The longer I spent immersed in the study of classical antiquity, the more alien and unsettling I came to find it. The values of Leonidas, whose people had practised a peculiarly murderous form of eugenics, and trained their young to kill uppity Untermenschen (persons considered to be inferior) by night, were nothing that I recognised as my own; nor were those of Caesar, who was reported to have killed a million Gauls and enslaved a million more. It was not just the extremes of callousness that I came to find shocking, but the lack of a sense that the poor or the weak might have any intrinsic value.” (Tom Holland, Why I Was Wrong about Christianity, The New Statesman)
“‘We preach Christ crucified,’ St Paul declared, ‘unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.’ He was right. Nothing could have run more counter to the most profoundly held assumptions of Paul’s contemporaries – Jews, or Greeks, or Romans. The notion that a god might have suffered torture and death on a cross was so shocking as to appear repulsive. Familiarity with the biblical narrative of the Crucifixion has dulled our sense of just how completely novel a deity Christ was. In the ancient world, it was the role of gods who laid claim to ruling the universe to uphold its order by inflicting punishment – not to suffer it themselves. Today, even as belief in God fades across the West, the countries that were once collectively known as Christendom continue to bear the stamp of the two-millennia-old revolution that Christianity represents. It is the principal reason why, by and large, most of us who live in post-Christian societies still take for granted that it is nobler to suffer than to inflict suffering. It is why we generally assume that every human life is of equal value. In my morals and ethics, I have learned to accept that I am not Greek or Roman at all, but thoroughly and proudly Christian.” (Why I Was Wrong about Christianity, The New Statesman).
John 13:1 - Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
3 aspects of Jesus’ brilliant light, in His hour of deepest darkness, that forever defines love
I. A Love That Loves All—Including Enemies—to the End (vv. 21-30)
A. “Troubled in Spirit”—grief over Judas
B. “Give this morsel”—returning good for evil regarding Judas
“It is more consistent with the picture of Jesus in this Gospel…to think of this ‘sop’/morsel as a final gesture of supreme love (cf. v. 1). ‘And that final act of love becomes, with a terrible immediacy, the decisive movement of judgment. At this moment we are witnessing the climax of that action of sifting, of separation, of judgment which has been the central theme in John’s account of the public ministry of Jesus … (3:16–19). So the final gesture of affection precipitates the final surrender of Judas to the power of darkness. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has neither understood it nor mastered it.’ (Newbigin, p. 173) Judas received the sop but not the love. Instead of breaking him and urging him to contrition, it hardened his resolve.” (D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, 474–475)
II. A Love That Loves Uniquely
A. “Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him” (v. 31)
B. “Where I am going you cannot come” (v. 33)
“We don’t go to heaven—to the Father—beside Jesus, assisting him; or behind Jesus, imitating him. We go to the Father through Jesus, depending on him. Where am I going this night that you cannot follow? I am going to die for you, and thus become the way to God. You can’t follow now. Only I can do this. This is my work alone.” (John Piper)
III. A Love That Transforms (vv. 34-38)
Luke 9:54-56 - When His disciples James and John saw this, (that the Samaritans did not extend hospitality) they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”]
Note the impactful moment of these intimate moments with Jesus and the events of the cross on the one laying in Jesus’ bosom who became the “apostle of love”
Impact #1— Jesus says, “Little children” John 13:33
John says:
1 John 2:1 - My little children, I am writing these things…
1 John 2:12 - I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you...
1 John 2:28 - Now, little children, abide in Him…
1 John 3:7 - Little children, make sure no one deceives you…
1 John 3:18 - Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
1 John 4:4 - You are from God, little children…
1 John 5:21 - Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
Impact #2—Jesus says, “A new commandment” John 13:34
John says:
1 John 2:7-12 - “New commandment - love”
Impact #3—Jesus says, “as I have loved you” John 13:34
John defines love in Jesus’ words:
1 John 3:16 - We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
I John 4:10-11 - In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:19 - We love because He first loved us.
A. A “new commandment”—in what sense is loving one another a new commandment? Precisely “As I have loved you.”
B. From “Will you lay down your life for me?” to “You will follow later.”
John 21:18-19 - “Truly, truly, I say to you (Peter), when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.” Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!”
The Roman Colosseum stands as a symbol of the Roman Empire.
Masked behind its role as a preeminent tourist attraction is a history of violent horror.
Two millennia ago, at the Colosseum amusement seeking onlookers would watch gladiators fight to the death.
