The New Commandment

Believers living under the New Testament have one commandment, which is to love as Jesus loved.

By keeping this one commandment we fulfill all other commandments given to stop sin.

JOHN 15:12 NKJ
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

JOHN 13:34 NKJ
34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

1 JOHN 3:23 NKJ
23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

One command summarizes God's will -- yet there are many aspects or outworkings of it.

Divine Love A Sign Of Divine Life

1 JOHN 3:10,14-15 NKJ
10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Natural, unregenerate humans do not have the ability to love as Jesus loved. We must have God's life in us to manifest God's love through us.

ROMANS 5:5 NKJ
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

1 JOHN 4:7-8 NKJ
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

JOHN 13:35 NKJ
35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Love Fulfills The Law

GALATIANS 5:14 NKJ
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

ROMANS 13:9-10 NKJ
9 For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

How Love Acts

The opposite of walking in divine love is not only walking in hate -- but walking in selfishness.

1 JOHN 3:16-18 NKJ
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

EPHESIANS 4:31-5:2 NKJ
31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.
1 Therefore be followers of God as dear children.
2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Love is the nature of God. He desires for us to be like He is.

Love Should Control Us

2 CORINTHIANS 5:14 NKJ
14 For the love of Christ constrains us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;

1 CORINTHIANS 14:1 NKJ
1 Pursue love . . . .

1 JOHN 5:3 NKJ
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

2 JOHN 1:6 NKJ
6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.

Without Love You Are Nothing

1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-3 NKJ
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love Explained

1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7 NKJ
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love Produces Victory

1 CORINTHIANS 13:8 NKJ
8 Love never fails . . . .

1 JOHN 2:10-11 NKJ
10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

GALATIANS 5:6 NKJ
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

Conclusion

1 JOHN 4:19-21 NKJ
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.


Go to BELIEVE! Papers List
Go to Believers Home Page