Did you know that you are the greatest Christian someone knows and that every day people are watching your life? There's more at stake than you or I could ever dream. And yet God has given you and given me everything we need to be the kind of people that make a difference.
You want to learn how? Stay with me. Thank you for being with us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip Ingram serves as our Bible teacher with his global teaching and discipleship ministry helping Christians develop an authentic faith. Well today Chip will pick up where he left off last time in our series Love One Another. He'll continue unpacking the final and perhaps the most challenging commandment Christ gave his disciples.
Well there's a lot to get to so grab your Bible and go to John chapter 13 and settle in for the remainder of Chip's talk. What did Jesus deserve? Absolute worship and homage and he willfully became a servant.
That's the new commandment. Now why? Why do you think he gave it?
Let me give you three reasons. The first one is very tender. If you're in John 13 flip to verse 31. Interesting thing about verses 31, 32 and 33 they come right before verse 34.
So there's often a real parallel about what's happening there. Pick it up with me. He's already washed their feet. Judas had taken off he's gonna betray the Lord. When he was gone Jesus said, 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. Jesus was seeing Satan leave the room. He was seeing how this whole thing was playing out. His mind flashed back I'm sure to eternity past and the counsel of the Godhead, the sending of the Son before the foundations of the earth.
He saw it all and that was it was coming and now the 11 faithful were around him and he talked about this hope. What's glorify? It means to reveal.
It means to enhance the reputation of. It means for these people all the plan is becoming unveiled so the world could see the awesome love of God. Now notice how his heart gets so tender. Verse 33, my children.
Technon very interesting word. It has the idea of a father gathering his kind of younger younger children out of a heart of compassion and he's speaking to these grown men. He's washed their feet and he looks into their eyes around that table and he says, my children I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me and just as I told the Jews so I tell you now where I'm going you cannot come.
Now again we read that and think oh gosh he's leaving yeah we know he's gonna be ascended. See we know the story. They didn't know the story. All they knew was for the first time I said he was fully God he was also fully man. When Jesus sat down in his robe and there was water in it when he got up his robe was wet. When Jesus walked through mud his feet got dirty and they were muddy. When Jesus got a hold of some bad drink he got an upset stomach. He was fully human. When Jesus walked for many many miles John 4 he got tired and so he sat down to rest.
These disciples had the experience of being unconditionally loved, accepted, affirmed, listened to. They were in a perfect relationship with a perfect human being and now he just said I'm leaving. No more late night talks. No more great insight. No more forgiveness. No more looking into a set of eyes that said I knew you blew it. I know you feel bad about it. I love you unconditionally anyway and I'm so glad you came and owned up to it.
I'm so proud of you. That's gone. No more theological questions where you say excuse me Lord you know they're saying that over there and this passage I was reading the other day would you please explain it to me just one more time that's that's not gonna happen anymore. Now notice the text after he says that what's the next verse?
Look in your Bible verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another how? Just as I've loved you.
You see they had this relationship with Christ and he's telling them they'll understand later in John 14 he's going to the Father this experience of intimacy and love like they've never had anywhere in all the earth. You know what he's saying? Since I'm leaving I want you all to begin to fill that vacuum by the way you treat one another. His number one reason for this command was I will not be there in my physical presence. You need eyes to look into.
You need an arm around your shoulder. You need at times to be rebuked like I did Peter on more than a few occasions. You're going to need a physical body where the Christ in them can give you what you need and so that's why for the new commandment. The second reason is not for their individual personal reason but it's for the group a corporate reason. I mean the night before the night before he turns over the mission to them they're still arguing about who's the greatest. This commandment taken seriously eliminates discipleship sibling rivalry. There can be no competition.
It's done. If they actually believe this is the new commandment and this is what they're to do the idea of trying to be the greatest just gets cut at the roots. So that's the second reason and the third reason is global. The first one was personal for them. The second was for the group disciples.
The last one's global. What's verse 35 say? By this. By what? By the way you all, to the degree you all, to the extent you all, to the authenticity level that you all vulnerably, honestly love one another. All men will know that you're followers of mine.
He's saying the movement, the revolution, everything I've taught, the miracles I've done, the promises I've made, it all hinges on something. You guys modeling the message. If it doesn't work in your life it's not going to sell anywhere and so that's why this commandment became the apex.
Now let's let's ask the last question before we talk about us. How seriously did they take this? How seriously did the early church take this new commandment? Is this like, oh yeah you know there's a lot of commandments in there and Jesus talked to us a lot.
I know it was the last night we were together and all that jazz but you know, you know one commandment there's another commandment. How seriously did they take it? Let me show you. Turn to Acts, will you? Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, phenomenal.
