Christ-Like Love

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. Find John chapter 13, the Gospel of John, and in a moment we're going to look at verse 34. But I've already told you that the psychiatrist said that man's greatest need is to be loved and to be able to show and to give love, and that is so true. Now, we're going to look right now at the last commandment that Jesus gave of all of his commandments. This is the last one that he gave before he ascended the high hills of glory, at least before his arrest, his trial, and his crucifixion.

He gave another commandment after that, and that was what we call the Great Commission. But our world is starving for love, and this is what Jesus said here. John chapter 13, verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. We're going to be talking today about Christ-like love. Now, Jesus has given us an example also of this love, so go back to the beginning of this chapter, and you're going to find out that Jesus, the great teacher, gave a glorious and a wonderful example. And the example is the washing of his disciples' feet.

Chapter 13, verse 1. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God, he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself, and after that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples' feet, and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded. Now, let's just stop right there, and let me talk to you a little bit about the custom in Bible times, and I think a wonderful custom. In Bible times, people wore sandals. They didn't wear the kind of lace-up shoes primarily that I'm wearing today, but they wore sandals. And they did not wear socks as we wear socks today, but they opened sandals.

And of course, the roads were not paved as our roads are paved today, and with asphalt and concrete, and so there was a lot of dust and a lot of grit and a lot of dirt. Now, if you were to come into a well-to-do house of that particular day, there would be a pot full of water and a basin and a little bench there, and generally there would be a server. And when you would come into the house, you would slip off your sandals, kind of let your toes do that a little bit, and then you would put your foot down into that basin of nice cool water. A servant would get down there and wash your feet and then massage your feet like that. Can you feel that? Ooh, that feels good. And wash your feet and then dry them with a towel. Then you do your toes like that and go into the house.

Just wonderful. A refreshment, just a wonderful touch. Well, now, Jesus is there instituting what we call the Last Supper, this memorial feast, just before the Passover, and remember Jesus knowing that His hour has come, that He's going to be crucified, that Judas is going to betray Him, knowing all of this. When they came into that house, there was no servant there to do that.

And not one of those others volunteered for that task. And so Jesus, He takes off His outer garments and He lays them aside. He takes a towel, ties it around His waist, fills a basin with water, and Jesus, Jesus, the Lord of glory, knowing that He's come from God, that He's going to God, that the Father has committed all things in His hands, He takes the feet, the smelly feet of fishermen, tax collectors, and others of this motley crew that were His disciples, and Jesus washes their feet. And later on He's going to say, if I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. Then He says, as I have loved you, I'm going to give you a new commandment, that you love one another. What a wonderful, wonderful lesson on love.

Now, I want us to see four things about this kind of love, and I want you to check up and see if these four things are true in your heart and in your life. Number one, Christ-like love is selfless love. Christ-like love is selfless love. Now, so many of us are so preoccupied with ourselves and going in any bookstore.

And what are the books all about? Self-love, self-esteem, self-glory, self-fulfillment. Our society is based on that, and yet we see the Lord Jesus Christ humbling Himself and actually doing the labor of a slave or a servant. It is not without significance that verse 4 says, He riseth from supper and laid aside His garments. Now, that is what He did actually literally physically, but it is symbolic of what He did when He stepped out of glory, when He laid aside the garments of glory that were His in heaven and came down to this earth. Jesus is co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential with God the Father.

Never forget that. That, friend, is basic Christianity. We sang the doxology, praise God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

We serve one God who has revealed Himself to us in three persons. But Jesus stepped out of heaven, and He came from sovereignty to slavery. He humbled Himself. He became obedient. Jesus stepped out of the glory, humbled Himself, and the Bible says, Therefore God hath given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.

Now, many of us fight for reputation. Jesus laid aside His reputation. We like to talk about how we came from nothing to something, but Jesus came from something and made Himself of no reputation. Now, the disciples of Jesus were not that way. Put in your margin Luke chapter 22, and look at verse 24. And this is the same night that all of this took place, the same evening now.

Get the context. The same evening when Jesus is washing their feet, just before that there was a big dispute. Luke tells us about it. Luke 22, verse 24. And there was a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest?

Can you imagine these rascals? And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that doth serve. Now, Jesus never says don't be great. Jesus says just make sure that it's real greatness that you get.

And real greatness is service. Jesus, hear these disciples saying I'm better than you are, I'm bigger than you are, I want to sit at his right hand, I want to sit at his left hand. Jesus said forget that. Forget that you're acting like pagans, the lords of the Gentiles.

No, you want to be great and serve. Forget about yourself. Now, let me say this. Humility is not thinking lowly of yourself. I've said this so many times. People just have, well, you know, I'm just no good, I'm just no good. Cut that out. That's not humility, that's just poor posture.

Now, physically you can't help it, that's one thing. But humility is not thinking lowly of yourself. Jesus, in the greatest act of humility, washed his disciples' feet. But was he thinking lowly of himself?

