“I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too ...are to love one another. – Jesus (John 13:34)

Let the record show...the word used here (commandment) was not ‘suggestion, recommendation’, nor was it tossed out as some idealistic but unattainable goal to shoot for.

The word Jesus used was ‘commandment’, even qualifying it as a ‘new’ one at that.

We are to love one another...”as He has loved us”. I’m hoping no one reading here today needs a refresher course over the fact that ‘while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. 5:8)...as in - He ‘laid down His life’ for us...willingly in obedience to the Father whom He loved (John 14:31).

Did Jesus not raise the bar rather high here? It sure seems like it, and He did not mince words either. To use the word ‘commandment’ was not an accident. I know that word has a tendency to make a lot of people uncomfortable because it implies we need to ‘do something’...which can mess with a lot of folks’ theology when it comes to ‘grace’.

And yet, Jesus wants to make something quite clear here: “By this...all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (35) Can I just state the obvious by saying not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ ...is a disciple? (Matt. 7:21; Luke 6:46)

In other words, if you are not loving others in the same manner in which Jesus first loved us, then we don’t belong to Him. His words, not mine. You might revisit Gal. 5:24 too, as we’ll come back to that later.

Jesus did not offer up some alternative check list of ‘other things’ for us to compare ourselves with in order to determine whether we belonged to Him either. You know, lists that included: ‘those who accepted Me, or ‘made a profession of faith’ or ...were baptized in water or ‘spoke in tongues’. He does not hint that if anyone ‘feeds the poor’ or do ‘great works in His name’ (1 Cor. 13:1-3) that they are His disciples. It was pretty short and simple: Loving others as He loved us is the benchmark. Anything short of that is ‘fluff’ and a ‘form of godliness’. And there is a reason why I may sound like I’m repeating myself here too.

Do you remember last week studying how the ‘God of the OT’ is the same as the ‘God of the NT’? For some odd reason, people perceive that the arrival of Jesus ...somehow ushered in a new dispensation of not having to worry about our ‘sinning’, or ‘making mistakes’ as we like to say in order to soften that word ‘sin’. Lord knows us ‘flawed, imperfect humans’ don’t need any more ‘guilt and condemnation’ to contend with.

And yet...if you look at what Jesus taught in His sermon on the mount, He brings up several examples where ‘we have heard it was said...thou shall not murder...and anyone who murders will be in danger of the judgement (OT law)...but now... I say unto you that if anyone calls someone a fool...they shall be in danger of hell fire!” (Matt. 5:21-22). Wow!

Or how about His citing the commandment about ‘committing adultery’ was OT talk...but “now I say to you if you look at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart’! (Matt. 5:27-28). Say what?

Go ahead and read vs. 43-48 there as He expounds upon the ‘new requirements’ of those who desire the kingdom of God...making the expectation clear: “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect”. (48)

Yep...sure sounds to me like Jesus raised the bar just a tad higher there, does it not to you?

Friends, here’s a ‘News Flash’: It is impossible for us to go and love others as Christ loved us ...unless we have His nature residing in us; Period. And the only way that is going to happen is if we 'decrease' so that He can increase (John 3:30) Which is why Gal. 5:24 comes in to play here along with Rom. 8:13.

And guess what? That’s the whole purpose of being ‘born again’...where we actually become “partakers of His divine nature”, as Peter writes in 2 Pet. 1:2-4. That is what it means to be a ‘new creation’...IF...one is truly “in Christ”. (2 Cor. 5:17). Can you also note where that verse does not suggest we ‘will be’ a new creation some day when we all get to heaven’. IF...we’ve been ‘born again’...guess what? It will be rather obvious to others, not only because of the love of Christ that we are demonstrating...but we will no longer continue to sin. (1 John 3:6-10). And you cannot read that last passage there too many times; trust me.

Now you may want to ‘water that down’ some, as is the practice of many in the so called church today, but friends...there is no getting around the ‘fruit test’. 1 Cor. 13:1-7 and Matt. 7:17-23 confirm this as well. And as we learned in John 15:4-5, unless we are truly abiding in Him...there will be no fruit to speak of, which then puts us in a very precarious position if Matt. 3:10 and John 15:6 counts for anything.

Is this resonating with anyone...are you not seeing the seriousness of what we are looking at here in the Word of God?

No wonder we are being admonished over and over to ‘wake up’! I used the illustration yesterday about this idea of getting accepted into a college does not equate to being guaranteed a diploma. I think it is fair to say that what is happening to many ‘sleeping saints’ who are stirring...is akin to a student who wakes up one morning and realizes their semester project is due in two days and they forgot about even starting. Yes...friends...at the risk of sounding overly-dramatic...it really is that serious. But the fact you are ‘waking up’ and beginning to grasp this is good news, because it is the work of the Holy Spirit that is stirring you in order that He might ‘complete the work he started in you’ (Matt. 25:5-6;10; Phil. 1:6)...but you are going to have to cooperate with Him, and I would not put it off any longer.