Love Is What Love Does!

5th Sunday of Easter, 5/19/19
John 13:31-35


Love Is What Love Does!
I. Our Savior’s Love Glorified his Father.
II. Our Savior’s love empowers us to love.


If you’ve watched the movie Forest Gump, and I assume most of you have, you’re familiar with at least some of the words of wisdom from the character that Tom Hanks played. There’s the one about life being like a box of chocolates. And then there’s the one about being foolish, and I’ll refrain from using the word that Forest used because most parents of young children avoid using it. It was Forest’s way of stating you’re known not by what others think of you, but by what you do. And that works both ways—positively and negatively.

And that’s true as well about Christians. We’re known by what we do. That’s a positive thing when Christians speak and act in ways that Jesus did while he was on this earth. That’s a negative thing when the character, words and actions of those who profess to be Christians are directly opposite of what Jesus would have said or done.

As our all-knowing Savior, Jesus knew that Christians would struggle living as a Christian should. There isn’t a Christian on earth, past or present, who has always followed the perfect example of Christ. We all fail. That’s what our forgiveness in Christ is all about.

But our Savior also supplies us with the example and the motivation to love others as he loved us. That’s the very subject he discussed with his disciples here in John 13. He wanted them to know what Christian love is all about.
Simply stated, love is what love does. In these words of our Savior, we see his perfect love in action. Let’s take a look at it, shall we?

Part I.

Much has been studied and written in the past few decades about encouraging healthy family life. I think you’d agree that in our modern world the family unit is under constant attack, and, in some cases, is in crisis. One of the encouragements I’ve read more than once is that the best thing a father in a family can do to ensure the stability and security of his family is to love his wife in every way. Children in a family will not only feel secure in such a loving environment, they’ll also witness in action what God-pleasing love is. Simply stated, the children benefit from a father showing love to their mother.

In a somewhat similar way, on this night in our Lord’s life, he speaks about showing love to sinners, and in doing so, benefitting his Father.

To understand how that happened, you have to know the setting. The opening words of our text state, “When he was gone.” You might be wondering, “Who left?” Judas Iscariot, our Lord’s betrayer, that’s who. This event took place in the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed. This was the night before his death. In fact, his crucifixion was just hours away. Jesus’ sufferings and death for the sins of the world filled his mind and heart. In a little while, he would go to the Garden of Gethsemane and pray fervently for the Father to take this cup of suffering from him; yet he was willing out of love for a world full of sinners to go to Calvary’s cross.

And that’s precisely why Jesus told his disciples, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” The betrayal of Jesus by Judas set into motion the final stages of the work that Jesus had come to earth to accomplish. First and foremost, that work demanded his sufferings and death on the cross for the sins of the world. As gruesome and horrific as his crucifixion was, it was part of the Father’s plan to save sinners. By suffering hell on the cross for our sins, Jesus won our forgiveness.

But that death would mean nothing at all but a cruel act of injustice if not for what happened three days later. We’re still celebrating it. In fact, every Sunday service is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus did exactly as he promised—he raised himself from the dead on the third day.

And before appearing alive to his friends and disciples, he descended into hell as the crucified and risen Savior to proclaim his victory over Satan. Indeed, Jesus had crushed Satan’s head just as God foretold to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden right after the fall into sin. Satan’s hellish hold on every sinner was ended.

And in his sufferings, death and resurrection Jesus fulfilled to the letter God’s plan to save all sinners. What God planned in eternity before the creation of the world and what he first announced after the fall into sin, Jesus accomplished. The Bible says that even angels are astounded at the way in which God rescued every sinner from hell. What deity would ever plan to execute his only begotten Son for the sins of the world and would do so simply because his divine heart is full of love for every sinner? Only our God would and did—all to his glory!

And we’re the ones who are blessed. God didn’t get anything tangible for himself out of his plan to save all sinners. He doesn’t need anything. The benefit is all ours. It’s all yours by faith in Jesus. Our God did all the planning and all the work. It cost him his Son. And we’re blessed, eternally. What an amazing God we have!

Love is what love does. Our Savior’s love glorified his Father.

From time to time I hear some pretty messed-up ideas about God’s love for human beings. Most of the time people observe something going wrong in their life or terribly wrong in our world and then draw the conclusion that a loving God wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen.

The fact is that they misunderstand sin, how broken our world is, and our God’s plan to save all sinners through the greatest tragedy of all—the death of his Son. We still live in a broken, sinful world and therefore we’ll still suffer the effects of sin, sometimes painfully and tragically so. But God’s Son took the punishment for our sins on himself. He paid the price for me, for you.

So, don’t make the same misunderstanding when troubles arise in your life. They aren’t evidence that God has withdrawn his love from you. No, the eternal evidence of God’s love for you is in the fact that Jesus glorified his Father by carrying out every facet of God’s plan to save you. See it in Jesus’ deep desire to carry out that plan. View his love for you on Calvary’s cross. Be confident of it as Jesus is risen from the dead and now rules over everything for your eternal good.

Love is what love does. Our Savior’s love glorified his Father.

Part II.

When an advertisement declares a familiar product to be “new and improved,” what’s your response? It depends on how much you like and depend on that product. If you have no use for that product, you probably couldn’t care less that its producer is claiming it to be new and improved.

On this night in his life, Jesus is known among Christians for this statement he made, “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.” We understand that Jesus commands us to love one another, but in what sense is that something new? After all, didn’t God command his people in the Old Testament to love one another? Indeed, he did! The summary of the 10 Commandments states that very thing: Love God and love one another.

So our question remains: What’s “new” about this command? What’s new is Christ and having him in our lives. We have a connection with Christ and it’s based solely on what he did for us and not at all on what we can do for him. As he spoke these words, he knew that he was about to suffer and die for us in order to redeem us with his holy, precious blood and his innocent sufferings and death. He was going to connect us to him eternally—soul and body. Our connection with him would reveal his love for us—an astounding love! He sacrificed himself for you!

And the other aspect that is new is our Christian connection to each other. Why should we care about each other? Because Jesus has connected us to each other in the Church by faith in him. We’re in an invisible, but absolutely real, relationship with each other that will last forever. When every one of our earthly relationships is ended, our spiritual relationship to one another will still stand.

And our motivation to love each other comes solely through Christ. Sadly, our Christian brothers or sisters may give us good reasons for not loving them because of the way they talk and act towards us, but we have the love of Christ living in us which empowers us to love them the way that Jesus does—unconditionally. In Christ we can do the Christ-like thing.

Love is what love does. Our Savior’s love empowers us to love.

Jesus said to you and me, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The question is, “How true is that of me? Of you?” Would others know about our connection with Christ by what we say and do? Or, are there times in our lives when they are convinced by something we’ve said or done that we’re no different than anyone who is not a Christian? Not very comfortable to think about, is it? But that’s what the love of Christ is all about. His eternal love for us forgives us, washes us clean, makes us new and pleasing to him. And then it empowers us to love others in the way that Jesus loves them. So, here’s my closing question for you today: How will you love someone who is “unlovable” this week? May Jesus empower you with his love to do it, and may he be glorified by your loving words and actions! Amen.