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Word of the Cross Bible Study
November 16th, 2011
Read John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
“A new commandment” - This command he gave them as he was about to leave them, to be a badge of discipleship, by which they might be known as his friends and followers, and by which they might be distinguished from all others. It is called new, not because there was no command before which required people to love their fellow-man, for one great precept of the law was that they should love their neighbor as themselves (Leviticus 19:18); but it was new because it had never before been made that by which any class or body of people had been known and distinguished. Christians were not to be known by distinctions of wealth, or learning, or fame; they were not to aspire to earthly honors; they were not to adopt any special style of dress or badge, but they were to be distinguished by tender and constant attachment to each other.
Read 1 John 4:7-8:”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.”
What is Love?
Read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-6: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
"Love is patient and kind" - The meaning here is good-natured, gentle, tender, affectionate, courteous. Genuine love wishes well. It is not harsh, sour, morose (gloomy), or ill-natured. "Hatred" prompts to harshness, severity, unkindness of expression, anger, and a desire of revenge.
“Love does not envy or boast” - love does not envy others the happiness which they enjoy; it delights in their well-being and success; and as their happiness is increased by their endowments, their rank, their reputation, their wealth, their health, their domestic comforts, their learning, those who are influenced by love "rejoice" in all this. To envy is to feel uneasiness, mortification, or discontent at the sight of someone of happiness, excellence or reputation enjoyed by another.
Read 1 John 3:11-18: “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
Read 1 John 4: 20-21: “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
November 16th, 2011
Read John 13:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
“A new commandment” - This command he gave them as he was about to leave them, to be a badge of discipleship, by which they might be known as his friends and followers, and by which they might be distinguished from all others. It is called new, not because there was no command before which required people to love their fellow-man, for one great precept of the law was that they should love their neighbor as themselves (Leviticus 19:18); but it was new because it had never before been made that by which any class or body of people had been known and distinguished. Christians were not to be known by distinctions of wealth, or learning, or fame; they were not to aspire to earthly honors; they were not to adopt any special style of dress or badge, but they were to be distinguished by tender and constant attachment to each other.
Read 1 John 4:7-8:”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.”
What is Love?
Read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-6: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
"Love is patient and kind" - The meaning here is good-natured, gentle, tender, affectionate, courteous. Genuine love wishes well. It is not harsh, sour, morose (gloomy), or ill-natured. "Hatred" prompts to harshness, severity, unkindness of expression, anger, and a desire of revenge.
“Love does not envy or boast” - love does not envy others the happiness which they enjoy; it delights in their well-being and success; and as their happiness is increased by their endowments, their rank, their reputation, their wealth, their health, their domestic comforts, their learning, those who are influenced by love "rejoice" in all this. To envy is to feel uneasiness, mortification, or discontent at the sight of someone of happiness, excellence or reputation enjoyed by another.
Read 1 John 3:11-18: “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
Read 1 John 4: 20-21: “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
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