Pastor Tim Patoka
May 5, 2024 Love One Another John 15:9-17 1) As Jesus Loves Us 2) As Jesus’ Friend
If you were to summarize the Christian faith in a single word, what would you say? After three years of Youth Catechism classes, how would our three confirmands sum up their in-depth study of what God says in his Word? Maybe you think of the word: believe, to trust in Jesus as your Savior. That’s certainly the most important part of a Christian’s faith. Without it, you have nothing. With it, you have forgiveness, life, and salvation. But is Christianity just about believing and nothing else? Maybe we think of the word: obey, to uphold every command from God. God says a lot of how we are to live as his children. But if it’s just about obedience, couldn’t anyone do this regardless of their faith in Jesus? Obey doesn’t quite summarize the Christian faith. What about this word? Love. In many ways, it includes both believe and obey. To fully know what Jesus has done for us, we need to believe in Jesus and receive his full blessings. To live a life of thanks to God, we want to obey his every command. Love is a great way to summarize the Christian faith. It’s also at the heart of our verses this morning from John’s Gospel. In it, Jesus plainly tells us to love one another. We do so as Jesus loves us as seen best at his cross. We also love one another as Jesus’ friend who willingly and thankfully do what friends do. As we review how this one word summarizes much of the Christian faith, we also do so to help our soon to be confirmands know what to focus on as they step into this next phase of their walk with Christ. 1) As Jesus Loves Us We look to Jesus to understand what this love all is. The word for love Jesus uses is the Greek word agape, the word for the highest kind of love. It is unconditional, never-ending, for the other’s benefit, and shown through words and actions. The closest example we can find is the love a parent has for their child. Though it may be rare amongst us, we know what this love should look like. Look to the Ten Commandments given at Mt. Sinai to find a summary of God’s will for all people for all time. Read the sections of Scripture that delve into specifics like Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where he clarifies and corrects misunderstandings. (If you need a refresher on any of these, just ask our youth confirmands. They spent an
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