Love for God's Glory

Love for God’s Glory

John 13:31-38

At 20 years old I was struggling with living out my faith in Christ. I was asked to serve at a Christian camp as a counselor to help campers, but the camp helped to transform me. The main impact on my faith was not in the teaching of the camp speaker, but it was the genuine faith and love of the other counselors. It was one of the first times I witnessed the authentic, empty tomb affection of real Christian love. And my life has not been the same since. 

Francis Schaeffer spent much of his life defending the Christian faith against modern unbelief. He believed in careful thinking, sound doctrine, and answering honest questions with biblical truth. Yet after all his work in apologetics, he concluded that Jesus gives the church one argument the world cannot ignore. Schaeffer called it "the final apologetic." He wrote, "The final apologetic which Jesus gives is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians." In other words, the greatest evidence that the gospel is true is not merely what the church believes, but how the church loves.

This is what I experienced at that camp and this is what thousands others have experienced in the life of a local church. Now, one of the defining slogans of our culture is, 'Love is love.' At its core, the phrase means that love is self-defining and self-justifying. If two people sincerely love one another, then that love is assumed to be morally good and beyond question. The authenticity of the feeling itself becomes the standard of right and wrong. Jesus gives us a very different definition. He does not say, 'Love is love.' He says, 'Love one another as I have loved you.' Love is no longer defined by our feelings or preferences. It is defined by the character and sacrifice of Christ. The standard of love is not my heart; it is His cross. And his love is the model for our love as believers. 

What we see in the end of John 13 is a biblical command and a warning that should shape our church community. We will trace this section by looking at three different loves.

The Love of the Savior (vv. 31-33)

Jesus begins in an unexpected place. Judas has just walked out into the night. The betrayal has begun. The cross is only hours away. Yet instead of speaking about defeat, suffering, or injustice, Jesus speaks about glory. John 13:31–33,

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 

Five times in these three verses Jesus speaks of glory. The hour He had spoken of throughout John's Gospel has finally arrived. At Cana He said, "My hour has not yet come." Again and again, the hour remained in the future. Now the waiting is over. Judas has left the upper room. The betrayal has begun. The cross is no longer a distant event on the horizon. It is only hours away. So Jesus declares, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him."

That title, "Son of Man," reaches back to Daniel 7, where the Son of Man receives an everlasting kingdom, glory, and dominion from the Ancient of Days. Yet before He receives the crown, He must first endure the cross. The road to exaltation passes through humiliation. The pathway to the throne leads through Calvary. Jesus understands that His suffering is not a detour from His glory; it is the very means by which His glory will be revealed.

Then notice how closely the glory of the Son and the glory of the Father are woven together. Jesus says, "God is glorified in Him." The cross is not merely about what happens to Jesus; it is the supreme revelation of who God is. The Father glorifies the Son, and the Son glorifies the Father. Their purposes are perfectly united in the work of redemption. There is no tension between the Father's justice and the Son's love. There is no conflict between the Father's will and the Son's obedience. At Calvary, the Father and the Son are acting together to accomplish the salvation of sinners.

That announcement would have sounded astonishing to anyone sitting in the upper room. Within hours Jesus would be arrested, mocked, beaten, scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, and lifted up before a jeering crowd. Crucifixion was the most degrading and humiliating death the Roman Empire could devise. It stripped a man of his dignity, exposed him to public shame, and left him to die in agony. Yet Jesus looks at the cross and calls it glory.

Why? Because the cross is where the character of God shines with unrivaled brilliance. At the cross, God's holiness is displayed because sin is judged. His justice is displayed because its penalty is fully paid. His mercy is displayed because guilty sinners receive compassion instead of condemnation. His love is displayed because the sinless Son willingly dies in the place of His enemies. Every divine perfection meets at Calvary. There is no clearer revelation of who God is than the crucified Christ.

Nor is Jesus a helpless victim swept along by circumstances. Judas's betrayal, the envy of the religious leaders, and Pilate's cowardice all unfold according to the sovereign plan of God. Jesus walks toward the cross with full knowledge of what awaits Him. As He declared in John 10, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." The Good Shepherd willingly lays down His life for His sheep. The Lamb of God bears away the sin of the world. The spotless Son becomes our substitute so that everyone who repents and believes might be forgiven, reconciled to God, and welcomed into His family.

This is where Jesus begins before He ever commands His disciples to love one another. He first gives Himself for them. The command to love grows out of the cross. We cannot love as Christ loved until we have first been loved by Christ. His sacrificial love is not only the source of our salvation; it is the pattern for our lives.

Jesus has not yet given the command to love one another yet, for that comes in the next two verses. Before He calls His disciples to love, He directs their eyes to the cross. Every command that follows grows out of what He is about to accomplish at Calvary. His sacrificial death becomes the source, the definition, and the pattern of Christian love.

