By Pastor Chad
In my message Sunday morning, I focused on Jesus’ commandment in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another…” This isn’t a suggestion. This isn’t something that is decided by a committee or church vote. This isn’t optional. Our Lord explicitly commands that we love our Christian brothers and sisters.
What is love? Jesus exemplifies love and Scripture describes love, but we do not see a direct definition of love in Scripture. So, throughout history, Christians have developed definitions of love based upon the works of Christ and the descriptions in Scripture. I think C.S. Lewis provides the most pointed definition. According to Lewis, love is willing the good of another. Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ means that we will their good. But let’s just be honest: We don’t always feel like showing love toward others. And, if I may be so bold, some people are hard to love. What are we to do in those cases?
Again, C.S. Lewis can help us. In Mere Christianity, he writes,
"Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor, act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."
Lewis is claiming that willfully showing the act of love will produce a sense of love within. The act of showing love produces love. That is, the feelings follow the will.
Think of it like this: If you find that you are struggling to love someone, do your best to show them love. This usually happens when we do acts of kindness for someone else as a way of expressing our love to them. Do this even if you don’t feel like doing it. Do it because you love Christ, and you want to express your love of Christ by showing love to another. And as you actively show love toward your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, you will find that love is cultivated in your heart. The act of love produces true love. This may sound weird, but Jesus seems to indicate the same.
In John 13:34, Jesus never gives a qualification for brotherly and sisterly love. He simply commands that we love. It’s as if Jesus understood how we human beings are designed. That is, He understood that we were designed in such a way, that when we practice the habit of showing love to someone, we find that we actually do love them.
Watch the full sermon here.