Loving like Jesus
John 13:31-35
By: Ysrael De la Cruz
Last week we talked about the greatest commandment which is to love God with every part of you. Heart, soul and mind. The second greatest is to love your neighbor as yourselves. Jesus said that by Loving God and loving people, we fulfill the law of God.
Right before Jesus’ arrest, he announced to his followers the events which would be unfolding in the Jerusalem. He would use phrases such as: “The hour is coming when you all will be scattered” (John 16:32)
Mark 14:27 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’
“where I am going you cannot come.” (John 13:33)

John 13:31-35 this is right after he had the last Supper with his disciples.
Notice how Jesus talked about the time for him to be glorified (magnified, extoled, praised)
Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. (v.31-32)
Jesus was talking about how he would bring glory to God the Father by accomplishing the work he was sent to do. He then told his disciples that he was leaving and that they would not be able to follow him there. Another reference to his sacrifice on the cross.
Jesus directly talking to his disciples, his closest friends gave them these final words in a form of a command.
A new commandment I give to you: Love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (v.34)
The disciples were familiar with the greatest commandment to love God and to love your neighbor. Now Jesus talked to them about a new commandment. To love each other as he had loved them.

How does one begin to love like Jesus?
Jesus did not just teach these men love, he demonstrated it. If you look at what happened in this chapter, you find Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. A job done by the servants or slaves of a household. Jesus, the master/teacher gave an example for his followers of what it means to love one another.
-Jesus serve his disciples without an agenda. His serving them was out of love and not duty.
-Jesus loved his disciples sacrificially (He loved them to death) In john 15:12-13 Jesus once again reminded his disciples to love each other as he has loved them. 12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus gave his life for those he loved. Loving like Jesus means to serve one another without an agenda; in other words, genuinely. Loving like Jesus means to be willing to even die for those you love.
Everything Jesus did for his followers, he did it out of love.
Jesus loved them despite their personalities; he loved them despite their lack of faith and knowledge at times. He loved them despite who they were.

Jesus just had dinner with his disciples among whom was one ready to betray Jesus. Judas was at the table; Jesus washed his feet too. Jesus loved them despite their sin and mistakes. Jesus knew they all would forsake him at the end; he knew Judas would betray him and how Peter would deny him three times. He knew all this and yet, still served them and loved them despite who they were. Loving like Jesus is hard, but as his followers we are commanded to love one another the same way Jesus loved us. Brothers and sisters in Christ have trouble loving each other because they have clearly not understood God’s love.

Loving like Jesus is to truly know Jesus.
1 John 4:7-12
7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

Loving like Jesus is the greatest testimony you can have in the world.
John 13:35 Jesus said that by loving each other people will know that we are truly disciples of Jesus.
Loving one another is the distinctive mark in the world for Jesus’ followers. Our loving one another is the greatest testimony we have in the world. People will know Jesus when they see how we love each other the way Jesus loved us; loving like Jesus truly is the badge you flash to those around you.
By this the world will know you are truly my disciples when you love one another.