"Love One Another" - But Peter Missed The Point!
Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in Him. If God has been glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and He will glorify Him immediately. Little children, I will be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me, and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you can't come,' so now I tell you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" (John 13:31b-36a)
Did you catch that? Jesus is saying that His betrayal and crucifixion will bring glory to God the Father, so He must leave them for a little while, but here's the main thing: "Love one another just like I have loved you, because that's how the whole world will know that you are My disciples!" He repeated it three times so they would get the point.
But what did Peter say? Did he say - "Lord, that's a wonderful idea! If we as Your followers would just love each other, the whole world will know that we are Your disciples!" NOT! He totally missed the point! Instead, he grabbed onto what Jesus said about going away, and Peter's mind turned to eschatology - the doctrines about the End Times, Jesus might be going to fetch an army and overthrow the Romans. Let's be nice to Peter, because he wasn't alone in his thick-headedness. After Christ was crucified and rose again, He met with His disciples one last time to give them some final instructions, and all of them switched their minds over to the End Times:
Being assembled together with them, He charged them, "Don't depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from Me. For John indeed baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, are You now restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It isn't for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth." (Acts 1:4-8)
Once again, Jesus is telling them about the Holy Spirit coming and filling them with power to proclaim the Good News, but they interrupt - "Lord, is this going to be the Big Finale, when Israel rules over the whole world?" His reply, though, is way too polite in the English translation: in Russian He says - "It's none of your business to know about the End Times! Your job is to be My witnesses to the whole world, that's what the Holy Spirit is for!"
When I was in the software consulting business, the speaker at one of the project management seminars I attended kept repeating - "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!" Let's apply this to what Jesus was trying to pound into His followers' heads: "The main thing is to love one another, not to be forever arguing over the End Times or some other obscure doctrinal point. If you're ever going to preach the Good News to the whole world so that everyone will know that you're following My teachings, you've got to love one another. So get ready to receive the Holy Spirit!"
Jesus repeated His teaching on loving each other: "This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12) Love is more than warm-fuzzy feelings, it's self-sacrifice. And a couple chapters later, John records these words of Jesus -
"I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them through Your name which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are. ...that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that you sent Me. The glory which you have given Me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as We are one." (John 17:11 & 21-22)
Do you see the same idea here as in John ch. 13? Jesus is saying that He's going away to the Father, but He prays that we all will be one just like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are of one essence. What is oneness or unity? It's when we stop arguing and fighting with each other, trying to prove who's the greatest or smartest, and start loving each other!
It seems that Peter finally "got it" -- the lesson finally began to sink in when, after he had denied Christ three times and broke down in tears for his cowardice, Jesus asked him three times after His resurrection if Peter really loved Him.
Then Peter, turning around, saw a disciple following. This was the disciple whom Jesus sincerely loved, [John,] the one who had also leaned on Jesus' breast at the supper and asked, "Lord, who is going to betray You?" Peter seeing him, said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me." (John 21:20-22)
Once again Christ put off the discussion about End Times and who's going to make it there. Peter's job - and our job - is to follow Christ. The main thing is to keep this the main thing: follow Christ by doing what He commanded us to do: Love One Another! We don't follow Christ by simply studying the Bible or theology or "doing church" - holding beautiful and inspiring worship services. Those things are good, but they're secondary. The first thing - the main thing - is to love one another, love our neighbor as ourselves, even to the point of sacrificing ourselves, our self-interests and self-centeredness.
Of course, true faith and worship ("ortho-doxy") are important, but if it's done without love for our neighbors and even for our enemies, it counts for nothing: "In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn't do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn't love his brother. ...This is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as He commanded." (1 John 3:10 & 23)
Together with The Apostle Peter, the former persecutor Saul who became the Apostle Paul finally "got it" -
If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing. If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don't have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-3)
Some indeed preach Christ even out of envy and strife, and some also out of good will. The former insincerely preach Christ from selfish ambition, thinking that they add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. (Phil. 1:15-17)
Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; Who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself. (Phil. 3:17-21)
We should Love One Another and share the Gospel "out of love" in word and in deed. That's the main thing. And the result is to share in Christ's glory.
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