The New Commandment

0:39The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and works in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

1:30I'm writing to you, young man, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to your fathers because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young man, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. This is God's word. You may be seated. A lot of you know that I am a firstborn child, and as a result, I love rules.

2:04I like to know very clearly what the expectations are, so that I can do my best to be a good Pharisee and obey those rules at all times. So, I'm always fascinated when rules are posted places so that it's very clear what the expectations are. And in our neighborhood pool, we have this sign with the pool rules that are stated there. Now, up on that sign, you will see that there's a lot of kind of normal stuff up there. No running around the pool, that's fairly common.

2:32No glass containers, we don't want anything dropped and broken where people are going to cut their foot, no pets, thank God. And then you have one that says, no furniture in the pool. Which, like, if ever there was an illustration of Romans 7, I had never thought of coveting until the law said, do not covet. Like, no one had ever thought, you know what, we should. Should do, we should throw some of this furniture in the pool. How often do you think the furniture is in the pool at our neighborhood pool? Pretty often, because it says no furniture in the pool.

3:11Well, then you've got this last little statement down there at the bottom. It says, the use of alcohol beverages, I want to write sick, you know, not alcoholic, but alcohol. The use of alcohol beverages will not be condoned. And it's like, okay, that's fine. Is that a rule or is that a suggestion? Like, what are we going for here? Like, is it not allowed, or is it like, oh, we don't really want you to do that, but, you know, if you do, what are we going to do?

3:44So I find that very confusing. Like, is it a rule or is it a suggestion? And I think a lot of times when we come to the Word of God, we get confused as to what we're looking at. Are we looking at rules or are we looking at suggestions? Are these laws or are these things that would just kind of be good if you would do them? Well, friends, last week in 1 John chapter 2, verses 1 through 6, we learned once again that Jesus is the Savior. And the question that John gave us to help us evaluate was, how do I know if Jesus is my Savior?

4:21And we saw very clearly that we will know if we are Jesus' disciples if we have followed his commands, if we've obeyed him. That's how we have assurance of salvation, we obey him. Well, this week in verses 7 through 14, John is going to move forward. He's going to give a second test. How will I know if I am Jesus' disciple? And he's going to answer us by asking a question: Do we love others? Do we love our neighbors? Do we especially love our brothers and sisters in Christ?

4:56And so, what we're going to learn today is that our love for others is proof of our love for Christ. So, let's look now at the text together. Here in verse 7, John says, Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. Well, what is this command? He says we've had it from the beginning. So, let's go back to the beginning. Right after Adam and Eve fall into sin in Genesis chapter 3, the first historical account that we have is one of two brothers, Cain and Abel. And God receives Abel's offering, but he has no regard for Cain's offering. And the result, of course, is that Cain becomes angry with his brother, and he ends up murdering him. And so, God comes to Cain and He says, Where is Abel your brother?

5:49And Cain says, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And we see right here in this first story. Of conflict in Scripture between two people. The hatred that Cain has in his heart towards his brother Abel. Something that's going to prove problematic for the rest of humanity's existence. It results in this act of murder. And so you fast forward many years later, and then God is giving his law to the people of Israel, his chosen people. And I want you to look on the screen at what he says in Leviticus chapter 19.

6:30You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. So the old commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. I want you to notice that in contrast to some other religions, the command is not, do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you. That's actually found in many other world religions. Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you. But that's negative in nature. This is positive in nature. Do for others, proactively do, positively do for others what you want them to do for you.

7:13And so the old commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. We see God's concern for loving our neighbors with Cain and Abel, and then he actually codifies that. He makes it a part of the law in Leviticus chapter 19. And so John then goes on and he says this. And this seems confusing at first glance. Look what he writes. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you.

7:39Well, how is this a new commandment if God already commanded it? Let's fast forward to the Gospel of John where we began our service today. John 13, verses 34 and 35. Jesus says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So even Jesus himself used this language of this is a new commandment. But again, why is it a new commandment if it's the same thing that God has been communicating implicitly since Cain and Abel and explicitly since he gave the law to his people in Leviticus 19?

8:27Well, I want you to notice what Jesus says. He says, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Well, how did Jesus love us? Friends, Jesus loved us in spite of what we had done, not because of what we had done. Look at what he says in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. He says, You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

9:00But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Now listen to this. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?

