Pastor Timothy Patoka Sixth Sunday of Easter: May 6, 2018 Love Each Other John 15:9-17 1) As Christ loved us 2) As Christ’s chosen friends People say they love each other all the time, but what are some ways they show that love to them? If you walk by the card aisle at the store, you’ll find hundreds of different ways. Perhaps it’s a ring on a finger and its reminder of the love that’s came with it. I’m sure you can think of some other ways. And as you think through those other ways, I’m willing to guess that it includes more than the words “I love you” but also some kind of action. Because love is best communicated through actions, not words alone. How do parents show their love for their children? They raise them for 18 plus years. How do gardeners and animal owners show their love? By taking care of their beloved objects even though they can’t give much back in return. When Mother’s Day come around next week, how will you show your love to your mother? Hopefully something more than a 3-word text message saying, “Happy Mother’s Day!” Love for another is best shown through actions. And Christian love is no exception. Christ showed his love to us through his sacrifice on the cross and we show love to our fellow Christians with our actions. And as the Apostle John directs us in our verses from chapter 15 of his Gospel, we see that Jesus is the key to loving each other. He is the model to understand how we love each other and why it is our privilege to do so as his chosen friends. 1) As Christ Loved Us In John chapter 15, Jesus keeps coming back to the point that if we’re going to say we are Christians then we are expected to bear fruit accordingly. Listen to how Jesus tells us to bear fruit in these particular passages. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13). Jesus holds himself up to be the model of the love among Christians by showing us how we love each other. It starts with a loving heart that does not shrink back from the cost to show that love. How true Jesus is, there is no greater love than one of a person who is willing to lay down his life for another. Jesus would do this very act of love in a few days when he would give himself up on the cross. But there are more ways to love someone than to die for them. You can also love them as is outlined for us in the
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Pastor Timothy Patoka Sixth Sunday of Easter: May 6, 2018 10 Commandments. For it is in this ancient summary of God’s law that we find 10 guides of how we can love each other. While we’re not going to through all 10, but I am going to have look at 3 of the Commandments starting with the 4th Commandment “Honor your father and mother so that it may go well with you and you will live a long life on this earth.” As Jesus explains and Luther correctly summarizes in the Catechism, we’re not just talking about listening to our parents. Rather God is commanding us to honor every authority figure and obey them in a respectful way. In so doing we show Christian love to those in authority over us. The 6th Commandment which says “Do not commit adultery” is more than the physical act of sleeping with someone, but also thinking the thoughts that lead to adultery. Keep the blessings of marriage within the bond of marriage so that the marriage commitment may be the joy that God designed it to be. The 8th Commandment which says “Do not give false testimony about your neighbor.” False testimony is anything that ruins another person’s reputation whether it be lies or gossip or assuming the worse of someone. Rather than tear someone down for what they may not have even done, love them by building them up and letting the truth define their reputation. These 3 commandments are just a handful of the many ways we can show love to each other as we follow Jesus’ model of Christian love. But it’s not easy to live out Christ’s command to love each other as Christ loved us. We don’t need to go through all 10 Commandments before they afflict us. Those 3 from before will do just fine. The 4th Commandment, honoring every authority figure and respectfully obeying them. No one likes to be told what to do, especially when it’s something we don’t agree with. The 6th Commandment, reserving the intimacy and enjoyment of a husband and wife for marriage. How easily our eyes wander and our desire for companionship lead us into situations we should not be in the first place. The 8th Commandment, upholding a person’s reputation. It’s a lot easier to have fun at someone’s expense. Going back to our original idea, if love is best communicated through actions, what kind of message are we giving to our Christian brothers and sisters when we sin against them with our actions? Not one of love. It is Jesus’ model of Christian love that we go back in times like these. For it not only to show us how to love each other but also to remind us that Jesus loves us even when we fail to love each other. As we read earlier, Jesus describes how he has loved us when he says “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s
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Pastor Timothy Patoka Sixth Sunday of Easter: May 6, 2018 life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). It was in his great love for us that Jesus went to the cross so that we might receive God’s love. Jesus was our substitute who died on our behalf, for us. He had no business to be on the cross to receive the punishment of sins. It should have been you, me, and all us sinful people who can’t keep Jesus’ command of loving each other. Yet in love Jesus made it his business to lay down his life for our benefit. Where God’s own Son placed himself under God’s own wrath for our sins. And as he really died due to his love for us, so he really gives us the forgiveness of our sins due to his love for us. A love that has a lot more to it than simple words. It’s a love that shows itself in actions with the daily renewal of our forgiven status. A love that makes known to us who God is and what his love is all about. 2) As Christ’s Chosen Friends In that same description of great love, we see what new title Jesus calls Christians – his friends. He goes on to explain what he means. “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:15-16a). We are not lowly servants who follow Christ’s command because we have to. We are his friends who choose to bear fruit by loving each other. For it’s by loving each other that we show our love for Christ and for all he has done for us. This is the attitude we ought to have when we look back at those 10 Commandments. They aren’t 10 ways to bring us down to despair. They are 10 different guides of how we may love each other as Jesus’ friends! We honor God by honoring his representatives who are our authority figures. Our refusal to share a bed with another person or undress them with our eyes comes from a loving heart that knows what God designed marriage to be and strives to keep it that way. We don’t spread rumors of what so-and-so might have done. Rather we keep quiet until the truth is known so that we protect a person’s reputation from undue harm. These are the fruits that will last and show us to be Christ’s friends indeed. I know how easy it is to say something and how difficult it can be to follow it. What Jesus shares with us in these verses is clear – to love each other as Christ loved us for that is how we bear fruit as his chosen friends. It’s easy to say that. It’s another thing to live it. Don’t give up just because it’s difficult. Strive to show your love for Christ as you love each other. But when you find yourself lacking and
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Pastor Timothy Patoka Sixth Sunday of Easter: May 6, 2018 wondering how you can keep your acts of love pure both inward and outward, go back to the starting point of how you became Christ’s friend and received his loving forgiveness. Our Savior tells us, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16a). You and I did not bring ourselves to God and do something so that he granted us friend status. He chose us and appointed us to be his friends despite our failure to love each other as we should. So what does that mean? It means that your forgiveness and love from God doesn’t depend on how well you carry out his command to love each other. It’s already given to you and me. It is ours now because of Jesus who laid down his life for us on Calvary’s cross. So love each other as Jesus’ chosen friends. Let God’s choice to befriend you be the motivation for your Christian love. For it is out of love for Christ that we love each other. If you want to show someone you love them, it’s better to do it in actions than in words alone. Christian love is no different. It is best shown through actions among fellow Christians following the model that Christ gives himself. Christians love each other as Christ loved us. We are motivated by a loving heart that does not shrink back from the cost to show love. We follow the guidelines given in God’s Word like we find in the 10 Commandments. We also know that we will not love each other as we should. It is in these moments that we go back to the love that Christ showed to us on the cross. For it is there we are assured that Christ will always love us and has chosen us to be his friends. And so we have the privilege to know who God is and to willingly bear his fruit by following his commands. I pray that we always keep the love of Christ at the center of all we do, for that is how we truly love each other. Amen.
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