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Continue Ye In My Love |
Dear Brethren,
During
His earthly ministry, Jesus gave us many commands. His
directives to us are not options or suggestions, and not
mere sentiments – but actually dictates that we are
commanded to follow. Today’s title comes from John
15:9. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I
loved you: continue ye in my love.”
But, here is what so many overlook... Here is where so many
make a wrong assumption... They assume that they are
in the love of Christ – when they have no idea what
that means. Jesus is not saying that we are to simply stay
in His love – He is saying that we are to possess and
retain the same Godly love as He and the Father have
for each other. That same Godly love must be
internalized by us as a way of life.
We must be sure that we have a Godly love
like Christ does before we can continue in it. We’ve seen
it a thousand times where Jesus explained that we as
Christians must have a love like His, “This is my
commandment, That ye love one another, as I have
loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John
15:12-13) Let’s not pass over this too quickly – saying to
ourselves – “I know that Scripture already.”
The first thing that we must take to heart is
this: “This is my commandment…” It is a
commandment of Jesus Christ! Let’s make
sure that we understand what is being said here.
Next, “That ye love one another…” Who
among us seriously examines ourselves as what loving one
another according to the Scriptures entails? No matter how
loving we may think we are, this kind of love that Jesus is
speaking of does not come naturally for anyone – we must
acquire Godly love. Paul said it like this:
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ." (Galatians 6:2)
Then, Jesus adds, “As I have loved you.”
If we are reading closely, we would ask ourselves, how was
it that Jesus loved us? “As,” means in the
same way. We are to love others with the exact same
love that Jesus loved us. Jesus died for us – that is the
way He loved us. You might say, “Surely, Jesus does not
expect us to literally be willing to die for one another” –
but He does. Unless we learn to lay our lives down
for the brethren, just as Jesus did for us, we will not have
a part in the first resurrection.
So as to remove any doubt as to what He
meant, Jesus concludes this short passage with, “Greater
love has no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.” It is starting to
become fairly clear that Jesus is commanding that we lay
down our lives just as He laid down His life. We
must be called, chosen and faithful - and the way we
are faithful is by following in Jesus' steps and laying
down our lives (Rev 17:14, 1 Peter 2:21).
Now we come to the hard part. What does
Jesus mean by, “lay down your life.” Paul says that
we can lay down our lives – and still be alive. “I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service.” (Romans 12:1) In other words, Jesus died on
the cross – it’s not asking too much of us to “die daily”
in fulfillment of Christ’s command (1 Cor 15:31).
Have there ever been times when you were
praying fervently for a loved one, or for someone in the
Church who was dying, and you said, "Father, please take
my life – and spare this person to go on with their
life?" And really mean it? Can we say, “I will give up the
rest of my life here and now – so that another person could
go on living?” God doesn't usually work that way – but He
expects us to love as He loves – and He appreciates the
willing attitude.
Let’s look at some situations where we are
required by God to lay down our lives. When a situation
arises in the life of one of the brethren – a difficult
situation where someone’s salvation is at stake, or someone
is being treated in a terribly unjust manner, what are we to
do? Suppose that a malicious minister of a congregation is
threatening an innocent member – and you are the only one
who knows about it – what would you do? Suppose the
leadership of a church organization moves away from true
Christianity – what would you do?
Here is a typical opportunity to fulfill what
Jesus means by laying down our lives.
Sometimes, we find out that one of the brethren has a
serious sin in their life – what are we to do? How do we
lay down our lives in a situation like this? This is what
Jesus was speaking of when He said we are to lay down our
lives for others just as He did for us. Even if our
reputation is ruined, even if we are disfellowshipped, even
if all our friends abandon us, even if we lose everything –
including our lives, we put it all on the line to convert
the sinner from the error of his way. "Let him
know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of
his way shall save a soul from death." (James 5: 20).
Not laying our lives down as Jesus gave us
example to do may be the biggest shortcoming in the Church
of God today! In the past, if we thought about laying down
our lives at all – perhaps we viewed it as giving of our
time, money and encouragement. But, there is so much more.
Jesus died so that we might have salvation. In the same
way, our acts of laying down our lives are for the purpose
of saving each other – making sure that we help each other
into the Kingdom of God. If we are not doing this – we are
not continuing in His love.
***
| Sermon: |
"Continue Ye In My Love" |
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