9:30Do not even Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And I want you to look at the screen at Romans 5, verses 6 through 8. This is a very well-known passage. Paul says, For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But, listen to this, God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

10:06So once again, Jesus loved us in spite of what we had done, not because of what we had done. People love those who love them. That's what comes naturally to us. That's why Jesus says, look, if you love those who love you, what more are you doing than other people? You're not doing anything more than what anyone else does. Everybody loves their neighbor and hates their enemy. That's normal. That's what comes natural to you. Us. But Jesus laid down his life for his friends and for his enemies, not just for his friends. While we were still sinners, he died for us. And that's what makes this a new command. Jesus transforms our understanding of the extent of this command drastically. It includes not just our friends, but also our enemies. So it's a new commandment in that sense. That the command to love extends to everyone, not just to people we like. Now go back to verse 8 and look at what he writes. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

11:25Well, how is the new commandment true in him, in Jesus? Well, it's true in the sense that he fulfilled that new commandment perfectly. I love what he says in Matthew 22. Look on the screen there. He says, teacher, this man comes up to him, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first, the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now look at how he concludes this.

12:00On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So Jesus says the entire law, everything that God said, 365 negative commands, 270 positive commands. Jesus says all the law depends on these two things, to love God and to love other people. And look at what Jesus said right at the outset of his ministry in Matthew chapter 5. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

12:38So Jesus has just said, everything that God has commanded, all of the negative, all of the positive commands, all of it depends on these two things. Love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. And then he says, don't think that I have come to do away with any of it. I have come to fulfill it. I have come to do all the things that were commanded in the law where you failed. See, friends, we know that we don't love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Every single day, there are many other things competing for our mind and our heart, our affections. And we routinely give to other things the love, the commitment, the affection that only God is worthy of. We know that we don't love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And more than that, we know we don't love our neighbor. As we love ourselves. But the good news is that Jesus came to fulfill all of the law on our behalf. He came and didn't just teach this is what you're supposed to do. He actually did love the Lord his God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He actually did love his neighbor as he loved himself. He laid down his life, not just for his friends, but for his enemies. And so the new commandment to love was true in him.

14:01But it's not just true in him. This is what's amazing. John says that it's true in us. Well, how is this so? How is this new command true in us, especially given what we just said? We know we don't love God and love other people as we're called to do. Well, look again at Romans 5. Look how this chapter begins. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame. Listen to this, because God's love has been poured into our hearts. Through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

15:05God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And so, what this means is that through faith in Christ, we have been justified. We've been declared righteous by God. Our sins have been forgiven. But more than that, he says God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So, friends, the new commandment is true in us because God hasn't just commanded that we love one another, he has actually come to take up residence in our hearts through faith by the person of the Holy Spirit. He has poured his love into us.

15:52And I think it's true that many professing believers walk through life with a very defeatist attitude. With an attitude that kind of says, you know, there's just no way I can live out God's commands. There's no way I could actually live out these commands to love him or to love my neighbor. There's no way I can do these things. But friends, and please don't miss this, we have just been told that God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has taken up residence inside of our hearts. The Holy Spirit gives us the power. Power that we need and that we lacked to actually obey God's commands, especially the command to love one another.

16:38So, this commandment is not just true in Jesus, it's true in us because Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, has taken up residence in us to enable us to obey His commands. And the result of all of this is what John says last in that statement: the darkness is already passing away, and the true light is already shining. Isn't that great news? Sin, when it entered into the world, made this world a dark and broken place. But because of Jesus' victory in his death and resurrection, that darkness is passing away. The true light is already shining. This is the sunrise. There is a dawning of a new day because of Jesus' victory. And that new day is going to culminate when Jesus, the light of the world, returns in glory.

17:35And so, now with that foundation, that setup, if all of this is true, if the new commandment is to love one another as Jesus has loved us, and if the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining, how then should we live as Christians? That's the question that John is going to answer in the central part of this text, verses 9 through 11. Let's look there. He begins and he says, whoever says, whoever says.

18:10This is the very same formula that he used in chapter one and at the outset of chapter two. If we say one thing and we do another, our lives are contradicting our profession. In other words, our talk has to be backed up with action. So John is setting up this contrast. Whoever says this stuff, whoever says what follows, their lives had better back it up. So look what he writes. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

18:48Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. So you notice, John leaves no room for people who say things like, I love God, I just don't love the church. Have you ever heard that before? People say that stuff all the time. I love God, I just don't love the church. You hear it, especially in the West, especially in America, where we have a very individualized conception of what it means to be a Christian. So we think all the time, I love God, I just don't love the church. So I kind of do my own thing. I mean, my personal walk with Jesus is that. It's personal. I listen to sermons online by myself. Myself. I don't actually worship with other Christians regularly. I do that on my own when I want to do that and in the ways that I want to do that. So John says, you can't say things like, I love God, I just don't love the church. In Scripture, it's very clear that you can't have love for God if you also don't have love for other Christians, for God's people.

