John 15:12

DISCOURSE: 1695
LOVE TO THE BRETHREN

John 15:12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

THE law and the Gospel are in perfect unison with each other: the law, as a covenant, sends us to the Gospel, that we may obtain mercy with God; and the Gospel sends us back again to the law, as a rule of life, that, by obeying its commands, we may honour and glorify our God. The loving our neighbour as ourselves was enjoined by the law, and indeed was a summary of all the duties of the second table [Note: Compare Leviticus 19:18. with Romans 13:8 and Galatians 5:14.]. Our blessed Lord, enjoining the same duty from new considerations, calls it “a new commandment,” and emphatically his commandment; that so we may be led to examine it with stricter attention, and to regard it with deeper reverence: he says, in effect, Labour constantly to fulfil that old commandment of the law; and, that you may never want either a directory to guide, or a motive to animate you in your exertions, take my love to you as the reason and pattern of your love to each other.

To elucidate his words, we shall shew,

I. How Christ has loved us—

We must, of course, content ourselves with a few hints only of a subject, which has a height and depth, and length and breadth that can never be comprehended, never explored. Consider then the love of Christ to us:

1. How free!

[Who ever did any thing to procure it? It exerted itself towards us long before we had any existence in the world. Who can do any thing now to merit it? We deserve to forfeit it every day and hour; but to earn an interest in it is beyond the power of man. We have nothing of our own but sin; and that would be a strange price to pay for the love of Christ. Indeed, if we deny the freeness of his grace, we rob him of the brightest jewel in his crown.]

2. How tender!

[There is not one of his people, however weak and afflicted, whom he does not watch over with more than parental tenderness, “carrying the lambs in his bosom, and gently leading them that are with young.” Yes; “we have not an High-priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities:” “in all our afflictions He is afflicted:” if we are stricken by the hand of persecution, He feels the blow [Note: Acts 9:4.]: “Whoso toucheth us, toucheth the apple of his eye.” In every possible state he sympathizes with us, as a head with the members; and never fails to succour us with “grace sufficient for us.”]

3. How abundant!

[If we regarded only the temporal blessings we receive at his hands, we must confess his love to us to be very abundant. But who can contemplate his unwearied intercessions at the right hand of his Father, or the incessant communications of his Spirit to their souls, and not stand amazed at the exceeding riches of his grace and love? And besides all this, he is “preparing mansions for us in his Father’s house,” and training us up daily, that we may be counted worthy to inhabit them for ever and ever. Well is his love represented as “passing knowledge [Note: Ephesians 3:19.]!”]

4. How costly!

[Free as his love was to us, it was not exercised by him but at an expense that exceeds all calculation. Before it could operate for our advantage, he must leave his heavenly glory, assume our fallen nature, endure the scoffs and insults of his own creatures, and “pour out his soul unto death” as a sacrifice for sin. And would he pay this amazing price, in order to redeem our souls from death and hell? Yes, he undertook and executed the mighty work; and never drew back till he could say, “It is finished.”]
From contemplating this stupendous mystery, let us proceed to inquire,

II.

In what respects his love to us is a pattern for our love to each other—

The love which the saints should hear to each other is of a sublime nature, very different from that which they owe to the world around them [Note: The two are carefully distinguished from each other. Galatians 6:10; 1 Peter 2:17.]. To resemble that of Christ to us, it should be,

1. Disinterested—

[Our love to the saints should not be confined to those of the same Church or party, nor should it have respect to any pleasure or advantage that we expect to derive from them; for this is only a refined species of self-love [Note: Matthew 5:46.]: it should respect them only as children of our heavenly Father, as members of Christ our living Head, and as joint-heirs of the same eternal glory. It should be proportioned to their piety, rather than to any other endowments; and be occupied in advancing their happiness, not only as much as our own, but oftentimes in preference to our own. It was thus that the love of Christ operated towards us; and it is proposed for our imitation more especially in this point of view; “Mind not every one his own things, but every one also the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus [Note: Philippians 2:4.].”]