When the watching world began to notice the new entity of Christ followers called Christians, and persecution ensued, the Colosseum was a location where Christians were thrown to the lions.
The violence of Rome is something that is difficult for us here in the Western Civilization to imagine.
However, this historical violence is always in front of the Christian’s face. How is that you ask? The violence of Rome has been enshrined in Christianity’s central feature—crucifixion.
In God’s providence, the tool demonstrating the epitome of human violence was precisely what our God chose to use to redeem humanity from their violent ways.
Tom Holland, British author and professed atheist is a student of the ancient world.
His infatuation with the strength and power of ancient Rome soon led to him to some very uncomfortable conclusions about the nature of ancient times.
Holland says,
The longer I spent immersed in the study of classical antiquity, the more alien and unsettling I came to find it. The values of Leonidas, whose people had practiced a peculiarly murderous form of eugenics, and trained their young to kill uppity Untermenschen
(persons considered to be inferior) by night, were nothing that I recognized as my own; nor were those of Caesar, who was reported to have killed a million Gauls and enslaved a million more. It was not just the extremes of callousness that I came to find shocking, but the lack of a sense that the poor or the weak might have any intrinsic value. -Tom Holland, “Why I Was Wrong about Christianity,” The New Statesman, https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2016/09/tom-holland-why-i-was-wrong-about-christianity
While I know we have numerous issues and problems in our society, and it would seem like those issues are getting worse, Western civilization as we know it today is more civil than in ancient times.
Tom Holland could not imagine why Western civilization as we know it today could have been descended from the violent Roman Empire.
As Tom Holland researched this, he discovered the transforming agent.
What could have changed the violent Roman Empire?
Holland goes on to explain…
“We preach Christ crucified,” St Paul declared, “unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.” He was right. Nothing could have run more counter to the most profoundly held assumptions of Paul’s contemporaries – Jews, or Greeks, or Romans. The notion that a god might have suffered torture and death on a cross was so shocking as to appear repulsive.
Familiarity with the biblical narrative of the Crucifixion has dulled our sense of just how completely novel a deity Christ was. In the ancient world, it was the role of gods who laid claim to ruling the universe to uphold its order by inflicting punishment – not to suffer it themselves.
Today, even as belief in God fades across the West, the countries that were once collectively known as Christendom continue to bear the stamp of the two-millennia-old revolution that Christianity represents. It is the principal reason why, by and large, most of us who live in post-Christian societies still take for granted that it is nobler to suffer than to inflict suffering. It is why we generally assume that every human life is of equal value. In my morals and ethics, I have learned to accept that I am not Greek or Roman at all, but thoroughly and proudly Christian. -Why I Was Wrong about Christianity,” The New Statesman, https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2016/09/tom-holland-why-i-was-wrong-about-christianity
What is it that can transform humanity from its darkness bent on destruction?
Turn in your Bibles to John 13 verses 21 through 38.
That is on page 84 in the back section, the New Testament of the bible in the chair in front of you.
We come to the point of the Gospel of John where Jesus is less than 24 hours away from his tortuous crucifixion.
There is one action that we read in our text today that will start the chain of events leading to his death—Judas’ betrayal.
For a moment just imagine what you would be doing if you knew in less than 24 hours you would face one of the most excruciating forms of death known to mankind.
What would you be doing? I can’t imagine that we would be doing what we see Jesus doing…Look at what our chapter starts with in John 13
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
Jesus the night before his darkest hour was loving? How?? TO THE END.
Let’s read these intense but powerful moments of Jesus with His disciples less than 24 hours before he is to be crucified.
I am going to start in verse 17.
Our text picks up with Jesus expecting that His disciples would be transformed and blessed by His act of service for them demonstrated by the foot washing which was illustrative of something greater than cleaning our feet—the cleansing of our soul on the cross.
Then Jesus said in verse 17.
17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
18 “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’
19 “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.
20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
21 When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, (why did Jesus become troubled? Lock on to this and we will discuss it in a moment) Jesus became troubled and testified and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.”
22 The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.
23 There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved (this most likely is John the apostle, the author of this book. Because of John’s close proximity to Jesus, on this evening, [because of the way they reclined during special meals and this is one]—because of that we have details that only an eyewitness near to Jesus can know. And thus we have a level of intimacy in Jesus’ dark hour that shows our saviors heart).
