeying in this way is like Jesus’ obedience to the Father. It might hurt or cost us dearly, but we move forward for the sake of the ones we love. H.A. Ironside put it this way:
“It is one thing to talk about love and another to manifest it. I may say I love my mother, and yet refuse to do anything for her when she is sick. Such love counts for very little. … Love is manifested by active benevolence and by obedience.” 5
So, if we’re not demonstrating our love through acting, we aren’t loving. If our love never requires sacrificing, we are only talking. Jesus laid down His life for us and called us to act in kind: to love as He has loved us.
Question 4:
In what ways can we “lay down our lives” for our friends?
DIGGING DEEPER
Jesus’ Teaching About Love
See the article to learn more about the powerful theme of love found in the Bible.
JOHN 15:15-17
15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.
I often call myself a failed farmer. A few years ago, my family and I moved to “the country” and we tried to live the farm life. We figured out how to care for our chickens. We’ve managed to get a few vegetables out of the ground—but very few, considering how many seeds we put into the ground. I’ve planted fruit trees, fruit bushes, potatoes, carrots, and every green vegetable you can think of, and at least 90 percent of them died before we could put anything on our table. I know the problem. I like to plant the plant, but I don’t like to love the plant. I’m happy to do the digging and sowing, but if you’re looking for someone to regularly weed and water the plants, you’re asking the wrong farmer. So I produce very little fruit.
That’s how many of us approach producing fruit for Jesus. Jesus told His followers, “ ‘I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain.’ ” We want to stick a seed in the ground, walk away, and be overwhelmed by the crop of apples produced. But that’s not how farming works—and that’s not how we produce spiritual fruit that remains. We must bring the “loving, remaining, and keeping” into the process. But what kind of fruit are we talking about?
Some people equate fruit with evangelistic success, meaning how many people you lead to faith in Jesus.
Some people connect fruit to acts of service, meaning the ministry you do in the name of Jesus.
Some people insist fruit is about personal growth, the character of Jesus that God shapes in you.
So which is it? We see all three concepts of fruit in Scripture! To bear fruit can mean leading people to Jesus (John 4:36); serving them in Jesus’ name (Matt. 7:16-20); and developing the character of Jesus (Gal. 5:22-23). Merely giving verbal assent to being a follower of Jesus is inadequate. Life change must happen—and continue to happen—as proof of conversion, and people will see that in how we influence others to follow Jesus, perform ministry acts in Jesus’ name, and live with Christ-like, Spirit-filled character.
Love is the “fertilizer” that aids our evangelistic efforts, our service to others, and our character that points to Christ. Jesus repeated His command in verse 17: “This is what I command you: Love one another.” We are never to stop remaining or abiding in the love of Jesus. We are never to stop loving as we have been loved. Just because Jesus calls us friends (He gives us a better relationship) and appoints us (He gives us a better calling), doesn’t negate His previous commands to dwell in Him and love like Him. We bring those lifelong priorities into our friendship with Jesus and into our calling to bear fruit. We bring the love of Jesus to the people around us.
Let’s never separate abiding in Jesus and loving like Jesus from serving Jesus and bearing fruit for Jesus. Even though we know only Jesus can give us lasting joy, sometimes we act as if we’re responsible for any “success” in ministry. But attempting to bear fruit without abiding and loving is like attempting to grow strawberries without soil or sun. If we want to bear fruit for Christ, we need to show others the love of Christ. We need to help them see our joy of dwelling in Him. We need to help them long to know the same Jesus who has loved us.
Question 5:
Why is producing spiritual fruit an important part of our Christian life?
ENGAGE
How has your view of love changed?
When I was fifteen, I thought love was …
When my kids were preschoolers, I thought love was …
During middle-age, I thought love was ...
Now, I picture love as …
Which changes over time: the definition of love or our understanding of love? Explain.
LIVE IT OUT
Remember how Jesus has loved you and how much you’ve needed His love. Take a few minutes to think about what it could look like for you to love others like Jesus loves you.
Remember. Set aside time each day this week to remember Jesus’ love for you. Replay the gospel to yourself and abide in Jesus’ love.
Love. Think of a fellow Christian you can love sacrificially this week. Maybe someone who has a physical need that you can love in a tangible way, or someone who has an emotional need that you can listen to and pray for.
Serve. What actions can you take this week to show love to someone in your life who does not know Jesus? Serve them in a way that helps them to see Jesus?
