John 13:34-35 (NLT) 34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

• The real proof that you’re a disciple of Jesus is in the way you love one another.

• The ultimate thing that will prove to the world that you’re a disciple of Jesus is not in your gifts, teachings, talents, but in the way you love!

1. JESUS COMMANDS US TO “LOVE” EACH OTHER.

Love: (ä-gä-pä’-ō) to be full of good-will and exhibit the same: wish well to, regard the welfare of: involves finding someones greatest need and meeting it at any cost, the benevolence which God, in providing salvation for men, has exhibited by sending his Son to them and giving him up to death, of the love which led Christ, in procuring human salvation, to undergo sufferings and death, to take pleasure in the thing, prize it above other things, be unwilling to abandon it or do without it:

• Love is focusing on the best interest of others.

• When you’re looking out for the best interest in yourself, that’s not agape love.

A. LOVING GOD AND OTHERS IS THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT OF GOD.

Matthew 22:36-39 (AMP) 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 And Jesus replied to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for others].’

B. LOVING EACH OTHER MEANS SEEKING OUT THE BEST FOR EACH OTHER.

1 John 4:19-21 (AMP) 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates (works against) his [Christian] brother he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should also [unselfishly] love his brother and seek the best for him.

Hate: (miseó) to feel and express nothing more than interest in, or disregard and indifference to a thing or person, to detest (dislike intensely.) to persecute.

• You can actually hate a person or a city by not having any interest in their well-being

• Note: to hate someone is to wish them the worst and to be happy at their misfortune or to be totally indifferent to them.

C. THE LOVE OF GOD OVERLOOKS OFFENSES AND CONTINUES TO SEEK OUT THE BEST FOR OTHERS.
1 Peter 4:8 (AMP) Above all, have fervent and unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins [it overlooks unkindness and unselfishly seeks the best for others].

• Love doesn’t keep a record of wrong becuase it is not focused on the wrongs.

• It’s easy to overlook someone’s faults when you remember where you came from.

• Note: Jesus displays agape love on the cross when He says “forgive them for they know not what they do.” This type of love is unconquerable..

D. LOVING SOMEONE IS TREATING THEM THE WAY YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE TREATED.
Luke 6:31 (AMP) 31 Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.

• You won’t be mature in love if you’re focused on the way they’re treating you.

E. LOVE DEFINED.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8 (NLT) If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!

Patience: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

• Demanding your own way: anytime you use weapons to get your own way. It’s total immaturity.

• Do you have a right to be rude to anyone at any time? NO.

Exercise: put your name where scripture says love and see how uncomfortable it makes you feel. “Love test.”

2. JESUS COMMANDS US TO LOVE EACH THE SAME WAY HE LOVES US.

(The way He loves us, is the way we are supposed to love one another.)

A. JESUS LOVED US TO THE POINT OF DEATH. (Layed down Gos life for our best interests. No such as love without sacrifice.)

John 15:12-14 (AMP) 12 “This is My commandment, that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another, just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you keep on doing what I command you.

B. JESUS LOVED US IN OUR WORST CONDITION. (God loves us by giving His best for our worst. Wow!!)
Romans 5:8 (AMP) 8 But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

C. JESUS LOVE FORGIVES CHOOSES TO FORGIVE US EVEN BEFORE WE ARE REPENTANT.
Luke 23:34 (NLT) Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Note: Stephen loves just like Jesus.

Acts 7:57-60 (NLT) 57 Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him 58 and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.

3. THE LOVE WE HAVE FOR ONE ANOTHER IS PROOF TO THE WORLD THAT WE ARE DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST. .

A. TO KNOW GOD’S LOVE IS TO SHOW GOD’S LOVE. (God’s is completed and perfected with us, in us and through us.)
1 John 4:16-17 (AMP) 16 We have come to know [by personal observation and experience], and have believed [with deep, consistent faith] the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides continually in him. 17 In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world. Note: we are here in this world to display His loving kindness.

HOW DO WE LOVE LIKE CHRIST?

1. FIRST STEP IS BE TO BE BORN-AGAIN!

1 John 4:7-10 (ESV) 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

A. WHEN WE ARE BORN-AGAIN WE ARE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Romans 5:5 (NLT) And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

2. THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT.

A. THE HOLY SPIRIT FILLS OUR HEART WITH LOVE.

Romans 5:5 (NLT) And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

B. HOLY SPIRIT PRODUCES LOVE.

Galatians 5:22-23 (AMP) 22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness,faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.