You talk about taking something seriously. You talk about that axiom of how serious you take Jesus is how seriously you take his words. Early church, Pentecost, Peter preaches, 3,000 come to Christ. Verse 42 of chapter 2, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers worked together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and their goods they gave to anyone as they had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes. They ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God, enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved.
You see this environment occurred at the birth of the church, devotion corporately from home to home, people having deep talks, breaking bread, sharing hearts. Oh, you got a financial need? Hey, you know what? I've got more than I need. You can have this.
No one had need. I know, I hear you. I hear you. I can hear you thinking, well, yeah, this was their first emotional response. You know, it was early on. Turn the page. Turn the page. Chapter 4, 5,000 more have come to Christ.
Some time has gone by. Verse 32 of chapter 4, all the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of them had possessions that were his own, but they shared everything that they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and much grace was upon them all. There was no needy person among them, for from time to time, those who own lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put at the apostles' feet and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. I would say they took it so seriously, the whole economic structure of their lives changed, their priorities changed, their time changed, their values changed. Turn the page.
Not done. Chapter 5, verse 41, now they're undergoing persecution. I mean, they're getting it. The disciples have been beaten. Verse 41, the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they'd been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. Now listen, this is a summary.
We have now a lot of time expiring. Verse 42 is a summary, a characteristic of the early church day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. Relationships, relationships, relationships, relationships, relationships, love, love, love, love, needs, needs across all barriers.
The early church did it. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll return you to Chip's message in just a minute. But first, is there a cause or a group you feel connected to and want to support somehow? Well, let me invite you to join us after this message as Chip opens up about the people God has burdened his heart for and the opportunity you have to partner with him in this meaningful work. Stick around to learn more.
For now, let's get back to our series, Love One Another. Turn to 1 John with me, all the way in the back. Get to Revelation and go left. All the way in the back.
Let me just highlight a couple of things. I want you to get, I want you to get how powerful this is. I want you to try and get your arms around. This is not like a command that's sort of, you know, on a salad bar and you get to choose one or not choose.
This is the whole enchilada. You do this, you follow Christ. You don't do this, you're not really following Him, according to Jesus. 1 John, he's the same author.
Three quick letters written. Chapter 2, verse 9. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.
Turn the page. Chapter 3, verse 11. This is the message you've heard from the beginning. We should love one another. Verse 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Verse 16. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love in words and tongue. In other words, you know, be warm, be filled.
Yeah, I hope it goes well for you. Uh-uh. But let us love with actions and in truth. Verse 23. And this is the commandment. To believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his command live in him and he in them.
Chapter 4, verse 7. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love, whoever does not love, look at it, does not know God. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his son, the one and only one, into the world that he might live through him.
This is love. Not that we love God, but he loved us. And he sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. Are you getting a drift?
Is there a very unsubtle message? Skip down to verse 16. God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like him. Don't skip over that. In this world we are like him.
How? We love how he loved. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment.
The one who fears is not made in perfect love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
She is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this commandment, whoever loves God, get this down, must also love his brother. How serious did the early church take it? They took it so seriously that 11 people and a group of about 120 followers who couldn't vote, who had no political clout, who had no technology, no satellites, no talk shows, no printing press, who only had the word of mouth, who had no power in the system, a group of 11, and by now about 120, loved one another so deeply, so radically, that their lifestyle, even in the midst of persecution, by 300 years later, transformed the entire culture of Roman society. And the secular historians, I mean, they were made as lampshades, Christians were. They were fed to the lions.
Here's the testimony of secular historians. Oh, how they loved one another. Oh, how they loved one another. The revolution, and that's what Christianity is, it's a revolution, was ignited because the early church took it seriously. And I'm telling you, that's what we're about. You see, when we begin to get outside the lines and love each other in radical ways where it really is, there's a price tag where it's death to ourself, death to our agenda, out of our comfort zone, loving people of different color and different background, loving people you wouldn't really like to be alike, loving people that your emotions don't click on and you don't have any ooey-gooey feeling, you choose to extend yourself because they're part of Christ's body, loving people from multiple backgrounds, loving people with political agendas that are so far away from yours that you say, you know, that's okay.
I don't have to agree with you. I'm going to treat you with dignity, reaching into a person's life or a mom or a dad or a son of someone who has AIDS and who even got AIDS for all the reasons the Bible condemns and saying, you know something, I understand that, but you still need fed, don't you? You still need a ride to the hospital, don't you?
Still need some financial aid, don't you? I'm going to love you the way Jesus loved me. Tell you what, a group like this gets their arms around that and the Spirit of God gets a hold of your heart and we start loving each other that way. If we love, they will come. If we love, they will come.
