John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – Jesus
1. A command to obey, LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
2. An example to follow, AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.
John 17:20-23 “My prayer is not for them alone. [The disciples], I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that ALL of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also [those who believe in Christ], be in us, so that the world may believe you have sent me. I have given them the glory [Holy Spirit] that you gave me that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
3. An identity to embrace, YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES.
John 15:8-12 “This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So when one hundred worshipers meet together, each one looking away to Christ, they are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” ― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God