19:54And of course, that principle is intuitive. I mean, imagine if somebody came up to you and said, I like you, I just don't like your wife. Or I like you, I just don't like your husband. Now, in my case, that would be very baffling. I don't know how you could not like my wife. Do you not like sweet things? Do you like black, licorice, and unflavored cough drops? That what you like? That would be very confusing to me. But what John is saying is, you can't say, I love God and I don't love the church, because how the scripture talks about God and the church is that God is the husband, he is the bridegroom, and the church is his bride. So that's the same thing as saying, I like you, I just don't like your wife. And so back to our previous example, if you said that to me, it's like, well, you can have whatever opinion you want. We just can't be friends then. Because my wife and I are one flesh. We're one unit. We go together.

21:00Like both literally and in the middle school sense. I want you to look on the screen at what John says later in this letter, chapter 4. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. It can't get any more straightforward than that. If you love God, you will love his people. Now, look at verse 10. He goes on: Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

21:56You see, when we fail to love, we cause both Christians and non-Christians to stumble. First, when we fail to love others, we cause other Christians to stumble. And one of the most common ways that we fail to love others is with our words. When other Christians hear us gossiping about others or slandering their character or just speaking ill of them, they are emboldened to sin in the same ways. Look at what Paul writes to the Galatians.

22:34He says, For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Okay, so he's just repeating that paraphrase of what Jesus said, the whole law could be summed up as. Look at what he says next. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. So, friends, Paul's warning applies just as much to us as it does to the Galatians. We are commanded to love one another. But if we cultivate a culture in our church where gossip and backbiting are tolerated or even promoted, we are going to eat each other alive.

23:24That's what he's saying here. On the other hand, if we love one another, then we're not going to do those things or tolerate those things. We're going to assume the best about other Christians. We're going to encourage one another and build them up with our words. And we're going to call one another to repentance when we have not spoken or acted in love towards other Christians. So the first thing we have to understand is that when we fail to love others, we actually cause other Christians to stumble. But secondly, when we fail to love others, we cause non-Christians. Christians to stumble. Let's go back to John 13, our opening passage. Look again at what Jesus says. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

24:17So, what he's saying is that if we don't love one another, then people either A won't know that we are Jesus' disciples, or B, they will conclude that Jesus' disciples don't love each other. Neither one of those is a good outcome. We want people to know that we are Jesus' disciples, and we want them to see us loving one another, so that, as Jesus taught and then as Peter teaches later on, they will see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven. That's what we want. We don't want people to see us acting in hatred for one another. We want them to see us acting in love toward one another. And John says that if we do that, we abide in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in us. Now look at verse 11.

25:10But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I love this verse because it reminds us of the truth about sin. Sin blinds us. That's what it does. See, we can get to the point in our Christian lives where we have become so blinded to sin that we don't even see it in our lives. It's just become a staple. We didn't even notice that we got there or how we got there.

25:50Now, some of you know I enjoy playing golf, but golf can be expensive. And so I have to find creative ways to play golf. You may not know this, but you can actually play at the wonderful Texas AM course after 3 p.m. for $14. True story. Which is great, because if you're like me and you're going to shoot $150, that's like 10 cents a swing. That's great news. You're out there, you're like, man, I'm terrible, but this sure is cheap.

26:19So I really enjoy doing that, but when you tee off at like 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. or whatever, especially like later in the spring, it gets dark early. And so those last few holes, all of a sudden it feels like, man, it's pitch black out here. When did this happen? You don't notice because it happens so gradually. Sun is going down, and just little by little, it gets darker and darker until you can't even see your ball anymore.

26:47And the same thing happens to us with sin. It blinds us, but it blinds us little by little so that we don't really notice that it's happening. But thankfully, friends, other Christians. Often do notice that it's happening to us. And that's why the author of Hebrews says what he does in chapter 3. Look on the screen. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

27:22He says, encourage each other and do it daily, so that we're not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, so that little by little it doesn't get darker and darker and darker in our hearts and in our minds to the point where we can't even see that we're walking in sin and disobedience. Love one another enough to exhort each other every day so that nobody gets hardened to the presence of sin in their lives. Now, for the past few verses, John has been addressing these people who are professing to follow Jesus, but their lives don't match up.

