Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Love One Another Pt. 1

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

In this episode, Jonny Ardavanis continues his study on the nature, purpose and function of the church.Here, Jonny focuses in particular on fundamental commandment and privilege that every Christian has within the body of Christ - and that is to “love one another.”Jesus says, “by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey folks, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. I want to thank you all for continuing to listen and share the Dial In podcast with other people. My hope and prayer is that more people come to understand and know God's Word and ultimately they come to know deeply and intimately the person of Jesus Christ. Now in this episode, I'm going to continue our series on the nature, function, and purpose of the church. If you haven't listened to the

episodes that we've already done, I would encourage you to go back and listen to the rest of the series as this is episode six. Now, without further ado, let's dial in. Now, some weeks back, we looked at the reality that Jesus Christ is building his church and the gates of Hades will not prevail. We then looked at the role of a pastor and the role of an elder within the church and how they are to shepherd, feed, and lead the flock through the teaching of God's word. We then looked most previously at every single believer's role in Romans 12. And that is the reality that you and I as Christians are called to be a living sacrifice, that we are to lay down our lives on the altar before God. This is the logical response to all

that God has done for us in the gospel. God is not asking us to make sacrifices. He is asking you to be a living, wholly devoted sacrifice to him for his kingdom. Furthermore, in placing your life down on the altar of sacrifice, you also must realize that if you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit has given to you a spiritual gift that is unique to you and that you are responsible and privileged to employ for one overarching goal and reason, and that is for the building up of the body so that everyone within your local church can be presented mature in Christ. Now in this episode, I want to look at a fundamental truth that relates to all of us within the body of Christ, and that is regardless of your spiritual gifting.

And what I want to look at today is a defining characteristic of a Christian. It is the glue that holds us together in the body of Christ. You could say that what we're going to look at today is the Christian's uniform. It is the garment that Jesus Christ has given us to wear in front of the watching world. And what I'm talking about is our love for one another. In this episode, we are going to examine the high calling we have from God in his word to love each other. And initially, I want to begin by focusing on the words of John in his first epistle. The whole book of 1 John is given for one main

reason, and it is so that those who are genuine Christians would have assurance that they are indeed truly saved. John says in 1 John 5 13, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. That's his stated purpose. What's interesting, however, is at the beginning of his epistle in 1 John 1-4, John writes, these things we write so that our joy may be made complete. So he gives really two objectives. The first of which he says at the end of the letter, these things I have written to you so that you may know you have eternal life. And at the beginning, he letter, these things I have written to you so that you may know you have eternal life. And at the beginning, he says, these things I have written to you so that you may have fullness of joy. So which one is it? Well, it's both, right? Because you cannot have joy in Christ

if you are unsure if you belong to Christ. So on a quest to give these readers fullness of joy and to give us fullness of joy, John seeks to provide us with fullness of assurance in regards to our salvation. So in this first of John's letters, we find that there are these trademarks, these hallmarks of the individual who has truly been born again. How do I know if I'm actually a Christian? Now, before we proceed, we need to continue to ingrain certain fundamental truths within our hearts. And let me just frame it to you this way. What do you contribute to your salvation? What's the answer? Absolutely nothing. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ. It is

not your best efforts that save you. It is the mercy of God. Romans 10, 9 says, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be what? Saved. You cannot get much simpler than this. However, as disciples of Jesus Christ and lovers of his word, we must always interpret scripture with scripture. Remember it's A.W. Tozer who once said, it takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian. Meaning that when we come to one passage in God's word, we don't want to isolate that one passage from the rest of scripture,

but we want to interpret each particular passage in view of the other passages of scripture. So back to our thought about saving faith. Jesus says, and God's word says that we are saved by faith. Jesus says, whoever believes in me will not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, the question that maybe you've asked before, and the question that many people ask today is if we are saved by faith and by belief, how do I know if my belief is saving belief? James 2.19 says that even the demons believe in shudder, meaning that the demons

believe in the identity of Jesus Christ. They believe in his work on the cross. They know what he did. They know that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead. But do you know where demons will spend eternity? Well, Jesus says in Matthew 25 verse 41, they will spend eternity in hell. So I want you to understand that there is a faith that does not save. There is what I would call a demon faith, an intellectual assent to the person of God, the work of God, but no genuine love and affection

nor relationship with God. So then how can I know that I am indeed one of God's children? How can I know that I'm saved without a doubt? How do I know if my belief in Christ is saving belief? Well, answering these questions is the purpose of John's first epistle. And John is going to give two primary tests to the one who claims faith in Christ but desires greater assurance of his standing before Jesus Christ. Now one thing to clarify once again is that these tests don't serve as the basis of saving faith but as the evidence of saving faith. Now what are those two tests? The first of which is obedience. John is going to say, well, if you say you belong to Jesus Christ,

he's going to ask, who do you obey? In 1 John 2, 4, it says, the one who says, I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 1 John 1, 5 says, this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. This isn't to say that we don't sin. It's that if we say we belong to Jesus and yet the consistent pattern of our life is choosing sin over choosing obedience and living through the power of the spirit in a way that honors God, we need to seriously examine and consider whether or not we belong to God at all. So this is one of the first tests.