END NOTES
1. Trevin Wax, Rethink Your Self (Nashville: B&H, 2020), 12-13.
2. https://www.crossfit.com.
3. Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 597.
4. “High Jump World Records,” Topend Sports, https://www.topendsports.com/sport/athletics/record-high-jump.htm.
5. H.A. Ironside, Addresses on the Gospel of John (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1942), 663.
JESUS’ TEACHING ABOUT LOVE
By Robert E. Jones
Love is a powerful biblical theme throughout the Old and New Testaments. In Jesus’ life and teachings, though, the biblical concept of love reaches its highest pinnacle of significance. In Jesus we find a uniqueness to love’s meaning and impact that, while tied to the Old Testament, transcends both the secular and spiritual concepts we find there.
Interestingly, the Gospels use the Greek words translated “love” as verbs more than nouns. The two Greek verbs for love, agapao and phileo, occur 83 times, compared to only 9 times for the noun agape. In John’s Gospel alone the verbs occur 49 times to only 7 times for the noun. This higher frequency of using verbs over nouns in the Gospels seems to suggest a greater stress on the active element of love. 1
In addition a clear preference for agapao over phileo exists in the Gospels. 2 While some scholars view these two verbs as virtually synonymous and often used them interchangeably, other commentators see a distinction between the words. For example the Greek scholar W. E. Vine defined agapao as expressing God’s “deep and constant love and interest” toward those who are unworthy of that love. 3 In contrast, he distinguished phileo as more nearly representing “tender affection.” 4 While the debate remains unsettled, agapao appears to express love in at least one special sense, as God’s unearned gift to man that finds its anchor in Jesus’ self-giving sacrifice of love on the cross.
Jesus’ Unique Emphases
Three emphases in Jesus’ teaching about love stand out as especially unique. Each of these is grounded in John’s Gospel.
For All People—Jesus’ teaching transcends the Old Testament, where God’s love took on a strong national form that was tied closely to His covenant with Israel. God explained in the Old Testament that He did not
choose the Hebrew people because they were greater or more special than the other nations, but rather He loved them uniquely by choice and was thus keeping His covenant promise to them (Deut. 7:7-8). Jesus, however, expanded the reach of God’s love to include all people and taught that God had demonstrated His love for them by sending His only-begotten Son into the world for their salvation (John 3:16).
For His Followers—A second unique way in which Jesus taught about love was through the love He demonstrated for the disciples. Jesus declared to them that He had loved them in the same manner in which the Father had loved Him. But then Jesus went further by commanding the disciples to remain in His love by obeying His commands (15:9-10). Jesus reminded His disciples He had modeled this love before them through His perfect obedience to the Father. He explained clearly that Christian love expresses itself in implicit obedience to God’s commands; the one who truly loves Jesus will express that love by obeying His commands and keeping His teachings (14:15,21,23). 5
For Abiding—A third theme Jesus taught about love emphasized His desire for the disciples to abide in His love. Jesus stated this in the form of a direct command: “Remain in My love” (15:9). 6 Jesus tied remaining in His love with keeping His commands (v. 10). The “commands” to which Jesus referred become folded into one core commandment in verse 12: they were to love one another as Christ had loved them. This single command is, in fact, a restatement of John 13:34-35 where Jesus told His disciples He was giving them a new commandment: to love one another. Obeying this command would identify them as Christ’s followers (13:35). Their love for one another would distinguish them before the world and would validate their commitment to Jesus.
In both John 13:34-35 and John 15:12-14, Jesus explained that the love the disciples should have for one another was to be a reflection of how Jesus had loved them. In both texts the verb tense is significant. The texts use the present tense, indicating that the disciples’ love for one another was to be a continuous, ongoing action. As Jesus had loved them, they were to love one another. One New Testament scholar described the death of Jesus as “the ultimate measure of love” and went on to say, “no other love surpasses such love.” 7
In a sense, Christ’s followers continue the chain: the Father loves Jesus; Jesus loves the disciples; the disciples love one another without fail and without end. Furthermore, by keeping the commandment to love each other, Jesus’ followers bear the fruit He desires from them (15:8), the fruit of giving a strong witness to the world.
