The mission of the Church is love: love for God, love for one another and love for the world. The last two messages have focused on our love for God expressed in worship. Today we look at our love for one another and how we are to love each other. But first I want us to consider why we ought to love each other.
- The first reason is because Jesus commands it. Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13.34).
- A second reason is that loving each other is a part of our worship. The apostle John wrote, “This is love for God: to obey his commands” (1 John 5.3). In other words, we worship God - we show our love for God - in obeying His commands. And what are His commands? John tells us: “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” (1 John 3:23). In loving each other we worship God.
- A third reason is that loving each other is a part of our witness. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13.35). Our love for each other validates the message of the Gospel and proves that we are truly following Christ. Just as we cannot truly worship God if we do not love each other, so we cannot effectively witness to others without loving one another.
Loving one another is an essential part of the Christian life. It is Jesus’ command and therefore it is part of the mission of the Church.
But what is love? What does it mean to love? The word used in Scripture to express the love we are to show one another is agape – the same love that God shows us. Agape is basically a self-giving love that is not merited. We see this love illustrated in Romans 5.8: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love in Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of self-giving, unmerited love. And that is the kind of love we are to show each other - the love of Christ. We love each other because God has loved us.
But, how do we love each other? I believe that as a community of believers, we show love to one another through EDIFICATION. To edify is ‘to build or construct’. You can hear the word ‘edifice’ or building in it. Edification is therefore building up something or someone and that is what love does – it builds up (see: Ephesians 4.15-16). So how do we show love? By building each other up. How do we build each other up? Through discipleship and fellowship. I believe we find this exemplified by the first believers who we read of in Acts 2.41-47.
The first believers were devoted. In particular, there were four things they were devoted to. We read in v. 42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” In those four things, I believe we see the elements of fellowship and discipleship, through which the Church is built up.
And so, let’s first consider discipleship. I’ve mentioned the fact that a disciple or talmid was one who not only knew what the rabbi taught, but did what the rabbi did. A disciple literally walked behind the rabbi. But for the early Church, their Rabbi was not physically present to walk behind. So how could they follow? How could they develop as disciples? Our text tells us they devoted themselves to Jesus’ teaching (as carried on by His apostles), and they devoted themselves to communicating with Him in prayer. That is how they grew: by listening, learning and praying. Discipleship is a process of growth. As we feed on Christ through the Word and through prayer, we are built up and formed into His likeness.
Now, that’s all well and good, but how is that a form of loving one another? Isn’t discipleship simply a personal discipline, a private process? No, not really. Discipleship takes place in community. The call of Jesus to follow was and is a call to follow Him along with others. It is not a private affair. It is a journey together (See: Hebrews 10.23-25 and 1 Thessalonians 5:11-18). The commission given to us by Jesus is to make disciples and clearly, discipleship is the work of the community. We are to love one another and that involves encouraging and responding to encouragement, correcting and respecting, teaching and learning – keeping one another accountable. Unlike Cain, we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. We are to be concerned for each other - to build each other up in Christ; to make disciples and be made into them.
Secondly, we show love through fellowship. Fellowship is defined by the Greek word koinonia, meaning, “a close mutual relationship; participation, sharing in something and partnership”. Fellowship is not a passive word, but rather an active one. It means participation in a shared or common life (koina=common). The early believers actively shared in a common life.
- They shared resources. We are told that “All the believers were together and had everything in common.” This does not mean that they were communists, but rather that they actively cared for the needs of one another.
- They shared time and space: “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.” They were together often and enjoyed it. They shared their lives with one another.
- They shared in worship. They met in the temple courts together to pray and to praise God. And they shared in the Lord’s Supper – breaking bread together in a visible symbol of their unity with Jesus and one another.
- They shared food. Breaking bread refers also to eating together. There is something special in gathering at a table and sharing food. That’s why the dinner table has been the centerpiece of families and friends throughout human history.
We show love for each other through fellowship – through active participation in a shared life and mission.
Love is the mission of the Church. And that love must be expressed to one another as we build each other up through discipleship and fellowship – through a shared life together: encouraging one another, keeping each other accountable, bearing one another’s burdens, teaching and learning from each other, worshipping together, eating often with one another, sharing our resources and spending time together. That’s how we grow: we grow as a people.
But love is a choice. Love is a decision. I can list all the ways that we can show love to each other and all the biblical instructions for how we are to share in a common life together but it won’t make any difference unless we make the decision to love each other. And on the flip side, being loved is likewise a decision. We must choose to let people love us; to receive their love.
Being a community like the one we find in Acts is not impossible. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. However, it starts with a decision to love and be loved. We have been loved by God with a self-giving, unmerited love. Will we show that love to one another? Are we willing to bear with each other, forgive each other and accept one another? Are we willing to be devoted to each other and walk alongside each other on this journey of life?
The Church father, Jerome, tells the story that when the apostle John became so weak that he could no longer preach, he used to be carried into the congregation at Ephesus and simply give a brief encouragement and challenge. He would say, “Little children, love one another.” When his hearers grew tired of this message and asked why he always repeated it, he responded, “Because it is the Lord’s command, and if this is all you do, it is enough.”
We often desire to do great things for God – have a huge church and massive ministries. But what does God require? That we love Him and that we love one another. For love is the mission of the Church and what holds the Church together. We are to be a community that loves.
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