Read it. Jesus knowing that he had come from God and was going to God and that the Father had committed all things into his hands. Do you think he's thinking lowly of himself? No, get the context. Knowing all of that, knowing that, knowing who he was.

Then laid aside his garments, took a towel, and washed his disciples' feet. That, my friend, is humility. Well, you say, what does that have to do with me? Friend, you're somebody.

You have been born of God, and if you've been born of God, you're going to God also. I mean, you're somebody. Now you can be a servant. Now you can lay aside your pride. Real love is selfless love. May I tell you that unbounded love and pride can never dwell in the same heart. Only in pure humility can there be genuine love. All right, got it?

Say, got it. All right, now, not only is Christ-like love selfless love, but Christ-like love is steadfast love. Look in verse 1 of this chapter. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world.

What that means is he knows that the clock is ticking and the crucifixion is near. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, watch this, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. He didn't stop loving them.

He just kept on loving them. And may I tell you that if you examine the lives of these people, they were not all that lovely at that time. Peter's going to curse and swear and deny him. James and John are talking about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom and they were filled with fear and all of these things, but he just kept on loving them. Now many times we excuse ourselves.

I've done this and you have too. We excuse ourselves when we're irritable if we're what, tired? Worn out, had a hard day, people have mistreated us, and we bark at people and we snap at people and we say, well, after all, if you knew what I've been through, you'd understand that. No, listen, Jesus facing the cross is showing love. Jesus knowing that the hour is coming, that they're going to crucify him, still he is steadfastly loving them. Now if your so-called love cannot stand the test of excruciating times, you don't have real love at all. If you just love when the times are good, any pagan can do that.

Any pagan can do that. What Jesus is doing is loving under extreme pressure. This is love under pressure. Have you ever just erupted at somebody?

And then you just say, well, I'm sorry, I've been under so much pressure, just forgive me. If you want to know what you're full of, just see what spills out when you get jostled. That's what you're full of. Now if when you get jostled, all that stuff comes out, you're just full of all that stuff. But if you get jostled and love comes out, then you're full of love.

Now what am I saying? That Jesus, in the midst of extreme duress, extreme pressure, knowing that he's about to be crucified, is steadfastly loving his disciples. Real love, Christian love, loves steadfastly, it loves unto the end. All of us have had friends, we call them fair weather friends, like passengers on a ship and everything is smooth, they're on board with us, but you let the water get rough and they bail out. Real love will never let us go.

Never let us go. One man had a son that was breaking his heart. He had almost bankrupted himself trying to reclaim the boy. He had counseled with the boy. He had had the boy, two counselors.

He had soaked the boy in prayer. He had not only gone the second mile, the third mile, the fourth mile, the boy had disgraced the father, broken the mother's heart. This dad had done all that he could do to reclaim his son.

He was talking with a friend about it. And the friend said, I'll tell you what I would do with him if he were my son. And the father said, yes, you're right. If he were your son, that's what I'd do too, but he's not your son, he's my son, and I can't let him go. I love that, he is my son. I'll tell you, no matter what you do, listen to me, listen to me, I don't care what you do, he will never let you go. Having loved his own, he loved them.

Eis telos, that means all the way to the end. Oh, love that will not let me go. What can separate us from the love of Christ? For I am persuaded neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You are loved, my friend. You know what the devil tells some of you, and he's telling some of you right now, you've messed up, you've blown it, God doesn't love you anymore, you've had it. That's a lie out of hell, he does love you.

Nothing you can do will make him love you anymore, and nothing you can do will make him love you any less. He doesn't love us because we're lovely, he loves us because of his grace, and having loved his own, he loves them unto the end. What is Christ-like love? It is selfless love.

He laid aside his garments. It is steadfast love. He loved them unto the end.

Thank God for that. Number three, Christ-like love is serving love. You know what the apostle John said?

He said that's not just love in word, but in deed and in truth. Look in verses four and five of this same chapter. He, Jesus, riseth from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself, and after that he poureth water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded.

Did you know that real love knows no job that is so lowly to do? Do you know the feet that he washed, do you know among who were in that crowd? Judas was there.

Jesus, knowing soon that Judas is going to betray him with a kiss of infamy, a kiss that would burn like a coal from hell on his cheeks. Jesus washed Judas' feet. You see, didn't Jesus say, bless them that persecute you, do good to them that despitefully use you? You see, Jesus, Jesus didn't practice what he preached. He preached what he practiced.

I mean, Jesus is serving. Now, let me give you a definition of love. Love is not giving to someone else what they deserve. Love is giving to someone what they need.

That's what real love does. A well-known preacher went into a airport. I may have told you this before. He sat down in the restaurant in the airport. It was early in the morning, wanted breakfast. The waitress came out and she was kind of sassy.

