Wednesday, February 22, 2017

A New Commandment (LS02)

          'Last Sermon of Jesus'

John 13:34  " A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

Mat 22:37-40  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
    Our Lord told us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Lev 19:18  "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."
    Loving our neighbours as ourselves is also included in the old commandment.
1 John 2:7  Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.

What is this new commandment?

1 John 2:8  Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
    The wicked Jews who dwelled in darkness abused the old commandment by making excuses. The priests and the Levites in the parable of the good Samaritan assumed that if one was starving, one could survive on wheat alone. So it is reasonable to give a starving family only one kg of wheat! Is this how much I love myself?
    So when the true Light comes, this darkness will disappear. After our Lord had suffered and died for mankind, He repeated this new commandment to us.

John 15:12-13  "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
    Brethren, we have to love one another as our Lord Jesus loved us. He was lashed thirty-nine times for our healing and died on the cross for our propitiation. Out of His great love for us, He suffered and died. Please see the love of Jesus in 'Passion of the Christ', as an example for us to follow. We too, can show our love to our brethren, by suffering and dying for one another.

What is Love?
1Cor 13:4-8a  Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.