John 13:34&35
Love Each other?
Did God create everything that exists? Does evil exist? Did God create evil?
A University professor at a well known institution of higher
learning challenged his students with this question. "Did God create
everything that exists?"
A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"
God created everything?" The professor asked.
Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created
evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principal that
our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."
The student became quiet and did not answer the professor’s
hypothetical definition.
The professor, quite pleased with himself,
boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the
Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question,
professor?"
"Of course", replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"
"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you
never been cold?" The other students snickered at the young man’s
question.
The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According
to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the
absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when
it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter
have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total
absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of
reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created
this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."
The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does."
The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does
not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to
describe what happens when there is no light present."
Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"
Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have
already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of
man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and
violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing
else but evil.
To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least
it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God.
It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to
describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the
result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart.
It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness
that comes when there is no light."
The professor sat down....
The young man’s name -- Albert Einstein
Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”(John 13:34&35 The Message)
This command he gave them as he was about to leave them, to be a badge of discipleship, by which they might be known as his friends and followers, and by which they might be distinguished from all others. It is called new, not because there was no command before which required people to love their fellow-man, for one great precept of the law was that they should love their neighbor as themselves Lev. 19:18; but it was new because it had never before been made that by which any class or body of people had been known and distinguished. The Jew was known by his external rites, by his uniqueness of dress, etc.; the philosopher by some other mark of distinction; the military man by another, etc. In none of these cases had love for each other been the distinguishing and special badge by which they were known. But in the case of Christians they were not to be known by distinctions of wealth, or learning, or fame; they were not to aspire to earthly honors; they were not to adopt any special style of dress or badge, but they were to be distinguished by tender and constant attachment to each other.
This was to surmount all distinction of country, of color, of rank, of office, of sect. Here they were to feel that they were on a level, that they had common wants, were redeemed by the same sacred blood, and were going to the same heaven. They were to befriend each other in trials; be careful of each other’s feelings and reputation; deny themselves to promote each other’s welfare. and it shows that the first disciples considered this indeed as the special law of Christ. This command or law was, moreover, new in regard to the extent to which this love was to be carried; for he immediately adds, “As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” His love for them was strong, continued, unremitting, and he was now about to show his love for them in death. John 15:13: “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” So in 1 John 3:16 it is said that “we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren.” This was a new expression of love; and it showed the strength of attachment which we ought to have for Christians, and how ready we should be to endure hardships, to encounter dangers, and to practice self-denial, to benefit those for whom the Son of God laid down his life.
If the description by Albert Einstein shows that God’s love is absent of evil then we are called to love as God does, with out evil towards each other, for God is love(1st John 4:7) and we know God has no evil in Him or around Him.
1. LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS A RESPONSE TO GOD LOVING US: (1 John 4:7-11) Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
“Love is more than a characteristic of God; it is God’s character.”
2. LOVING ONE ANOTHER DEMONSTRATES GOD’S EXISTENCE:
(1 John 4:12) No one has ever seen God; but if we love one
another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
3. LOVING ONE ANOTHER IS AN EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY:
(1 John 3:10) This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children
of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is
anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:11 NIV) This is the message you heard
from the beginning: We should love one another.
One of the biggest responses of people that we share the plan of salvation with, is that they cannot understand how he can forgive the despicable things that they have done. How can anyone forgive a murderer? An adulteress? A thief? A liar? The things that people could never forgive? And it truly is amazing at how he can forgive like this! But none the less- he does
We should be like God and forgive our brothers and sisters—Love one anther-
A survey of 8,600 people from congregations in 39 different denominations measured their `love quotient’. The conclusion - growing churches are more loving to each other and to visitors than declining churches. Loving churches attract more people regardless of their theology, denomination or location. Barna research 1996
Love is defined as a strong affection, desire or devotion. So why is it exactly that we say things like, “I love my wife’s asparagus?” or “I love watching football!” Should we really use a word o f this magnitude for such ‘things’? Like the Dallas Cowboys? Vegetables?
I think that somewhere we have diluted the true meaning of this beautiful word. So, this morning, I would like to go to the authority o f love, God, and his word to clearly define the true meaning of Love.
Let me read from the book of Corinthians. Chapter 13:1`-7 from the Message
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Beloved do we love like this or is it something to be worked on?
As a child of the 60s I say to you this is the first day of the rest of your life.
We can love with the intensity and the wholeness that God has given us, if we want to.
The question is do we want to? Jesus said if you love me you will obey me.
First to be able to love our brothers and sisters we must be in the family of God. Born by the water and spirit.(John 3:5) Jesus said if you believe and are baptized you will be saved (Mark 16:16), Acts says we are added daily to the church (KJV) Added daily to those being saved (NIV) (ACTS 2:47) HOW? Acts 2:38 repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
