Love One Another As I Have Loved You
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PUBLIC MINISTRY Love One Another As I Have Loved You BY SUSAN LUTZ In the last few days before His crucifixion, inclinations. It’s about God, and the life- Jesus introduced a new command to His changing power of His love when God pours it disciples: “As I have loved you, love one out on us. Nothing about Jesus’ command another.” In John 13-17, Jesus reflects seven makes any sense at all unless we start there. times on the deep interpersonal unity on which this command rests.1 How Has God Loved Us? There are several amazing things about it. To understand God and His love, we need One is that this simple formula is anything but. to begin with the fact that God is a Trinity—one It’s simple like “e=mc2” is simple. Jesus’ God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy command opens you up to worlds within Spirit. This is not something we can understand, yourself and the heavenly realms at the same but it is the truth. Someone once said, “If you try time, as you consider the vastness of God’s love to understand the Trinity completely, you will for you and what needs to happen in you to offer lose your mind. But if you deny the Trinity, you that same kind of love to others. will lose your soul.” We are asked simply to Another amazing thing about this believe that God has revealed His nature to us command is that Jesus should give it at all! After honestly. all, God is the ultimate realist. He is not As the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit oblivious to our sin, and He is not stupid or had the perfect relationship throughout all naïve about human nature. After living among eternity. They knew each other completely and us for thirty-three years, certainly Jesus knew loved each other totally. They enjoyed perfect that we are not creatures who are motivated to harmony and unity of purpose with a diversity of love as He has loved us, nor capable of loving at roles. There was never a moment of discord, that level if we were willing. anger, hurt, jealousy, competition, bitterness, or So why does He give this command? He greed. It was absolute sinless perfection. As the gives it because of who God is. This command is Trinity, God didn’t need someone to talk to. He not about us and our natural abilities and didn’t need anyone else to glorify Him or complete Him. He wasn’t in search of an _______________________________________________ identity, a purpose, an understanding of reality, *Susan Lutz is a counselor at CCEF and Series or relationships. But for some reason known only Editor for Resources for Changing Lives. to God, He decided to create human beings. He _______________________________________________ loved us for reasons deep in His heart. And the 1John 13:14-16, 34-35; 15:9-14, 17; 17:11, 21-23, 26. first way God loved us is as Creator. 8 The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Spring 2003 © 2003, The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation All rights reserved. No portion of this publication should be reproduced, copied or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Inquiries should be made in writing, addressed to CCEF, 1803 East Willow Grove Ave, Glenside, PA 19038. God’s Love as Creator And the brokenness was seen first in The way God created us reveals His love relationships. That was the first thing to go. for us, because He created us in such a way that Adam and Eve saw they were naked, and they we would be able to know Him. We were never hid from each other and from God. Three meant to live independently, apart from Him. chapters into the Bible and we have rebellion, He gave us a mind, emotions, will, and a fear, and self-protection. Soon after, they began conscience, the ability to communicate, and an blaming each other and God for the mess they appreciation for things beyond ourselves, were in. “The woman You gave me—she gave including beauty, truth, love, and justice. All me some fruit and I ate it.” All of a sudden there these qualities reflect God’s intention in Genesis are accusations and blameshifting, arrogance 1:26 to make us in His image. and anger. The image of God is not totally This means that we get our identity from destroyed, but it was just as the serpent had said: our connection to God. We get our purpose for they became like God, but without Him. You can our lives from our connection to God. We still see the image of God in man, but everything understand reality because He teaches us. We is distorted. live in relationships with Him and with others because He gave us those relationships. God God’s Love as Redeemer said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I But right there begins the second way God will make a helper suitable for him.” Part of loves us—as Redeemer. He promises to rescue being made in the image of God is to have us from sin and death. In Genesis 3:15, He tells people with whom—at least spiritually—you Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the can be naked and not ashamed: people—not woman, between your offspring and hers; he will just spouses—with whom you have a joyful crush your head and you will strike his heel.” sense of being welcomed, accepted, and Someday, one of Eve’s descendents would come understood. and destroy Satan. In v. 21, God makes a For a brief time, everything was wonderful. sacrifice. He covers Adam and Eve’s nakedness God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden with animal skins. Before this, there had been in the cool of the day. It was as close to heaven no death, but now a creature’s blood was shed to as you could get. But Adam and Eve failed to cover Adam and Eve’s shame. This is a glimmer appreciate it. The serpent came along and began of what God was preparing to do to bring us attacking their relationship with God. He didn’t back to Him. The rest of the Bible records the just try to get them to eat fruit. He began by way God worked out that plan of salvation. breeding distrust in God’s character and motives. As we read that record, we discover that “Did God really say?” he questioned. He argued, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy “God doesn’t really love you. He’s not really Spirit all got involved in our salvation. The good. He doesn’t really want what’s best for you. Trinity that had once been perfectly happy in The fact is, He’s holding you back. You don’t itself disrupted the perfect peace of that need Him to tell you who you are and how to relationship to rescue us. They didn’t need to. live. You can make your own rules—and be like God could have judged us for our sin and that God, knowing good and evil independently.” would have been that. But God’s love for us Isn’t it ironic that the creatures God made prevailed and God went after us, to rescue us in His image were lured away from Him with the and buy us back. Why? To restore us to a promise that they would be like God? They were relationship with Him, and to restore in us the already like God! But this time, they became like image of God. To make us like God in the right God in a way that destroyed their relationship way, submitted to Him in love and worship, and with Him. Adam and Eve believed the serpent. partakers of the divine nature, according to 2 They decided God shouldn’t be trusted and they Peter 1:4. Every person of the Trinity—Father, disobeyed Him. Soon everything was broken. Son, and Holy Spirit—made a deep, genuine, Sin and death entered the world, along with personal, painful, and lasting sacrifice in their weeds and thorns, and pain in childbirth. relationship with each other to make that Everything was spoiled. possible. The Journal of Biblical Counseling • Spring 2003 9 How Has Jesus Loved Us? Lord to bruise Him, He hath put Him to grief.” As we consider the sacrifice that each Jesus was totally alone, for our sake. person of the Trinity made for our salvation, it Since His resurrection, Jesus has kept His seems natural to start by considering what this physical body, in a glorified form. Jesus did not involved for Jesus. have a body before He came to earth; He took Countless passages describe the work of on a physical body for one purpose only—so Christ 2 and there is no time to consider them all that He could die. He became a man to live the here. Instead, let me challenge one common perfect life for us and then to die in our place. attitude that people have about Jesus’ But even when all that was over, He kept a incarnation, suffering, and death. They think physical body for eternity in heaven, with the that because Jesus was God, it wasn’t as hard for scars on His hands and feet and side now part of Him to go through life, surrounded and tempted His glory.