Christ’s Love

written by Tiffany Smith

Introduction:

This study is based on a particularly interesting question from Cindy Colley’s Digging Deep Study: The Hour Has Come, Month 8 – A Conversation About Love. She asks her “diggers” why the command to love in the New Testament is referred to as a “new commandment”. So, let’s get started in the next section with the verses of reference to answer this question.

Verses:

Did you spot the difference?

Let’s look at it again and I’ll underline the key difference to note.

The Answer:

The commandment given to us in John is “new” because we have a different example to follow after, to conduct ourselves in love: Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Jesus is our pure and perfect example of love that we should strive to emulate each day. To help equip us to follow Jesus’ example of love, I would like to take the rest of this study to look at ways Jesus showed love to others.

Submitting to God’s Authority

We are all pretty familiar with John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” This statement is made by Jesus but notice that later in the chapter in verse 24 he says, “and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.”

So, even though Christ made the statement for us to keep His commandments, He tells us that the commandments He has brought are not of Him but His Father. And, in verse 31 we see that Christ associates His own obedience to God’s commands with love, “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.” We also see in this chapter that Christ humbles himself as lower than God.

The end of verse 28 reads, “for my Father is greater than I.” We also see Jesus’ recognition of God’s authority in his answers to Satan’s temptations in Matthew 4.

Verse 4: “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Verse 7: “Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

Verse 10: “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

Notice also the depths of Jesus’ submission to God’s authority and will in His prayers of Matthew 26 as He was in sorrow and agony before His coming death.

Verse 39: “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

And verse 42: “He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”

Compassion for the Afflicted

We see many accounts of Jesus’ helping those in need. Here are a few examples.

Compassion on the multitude

Matthew 15:32 “Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.”

Compassion on the 2 blind men

In Matthew 20 two blind men cried out to Jesus and when he asked them what they would have him do for them, they asked for sight. Verse 34 shows Jesus’ response, “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.”

Compassion on the man possessed by Legion

In Mark 5 Jesus meets the man possessed by Legion, a man who endured torment day and night as verse 5 reads, “And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.” Jesus casts out the unclean spirits from the man and in verse 15 we read, “And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind”. And in verse 19 after the man sought to go with Jesus he is told, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”

Showing Mercy Toward Sinners

Jesus shows us how we should seek out the lost and show them compassion that they might choose a righteous life for themselves and be saved. Jesus was sometimes noted for being in the company of sinners. But, how are we to bring the lost to an understanding of the choice before them to be saved if we don’t seek them and show them respect, empathy, and mercy?

The adulterous woman

In John 8 an adulterous woman is brought before Jesus that he may be tempted to condemn her to be stoned. Notice his statement in verse 7: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” And when it is just the woman and Jesus left in the temple he tells her in verse 11: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

The publicans and sinners

In Luke 5 Jesus calls Levi and as Jesus and his disciples feast with Levi at his home with other publicans and guests the scribes and Pharisees  say in verse 30: “Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” Jesus’ reply follows in verse 31: “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Zacchaeus

In Luke 19 Jesus tells Zacchaeus he must go to his house and Zacchaeus was joyful to have Jesus as a guest in his home. But, in verse 7 we notice that those of the crowd said, “he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.” However, Zacchaeus says unto the Lord the ways in which he seeks to do right: giving to the poor and restoring what he has taken falsely, and Jesus says to him in verse 9-10, “This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Loving One’s Enemies

Jesus is truly our perfect example of loving our enemies. I think His plea in Luke 23 as He hangs in agony on the cross is one of the best examples to read in view of understanding the attitude we should have toward our enemies.

 “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Luke 23:33-34

Let us seek to love our enemies like this.

Sacrifice

In John 15 Jesus tells the disciples the greatest act of love that a man can show.

 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:13

And we know Jesus performed this great act of love by sacrificing Himself on the cross for our sins.

“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” 


Luke 23:46-47 

“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 

1 John 3:16 

Read and meditate on the prophecy of Isaiah 53 about the life and death Jesus would endure.

Conclusion

Seek daily to develop a loving attitude as Christ has and gave us example of.

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”