And it's not a field of dreams. It's a promise of reality. Well, here's our challenge.
You ready? Our challenge, I've pretty well said it, but let me succinctly state it, is to take Jesus' words seriously. The look that you're giving me right now is the implications of this are absolutely overwhelming and you are right.
And they're absolutely exciting. Why is this so critical? Let me give you six quick reasons.
Why is it so critical? Number one, personal loyalty to Christ. I don't know where you're at, don't know what you do, don't know how often you read the Bible, how much you pray or anything else. I'll tell you this though, for you and for me, if I don't love other people the way Jesus loved them, I'm disobeying the only time in all of Scripture Jesus said, I have a fresh, I have a new commandment.
So I'm not loyal to Him. It's my first step in obedience to Christ. Second, Christianity is anemic. All the Barna research, all the Gallup polls, tell us what?
Christians don't live any different in morality and ethics, not much, than the rest of the world. We start loving one another, we'll break through that. Third reason is so critical, people are hurting. I don't have time to grasp, to explain what it's like for a family to go through cancer. I was in Dallas, I sat in on a faculty meeting of Dallas Seminary.
For 25 minutes they did nothing but take prayer requests, students and faculty. And I mean, it was just so-and-so has cancer. This student, one of our top students, was hit by a car.
This student has a brain tumor. People in the body of Christ, in this room, in this room, if we could give everyone a flashcard and a little marker and put the number one critical hurt in your life, if you wrote it and then we held them all up, you'd look around the room and you would just weep. People are hurting and they need you to love them and you need to be loved. Fourth reason it's so critical is that life is complex. I don't know about you, there's so much information coming at me and so on. We can't navigate life alone.
We need each other. The fourth reason is that soul care or life transformation isn't happening for many. And what I mean by that is there are Christians authentically coming to Christ.
I mean really coming to Christ, but they don't have a group around them to help them get into the word or process information or how do you work? You know what? Every couple has big, big problems.
And if you're the exception, God bless you, mentor us. And there's different seasons in your relationship. You get the points where you just look across the bed or across the table and you think, I don't even like that person. I don't want to be married to them. Well, you don't get divorced, you realize, welcome to the NFL.
This too will pass. You get some help, you think differently, you work on some issues, and then you look back five years and say, wow, boy, that's pretty normal, but man, we came through it. Every family has struggles with kids.
Every man that I've met has struggles with lust. Soul care, helping one another in life transformation. It's not happening because people aren't connected, so we put up facades, we play games, and your soul shrivels. We've got to love each other.
We've got to help each other. You were never designed to become more holy on your own. Last reason, it's our greatest apologetic, verse 35 of chapter 13. The greatest apologetic, people can disagree, disagree, disagree when their son's in trouble, when their wife's in trouble, when their kid has cancer, when they have a big problem, when you love them, guess what happens? All those intellectual reasons start to just filter away. They just filter away. When you remove your pre-judging, when you reach into people's lives that they think, oh, evangelicals don't care about us, they're the narrow bigoted group.
When you break those stereotypes and you radically love, and when they see us love each other, I'll tell you what, it makes a dog bark. You've got to be quick in this room or you're in trouble. Second, how are we going to accomplish this? We had a little comic relief and now we move on.
Okay, those are the reasons. Now, here's what you need to understand. This is not going to be one of those messages like, oh, wow, I really need to love people more. There are nuggets in the Bible that talk about how to love one another, how to encourage one another, how to admonish one another, how to bear up with one another, how to restore people who've sinned in the way and the right, and we're going to learn and we're going to grow. A new commandment I've given to you, Jesus says, love one another.
How? Just as He loved us. Father, I pray in the name and the power of your Son that we would take your words seriously. I ask for grace, courage, sensitivity, and wisdom, and we tell you we can't do it out of self-effort, we can't do it by trying harder. We ask that you would so fill us with an awareness of how deeply and unconditionally we are loved that we can become so secure or at least significantly secure enough to start giving away what we're receiving. God, we know this is your will. We offer it to you in the name and the power of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and the message you just heard, a new commandment for the new community, is from our series, Love One Another. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. You know, it's easy to hear the truth, feel inspired by it, and even believe it, but how often do we fail to act on it? Through these insightful messages, Chip challenges us to pause and choose to radically love others as Jesus did. Learn what it looks like to encourage, admonish, care for, and live in harmony with one another. Don't miss out on how to experience the joy and fulfillment of Godly community.