Insert this picture in the PPT
In the disciples’ surprise disbelief about Jesus’ words that one of them would betray him…they want to know about a salacious piece of news about one of their own.
24 So Simon Peter *gestured to him (John), and *said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.”
25 He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, *said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus then *answered (quietly and softly to John so that John the apostle would know), “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He *took and *gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27 After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus *said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” (This was said publicly, but only John the apostle knew what it meant).
28 Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him.
29 For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, “Buy the things we have need of for the feast”; or else, that he should give something to the poor.
30 So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.
John the apostle seems to put these phrases “it was night” or previously in John 10 “it “was winter” at the height of the Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus— not simply to let us know the time but to let us know the mood of the situation.
John the apostle has been putting forward the themes of darkness and light throughout his work—even from the first chapter when he introduced His gospel with “In Jesus was life and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
Now in our passage today, this is the hour of darkness for Jesus.
Man’s treachery is such that the actions tonight will set in motion the events of this dark 24 hour period—Jesus’ crucifixion.
In another gospel account, Jesus says in Luke 22:53 to the men seizing him after Judas betrays him…..
Luke 22:53“While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.”
John Piper said of this statement: “Notice the limitations put on the darkness: This is your hour, not your century, or your decade, or your year, or your month, or your week. God has appointed the boundaries of your hour. And it will last until Sunday morning.”
This hour of Jesus’ darkness…will be when Jesus shines the brightest….
31 Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus *said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;
32 if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.
Jesus has constantly referred to this hour as the hour of His glorification!
33 “Little children (notice that tender affectionate term), I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ (Say, I cannot go there….)
34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (we will discuss why this is new in a moment)
35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
36 Simon Peter *said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” (Notice You will follow later, Peter)….
37 Peter *said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”
38 Jesus *answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.
Today I want to speak to you about…
Enjoying Life In His Name
By Beholding Jesus’ Light in the Hour of Deepest Darkness
Three aspects of Jesus’ brilliant light in His hour of deepest darkness that forever defines love.
The first aspect of Jesus’s brilliant light defines love as
A love that loves all—including enemies—to the end (vv. 21–30)
The apostle John, as I mentioned, has a unique place in the events of this hour of darkness in Jesus’ life.
We will receive details of the evening that only an eyewitness near Jesus would know—and that was John beside Jesus throughout the evening.
When Jesus said, “Those who receive me receive the Father,” John indicates as an eyewitness could only do…that Jesus became troubled in spirit.
This is the same “trouble” that Jesus experienced over his friend Lazarus, for it is the same Greek word.
Lazarus, one who had received Jesus’ message, one who died and Jesus raised him from the dead, and one would spend eternity with Jesus..was Jesus’ friend….
Judas was also Jesus’ friend…
One who had eaten nearly every meal with Jesus over the last three years
One who had traveled across the land of Israel over the last three years
One in whom, like all the disciple, Jesus had invested
However, unlike Lazarus when Jesus says… “Those who receive me…receive the father,” Jesus’ mind immediately goes to the one who had not received him…
And Jesus grieves over Judas
“Troubled in Spirit”—grief over Judas
If Jesus’ words and mission described in this book are true…Judas, Jesus’ friend was destined to experience the eternal separation from Jesus…..
And loving Judas till the end…Jesus will do something here that most commentators think is an act of love and honor
“Give this sop”—returning good for evil regarding Judas
Two observations here
Judas was most likely on the other side of Jesus opposite John
Two disciples—one on the right, one on the left…places of honor
Jesus knew what was going to happen with Judas and still placed Judas near himself—loving till the end.
And Jesus dipping a piece of bread in oil and giving it to Judas was a final act of love
D. A. Carson says,
It is more consistent with the picture of Jesus in this Gospel…to think of this ‘sop’ as a final gesture of supreme love (cf. v. 1).“And that final act of love becomes, with a terrible immediacy, the decisive movement of judgment. At this moment we are witnessing the climax of that action of sifting, of separation, of judgment which has been the central theme in John’s account of the public ministry of Jesus … (3:16–19). So the final gesture of affection precipitates the final surrender of Judas to the power of darkness. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has neither understood it nor mastered it.” (Newbigin, p. 173) Judas received the sop but not the love. Instead of breaking him and urging him to contrition, it hardened his resolve. D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (474–475).
Judas was near to Jesus physically but oh so far in heart.
We could develop an entire sermon just on that aspect of being near to Jesus but somehow being far.