To this specific command for His followers to love their fellow believers, Jesus added two further commandments to love that find their basis in the Old Testament. The first command is directed toward God and the second focuses attention on the disciples’ neighbors (Matt. 22:37-40). All Jews would have recognized Jesus’ command to love God with one’s heart, soul, and mind as the core of the Shema (see Deut. 6:4-5). It challenged persons of faith to love God supremely. Additionally, Jesus echoed Leviticus 19:18 when He told His disciples that they should love their neighbors selflessly. By linking these two commandments together, Jesus showed that all other commandments are summed up or contained in them, thereby making these two the greatest commandments of all.
Modern Applications
We can discern from Jesus’ teaching about love at least three implications for believers today. First, those of us who follow Jesus Christ can demonstrate His love to a lost world by truly loving each other. As a local church pastor for nearly 40 years, I have seen the power and influence the members of Christ’s body can have on unchurched people by loving and caring for one another. Second, we demonstrate our love for the Lord by obeying Him. Since Jesus modeled for us obedience to the Father, our obedience to God will become a model for others who are watching us. Third, because of God’s great love for the whole world, Christians today should strive for a renewed commitment in our lives to share this love with unsaved people everywhere so they also may experience God’s wonderful, saving grace.
Love is a powerful biblical theme, as both the Old and New Testaments proclaim and demonstrate. In Jesus, the Messiah, the incarnate God-Man, we find the ultimate manifestation and embodiment of God’s love. Jesus practiced selfless and sacrificial love throughout His life and in His atoning death. John, in his first epistle, explained believers’ motivation for continuing in and expressing God’s love: “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Robert E. Jones is pastor of Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Bristol, Virginia. [Lifeway Adults (NaN). (p. 48). Bible Studies for Life: Senior Adult Personal Study Guide - CSB - Spring 2022. Lifeway Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]
A Life of Love
Question 1:
When have you been asked to do something that seemed overwhelming at first?
THE POINT
Remaining in Christ means our relationships are marked by love.
THE PASSAGE
John 15:9-17
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
Some things just can’t be done without some level of experience. Imagine trying to bake a cake when you’ve never seen a cake nor tasted one. Or imagine being told to quarterback a professional football game when you’ve never watched a game of football. No amount of discipline will get a cake out of your oven if you don’t have a concept of cake. No force of will is going to move your team down the field if you don’t know what a football is.
In this session, we’ll see Jesus’ command for us to love. Most people see the value and the virtue of this command, but do we really know what love is? In his book, Rethink Your Self, Trevin Wax points out that what people often mean by love is simply the support of others for the version of themselves they have created. He suggests people tend to look for affirmation of the identity they desire, but is that real love? 1
Jesus wants us to taste and see His love. Only then can we love one another well.
JOHN 15:9-11
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.
10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
KEY WORD: Remain (v. 9)—To remain in Christ means to stay; abide; live with, in, and for Him. It is a spiritual and organic union with Him.
Who doesn’t want joy? That’s why, for many of us, verse 11 is such a favorite passage. “ ‘I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.’ ” That is a stunning statement: Your joy may be complete. Who doesn’t want complete joy? We all do.
We don’t just want it; we are desperate for it. For too many, the search for complete joy is an exhausting, seemingly impossible pursuit. You may have a closet full of supplies from all the hobbies you’ve embraced and then forgotten, hoping one of them would fill some empty spot in your life. Maybe you check your bank account three times a day hoping to see a more satisfying sum on the bottom line. Skydivers even jump out of planes for the thrill and pursuit of joy. And then there are CrossFitters—those who pursue fitness to the extreme and seem to pursue joy by pursuing misery! 2
Those outside the Christian faith may question whether complete joy is possible, but God lovingly created us to live in joy. Jesus pointed us to the way we can experience this joy, and it’s found in three words.
Love. Jesus said, “Remain in my love.” Jesus’ love is the key to our joy. That makes glorious sense when we remember what His love is like. Jesus came to earth because of His love for us. He came to teach us of the Father’s love and to express that love through His actions and miracles. He showed us love in His response to our sin. In His love for us, Jesus took all our wickedness on Himself. He was nailed to a cross. He died. He was buried behind a boulder. And because of His love for us, He came out of the tomb and wasn’t dead anymore so that we could have victory. This is the One, our Rescuer, who declared, “ ‘I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.’ ”
Remain. We are to remain—continue, abide, tarry, dwell—in Christ’s amazing love for us. When we remain there in His love, our joy can be unbroken, but it’s important we remain. Leon Morris writes: “He commands them to continue in his love. It is possible for people to live without being mindful of Christ’s love for them and so break the closeness of the fellowship. Jesus commands them not to do this.” 3 It’s that fellowship with Jesus that brings the joy we’re looking for.
