John 15:12-17
King Of Hearts (Series)
Did you know that in the New Testament, we are commanded more than 50 times to Love?
I don’t like being told what to do. Especially if it’s about something as personal and challenging as love.
1 John 3:23
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
John 13:34
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
We are commanded to love as Christ loves us. I can’t reach or achieve this kind of love. It’s unattainable. So why does God ask me to do the Impossible?
Matthew 19:26
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
The unattainable can be experienced in Christ.
John 15:12-17
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 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. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
What does it mean to be called a friend of God?
Friends don’t let friends waste their lives.
Friends help their friends succeed.
Ephesians 5:1-2
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
What does it mean to be a child of God?
How should a child relate to their parent?
God loves us with a parental love.