Christian Life Series
John 13. 1 - 5; 12 - 15; 33 - 35 - Caring for one another
The context in which Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and then sits down to teach them its significance is what we know as the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. That’s a particularly appropriate context, as I shall hope to demonstrate - appropriate because it is at the Lord’s table that we remember and spend time contemplating how great is his love for us - his love which took him to the cross on our behalf.
John does not mention the sacrament as the other gospel writers do. Nevertheless, he opens this chapter with reference to Jesus’ love for his own – his people. He says that - ‘he [Jesus] loved them to the uttermost’ or, as the NIV has it: ‘he showed them the full extent of his love’. I take that to mean that he loved them as much as it was possible for him to do; there was no greater love that could have been shown us. Indeed, Jesus himself said on another occasion, ‘No one has greater love for his friends than that he should lay down his life for them’. And Paul reminds us that it was to turn us from being God’s enemies into his friends that Jesus died for us.
It is a feature of all societies that people band together for protection and comfort. Organisations like Rotary Club, Lions International and mutual aid societies offer help in the community but their primary purpose is to help their own members in need. However, that help is generally reactive - in response to a perceived need or specific request. The local church, however, is intended to follow the teaching of Jesus by taking the initiative, actively seeking to identify and meet the needs of those numbered among its ranks.
We’re going to look this morning at caring for one another. And, whilst the Bible has many relevant comments, instructions and words of encouragement which we could have used, I want, as you will doubtless have gathered, to consider caring for one another by reference to Jesus’ new command in John 13.34f: ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’
Firstly, what Jesus says to his first disciples - and to every other Christian since - is a command. He says so himself. Jesus makes it clear that loving one another, or caring for one another – because in the Bible love is always expressed in actions, not merely in words - is not an option. ‘I’m giving you a new command - You must love one another’. Caring for one another is not an activity to be delegated to other people; it’s an obligation placed on each and every Christian.
Now, someone may dispute that and quote, say, the appointment of seven deacons in Acts 6. But the apostles did not delegate their obligation to care; they shared it between a greater number. The seven deacons cared for God’s people by overseeing the daily distribution of food and other necessities and the apostles continued to care by prayer and teaching. No, each and every Christian is commanded to care for his brothers and sisters in Christ.
Furthermore, it’s not a matter of choice in the sense of caring for some and neglecting or ignoring others. We are commanded to care for all of Christ’s people. And it is Christ’s people - our brothers and sisters in Christ - that are the particular objects of our love in this command. Love for those outside - important though it is - is not what Jesus is talking about here. Although, as we shall see in due course, Jesus’ command does not ignore them.
Judas Iscariot’s departure before Jesus issued this command is not without significance in that regard. The command relates to the household of faith - to all who have put their trust in Christ and rely for their eternal salvation on his death in their place. Again, the Lord’s Supper context lends weight to that view; the Lord’s table is for the Lord’s people!
Secondly, Jesus says that he is giving his disciples a new command. That’s an interesting statement. After all, he had elsewhere confirmed to a Jewish audience that the first and greatest command, essentially similar to this allegedly new command, is to love the Lord our God and our neighbour as ourselves. That command had been given through Moses to the Children of Israel in their role as God’s chosen people. How then is this command Jesus now gives his people new? I believe there are two ways in which it is new.
The first is that Jesus asks his disciples to go further than Moses required of the Jews. The Jews were to love God with all their being and their neighbours ‘as themselves’ – that is, as they love themselves. That is a very high standard – a tough assignment – but one which implies a distinction between love for God and love for one’s neighbour. But Jesus is saying, ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’. In other words, ‘You are to love one another with the same fervour as you love me because that is the kind of love I have shown you’: ‘As I have loved you, so you must love one another’.
John understood the force of this new command when he wrote that our love for God is to be measured by our love for one another: ‘If anyone says, “I love God”, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen’.
We might be surprised that Jesus’ command is not to love God but that to love one another. But, as John shows us, the two are one and the same. To love one another with a love comparable to Christ’s love is impossible if it does not flow out of our love for God. And Jesus explains in Matthew 25 about the final judgement that caring for his people is caring for him.
But what about Jesus’ question to Peter: ‘Do you love me more than these?’ Are we wrong to understand Jesus in Matthew 25 as saying that our love for one another is to be on a par with our love for God? It seems to me that the answer to that is, ‘Yes, there is a sense in which my love for you as my brothers and sisters in Christ is to be as great as my love for God. The mystery is that , as I show my love for you so my love for God grows even greater. Of course, my love for God must be greater than for any one else; but my love for you is intended to be always trying to catch up with my love for God. The one is always chasing the other. I hope that makes sense!
The second sense in which it is a new command is that it requires the power of a new life to obey it. Jesus reminds the disciples that they rightly call him ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’. It is only those who know and live according to Jesus’ teaching and acknowledge his right to their unquestioning allegiance as Lord who find they have the power - of his Holy Spirit - to live a life of Christ-like caring for his people. We have already said that Jesus’ love for his people went to the fullest extent possible. And here he is asking us to be like him in that respect. There is to be no unused, no unexpended, residue of love - nothing held back!