27:57And it's like John is aware that this does not apply to everybody, and he doesn't want everyone to become discouraged. And so he ends this passage with several encouraging words to the members of the church. So look at verse 12. He says, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the Evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

28:52Now, in these final three verses, John seems to be addressing three different groups of people: children, fathers, and young men. And he very well may be addressing three different age groups. I mean, after all, the churches worship together. I mean, that's one of the reasons that we offer preschool care for any parents who want to take advantage of that, but we also welcome children of all ages into the service. Because this letter, along with every other letter in the scripture, would have been read aloud to the whole church. And so it very well could be the case that John is addressing these three different age groups. But I tend to think, as other commentators do as well, that when he uses the word children, he's referring to the whole church. Because if you look at the way that he uses that word and the phrase dear children and the rest of the letter, he's talking to everybody in the church. And so what I think is going on here is that he's using children to refer to everybody, and then he's breaking it down into two specific groups. And these are the same groups that John uses elsewhere and that Paul uses, like we saw in Titus, older and younger believers.

29:58And so he begins with little children. Which is, I think, the whole church, and he reminds them of two very important truths. He says, your sins are forgiven, and you know the Father. Now, John's readers, like us, have failed to love others as we have been called to love, as we've been commanded. And yet, Jesus died for their sins. He died for all of their failures. In Titus 3, last month, we were reminded that we ourselves were once foolish and disobedient and led astray into all kinds of sin. But when the kindness, the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not based on anything that we had done, but according to his own mercy. Jesus died, as we said before, in spite of what we had done.

30:55He didn't save us because of what we had done. And through faith, we are forgiven for his name's sake. That's such a beautiful phrase. And through faith, God becomes our Father, which changes the way that we relate to him, and it changes the way that we relate to one another. We're not now merely strangers who happen to be members of the same club. We're family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. That changes everything. And he goes on and he talks to the fathers. That's the spiritually mature of the church who have most likely been walking with Jesus for many years, perhaps even decades. And he reminds them, you know him who is from the beginning. He says this two different times in the passage. Did you catch that? You know him who is from the beginning.

31:56Now, it seems like John is referring to Jesus, as he does in the first few verses of his gospel and this letter, the one who existed eternally from before the foundation of the world, before time began. And it says, you know him who is from the beginning. I think we can so easily skip over this phrase, even though it appears twice, because we have lost our sense of awe. We've lost our sense of awe that we know him who is from the beginning.

32:29Now, I think that our Facebook culture has damaged our sense of awe. We have thousands of people, perhaps, who are called friends online. And so we've lost the meaning of that word, but I want you to think of your best friend, your best friend in the world. You know that person. You know everything about them. And when you are first starting to get to the point, To know them, you needed a set of rules, so to speak. You needed to ask them: so, what do you like? What kind of food do you like? What kinds of things do you like to do? You didn't know that, so you had to ask, and they had to tell you. But now you just know intuitively what they like and what they don't like. That's what it is to know someone.

33:19And amazingly, John is saying, You know God like that. That's incredible. That we know Him, that Jesus considers us to be His friends. You see, what John is saying about the spiritually mature is that you get to the point where you've been walking with Jesus for so long that you intuitively know because you know His Word so well and because you've become acquainted with His Spirit so well. You intuitively know the things that please Him and that displease Him. Mature Christians don't need someone to necessarily point them to a specific verse for certain things that are not addressed by Scripture. So people will point out things that are not in Scripture, then a mature Christian will say, Well, clearly, that would not please the Lord to do that. An immature Christian says, Well, show me a verse. Show me a verse in the Bible where it says, I can't do this. And the mature Christian is saying, Well, if you know the Father, you wouldn't want to do that because that would clearly dishonor him. That wouldn't bring glory to him. That wouldn't make his name famous in all the earth.

34:31That's what it is to know God. And John is telling the mature, you know him. And that is incredible that we can know the God of the universe. So he wraps up then and he addresses the young men. And these are these emerging adults. They make up the largest percentage of our church here at New Life. And he says, This, you have overcome the evil one. Well, how have they overcome the evil one? John says it's with their strength.

