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  • 2 months later...

(John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command? How does love characterize Jesus’ life? In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets? 

 

Love is exalted to the level of a command because 

i. it was the theme of Jesus' earthly ministry and 

ii. the Law and Prophets hang on this commandment.

 

Love characterised Jesus' life as He made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross to save us from our sins and shame and gave the prize of salvation.

 

The two greatest commandments are:

 

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

If we do not follow these two commandments, we will not be able to follow the other commandments and law.

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Q5. (John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command?

 

God is love. All that He is and does is motivated by His love. We are to be "imitators of Him"  The world will know us by our love...which is what sets believers and the church apart from the world. The unsaved world belongs to its' father, the Devil, Jesus said. And the devil is the antithesis of love...he is pure hatred toward God, God's children, and the church.

 

Love isn't an option...and it doesn't come naturally...the command is to emphasize that we need to rely on His love to flow through us in order for the world to desire to know Him.

 

How does love characterize Jesus’ life?

 

Jesus said if you've seen Me, you've seen My Father....(God is love). Jesus lived every day of His life walking in love...even tough love at times when He confronted the religious leaders who piously led their followers away for God and His love for them.

 

Jesus ultimate act of love was to suffer and die and give up His Holy life for me and all believers to have eternal life rather than eternal damnation.

 

In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?

 

The Bible is HIS-Story, from he beginning to the last chapter of the Revelation. The old testament is Jesus concealed, and the new testament is Jesus revealed....the prophets message was the message of God's love for His people and Jesus quoted them, validating the Old testament is His truth.

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Q5. (John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command? How does love characterize Jesus' life? In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?

 

The notes state that love is the theme in the whole of the New Testament. In addition, Jesus is the standard and source of our love. Jesus taught that..."laying down his life for us is the standard by which our love is measured" (John 15:13). So that is why love is exalted to the level of a command, because God wants us to love one another (13:34,35).

Love is the fulfillment of the law of the prophets because God is merciful (Deuteronomy 4:31) and "God is love" (1John 4:8). Paul states in Galations 5:14 "For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

 

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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Q5. (John 13:34)

Q. Why is love exalted to the level of a command?

A. Jesus is Love and His love is sacrificial and it is what holds and binds us together. This high standard can only be achieved when to love becomes a command.

Q. How does love characterize Jesus' life?

A. Jesus lived on earth loving everyone. He loved the whole world so much that He died on the cross to reconcile us to God so that we shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Q. In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?

A. The ten commandments are all about love for God and mankind. All that was and is the Bible centers on love. This explains why Jesus summarised the laws into love for God and man.

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Q5. (John 13:34) 

Why is love exalted to the level of a command? 

How does love characterize Jesus' life? 

In what way does love fulfil the law and the prophets?

Jesus has set a new standard of love, one based on His sacrificial love for us. It is a new commandment in the sense that it is a much higher standard of love – one based on the example of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. His example of constant, self-sacrificing love must be the pattern for our attitude toward each other. This love and support enables us to survive in a hostile world. Jesus said (v35): "By this all men will know that you are My disciples" reveals the effect of believers' having love for one another, and it is a distinguishing feature of Christians. That is, we are to be known by our love towards each other and not for our wealth or learning or fame or any other criteria. The church is to be a loving church in a dying culture, but it does not stop there, our love is to extend beyond the church to embrace all people. God’s unfailing love for us is often declared by the prophets. Some examples are listed here.  Isaiah says: “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you” (Isaiah 54:10). Jeremiah says: “The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness” ( Jeremiah 31:3). Hosea says: “I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion” (Hosea 2:19). Lastly, Joel says: “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity” (Joel 2:13). 

 

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Lesson 23 Q5

To love is a command. We are required to love. That is to say it is necessary to love God and our neighbor if we are to be free, saved and rescued. The fact that love first originates with God does not take this oughtness - this requirement from us. We are to love God back. We believe God, trust God, receive God and the Son and we love back - love God and love our neighbor because God loves them also. The very nature of love requires giving, receiving and reciprocal giving back. If we don't give back love it means we never truly received it. But the reality is that we cannot do this on our own. We need help. We have to humbly accept that we are helpless and that we even need help to properly believe and receive God's love. Hence the requirement to walk humbly with our God. That is to say we need to have a receiving heart.

Jesus' life chacterizes his love for us in that he came to be with us and died  for us to satisfy the requirements of justice.

The essence of the law and prophets is the requirement to love. And this is fulfilled by our response to God's love  for us.

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Love is exalted to the level of a command because, as Jesus points out, all the other commandments of the Law stem from love, first of God and then of our neighbour.  God is a God of love and therefore love characterises Jesus’s life in his dealings with his people, and even with those outside the fold. 