Ruth’s example may help us here. She had ample opportunity of returning to a people, family and culture she knew and felt comfortable in. But she left them all - country, kin and gods. Her resolve to go with Naomi is a wonderful picture of the new life which every believer has in Christ. She embraced a new country, a new family, a new God. And her care for Naomi is a wonderful picture of the love Christ commands us to show to one another.
So then, we have a new command – to love one another – a command which is not an option, which is to have no limit to its extent, and which is possible only by faith and in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Hitherto, we’ve considered our role as people commanded to care for others in a Christ-like fashion. But there is another side which must not be overlooked. If we are to care for one another, then it follows that we must allow others to care for us. Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ washing of his feet introduces us to this aspect.
Peter initially rejects Jesus’ intended action. On the one hand, he feels it unworthy of Jesus; feet washing is for slaves not masters. On the other hand, he wants to control the situation - to determine how much washing is to be done - ‘not just my feet’. Neither attitude is the right one; being too humble to accept another’s care and wanting to dictate the level of care - both are wrong!
How can others be obedient to Christ’s new command if we hinder them by a mistaken humility? And it is not for us to determine whether the extent of their care complies with his command to emulate his love. Only they and God know the extent of their ability to serve their fellows; and it is to their Lord that they will be answerable, not to us!
We have said that caring for one another is not an optional aspect of our service. However – and this is an obvious but essential point - the motivation for our caring is not a sense of duty but of gratitude at the greatness of the love Christ has shown us. It is in obedience to his command but, even if he had not commanded, would we not want to respond to his ‘uttermost’ love by caring for those for whom he died? John takes up this theme in his letter where he states that ‘since God so loved us’ - loved us so much that he sent his own Son to atone for our sins - then ‘we ought to love one another’.
We cannot stress too much that the motivation for our obedience to his command is Christ’s love for us. We speak of caring professions today - medicine and teaching, to name but two. But our caring is not a profession; it is a joyful free loving care which strives to be a reflection of what Christ did for us on the cross. That’s why Jesus uses the past tense, ‘as I have loved you’. He is thinking, as though already accomplished, of the events of the following day and of his motivation in enduring what lies ahead in the high priest’s house, the palaces of the governor and the king – and on Calvary.
And he ends his new command by telling us the reason for it: ‘so that all men will know that you are my disciples’. When Judas Iscariot leaves, Jesus speaks of himself being glorified and adds this: ‘and God is glorified in him [in Jesus, the obedient Son]’. His obedience brings glory to the Father. And, similarly, he says of us, that by obeying his new command, we bring glory to him. Our love - our care - for one another will point people to Christ. They will recognise that the motivation for our actions stems from Christ’s love for us - and that our caring for one another is the expression of our glad obedience to his teaching - glad because we are so thrilled by and caught up in his love which has brought us forgiveness, freedom from the consequences of our sins, and new life.
Firstly, it operates within the church to encourage Christ’s people and build them up in the faith. There’s nothing more encouraging than to feel oneself, in times of difficulty, anxiety, persecution, to be the objects of Christ’s love – to be reassured through the love shown us by his people that we are not forgotten or forsaken.
Secondly, contrary to my earlier comment that this command refers to love for God’s people and not for those outside, here is the extension to Christ’s love to those who are as yet outside the family of God – his love which cannot but reach out to those who are like sheep without a shepherd – who have strayed and are on the broad road which leads to destruction. That love reaches out to them through us as we show them what he is like by loving one another.
It’s not our consummate knowledge of the Scriptures or of the tenets of the faith; it’s not our regular and faithful attendance at church; it’s not putting a Spring Harvest sticker on our car - or any of these things, - and they are all good and worthwhile - it’s loving one another that marks us out as Jesus’ disciples and that witnesses to his power to answer their deepest need.
Every human condition is met head on by your and my love - our care - for our Christian brothers and sisters in response to Christ’s new command. Is your neighbour guilt-ridden because of the weight of his sin? Your care for God’s people reflects your joy in God’s forgiveness and tells him that that same forgiveness can be his – with new power to live for God and no longer for himself. Is your non-Christian friend self-reliant, having no great sense of need: devoid of any feelings of obligation to the God who provides for his needs and sent his Son to die for him ? Your care for God’s people can awaken in him the need to confess his selfishness, to rely instead on the living God and place his life in his hands.
Essentially, our obedience to Jesus’ command arouses a spirit of curiosity and a longing for something better. That’s the conclusion Peter came to: that our care for others arouses questions of faith. And so he told us to be ready to give an explanation for our faith to those who ask. And they will ask as they see how much we love and care for one another.
So, caring for one another and letting them care for us - deeds not words; no exceptions; not an option - that’s being obedient to Jesus’ new command. Commanded - but our real motivation is his love for us - and who can resist such love! To be less than wholehearted - sacrificial - in our caring is to fall short of the uttermost love he has shown for us. That’s how we encourage one another, how we grow in love. And our caring shows the world that we are his followers and calls on them to become his followers too. And it’s all gloriously possible in the power of his new life in us through his Holy Spirit.
‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’
Vernon Cobb
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