To catch up on any part of this study, listen through the Chip Ingram map or at livingontheedge.org. Well, I'm joined in studio now by Chip, and Chip, one of the biggest groups closest to your heart is pastors. And over the last several years, God has really impressed on you the vital job of ministering to these church leaders, because you know, many don't know that pastors worldwide are struggling and discouraged. And as a ministry, we've embraced this calling to encourage and support them. So take a minute, if you would, and share with our listeners a little bit more about that.
Well, Dave, first and foremost, you're right. I love pastors. One, because I know how hard it is. And two, because healthy pastors grow healthy churches and healthy churches transform communities. And with pastors, two things I do a lot with pastors. Number one, in their own personal life, help them really make it a priority to walk with God, take care of relationships with their family. And then number two, if you want the church to grow, and when I say grow, I mean grow deep in character, grow wide in terms of numerical growth where people are coming to Christ, and grow in terms of having an impact in your community in reaching needs. One of the top two things that churches that do that do is they teach every single person in the church what their spiritual gifts are.
I mean, it's intentional. There's a path. There's a class. Everyone in the church discovers, this is how God made me.
This is where I fit in the body. Now they have this joy and focus about where to serve. When churches get that, I mean things rock. So one of the resources I use is a little book called Your Divine Design, where I identify every gift in the New Testament, tell what it is, talk about how you discover what yours is, and how to put it into practice. And so if you would like to help your pastor see your church grow deep, grow wide, and make a difference in the community, let me encourage you, get a copy of Your Divine Design.
And Dave, we're doing something really special this month, aren't we? To get it in the hands of as many people as possible. So could you tell people how they can get a copy? Absolutely, Chip. When you give a gift to Living on the Edge, we'll send you a copy of this book as our way of saying thanks.
But this isn't just about getting a resource. When you join us, you're making an eternal investment in the lives of pastors around the globe. You're going with us to equip and inspire church leaders who desperately need hope. To learn how to become a financial partner, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org, or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.
Have listeners tap donate. And thanks in advance for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, with that, here's Chip to share a few final words for us to think about.
You know, if you listen to my voice today, some of you might be saying to yourself, you know, this topic must be one of Chip's hot buttons, this love one another stuff. Well, let me take a minute or two as we close today's program and tell you why. I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I had good parents.
My mom and dad were school teachers. We lived, you know, in the suburbs, one of those families that tried to do what was right. We went to church pretty often, but it wasn't a church that taught the Bible, and I never had a relationship with Christ. I never opened the Bible until I was 18. But what you need to know is that there was such hypocrisy in that church, such political junk everywhere, that by the time I was about 16, I decided I needed no more of God and no more of church. By the time I was 18, I didn't want to have anything to do with organized religion. I was a young guy who got focused on school and sports and girls and just decided I'm going to go to college and make a difference. But along the way, I had a coach who was a believer in my high school, and he took a real personal interest in me. At that time, I didn't even know the difference between a believer and an unbeliever.
All I knew was he was a nice guy. He believed in me, and he said to me, there's a camp. It's called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and I would like to pay your way to go to this camp. The best athletes from all over four states—Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana—they're going to be there, and you're going to love it, Chip.
Well, to be very honest, going to a, quote, religious camp and talking about Jesus was not my idea of a good time. But I had a conditional scholarship. I had to make the team in order to get my money in school.
So I thought to myself, well, this is a good idea. I'll go there for six or seven days, play against these good athletes, sharpen my skills, and be ready for my freshman year of college. But something happened that I didn't plan on. While I was there, I began to see grown men love other grown men in a way that I've never, ever seen. I saw the Bible opened up and explained, and instead of being weird, it was authentic and it was real. And I'll never forget the day I saw the wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons and the fullback for the University of Illinois walking off a practice field, arm in arm, sweaty after a big workout, and in a manly, masculine way, sharing their hearts with one another.
And I remember as a tiny little freshman in college, about 135 pounds, dripping wet, walking behind these two massive athletes. And as I listened to their voice, their conversation, something inside said, I don't know what they have, but that's what I want. My introduction to a real relationship with Jesus Christ came not because I heard lots of words, but because I saw love lived out. That's why it's one of my hot buttons. And there are people just like me all over the world searching and looking and wanting to find out if God is real. And long before they will hear your words or mine, they must see us love one another. That's why this series is so important. That's why this is a hot button.
And that's why how you live really makes a difference. Good challenge, Chip. And as we close, if you're looking for a practical way to grow in your relationship with God, check out the Chip Ingram app. You can listen to our most recent series, sign up for Daily Discipleship with Chip, and more. We want to help you deepen your faith, and the Chip Ingram app will help you do that. For Chip and the entire team here, this is Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. And I hope you'll join us again next time.