 

Throughout the Old Testament God tried to have reciprocal love with his chosen people, but they resisted.  Jesus’s ministry is a new approach to the same problem.  Therefore it fulfils the law and the prophets.

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Q5. (John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command? How does love characterize Jesus’ life? In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?

Love has been elevated to the level of command because Jesus love for us ended in death, a death that was to bring us back to our heavenly Father by his perfect sacrifice and love. He commands us to love one another as he has loved us, to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, by this love all would know that we were his disciples 

In all the New Testament Jesus love has been the main theme. He came not only to teach the good news but also show us the love our Heavenly Father has had for us.

Love fulfills the law and the prophets because in the law we are told how to conduct ourselves as far a worshiping God, treating our parents and our neighbors. In the prophets, because they declare to the people the joy and fulfillment of loving God and the punishment for not obeying God.   

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  • 2 weeks later...

To love others is not a new commandment (see Leviticus 19: 18) but to love others as much as Christ loved others was revolutionary.  We are to love others based on Jesus sacrificial love for us.

 

Jesus is love. Such love will not only bring unbelievers to Christ it will also keep believers strong and united in a world hostile to God.

 

Jesus was a living example of God's love as we show Christlike love to demonstrate  that we are  his disciples.

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Q5. (John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command? How does love characterize Jesus’ life? In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?

 

Without love we are no different than the world.  More than our selfish love we are to have God's love which comes from the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).  If we have not love we are as an empty gong (1 Corinthians 13:1).  God is love and if we are to be His children we must have love.  If we truly love Him we will love our neighbors.  If we truly love Him we will be a light, a beacon in a selfish unloving greedy world.  We will be like Him.

As in the words of Susannah Wesley (I have been told) "if I am peevish and morose it is not because of religion but my lack of it".

 

God Bless!

Jen

Romans 5:5

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The New Covenant of peace between God and man is founded on love.  It operates by love.  And so it is “governed” through love.  Love for God and for others is the highest command because it’s the heart of this new relationship established by Christ.  I like Pastor Ralph’s statement that “It is not a lifestyle suggestion, it is a lifestyle requirement.”  We are called to love because we have been so loved.

 

The life of Jesus is certainly our role model for love.  Everything He did was motivated by His love for the Father.  And because of that love-relationship, He treated others with love, grace, kindness, patience, and compassion.  He became our new standard for love – not as a duty, but with a sacrificial heart, just as He has loved us.  In truth, the royal law of love has always been the core.  The ceremonial Mosaic Law and the messages delivered by prophets all simply expanded and applied this foundation.  All the moral codes, religious precepts, judicial laws, and prophetic messages throughout history rest on this concept of love for God and love for others.  “And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  Mark 12:33

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Q5. (John 13:34)

Why is love exalted to the level of a command?

It is the requirement of being a disciple of Jesus.

Verse 34. 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 men to love their fellow-men, for one great precept of the law was that they should love their neighbour as themselves (Leviticus 19:18); but it was new because it had never before been made that by which any class or body of men had been known and distinguished. The Jew was known by his external rites, by his peculiarity of dress, the philosopher by some other mark of distinction the military man by another, for each other been the distinguishing and peculiar badge by which they were known. But in the case of Christians they were not to be known by distinctions of wealth, or learning, or fame; they were not to aspire to earthly honours; they were not to adopt any peculiar style of dress or badge, but they were to be distinguished by tender and constant attachment to each other. This was to surmount all distinction of country, of colour, of rank, of office, of sect. Here they were to feel that they were on a level, that they had common wants, were redeemed by the same sacred blood, and were going to the same heaven. They were to befriend each other in trials; be careful of each other's feelings and reputation; deny themselves to promote each other's welfare.(1 John 3:23)

 

How does love characterize Jesus’ life?

Jesus love and obey the Father with all his heart, mind, and soul. He love us as co-heir to the throne and gave his life to us. Jesus' love is unconditional.

 

 

In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?

When the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him, the new law was commanded, "Love One Another".

Jerimiah 31:31-34, Leviticus19:18

John 13:34 (KJV)
34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Q5. (John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command? How does love characterize Jesus’ life? In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets? 

To love others was not a new commandment (Leviticus 19:18),18 “(Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord)" but to love others as much as Christ loved others was revolutionary. Now we are to love others based on Jesus’ sacrificial love for us. Such love will not only bring unbelievers to Christ; it will also keep believers strong and united in a world hostile to God. Jesus was a living example of God’s love, as we are to be living examples of Jesus’ love.

We are to love one another as Christ did.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Q5. (John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command? How does love characterize Jesus' life? In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?

 

God's love is real. It is deep, from the oxygen created by plants, in abundance, to all the blessings we get but take for granted. And they happened daily, every day. Then to send his only son to die for us. The more we study, the more we are in awe of God's love, the more we need it and become addicted to it, the better. It is the reverse of being addicted to sins.