Keep. Because of Jesus’ love, we remain in Jesus’ love. And because of Jesus’ love, we obey His commands. Jesus called us to “keep my commands,” which simply means we should obey the One who loves us. And as we obey His commands, we remain mindful of His love, further compelling us to obey and remain or abide in the love that first led us to obey and abide. It’s an incredible cycle of living in His love.
All of us want complete joy—and Jesus wants us to have it. That is why He calls us to dwell in Him and obey Him. When we do what He has called us to do, we experience His love and joy over and over again. Complete joy.
Question 2:
What has led you to experience joy recently?
JOHN 15:12-14
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
On July 27, 1993, Javier Sotomayor set the world record for the running high jump at 2.45 meters—more than eight feet!—a record he’s held for almost thirty years. 4 My oldest daughter is four feet, ten inches, and I know there’s no way I could jump over her without hurting her. What if Javier Sotomayor commanded me to jump as high as he has jumped? I’d be overwhelmed because I couldn’t do it.
This is what I thought of when I read Jesus’ command to love like He loves, “ ‘This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.’ ” How can we love as Jesus has loved?
Jesus is the world record holder for love. No love has ever been higher, deeper, wider, or stronger than the love of Christ. No love has impacted more people. The disciples, when they heard this, must have thought it was like being asked to high jump eight feet. They knew what Jesus’ love looked like; they had seen the love of Jesus up close and powerful. They’d seen Him heal diseases, mend bones, and silence demons for the people He loved. They’d seen Him weep, teach, and feed. They knew how sparsely He lived. They’d seen Him serve thousands for nothing in return. They didn’t know it yet, but Jesus was about to show them just how far His love would go when He died on the cross for them. With this perfect and extreme example of love before them, they had to weigh the magnitude of what Jesus was saying: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
How do we love as Jesus loved? Though the example of Christ seems unattainable, the answer is simple: We try. We experience the love of Jesus (I have loved you) and we obey (love one another). We look at Jesus, and we try to be like Him.
Question 3:
What does it practically look like to love others the way Jesus loves us?
Sure, we probably will never jump so high. We will never love so wonderfully. We may not be able to love to the degree Jesus loved, but we can love in the same manner. We may not see the same impact from our love, but we can share the same heart. We love as we have been loved. That’s the mandate. Be loved and be obedient.
Jesus then clarified His directions in the next sentence. “ ‘No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.’ ” That means the love Christ wants us to have for one another is active. That means our love should be sacrificial. Loving as Jesus loved means having “skin in the game” for the needs of others. It means sacrificing something of ourselves for the sake of others. Obeying in this way is like Jesus’ obedience to the Father. It might hurt or cost us dearly, but we move forward for the sake of the ones we love. H.A. Ironside put it this way:
“It is one thing to talk about love and another to manifest it. I may say I love my mother, and yet refuse to do anything for her when she is sick. Such love counts for very little. … Love is manifested by active benevolence and by obedience.” 5
So, if we’re not demonstrating our love through acting, we aren’t loving. If our love never requires sacrificing, we are only talking. Jesus laid down His life for us and called us to act in kind: to love as He has loved us.
Question 4:
In what ways can we “lay down our lives” for our friends?
DIGGING DEEPER
Jesus’ Teaching About Love
See the article to learn more about the powerful theme of love found in the Bible.
JOHN 15:15-17
15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.
I often call myself a failed farmer. A few years ago, my family and I moved to “the country” and we tried to live the farm life. We figured out how to care for our chickens. We’ve managed to get a few vegetables out of the ground—but very few, considering how many seeds we put into the ground. I’ve planted fruit trees, fruit bushes, potatoes, carrots, and every green vegetable you can think of, and at least 90 percent of them died before we could put anything on our table. I know the problem. I like to plant the plant, but I don’t like to love the plant. I’m happy to do the digging and sowing, but if you’re looking for someone to regularly weed and water the plants, you’re asking the wrong farmer. So I produce very little fruit.
That’s how many of us approach producing fruit for Jesus. Jesus told His followers, “ ‘I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain.’ ” We want to stick a seed in the ground, walk away, and be overwhelmed by the crop of apples produced. But that’s not how farming works—and that’s not how we produce spiritual fruit that remains. We must bring the “loving, remaining, and keeping” into the process. But what kind of fruit are we talking about?