Whom do you obey? Jesus says in John, John's gospel that is, if you love me, you will what? Obey my commandments. So this is one of the first tests in John's first epistle. The second test is a love for other people. Have you ever considered this reality? That one of the ways you have proof and evidence of your salvation,

that God has truly given to you a new heart, is that you love others in the body of Christ. In scripture, love is elevated and exalted above everything else in terms of one's relationship to God and with God and relationship with others. It is the all-encompassing umbrella under which all of the law and the prophets rest. And so John is going to combine both of these tests, that being obedience and love

in 1 John 3.10. He says, by this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. He will link these two twin truths once more in 1 John 5.1. If you have your Bibles, you can look with me there. He says there, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father, watch this, loves the child born of him. I don't know if you caught that, and maybe you're even thinking about people that surely the Bible's not including that guy in mind, but here's the reality of scripture. It says, whoever loves the father loves the child born of him. He's going to continue to hammer this theme. He says again, in first John two, nine and 10, it says there that the one who says he is in the light and yet

hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. If you claim to love God as father, but do not love others whom the father has adopted as his own children, the Bible says your claim is meaningless. First John 4 20 says, if someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. Why? For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. Do you get the idea here? Are you grasping the theme? Our love for one another is a test to see if God has truly given to us a new heart. If there is no love for other people in your heart within the body of Christ, there is no root of salvation that has taken place there.

We're not adding to the gospel when we take these tests. We are following the scriptures exhortation to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. And one of those critical gauges of our spiritual temperature is our affection for one another. Can I just ask you, do you love other people? I'm not talking about people who are easy to love, but those who are maybe even difficult for you. Do you love the body of Christ? Now in the remainder of our time in this episode, I want to look at the call to love

and then the quality of love. And in the following episode next week, I want to look at the expressions of love, the various manifestations of what loving other people actually looks like. But first here, I want to look with you at the call to love. And if you have your Bibles in front of you, I want you to look at 1 John 3 11. John says there, for this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, and that is that we should love one another. He says, this is the message which you have heard from the beginning. Here's a basic principle for you in regards to the Christian life. If it's new, it's not true. Nearly every cult is based on new and novel revelations from the word of God, whether that's

Islam or Mormonism. But the apostles told us to commit our life to the truth that was once and for all handed down to the saints. And John says here, this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, and that is that you should love one another. So there's nothing new here, but something that is very old because John is alluding to the reality that this is one of the most basic tenets of what it means to follow God. In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 6, 5, God told his people that they are to love the Lord their God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And then Leviticus 19, 18 added that you are to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus will pick up on this great theme in Matthew's gospel saying the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then he says in the second is like it, that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then on these two great commandments, loving God, loving others, all of the law and all of the prophets rest. So John is taking these truths from the Old Testament, from Jesus, all of the law and all of the prophets rest. So John is taking these truths from the Old Testament, from Jesus' teaching in the New Testament, and says, this is the message

which you have heard from the beginning. Now, when we hear the beginning, we think mainly in regards to chronology, but John is not just referring to chronology here when he says, this is the message which you have heard from the beginning. He's also referring to priority, meaning that this is one of the first rungs of the ladder if you belong to God. This is one of the first truths you should have understood when you came to Jesus Christ. This is Christianity 101. The Christian life begins with a love for the Savior, but also a love for those who belong to the same Father. One of the realities I fear today is that so many people are ushered into the Christian faith without any biblical teaching that when they come to Jesus Christ, they come to His people who, although are perfect in Christ, possess many imperfections and personality traits that may be

irksome and annoying to you. And in spite of all of these differences in appearances, you're commanded and privileged to love them. But not only are you commanded and privileged to love them, you are enabled to love them through the power of the Holy Spirit. Because as Margaret Clarkson once said, God's commandments are his enablings. So here's the reality. If you're a Christian, when the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your life, one of the first fruits of God's Holy Spirit is what? It's love. Paul says in Romans 5.5, the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts. Paul will also say in 1 Thessalonians 4, 9, now as to love

of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God, watch this, to love one another. I don't know if you just caught what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians. He says, in regards to loving other people in the body of Christ, you shouldn't even need anybody to teach or train or tell you that. Why? He says, because you are taught by God to love one another. This is something that if you're a Christian, God pours into your heart through the power of his spirit so that you are able and you have a desire

to love the people of God within the same family. This is the high calling of the believer. We are not saved by love. We are saved by faith. But where there is genuine faith, there will always be a love for other people. I think it was J.C. Ryle who once said, sun and light, fire and heat, ice and cold, they are not more intimately united than faith and love.