2. Sympathizing—

[We are all passing through a vale of tears, “born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Hence we need each other’s care and assistance through the whole of our lives. The kindness of friendship is a remedy which God has put within our reach, to enhance our joys and to alleviate our sorrows: we should therefore enter into the concerns of others, and feel them as our own; “weeping with them that weep, and rejoicing with them that rejoice.” By this we are told, we shall more especially comply with the injunction in the text; “Bear ye one another’s burthens,” says the Apostle, “and so fulfil the law of Christ [Note: Galatians 6:2.].”]

3. Beneficent—

[Love must not interest merely the feelings of the mind: it must exert itself in acts correspondent to the occasions on which it is exercised. Is our neighbour distressed? we must relieve him. Is he ignorant? we must instruct him. Is he weak? we must strengthen him. Is he fallen? we must raise him up. Has he shewn some infirmities? we must bear with him. Has he offended us? we must forgive him. Are there any opportunities whatever of doing him good? we must gladly and speedily embrace them. It is in this way also that the Apostle urges us to imitate our Lord and Saviour: “Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye [Note: Colossians 3:12.].”]

4. Self-denying—

[That love which will exert itself only in things that are easy and pleasing to oneself, is not worthy the name of love. A truly Christian affection will lead one to “condescend to men of low estate;” to visit the chambers of the sick; to enter into the dungeon of the prisoner; to cut off some of one’s superfluities, in order to supply the necessities of others; to do good in return for evil; to expose oneself to the derision of a thoughtless world, in order to be instrumental in turning some of them from the evil of their ways; and “to lay down, if need be, even our own lives for the brethren.” This was the way in which St. Paul manifested his love [Note: Philippians 2:17.]; and in which we also, after the example of our Lord, are called to manifest ours [Note: 1 John 3:16.].”]

This being the way in which our love may resemble his, we shall shew you,

III.

The obligation we are under to follow that pattern—

Our blessed Lord has enjoined a conformity to him in these respects,

1. As an act of obedience to him—

[He does not recommend such love as decorous and beneficial, but commands it as a duty which he will on no account dispense with. He stamps his own authority upon it; intimating thereby, that he will make it a subject of particular inquiry in the day of judgment. Indeed The decision at the last day is represented as turning principally upon this point; they who for his sake have abounded in offices of love being made exclusively the objects of his favour, while they who have neglected them are marked as objects of his indignation and abhorrence. If therefore we have any regard to his authority, or any dread of his everlasting displeasure, we must see the importance of following the example of his love.]

2. As an evidence of our love to him—

[Having in another place enforced this duty in terms similar to the text, he adds, that the exercise of brotherly love is the distinctive badge of our profession, the habit whereby all his followers must be known [Note: John 13:34.].” To the same effect his loving and beloved Disciple also speaks, declaring that our profession of love to God is mere hypocrisy without this [Note: 1 John 4:20.]; and that without this we can have no assurance, no evidence, that we have passed from death unto life [Note: 1 John 3:14; 1 John 3:17; 1 John 3:19.]. Shall we then at once write ‘Hypocrite’ upon our foreheads? Shall we be contented to be ranked with “murderers, who certainly have not eternal life abiding in them [Note: 1 John 3:15.]?” If not, we must see the necessity of imitating Christ, who “has left us an example that we should follow his steps.”]

Infer—
1.

How little of true religion is there in the world!

[So far is love to the saints from being the common disposition of mankind, that almost all are rather filled with hatred against them: and where candour prevails over the enmity of the human heart so as to subdue its workings, there yet is a total want of that disinterested, sympathizing, beneficent, and self-denying love, which characterizes a true Christian — — —]

2. What reason have even the saints themselves to be ashamed before God!

[Let the most zealous and active Christian compare his love with that of Christ; how poor and defective will his best efforts appear! Alas! alas! how often are things found among professing Christians that are not only defective, but directly contrary to love! Beloved brethren, let us study more carefully St. Paul’s description of love [Note: 1 Corinthians 13.]: and above all, let us contemplate more the love of Christ to us: so shall we feel its constraining influence, and be stimulated to the exercise of this delightful duty.]