Some people equate fruit with evangelistic success, meaning how many people you lead to faith in Jesus.
Some people connect fruit to acts of service, meaning the ministry you do in the name of Jesus.
Some people insist fruit is about personal growth, the character of Jesus that God shapes in you.
So which is it? We see all three concepts of fruit in Scripture! To bear fruit can mean leading people to Jesus (John 4:36); serving them in Jesus’ name (Matt. 7:16-20); and developing the character of Jesus (Gal. 5:22-23). Merely giving verbal assent to being a follower of Jesus is inadequate. Life change must happen—and continue to happen—as proof of conversion, and people will see that in how we influence others to follow Jesus, perform ministry acts in Jesus’ name, and live with Christ-like, Spirit-filled character.
Love is the “fertilizer” that aids our evangelistic efforts, our service to others, and our character that points to Christ. Jesus repeated His command in verse 17: “This is what I command you: Love one another.” We are never to stop remaining or abiding in the love of Jesus. We are never to stop loving as we have been loved. Just because Jesus calls us friends (He gives us a better relationship) and appoints us (He gives us a better calling), doesn’t negate His previous commands to dwell in Him and love like Him. We bring those lifelong priorities into our friendship with Jesus and into our calling to bear fruit. We bring the love of Jesus to the people around us.
Let’s never separate abiding in Jesus and loving like Jesus from serving Jesus and bearing fruit for Jesus. Even though we know only Jesus can give us lasting joy, sometimes we act as if we’re responsible for any “success” in ministry. But attempting to bear fruit without abiding and loving is like attempting to grow strawberries without soil or sun. If we want to bear fruit for Christ, we need to show others the love of Christ. We need to help them see our joy of dwelling in Him. We need to help them long to know the same Jesus who has loved us.
Question 5:
Why is producing spiritual fruit an important part of our Christian life?
ENGAGE
How has your view of love changed?
When I was fifteen, I thought love was …
When my kids were preschoolers, I thought love was …
During middle-age, I thought love was ...
Now, I picture love as …
Which changes over time: the definition of love or our understanding of love? Explain.
LIVE IT OUT
Remember how Jesus has loved you and how much you’ve needed His love. Take a few minutes to think about what it could look like for you to love others like Jesus loves you.
Remember. Set aside time each day this week to remember Jesus’ love for you. Replay the gospel to yourself and abide in Jesus’ love.
Love. Think of a fellow Christian you can love sacrificially this week. Maybe someone who has a physical need that you can love in a tangible way, or someone who has an emotional need that you can listen to and pray for.
Serve. What actions can you take this week to show love to someone in your life who does not know Jesus? Serve them in a way that helps them to see Jesus?
END NOTES
1. Trevin Wax, Rethink Your Self (Nashville: B&H, 2020), 12-13.
2. https://www.crossfit.com.
3. Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 597.
4. “High Jump World Records,” Topend Sports, https://www.topendsports.com/sport/athletics/record-high-jump.htm.
5. H.A. Ironside, Addresses on the Gospel of John (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1942), 663.
JESUS’ TEACHING ABOUT LOVE
By Robert E. Jones
Love is a powerful biblical theme throughout the Old and New Testaments. In Jesus’ life and teachings, though, the biblical concept of love reaches its highest pinnacle of significance. In Jesus we find a uniqueness to love’s meaning and impact that, while tied to the Old Testament, transcends both the secular and spiritual concepts we find there.
Interestingly, the Gospels use the Greek words translated “love” as verbs more than nouns. The two Greek verbs for love, agapao and phileo, occur 83 times, compared to only 9 times for the noun agape. In John’s Gospel alone the verbs occur 49 times to only 7 times for the noun. This higher frequency of using verbs over nouns in the Gospels seems to suggest a greater stress on the active element of love. 1
In addition a clear preference for agapao over phileo exists in the Gospels. 2 While some scholars view these two verbs as virtually synonymous and often used them interchangeably, other commentators see a distinction between the words. For example the Greek scholar W. E. Vine defined agapao as expressing God’s “deep and constant love and interest” toward those who are unworthy of that love. 3 In contrast, he distinguished phileo as more nearly representing “tender affection.” 4 While the debate remains unsettled, agapao appears to express love in at least one special sense, as God’s unearned gift to man that finds its anchor in Jesus’ self-giving sacrifice of love on the cross.