You ever had kind of a sassy waitress? She said, what do you want? He said, well, I'd like some breakfast. She said, do you want a menu? He said, yes, ma'am. She said, do you want some coffee? Yes, ma'am.

Do you like some orange juice? Yes, ma'am. She said, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am. Is that all you can say, yes, ma'am? He said, yes, ma'am.

So he gave the order. She went back into the kitchen, came out again with his ugly look on her face, slapped the food down there and said, you want anything else? He said, no, ma'am, that's fine.

Thank you, ma'am. She turned and went away. He ate his breakfast, filled out the check, and left, as I remember the story, a $20 bill on the table. Turned and started to walk out. Said, hey, you!

You left some money on the table. He said, well, don't they tip around here? He said, wait a minute.

You left a $20 tip for me the way I treated you? He said, yes, ma'am. He said, why would you do that? He said, I was watching you. I could tell you were hurt. I could tell you had some real problem. I could tell that things were bothering you. You must have some problem.

And I just thought I would show you some love. She began to cry. She said, you don't know the problems I've had. I should have left a child today sick, coming to work. My old router-trap car broke down. The boss got all over me for being late.

Yes, I've had some problems. He said, well, I thought maybe so. I thought maybe this would cheer you up. And it wasn't very long until he led her to Christ right there in that restaurant. And she got saved.

You know what that is? That's Christ-like love. Not giving her what she deserved. It was giving her what she needed. And what she needed right then was love. What did these disciples deserve? They didn't deserve to have their feet washed.

They needed a kick in the pants in human terms. But Jesus knew the love that these needed. And so Christ-like love, it is serving love. 1 John 3 verse 18, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

When you have Christ-like love, there is no job too small for you to do. Jesus, the Lord of glory, is serving, washing dirty feet. Now let me give you the fourth mark of Christ-like love. Christ-like love is also sanctifying love.

Jesus is now moving from the physical to the spiritual and from the literal to the symbolic. And so after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was sat down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done unto you? Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say, Well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done unto you. Now, this is the last point and the final point and the sanctifying thing.

Christ-love is sanctifying love. Jesus now is turning the conversation to symbolism. No longer is he talking about literal dirt. He's talking about spiritual defilement that comes into lives because all of us get contaminated by sin. All of us get our spiritual feet dirty because we live in a dirty, grimy, and dusty world. Now, Jesus is saying, Peter, I need to wash your feet. And Peter says, Well, no, you can't wash my feet. Jesus said, Now if I don't wash your feet, I have no part with you.

That means I can't fellowship with you. Then Peter says, Well, wash me all over. He says, You don't need to be washed all over.

You just need your feet washed. Now, what is all of this a lesson about? Well, salvation is called the washing of regeneration. When we get saved, we spiritually, we're bathed and cleansed from the defilement of this world. But we still live in this world and we still get our feet dirty. Is there anybody who hasn't sinned after you've gotten saved?

No one. I mean, even though we've been saved, even though he has washed us and made us white as snow, we still walk in an old dirty world and we need to come and get our feet washed. That is, day by day, we need to kind of get our spiritual feet washed. Right?

Got it? Now, Peter, when he saw this, he said, Well, wash me all over. Jesus said, No, you've already had a bath. You've already had a bath and you're clean. You just need to have your feet washed. What is the lesson there?

The lesson is very simple, very plain and very clear. Once you get saved, that's it. But you have to keep getting your feet washed.

You see, once you've had the bath, that's settled. Nowhere in the Bible will you ever find anywhere where anybody was ever saved twice. You can't find it.

You can't find it. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. We are saved. When we're saved, it is once and for all, but we still need to get our feet washed because we need to come to him for daily cleansing and daily foot washing.

So what he's talking about now is not some sort of a ceremony. When he says, If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying, Peter, you are going to get your feet dirty. In a little while you're going to betray me. But, Peter, I'm going to wash your feet. Peter, I am going to forgive you.

And Jesus did. Remember that episode after the resurrection? Simon, do you love me? Well, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. Now, Simon, do you love me more than he is?

Well, Lord, you know all things. Peter, do you love me? Three times Jesus asked that question.

Why? Because three times Peter had denied him. What is Jesus doing now? He's washing the feet of Simon Peter.

At that day, Jesus said, Peter, you don't understand, but you will understand later on. I'll guarantee you that day on the seashore he understood what Jesus was talking about when he had his feet washed so many times. I was saved as a teenage boy, but so many times, thank God, hallelujah, he's washed my feet.

And he's never stopped loving me and he'll never stop loving you. Do you know somebody who needs their feet washed? Somebody who's done you wrong? They haven't done you as wrong as the disciples had done Jesus wrong. Peter was going to curse and swear and deny him and yet Jesus washed Peter's feet. And I'm telling you that the church will be a wonderful place when we allow Jesus to wash our feet and to keep us clean day by day and when we, with Christ-like love, wash one another's feet. .