35:05And what makes them so strong? It's the fact that the Word of God abides in them. Now, we all know when your young passion can get the best of you. Sometimes it does for all of us, and when it does, you can wind up sinning against others with your words or with your actions. And we also know that Satan exists to steal and kill and destroy, and that Jesus refers to him as the father of lies.

35:36So what does Satan hate? Satan hates God and God's people, the church. Well, what's the easiest way to destroy the church? It's through lies. It's through him infiltrating the church with lies. Spiritual warfare is a primary reason there is so much division in many churches. I mean, I don't know if you've been a part of the church. Of a church where there's been a lot of division before, I have not, but I hear the craziest stories: people screaming at each other, getting into fistfights in the parking lot over the color of the carpet.

36:12It just sounds insane, and yet that stuff happens. How do you get to the point where you are getting into a fist fight with your brother or your sister, I guess, in Christ, over the color of the carpet? Well, friends, it's it's Satan, he comes in to create division, and he does so through lies. And you think about some of the lies that you've probably heard before whispered in your ear, so to speak. She's ignoring you on purpose, she always does that.

36:49He doesn't like you, he never has liked you. You don't fit in here, you're different, you look different, you like different things. These people are not your people. I mean, there's these and countless other examples where Satan comes in and he begins to lie to us. And so, what happens is all the stuff we talked about earlier. We stop assuming the best about each other, we start assuming that people are trying to hurt us, trying to sin against us. We start assuming the worst, and then we start talking to other people about that person, and then all of a sudden, there is division. And there's division created through lies, and another church has been destroyed. And so look at what Paul writes to the Corinthians. He says this: Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs.

38:00So, we don't talk a lot about spiritual warfare in the church these days, but we need to. We're not ignorant of Satan's designs, he is the father of lies, he's trying to steal and kill and destroy. And so, we need to not be ignorant of that. What do we need to do instead? We need to read, we need to study, we need to know the word of God. And what John reminds us here is that we are strong only insofar as the word of God abides in us, that it remains in us, and we overcome the evil one through the word of God abiding in us, making us strong. So, we don't have to submit to his temptations any longer, we can walk in love.

38:40Friends, we live in strange times. All around us today are all of these calls for love to love everybody, no matter how they live their lives, no matter what choices they make. And the irony is that at the same time, these people call them. us to hate anyone who disagrees. Anyone who disagrees with their perspective, their ideas, their point of view. In fact, those who disagree with them are to be mocked, shamed, shunned, or worse. And it is into this culture that you and I read afresh this great commandment, this new commandment, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. to love not just our friends, but even our enemies.

39:32But friends, we are never going to learn to love our enemies if we can't even learn to love one another in the ways that we have been commanded to do. And remember that according to Scripture, love is not primarily a feeling. Love is a choice that we make to do what is in the best interest of someone else, even when it costs us something. That's what love is. And so love can be learned. We saw that in Titus. Teach the young women to love their husbands. Remember we talked about that? Love can be learned. You can choose to love. And the way that love grows is by actually doing the works of love. Not just by thinking about them and talking about them, but by actually going out and doing the works of love to one another and to others outside of the body of Christ.

40:20Jesus is our perfect example. He loved his friends, yes, but he loved even his enemies. And he gave up his life. Willingly, no one took it from him. He laid down his life for those who hated him, so that through faith in Christ we could receive eternal life. Jesus loved us that greatly. And John says here in 1 John 2 that our love for other people is proof of our love for Christ. Let's pray. Father, we come before you, having just been reminded of the Great Commandment.

41:09And at the same time, our minds are filled with all of these examples and instances where we have failed to live out the Great Commandment. We have not loved you and we have not loved others as you've called us to. And so we want to begin by acknowledging our sin and our need for forgiveness. God, we are so thankful that you sent Jesus, your Son, to live and die and rise again, that we might be justified and declared righteous, as though we had always loved you and loved others as we were called to do.

41:54And we thank you that through faith, your love has been poured. Into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. God, we pray that you would empower us to love one another as you have called us to love each other, that we would work hard to consider others, especially those who are different than us in the church, and what they need and what would serve them, and to go out of our way to meet those needs and to serve one another.

42:32And we pray that when people look at the church and look at our church in particular, who are not yet Christians, that they would say how they love one another, how they love one another. May our love for each other be a witness to the lost that would draw men and women and children to faith in Christ. Thank you, God, for your word to us. I pray that it would abide in us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.