But today I want us to focus on the love of Jesus—even his enemies…until the very end…we see our Savior’s heart
Till the end…not wishing any to perish but for all to come to repentance
Let me ask you this morning…what are you troubled by the most…?
- Is it politics or that politician that is far from God and perishing?
- Is it the LGBTQ+ movement or that gay, transgender individual you know that is perishing without God?
- Is it concern over the status of this world’s condition we find ourself in or grieving those who with out receiving Jesus will not make it to the next one….?
- Is it concern over how we are inconvenienced by people or how those people might be perishing without God.
- I confess, loving my enemies…till the end like Jesus did with Judas is a daunting task….
The first aspect of Jesus’ brilliant light defines love as a love that loves all—including enemies to the end
The second aspect of Jesus’ brilliant light defines love as …
A Love that Loves Uniquely
The moment Judas leaves, and the events of the evening are set in motion for Jesus’ crucifixion…Jesus’ hour has come..
We have seen throughout this Gospel, the phrase… “but Jesus’s hour had not come yet.”
All that he did prior, the miracles, the signs, the love shown, the raising of Lazarus was not His “hour.”
All of it was a precursor…
…all of it was the opening act..to the main event
…All of it was the appetizer to the main meal…
For
“Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him” (v. 31)
This is the hour of shining or “Glorification.”
This is the hour of distinction from the entire rest of the known world in regard to the way the world operates…..the way the so-called gods, power-system, and religions of the world operated…
This is the hour about which Tom Holland the atheist author I quoted at the beginning observed rightly….. “Nothing could have run more counter to the most profoundly held assumptions of the world systems…. The notion that a god might have suffered torture and death on a cross was so shocking as to appear repulsive…, it was the role of gods who laid claim to ruling the universe to uphold its order by inflicting punishment – not to suffer it themselves.”
This is the hour which change history and change the way we reckon time itself…B.C. and A.D
This is that hour of God’s grand demonstration of His Love for humanity……
And Jesus said….
“Where I am going you cannot come” (v. 33)
Based upon Jesus’ statement-“Where I go you cannot follow now”
There is something utterly unique about this that is not repeatable.
Only Jesus could do this…Only God could have demonstrated this kind of love and forever define love.
That is why Jesus was never just some kind of a good teacher that did some good things in which we attempt to follow His example….
Only He could accomplish this.
John Piper states,
“We don’t go to heaven — to the Father — beside Jesus, assisting him; or behind Jesus, imitating him. We go to the Father through Jesus, depending on him. Where am I going this night that you cannot follow? I am going to die for you, and thus become the way to God. You can’t follow now. Only I can do this. This is my work alone.” – John Piper
As we see the events of the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life unfold
It is heart wrenching.
- Judas, Jesus’ close friend betrays him to death
- Peter, will deny him three times after boasting that he would die with Jesus.
- All of those sharing dinner with Him will abandon him in His darkest in less than a few hours from this moment of our text
And we ask Why?
…it must be this way….
Because this is the reality of the world….showing us that in the heart of mankind…there is no capacity within mankind to be faithful…to love to the end…to be loyal to the end…...
This is why we needed God to come down and save us!
This is why Jesus is alone in His divine love…He will be forever unique.
That is why friend, you will never arrive in heaven by your supposed good deeds.
You cannot follow me in this way …..Jesus says….
[Application: Gospel Appeal]
The first aspect of Jesus’ brilliant light defines love as a love that loves all—including enemies to the end
The second aspect of Jesus’ brilliant light defines love as a love that loves uniquely.
Finally, the third aspect of Jesus’ brilliant light defines love as …
A Love that Transforms (vv. 34–38)
…those who believe….
Most of us know about Peter’s transformation from denying Christ (predicted in this passage) to being restored to become the first pastor of newly established church.
But John’s transformation may be a little less known.
In fact, this hour of Jesus darkness where Jesus’ brilliant light of love was shining the brightest left an impact upon the one leaning on Jesus’s bosom….
Do you remember what name the apostle John was given by Jesus?
….“Not Rock” like Jesus gave to “Peter”
In Mark 3:17, John and his brother James were given the name “Sons of Thunder”
Most likely because of incidents like what happened in…
Luke 9:54 When His disciples James and John saw this, (that the Samaritans did not extend hospitality) they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”55 But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;56for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”]
Jesus named John “a son of Thunder”…one calling lighting down to consume enemies…
In this upper room intimate night, where one enemy who had never accepted Jesus was laying possibly on one side of Jesus (Judas) and another enemy of God that had accepted Jesus (John) was lying on his other side….John witnessed Jesus’ brilliant light and love for his enemies
That brilliant light and love transformed the one who wanted to destroy enemies.
