Vs. 34
“A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I loved you,
so you must love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you love one another.”

The sergeant, who threw the hand grenade that was a dud, screamed at the recruit lying on top of the hand grenade, “What in God’s name are you doing?”

“Lying on a hand grenade, sir.”

Still screaming the sergeant belittled the recruit for his stupidity and then inquired, “Why would you throw yourself on a hand grenade?”

The new recruit answered, “To save the life of my fellow soldiers, sir,” answered the recruit.

For whom would you lay down your life?

Would you sacrifice your life for spouse, for your children, for your parents, for a neighbor? Who would sacrifice their life for a total stranger?

As difficult as it might sound occasionally you read about a Good Samaritan who went to help someone in need and he or she was killed.  Such stories smack of unfairness, but they also smack of the kind of love Christ calls us to show.

“A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I loved you,
so you must love one another.

Jesus is calling us to

“love one another.”

This is nothing new, but Jesus didn’t stop there. Jesus said,

“Love one another.
As I loved you,
so you must love one another.”

Jesus is calling us to love another sacrificially. To love with your heart, to love with you mind, to love with your life.  Sometimes such love will lead to martyrdom in the same way Jesus was lead to death on the cross. Some times it will mean enduring a difficult situation as you will see in a story taken from, God’s Vitamin C for the Spirit.

Rhonda a sixteen year old high school junior, was the only one of Nancy’s three who was a ‘problem child.’  She would rebel against her parents’ rules, arguing generally keeping things in an uproar when she was home, though she never got in trouble with the law.

One Friday night, she didn’t come home following the football game, and it was past her curfew.  Nancy called the home of the girlfriend who had picked Rhonda up that evening.  The girls were not there, causing both sets of parents to spend a sleepless night.

On Saturday morning they called the police to report the girls missing and the car stolen.  For three days and nights Nancy and her husband Rick barely slept.  In the daytime Rick drove around town searching while Nancy stayed close to the phone hoping for news… hoping, praying, and drinking dozens of cups of coffee.

On the fourth day Rhonda called. “Mom, I’m coming home, okay?” she asked

“Yes, yes, come home,” Nancy cried. “Where are you?”

“In Pensacola.”

“Are you all right?”

“Oh yeah, we’re fine. We’ve been sleeping in the car.”

“Please be careful - I’ll be waiting for you,” Nancy said.

Several hours later Rhonda came in the front door.  Nancy gasped when she saw her: hair matted, wrinkled clothes, and bleary eyes. “Honey, we were so worried about you!”  It was all she could manage to say as she grabbed her daughter and hugged her.  Nancy fought anger boiling up within her, “I should be glad she’s home, but she doesn’t act as if she’s done anything wrong,” she fumes silently.

That evening they read that a man suspected of murdering several Florida college girls had been arrested just two blocks from where Rhonda and her girlfriend had been sleeping in their car the previous night.  Nancy’s anger was tempered by that bit of news.   And she rejoiced for God’s protection over her daughter.

But there was still the matter of forgiving Rhonda.  In church the following Sunday, Nancy talked to God about her feelings.

“I don’t even like Rhonda,” she admitted to the Lord.  “She’s not pleasant to be around.  The house is always in turmoil when she’s home. She doesn’t seem to care that she put us through so much anxiety by running away from home.  Lord, how can I love her, let alone forgive her?”

In her honest desperation, Nancy opened her heart to God.  God turned back the clock in her mind to see Rhonda - apron wrapped around her waist - standing on a chair to dry dishes. Then she saw a flash of her bundled up with coat and mittens on a winter day, standing in the snow beside the laundry basket, handing Mom her brother’s diapers to hang.  She had been so lovable then!  She saw her in the second grade bringing home a valentine with her picture on it that showed her grin with a missing tooth.  As memories paraded through her mind, her heart softened.  She remembered how much she’d loved Rhonda.

“Lord, restore that love to me,” she prayed.  “In the restoring of that love, I know forgiveness will come.”

As she prayed, God sovereignty flooded her heart with love for Rhonda.   Instant love - almost more than she could contain.

“Not only did I love her, I even liked her again. I immediately forgave her, and asked God to forgive me, too,” Nancy said.

Rhonda was one prodigal who returned without any significant sign of repentance, though she seemed glad to be back in the shelter of a loving home.  But she continued doing daredevil things that kept her parents anxious all through her senior year.  She went away to college, where she changed majors three times. Eventually she graduated and moved to another city, where she has a well paying job.

“I look back to that Sunday in church when I asked God to renew my love for her,” Nancy said. “From that day, I was able to respond to her with genuine love and forgiveness. Somewhere along the way, that love melted her heart.  Now when she comes to visit us she is a loving, caring, appreciative daughter.  During one visit she said, “Mom, I really put you through a lot in my teenage years, didn’t I? And I never said I was sorry.  Please forgive me.”  At last forgiveness went full circle.

To love others was not a new command, but to love others as much as Christ loved others was revolutionary.  We are to love others based on Jesus’ sacrificial love for us.  Jesus was living example of God’s love.  Are we living examples of Jesus’ love?

Love is more than a warm fuzzy.  It is an attitude that reveals itself in action.  Our Christ like love will show we are his disciples.

How can we love others as Christ loves us?

By helping when it isn’t convenient, by giving when it hurts, by devoting energy to others’ welfare rather than our own, by absorbing hurts from others without fighting back

Evidence of God’s love can be found in many places, but no place does it seem to be in alignment with Jesus’ new command as in people serving God.

One day an Australian man came and made a substantial donation.  But as he did this he said, “This is something external.  Now I want to give something of myself.”  He now comes regularly to the house of the dying to shave the sick men and to converse with them.  This man gives not only his money but also his time.  He could have spent it on himself, but what he wants is to give of himself.

Mother Teresa said, “The words of Jesus,

“Love one another
as I have loved you,”

must be not only a light for us but a flame that consumes the self in us.”

I know the church is accused of always asking for money.   In truth the church is asking for a gift, the gift of your heart, the gift of your presence.

I ask you to join our work, for our profit and for the profit of everyone.   I am asking as Jesus asked to bring your love, to offer the sacrifice of their hands, to love one another as Jesus loves you.

Amen