Jesus’ Unique Emphases
Three emphases in Jesus’ teaching about love stand out as especially unique. Each of these is grounded in John’s Gospel.
For All People—Jesus’ teaching transcends the Old Testament, where God’s love took on a strong national form that was tied closely to His covenant with Israel. God explained in the Old Testament that He did not
choose the Hebrew people because they were greater or more special than the other nations, but rather He loved them uniquely by choice and was thus keeping His covenant promise to them (Deut. 7:7-8). Jesus, however, expanded the reach of God’s love to include all people and taught that God had demonstrated His love for them by sending His only-begotten Son into the world for their salvation (John 3:16).
For His Followers—A second unique way in which Jesus taught about love was through the love He demonstrated for the disciples. Jesus declared to them that He had loved them in the same manner in which the Father had loved Him. But then Jesus went further by commanding the disciples to remain in His love by obeying His commands (15:9-10). Jesus reminded His disciples He had modeled this love before them through His perfect obedience to the Father. He explained clearly that Christian love expresses itself in implicit obedience to God’s commands; the one who truly loves Jesus will express that love by obeying His commands and keeping His teachings (14:15,21,23). 5
For Abiding—A third theme Jesus taught about love emphasized His desire for the disciples to abide in His love. Jesus stated this in the form of a direct command: “Remain in My love” (15:9). 6 Jesus tied remaining in His love with keeping His commands (v. 10). The “commands” to which Jesus referred become folded into one core commandment in verse 12: they were to love one another as Christ had loved them. This single command is, in fact, a restatement of John 13:34-35 where Jesus told His disciples He was giving them a new commandment: to love one another. Obeying this command would identify them as Christ’s followers (13:35). Their love for one another would distinguish them before the world and would validate their commitment to Jesus.
In both John 13:34-35 and John 15:12-14, Jesus explained that the love the disciples should have for one another was to be a reflection of how Jesus had loved them. In both texts the verb tense is significant. The texts use the present tense, indicating that the disciples’ love for one another was to be a continuous, ongoing action. As Jesus had loved them, they were to love one another. One New Testament scholar described the death of Jesus as “the ultimate measure of love” and went on to say, “no other love surpasses such love.” 7
In a sense, Christ’s followers continue the chain: the Father loves Jesus; Jesus loves the disciples; the disciples love one another without fail and without end. Furthermore, by keeping the commandment to love each other, Jesus’ followers bear the fruit He desires from them (15:8), the fruit of giving a strong witness to the world.
To this specific command for His followers to love their fellow believers, Jesus added two further commandments to love that find their basis in the Old Testament. The first command is directed toward God and the second focuses attention on the disciples’ neighbors (Matt. 22:37-40). All Jews would have recognized Jesus’ command to love God with one’s heart, soul, and mind as the core of the Shema (see Deut. 6:4-5). It challenged persons of faith to love God supremely. Additionally, Jesus echoed Leviticus 19:18 when He told His disciples that they should love their neighbors selflessly. By linking these two commandments together, Jesus showed that all other commandments are summed up or contained in them, thereby making these two the greatest commandments of all.
Modern Applications
We can discern from Jesus’ teaching about love at least three implications for believers today. First, those of us who follow Jesus Christ can demonstrate His love to a lost world by truly loving each other. As a local church pastor for nearly 40 years, I have seen the power and influence the members of Christ’s body can have on unchurched people by loving and caring for one another. Second, we demonstrate our love for the Lord by obeying Him. Since Jesus modeled for us obedience to the Father, our obedience to God will become a model for others who are watching us. Third, because of God’s great love for the whole world, Christians today should strive for a renewed commitment in our lives to share this love with unsaved people everywhere so they also may experience God’s wonderful, saving grace.
Love is a powerful biblical theme, as both the Old and New Testaments proclaim and demonstrate. In Jesus, the Messiah, the incarnate God-Man, we find the ultimate manifestation and embodiment of God’s love. Jesus practiced selfless and sacrificial love throughout His life and in His atoning death. John, in his first epistle, explained believers’ motivation for continuing in and expressing God’s love: “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Robert E. Jones is pastor of Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Bristol, Virginia. [Lifeway Adults (NaN). (p. 48). Bible Studies for Life: Senior Adult Personal Study Guide - CSB - Spring 2022. Lifeway Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]