 

Jesus served and healed all. He loved all and filled their needs. for those who follow Him closely. Then He capped it saying, you need to be like me, and love like I do. Only total surrender, He wants it all.

 

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:1-2)

 

If you love God first and most, you will put yourself last out of love for following God.

 

Just unbelievable what Jesus teaches, total surrender is the only way. easy to say, not so easy to do.

 


 

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  • 3 months later...

Why is love exalted to the level of a command?  Jesus demonstrated His love by willingly sacrificing Himself to the cross for our salvation.  In doing so, He was simply obeying His Father’s commands just as He expects all of us to obey His.  By making love a command He has put us all on notice that He EXPECTS us to demonstrate our love by caring and sacrificing for one another just as He has loved, cared and sacrificed for us and… there are no excuses if we fail to do so.  The kind of love He’s talking about isn’t simply having nice, pleasant thoughts toward one another.  He’s talking about the kind of “Christian” love that comes directly from the heart; proclaimed by our words and demonstrated by our outward actions every single day.

 

How does love characterize Jesus' life?  His love and respect for life was universal and in its essence is the absolute glory of God.  His amazing love is deeply rooted in compassion and meeting the needs of both the earthly body and the soul.  His love for mankind compels Him to reach out to sinners, harlots, tax-collectors, the indigent and the sick in order to minister to their physical and spiritual needs.  He loved children so much that he raised them to shining examples for those who would enter the Kingdom and... He respected women; treating them in ways that were absolutely unheard of at the time.

 

In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?  Several New Testament writers underscore the commandment to love as the central law that we must all follow.  Jesus command to love is in many ways the ultimate interpretation of the law.  What I mean by that is that, in one word (love), Jesus aptly sums up everything that God conveys in the Scriptures.  First and foremost, love is the ideology that shapes how God’s laws should actually be obeyed and serves to level the playing field between those who believe in Christ; the Jews who observe Mosaic Law and the Gentiles who don‘t.

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  • 3 years later...

Love is exalted to the level of a command because without love the world would be a terrible place to live in. If we love one another how would we be not able to kill them or wound them? If we love each other then we would not be will not hurt another person mentally. If we love them we will not want to steal from them or break any of the 10 commandments.

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  • 7 months later...

Q5. (John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command? How does love characterize Jesus’ life? In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets? 

It is exalted to the level of a command because without it we would be hating one another. His life charactized it when he healed the sick and the lame, and raised the dead. It characterized it by dying on the cross. Love fulfills it by not stealing and breaking the commandments. 

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  • 2 years later...

This sacrificial love that Christ preached about would be glue that would keep his followers together through the next 3 centuries of persecution by the Roman Empire, and keep the early Church pure from all sorts of bizarre heresies.   Apostle John wrote extensively on agape love in his three Epistles.   Agape is truly essential for a true Christian church:  various errors of the Faith are swallowed up.   It is the balm of Gilead during times of perverse heresies and spreading of antichristain teachings.

Love characterized his life when he went about healing the sick, remaining calm during tragic rejection from the Pharisees, when he was an assistant to his Father Joseph in the carpenter's shop and errands for his mother Mary.   We cannot fathom totally the love that exuded from him when he called the first disciples.  According to St John, Christ really did not descend from heaven though the kenosis took place---he was in deep union with his Father.   That supernatural love that he had for his Father and the love that the Father had for him---colored all aspects of his earthly ministry.  Now at the moment of Juda's betrayal, Christ's glorification-has just started.

This agape love that Christ preached about is the nuclear energy for the Christain to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.   The Christian will have that anointing from above to understand the Word of God and to live a sanctified life.  St Paul experienced this agape love in very deep way; he realized that only the love and mercy of God could save a wretch like him though he was proficient in many ways as regards to practicing the Jewish faith.  Same thing with St Augustine, a man of profound scholarship but devoid of this agape love until he gave his heart to Christ.

I have fond memories of prayer meetings in which this agape-love was so real.   I miss that so much.   We live in a different era now--so much play acting and superficiality in our society and even amongst many churches..  

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  • 9 months later...

Q5. (John 13:34) Why is love exalted to the level of a command?

How does love characterize Jesus' life?

In what way does love fulfill the law and the prophets?

Love is spoken of throughout the Word.  In the Law given to Moses : Love is the theme.  By obeying the Law, love is shown to God and your fellow-man.  It is as stated in the notes, not a lifestyle suggestion, it is a lifestyle requirement. 

What Jesus showed in His life was love  to the unlovely, love to the outcast, love to whoever He came in contact with.  Eventually we see the extent of his love for us -- laying down his life for us -- this is to what the new standard is  by which our love is measured. A high standard indeed.  

The Law and the prophets teach us how to live and ultimately if we live as we are taught  there , the central theme of that way of life is LOVE.   

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