Love One Another

As I drove to CT to visit my parents last week I took along with me copies of the sermon series we just finished on the 10 Commandments and as I listened to several of the messages back to back I found something kind of interesting, more than once I said something like this, we need to get this commandment right because it is the foundation on which all the rest are built. In fact, that is exactly what I said for the 10th commandment about not coveting, I said, if we can get this last commandment right and desire the things of God – maybe all the rest of them will begin to fall into place. In other words, the last commandment is maybe the most important one of the all.


But here’s the problem, I said this on the first week of the series when we were talking about the first commandment which says we are to have only one God. If God is at the center of our lives we can move on to the other commandments and other relationships, but if God is not at the center, then none of the rest of these commandments really matter. In other words, the first commandment is the most important because we need to have God at the center of our lives or nothing else will work, but I said this about the 2nd commandment, we become what we worship and so if we want to experience real life we need smash all idols and worship God alone. So the most important thing is to have no idol in our lives and worship God alone. But about the 5th commandment I said this, God created us to live in community with one another and we will only experience the blessing of those relationships if we start with honoring our father and mother, so may be the most important commandment is to honor our parents because we learn how to honor all others, even God, by getting right our primary relationship with our parents.

Are you beginning to see the problem here? You could make a case for any one of the 10 Commandments being the most important and that is exactly what the people of Israel did for centuries. From the time the 10 Commandments were brought down from Sinai, the teachers of the law argued about which commandment was the most important and on any given day – or in my case any given week – you could argue that any one of the ten is the most important one to follow, and argue the people did, for hundreds of years they argued, not about which of these 10 were the greatest, but which one of the 616 laws was the greatest and the argument made it all the way to Jesus. Look at Matthew 22:34-36. Jesus had been discussing the finer points of the law with the religious leaders of his day and when they realized that he was a teacher who had good insight they asked him the question that the people had been arguing about since the days of Moses, which commandment was the greatest. And here is Jesus’ answer – Matthew 22:37-40.

So the greatest commandment isn’t one of the 10 – and it’s not one of the 616 other laws that were given, the command that holds them all together and it is the foundation on which they are all built can be summed up in just one command, just one word - Love. Love God and love one another. It is love that makes following the 10 Commandments possible – let’s look at it.

• you shall have no other gods before me
     o why? Because we love God

• you shall not make… bow down to... or serve any idol
     o why? Because we love God

• you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God
     o why? Because we love God

• remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
     o why? Because we love God and we love ourselves

• honor your father and mother
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not murder
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not commit adultery
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not steal
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
     o why? Because we love others

• you shall not covet
     o why? Because we love others

So love is the foundation on which these commandments are built and if we can get that right – if we can love God and love one another then we not only follow the 10 commandments but we will fulfill all of the law, which is why Paul says in Romans 13:8, owe no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Now the reason Paul uses the language of owing people love is because he has just been talking about the importance of making sure we give people what we owe them. If we owe taxes – we need to pay them, if we owe honor we need to give it, if it is respect we are to show it; we are to give to everyone what is due them and work to make sure that we have no outstanding debts - except for one – we are to love. This means we are to love day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. We never stop showing love, we never stop giving love, love has to be the foundation and the cornerstone and the capstone of our lives, but let’s be clear about 2 things love is not easy and the kind of love we are talking about is not an emotion or a feeling.

When Paul talks about love here in Romans, he isn’t talking about having warm feelings for people, he is talking about living our lives in such a way that everyone around us is respected, honored, valued and cared for. Love is an action and throughout the Bible God makes clear to us what love is to look like and it all started with the 10 Commandments.

Love for God looks like worship and devotion, it means honoring and valuing God’s name and resting on the Sabbath. Loving one another means we honor our parents, and don’t commit adultery, murder, steal, lie or covet, but that’s not all. In the New Testament the command to love one another is given about 20 times and in what some people call the “one another” commandments we are told to that our love for one another is to look like this:
• Be at peace with one another
• Be of the same mind as one another
• Do not judge one another
• Build up one another
• Accept one another
• Greet one another
• Serve one another
• Admonish one another
• Bear with one another
• Be kind to one another
• Forgive one another
• Be subject to one another
• Confess to one another
• Encourage one another

This is what love looks like – in every situation, in every relationship, in every decision we make and action we take and word we speak – this is what love is to look like. Now if you are like me, you are probably thinking right now that while this is great and we want to live this way, we just can’t. This kind of love is not easy, the truth is, this kind of love is impossible if we are trying to do it on our own, so we need to stop trying to do it on our own and allow God to begin to love others through us. Look at Romans 5:5

This is the key to loving one another, it is to ask God for his spirit to be poured into us because one of the fruits of God’s Spirit is love so if God’s spirit is alive and flowing in us then we will be able to love others. We will never be able to love one another unless we abide in Christ and allow Christ to dwell in us which is why Paul says later in Romans 13:14 that we need to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of our sinful nature. We need to clothe ourselves with Christ and allow the power of God’s spirit to work in us. If we want to be people who show love to one another we need to first ask God to pour himself into us.

Sharing in Communion gives us a opportunity to do just that. In communion we see the love of God put into action – Jesus came and lived with us, he showed us how to love throughout his life and then showed us what love for others really looks like when he gave his life for us. While we see the example of love here that we are supposed to follow, we also realize that we will fail to follow the example of Jesus we are trying to do all of this on our own, which is why we are called to come with open hands and hearts to receive the fullness and power of Christ. Communion is the time to once again ask God to pour the power of his spirit into our hearts so that we can love like Jesus. Sharing together in the body and blood of Christ is our opportunity to clothe ourselves in Christ so that we can fulfill all the law and all the teaching of the prophets and Jesus by loving one another.