Introduction

When we know a person intimately, it is said we begin to take on their personality traits. This can even be taken a step further to say some of these traits are passed down through our biological makeup. Today Jesus is telling us that He has chosen and appointed us, and as we find our identity in Him and follow Him, we will bear fruit just like He did. So, to be in alignment with Christ, we need to maintain a genuine and honest relationship with Him. However, Jesus does not stop there. He repeats a commandment to love one another, meaning we will also need to carry that genuine and honest relationship into our relationships with fellow believers, and then through that love, we will view the world. Then and only then will we know His heart and pray prayers that matter for ourselves, our church, and our world.

Loving Jesus

• Jesus told the disciples that He chose them and appointed them to bear much fruit.
• To do this, they would need to abide in Him, to stay close to Jesus.
• Jesus chose these disciples because He knew they would continue to draw people to Him for the rest of their lives.
• They would know He expected great things from them even if they doubted themselves.
• Jesus’ confidence was not based on their natural abilities but on the gifts His cross and resurrection would bring them.
• They would soon have incredible access in prayer to the Father (Jn 14:13) and the risen Jesus (Jn 14:14). They would soon have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:16- 17). So, all they would need to do would be to stay attached to Him, like the branches of a grapevine, and they would bear much fruit (Jn 15:5).
• If they followed Him, as He had followed the Father, they would have unrestricted access to the Father in prayer, and His authority in prayer would release great fruitfulness.
• We have this same incredible access, and just like the disciples, if we stay attached, we will bear much fruit.
• Our spirit has been renewed, but we still must deal with the flesh. We must regularly put our flesh in submission to our spirit as we follow Jesus.
• Love is something we receive from God; it’s not something we can produce for ourselves. He alone is the Source of all real love. So, to genuinely love someone else, we must first draw close to the Source.
• When our relationship with Him is strong, He fills our hearts with love, but if that relationship grows weak, our hearts inevitably turn cold. That’s why our love for others is an excellent indicator of our love for God. When we love Him, we love them. When our spiritual life is dry, people frustrate us.

Loving His Church

• “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (Jn 13:34-35).
• “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” (Jn.15:12).
• Jesus just didn’t tell us to love one another; He commanded it. It’s almost like He knew it would be hard.
• Church is like family; sometimes, loving family is the hardest thing to do. Yet, Jesus expects us to do this. We get hurt, and we want to run. Some will even go so far as to say, “I love Jesus, but I don’t have to love His people.” As it turns out, that is unbiblical.
• “This I command you, that you love one another.” (Jn.15:17). The word “this” in this verse is more appropriately translated as “these.” Which changes how we should view this verse. The literal translation is, “These things I command you so that you may love one another.”
• If He means the commands He issued since leaving the upper room (Jn 14:31), The first was that they must maintain an active relationship with Him; they must stay attached to Him like a branch to a grapevine (vs1-6). If they did so, life would flow from Him into them, but if they became disconnected, they would dry up and stop bearing fruit.
• The second command was that they must continue to submit to Him (vs7, 10). They must remember what He taught them and continually allow themselves to be corrected by His words. Their obedience, He said, would bring God’s manifest presence.
• The third command was that they must decide to love each other to such a degree that they would be willing to die for each other (vs12-13). That painful choice would become the foundation upon which God would build His love.
• These commands include continuing to believe in Him and maintaining an ongoing relationship with Him, obedience to His teachings, and deciding to love one another sacrificially. Apparently, not loving other believers would indicate that a person had ceased to have an active relationship with Him and was not obeying His teachings.

Loving His World

• To love the world like Jesus, we must first learn to love Jesus and His people.
• Otherwise, we will adopt worldly views of love. We will find ourselves either weaponizing religion or patronizing people by telling them their prison is freedom.
• Mother Teresa said, “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.”
• She could love the world because she first loved Jesus and then His people.
• When we learn to have genuine relationships with one another, we begin to take on the heart of Jesus for the world. The world will know us by our love for one another.
• Our heart is to see people saved. That is the fruit Jesus asked us to bear. How can we love the world if we do not have a loving family to bring them into? Simply put, we can’t.
• When people listened to them preach and came to faith, they must immediately be drawn into a loving community where they could be discipled. When one of them suffered, the others needed to surround that person and comfort them (Acts 2:41-47).
• When we love Jesus, He changes our hearts for His people. He teaches us how to love and reconcile when things get messy. He teaches us how to forgive even when the other person won’t be an active participant. He teaches us to love His creation simply because they are His, and He died for them. His sacrifice becomes enough for us; because of that, we can love the world as He loves the world.

Conclusion
If we desire to love Jesus with all our heart, then we must love His people though that can sometimes be incredibly hard. We will get hurt. We, at times, will want to run, take cover, and hide. We will want to listen to the enemy’s voice that says, “You can love Jesus but not love His people.” Jesus commanded us to draw close to Him, submit to His commandments, and to love one another. Do we trust Him? Do we love the world and want them to come to full knowledge of what a life of freedom can be like? When we love Jesus, we love His people; out of that love, we can change the world.

Discussion Questions

What are some of the signs that tell you that you’ve become “dry” and need to spend more time with God? What are some of the ways you draw close to Him?
Describe a time when you wanted to do something, and one of Jesus’ commands stopped you from doing it. Are you glad you obeyed?
When did you lay down something you highly valued because you loved someone else? If it’s not too personal, please tell us what caused you to make that decision.