Love One Another

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:20-21

Love One Another Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 1 Thessalonians 4:9 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8-9 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:11-12

A Brief History of Relationship Rules 1.Relate with others for one’s own advantage. 2.Don’t do unto others what you wouldn’t want done to you. 3.Do unto others what you’d want done to you. 4.Love God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. 5.Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay your life down for a friend! John 15:12-13

Love One Another As I Have Loved You If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

How important is loving one another? 11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. 4:7 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. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 3:11-4:12

How important is loving one another? From 1 John 3:11-4:12 1.Loving one another demonstrates we’ve passed from death to life. 2.Practical love for one another reveals that we belong to the truth and puts our hearts at rest before God. 3.Loving one another is how we know He lives in us. 4.Loving one another proves we have been born of God and know God. 5.By loving one another it shows that God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

So, how do I love others as Jesus has loved me? 1.Realize that you can’t do it on your own. 2.Receive lots of the deep, transforming love, security, value and significance from God! 3.Thus resourced, look at other people with something to give, not desperately trying to get something from them or to avoid them. 4.Ramp up your loving and being loved by others in the Body of Christ. 5.When you notice an incident where you are not loving, repent and repeat above.