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It
is sometimes called the new commandment. In fact that is what Jesus
called it, though we cannot be sure why since it was not really new.
As far back as Lev. 19:18 the Lord’s people were taught to
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Perhaps it was new to
the disciples to whom it was given in that they had not done a very
good job practicing love —just as it would appear today to be
an unknown command in many quarters among us, so lacking in love as
we often are. Or maybe Jesus called it “new” because of
the new emphasis he gave to it. They were to love each other
even
as he had loved them.
That
isn’t in Leviticus!
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For
whatever reason it is new, it is also the farewell commandment, and
this should impress us as significant. Time was running out. Jesus
was not to be with them much longer, and where he was going they
could not go, not then at least. He lays on them one more
commandment, one that has to do with their relationship as brothers.
He was of course to give them a commandment as his envoys to a lost
world, but this new commandment was moral in nature. It had to do
with the way they were to live. And to treat each other.
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Moreover,
it was related to the Great Commission in that it was their mutual
love that would impress a lost world more than their words. It was a
remarkable statement: “By this shall all men know that you are
my disciples, if you have love one for another.” People may
not be able to define love, but they recognize it when they see it.
It is not only the universal language that everyone understands, but
it also has convincing power. We prove that we are followers of
Jesus by the love we show. The world will
know.
What
a statement that is! It is appropriate to ask if the world has ever
really seen that love in the behavior of Christ’s church
through the centuries. When the pagans murdered Christians in Rome’s
new Colosseum, they were heard to say,
How
these miserable creatures loved each other!
That
was a fulfillment of what the Lord had said. Those hardened
unbelievers surely realized that they were executing true disciples
of the one called Christ and that they were not phonies or merely
political enemies of the state.
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But
for the most part the world has remained unconvinced in reference to
the church’s message. It does not see the love that Jesus
asked for. Jesus laid down his life for his disciples, and they were
to lay down their lives for each other (1 Jn. 3:16), and the apostle
explains that
this
is
how
we know what love is.
Rather
than laying down their lives for each other the church has too often
taken each other’s lives, if not by sword or gibbet then by
dogma or decree. A judgmental, persecuting, excommunicating, divided
church has not only left the world unconvinced of its message but
scornful as well.
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If
it was in his farewell commandment, it was in his farewell prayer as
well. As he prayed for the oneness of his disciples, he made it
clear that only a united, loving church could reach a recreant
world.
That
the world may believe that Thou hast sent me
stands
as the grand end in view of the church’s mission. The world
can be
won
only
by our being
one.
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A
loving, united church not only assures the world, but it reassures
the church itself. “We know that we have passed out of death
into life,” 1 Jn. 3:14 tells us, “because we love the
sisters and brothers.” If we as a people are doubtful of our
security in Christ, it may be because we have a dubious love. The
blight of partyism is that it demands that we love only those who
are loyal to the party, and what kind of love is that? I want to be
loved as I am, with all my hangups, and not because I’m right,
for tomorrow I may be wrong. If our Lord said that it is the sick
that need a physician, then he would surely say that it is those
that are wrong that need to be loved. I can
know
that
I am in the light and no longer in darkness when I love my brothers
and sisters in Christ. There are no restrictions given about how
good or how right they have to be, so I love them when they are
right and I love them when they are wrong. I f I have to pass
judgment upon them and base my love upon their goodness or their
rightness, then I will never know when I am in the light or in the
darkness. The apostle says love of the brethren equals light. I’ll
buy that with no questions asked.
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I
saw the effects of the farewell commandment one evening in the home
of Pat and Shirley Boone. They had about sixty Jews in their home
that night, mostly from the entertainment industry, along with a
number of Christians. While the Boones were notorious in those days
for being on a charismatic kick, it was all low key that night —
prayers, readings, testimonials, conversation, refreshments. No
tongue speaking. I remember Pat reading the story of Philip and the
eunuch, without comment, except that this is how one within the
Jewish faith turned to the Messiah. After awhile it was announced
that there were to be some immersions in the family swimming pool
where Pat has baptized hundreds through the years: I watched as
eight Jews were immersed into the Messiah upon a profession of their
faith. They came up out of the water embracing each other and
praising God. It was a page right out of the book of Acts. The hour
by now was very late. I had heard of allnight Hollywood parties but
did not realize that they were sometimes like that.
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Once
our new sisters and brothers were in the dry, I talked with one of
them in particular, who Pat later identified as a gifted TV script
writer. After learning that it had been many years since he had been
to either church or synagogue and had about given up on religion
altogether, I asked him why he had obeyed the Messiah that night, as
I welcomed him warmly as a new brother. “When I saw how they
love each other, I said that’s for me, that’s what I’ve
been looking for.” I told him that Jesus said that it would be
just that way: “Love one another even as I have loved you. By
this will all men know that you are my disciples in that you love
one another.” He said that he didn’t realize that Jesus
had said that, but that was why he had turned to him. It was
beautiful!
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There
were two other preachers from the Church of Christ there that night.
We agreed that what we had witnessed would hardly happen in any of
our churches, or in anybody else’s church for that matter.
Those Jews would not be there in the first place, and if they were
they might not see “the badge of the Christian,” as
Thomas Campbell described God’s greatest gift and which
Francis Schaeffer calls “the true mark of the Christian.”
Even when we preach love, which isn’t all that often, we do
not manifest it all that well, not even to each other.
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There
is no way to measure love’s effect. Rom. 13:8 tells us to owe
no one anything, except to love one another. It is therefore the
debt that no one can completely redeem, for she is always indebted
to love because of what Jesus has done for her. “He who loves
his neighbor has fulfilled the law,” it goes on to say. Only
love fulfills the law, for it is the end or purpose of all that God
requires of us, as 1 Tim. 1:5 indicates.
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Love
is the greatest of all the commandments — and the second
greatest as well, Jesus assures us in Mk. 12:28-31. It is the only
thing that is described in Scripture as “the perfect bond of
unity,” and that should really blow our minds as we go right
on preserving the divisions that history’s heavy hand has laid
upon us. That great truth, tucked away in Col. 3:14, is the only
solution we need to reverse our ugly trend of dividing about every
decade.
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An
adhesive manufacturer uses a TV commercial to show the effectiveness
of his product. A drop of his glue proves to be too much for the
gritty efforts of a burly football tackle to pull apart what it has
bound together. Love is like that. It is the bond, the
perfect
bond,
that holds believers together. When that bond is there all the
devices of Satan cannot pull them apart. If we are not one people,
it has to follow that we have not applied God’s great adhesive
power. The Bible never says that we are knitted and joined together
in unanimity of doctrine or opinions, but it does say that we are
knitted and joined by love.
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Why
are we so slow of heart to learn this lesson? There must be one who
is not our friend, who seeks to pluck such glorious truths from our
hearts lest we be liberated from our divisive ways. Satan need not
obstruct all the sacrificial work that we manage to do both at home
and abroad. He only needs to keep us divided. So he pawns off on us
counterfeit bonds and adhesives. He puts us in the right church,
with the right name, the right organization, the right acts of
worship, and this becomes the bond. As this bond melts through our
seams we preach unity while we keep on dividing. Well, at least
we’re right, even if the world remains unimpressed.
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The
most important lesson to learn from the Ancient Order is that it
relates to a community of love. If we lack that ingredient it
matters little what order we come up with, if any order at all. The
end of the order is love out of a pure heart. Let us begin there and
the victory will be ours. —the
Editor