You cannot have a higher view of faith than does the apostle Paul. But Paul himself is the one who is going to say that faith without love is worthless. In 1 Corinthians 13, you're familiar with the passage. Paul says, You could be a powerful preacher. You could be a big giver. But if you don't love other people, you are nothing. You gain nothing. And your faith is worthless. Paul will say in Colossians chapter 3

verses 12 through 14, so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so must you also do. And then he says this in Colossians 3.14, in addition to all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. John will say again in 1 John 4.7, beloved, let us love one another because love is from God and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God. Why?

Because you know the verse. Because God is love. This is the calling of every believer. And as much as John says this commandment to love one another is nothing new, I want you to now see secondly what John is going to say in his gospel about how Jesus defines love, which takes us to our second point, which is the quality of love. We look first at the call to love, and now I want to look with you at this quality of love. In John chapter 13, I want to set the stage for you in regards to what is happening in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

It's the final night he is having with his disciples. He knows that he is about to be betrayed by one of the 12. And in Luke's gospel, it is recorded that he's having this dinnertime conversations and the disciples in the final night of Jesus's ministry before he is crucified, they're having an intense argument. And do you know what it's about? They were arguing about who among them was the greatest. But here is the patient picture of Jesus Christ, our God who took on flesh. It says in John 13, 1, now when the feast of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come and that he would depart out of this world to the Father, and having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them

to the end. This word for end is telos, and it could be also translated that Jesus loved them to the max, meaning that there was no more love that Jesus could have directed and poured out towards his own. There are no reservations, no rationing off of Jesus's love. He loved them to the max. And in his final hours, Jesus is going to give his disciples what he calls a new command. And I want you to look there in your Bibles. If you have them, the John chapter 13 verses 34 and 35. Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Now question for you, why does Jesus call this a new commandment if John in his first epistle says that the command to love one another is that which we have heard from the beginning, how is it new then? Well, I want you to just think about it this way. The commandment that Jesus gives is new in the sense of magnitude and degree. It's new in the sense of quality. I want you to look back or listen back with me.

Jesus is not just telling his disciples to love one another. He is telling them something else, and it's significant. He says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, watch this, even as I have loved you, that you may also love one another. How much are you supposed to love other people in the church? How much are you supposed to love the people that you're around? The same amount that Jesus Christ has loved you. Listen to the words of Jesus in John chapter 15, verses 12 through 17. Jesus says, this is my commandment that you love

one another, but watch this again. He says this, just as I have loved you, greater love has no one than this, that one laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command you, no longer do I call you slaves for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard from my father. I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the father in my name may be given to you. And then he says this, this, I command you that you love one another. Sometimes the preacher just needs to pause, and the podcaster needs to just let the Scripture speak for itself

and let the Spirit of God wield the sword of Scripture. Jesus says again, This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Can I ask you, is that your heartbeat? Do you love other people in the same way that Jesus Christ has poured out and demonstrated his love towards you? Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians. He says in Ephesians 5.1, be imitators of Jesus Christ. And then he is going to talk about the natural demonstration of that imperative. He says, be imitators of Jesus Christ. And then in the following verse, he says what?

And walk in love as Christ has also loved us. Maybe you're wondering and maybe you're thinking, I don't know if I've ever loved someone like Jesus Christ has loved me. And of course you haven't. You haven't. So the answer is, how do we do this? Well, we do it through the power of the Spirit of God. But you need to understand the command in Scripture and Jesus' word to you through his living word. How much

are you supposed to love other people? As I have loved you, says Jesus Christ. This is very clear. There is the call to love. You're to love one another. There is this quality of love, and that is that you are to love as much as Jesus Christ has loved you. And then there are the expressions of love that we are going to look at in our following episode. You may be asking, what does this even look like?

Well, Jesus gives us a little clue. We are to lay down our lives for the people of God. And we're going to talk about the tangible expressions and manifestations of what it looks like to love one another in our following episode. Until then, stay dialed in.