John went from being known as a son of Thunder to “The apostle of love.”
After Judas left, what was Jesus’ term of affection for the remaining 11…??
“Little Children”…
…A term of affection for these men….even though we know from the other Gospels that after Judas left the setting, the 11 remaining disciples naturally started to argue about who is the greatest!!!!
…And all of this is less than 24 hours before Jesus’ crucifixion.
The disciples could not see past their immediate ambitions.
Jesus still loves them…loves his enemies and his friends….and has such a tender affection for them… “Little children” he calls them as a term of endearment…..
Now, I want you to how much this evening had an impact on John…
Note the impactful moment of these intimate moments with Jesus and the events of the cross on the one laying in Jesus’ bosom who became the “apostle of love”
Let’s see one of John’s favorite terms as he writes letters to a church he had pastored much later on…
Impact #1— Jesus says, “Little children” John 13:33
John says,
- My little children, I am writing these things…1 John 2:1
- I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you ... 1 John 2:12
- Now, little children, abide in Him, …1 John 2:28
- Little children, make sure no one deceives you…1 John 3:7
- Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 1 John 3:18
- You are from God, little children, ….1 John 4:4
- Little children, guard yourselves from idols. 1 John 5:21
And that is not all…regarding the impact of this hour of Jesus’ glorification on John…
Impact #2—Jesus says, “A new commandment” John 13:34
John says, “New commandment—love” I John 2:7–12
And notice John’s heartbeat and passion…
Impact #3—Jesus says, “as I have loved you” John 13:34
John defines love in Jesus’ words,
- We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 1 John 3:16
- In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. I John 4:10
- We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4;19
The apostle John, the son of thunder, one wanting to destroy his enemies, has been transformed to the apostle of love—how?
Precisely by Jesus’ love.
Jesus’ brilliant light in this extreme hour of His darkness has become the epitome of what love is
And it is a transforming love
That is why Jesus says..
A “new commandment”—in what sense is loving one another a new commandment? Precisely “As I have loved you.”
Never before has God display to the world the standard, the measure, the highest resolution picture of His love for us in the flesh like this and that would change the world…
And here it is in front of us…
And this becomes for us the highest motivation, the agent of change that Jesus would have us grow into
Notice what Jesus says to Peter…
From “Will you lay down your life for me?” to “You will follow later.”
Peter the apostle the one who would deny Christ before this hour of darkness is over would ultimately be transformed to the great shepherd of the early church, the leader of the early church, and one who would also lay down his life for the one who laid down His life for him.
The apostle John records a conversation that Jesus had with Peter at the very end of the Gospel of John…
Jesus says in
John 21:18 Truly, truly, I say to you (Peter), when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.”19Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He *said to him, “Follow Me!”
Church tradition has it that Peter was crucified as a martyr for Christ…on a cross as well…in what city? The city of Rome…
And eventually as the Gospel would spread throughout the world…the value systems of Christ spread as well..transforming much of what we have today so that society, as least in western civilization, is much more livable….
Friends, let have a bit of a pastoral moment right now…
First, “Little Children,” John says in his letter..the one who abides in love abides in God….I am so thankful that so many of you have been transformed by the Love of Christ in the way that you serve and love.
It is a delight to be a part of a congregation like Faith that loves one another so diligently.
It would be impossible to have the platforms of ministry that we do without God’s work in transforming many of you.
Thank you for responding to God’s love.
It is a delight to have the group of deacons and their wives and families that we have.
There is also an implicit challenge in the love that transform…if Christ’s love is not transforming you…little children…peter would say…. in 2 Peter 1:9 if the qualities of righteousness that he mentions are lacking, then we are “blind and short-sided having forgotten our former purification from sin.
Is the love of Christ transforming you in your role as a husband, wife, parent, church member, child, student, worker, little children, if not, let’s talk about why….your pastors would delight in helping you in your walk with Jesus…
In the hour of Jesus’ greatest darkness…his light of glorification shines the brightest in that it defined love as
- a love that loves all—including enemies to the end
- a love that loves uniquely.
- And finally a love that transforms
Authors