This pattern runs throughout the entire New Testament. Whenever the apostles call believers to love one another, they consistently lead them back to Christ's sacrificial love. They teach us to look at the cross before they ask us to look at ourselves. Jesus Himself says just a few moments later in John 15,

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13)

Paul urges the Romans,

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself (Romans 15:1–3a)

To the Philippians he writes,

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,"

and then he unfolds the humility of Christ who humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:3–8).

To the Ephesians he says,

"Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us." (Ephesians 5:2)

John writes in his first epistle,

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." (1 John 3:16)

Only a few verses later he reminds us,

"Beloved, let us love one another... We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:7, 19)

Peter writes in his first letter,

For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:20–24)

Paul sums of the the whole Christian life to the Colossians. After telling them to put away sin, he writes,

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." (Colossians 3:12–14)

Notice how Paul grounds every command in the believer's identity. He reminds them that they are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Because they have been loved by Christ, they are to clothe themselves with the very character of Christ. Compassion reflects His compassion. Kindness reflects His kindness. Humility reflects His humility. Patience reflects His patience. Forgiveness flows from the forgiveness they have already received. Then Paul reaches the climax: "Above all these put on love." Love becomes the garment that holds every other Christian virtue together. When a church is clothed with the character of Christ, it begins to look like Christ.

Do you hear the repeated emphasis? The apostles continually return to Calvary because Calvary teaches us what love looks like. There we see the Son of God laying down His life for undeserving sinners. There we see humility replacing pride, service replacing selfishness, forgiveness replacing condemnation, and sacrifice replacing self-preservation. Every expression of Christian love finds its shape in the cross of Christ.

That means every act of love within the church has its roots at Calvary. We forgive because Christ forgave us. We bear one another's burdens because Christ bore our burden. We serve because Christ first served us. We lay down our preferences because Christ laid down His life for us. Over the last several months I have talked to a number of people who are doing well relationally or strongly with private sins, and a common thread in so many of those conversations is they are not spending time with God meditating on the gospel and the cross of Christ. 

The apostles never separate the Christian life from the cross because the cross continually shapes the Christian life. As we behold Christ's love, the Holy Spirit transforms us into people who increasingly love as He loved. That is exactly the movement of John 13. Jesus walks toward the cross in verses 31–33. Then, in verses 34–35, He turns to His disciples and says, "Now love one another as I have loved you."

This is one of the reasons we intentionally structure our worship services the way we do each Lord's Day. We want the gospel to shape us week after week. We begin by lifting our eyes to the holiness and greatness of God. We confess our sins because the cross reminds us that our greatest problem is not out there but within our own hearts. Then we hear an assurance of pardon from God's Word because Christ has truly borne our guilt and removed our condemnation. We sing about the cross, the blood of Christ, His resurrection, and His grace because we never move beyond the gospel. We gather around the Lord's Table to remember His sacrifice. We preach Christ from the Scriptures because every page of the Bible ultimately points us to Him. Every part of our service is designed to bring us back to Calvary, where God's love is most clearly displayed.

And that gospel rhythm is not meant to end with the closing benediction. The cross shapes the way we speak to our spouses, the way we parent our children, the way we respond when someone sins against us, the way we serve our church, the way we treat our neighbors, and even the way we engage those who oppose us. The love we celebrate on Sunday becomes the love we are called to display every day. The more our hearts are captivated by Christ's sacrificial love, the more our lives will increasingly reflect that same love to others.

The Love of the Saints (vv. 34-35)

Having revealed His love through the cross, Jesus now turns to His disciples and says, John 13:34–35,

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

This command was not new because God's people had never been told to love. Leviticus 19:18 had already commanded Israel to love their neighbor. What is new is the standard. Jesus says, "As I have loved you." The measure of love is no longer ourselves. It is Christ. The cross becomes the pattern for every relationship within the church.

Then Jesus makes an astonishing statement: "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." He does not point first to miracles, gifted preaching, beautiful music, impressive buildings, or growing attendance. Those things may have their place, but Jesus says the distinguishing mark of His disciples is their love for one another. The church becomes the visible demonstration of the invisible Christ. When unbelievers see a congregation genuinely loving one another, they catch a glimpse of the Savior who first loved us.

Church, what does that kind of love actually look like? It is far more than warm feelings or friendly smiles on Sunday morning. It is a life shared together because of the gospel.

First, it means encouraging one another with the truth of God's Word. When a brother is discouraged, we remind him of God's promises. When a sister is anxious, we point her to the faithfulness of Christ. We speak the truth in love because we want one another to persevere in the faith.

Second, it means praying for one another. Instead of saying, "I'll pray for you," and forgetting, we stop and pray. We pray after the service, in hospital rooms, over meals, in homes, and on the phone. We carry one another before the throne of grace because we know we all desperately need God's help.

Third, it means bearing one another's burdens. We take meals to families after a baby is born. We provide meals during sickness and grief. We visit hospitals. We sit quietly beside those who mourn. We help someone move. We watch children for exhausted parents. Christian love always takes tangible form.

Fourth, it means noticing when someone is missing. Love pays attention. If a member has been absent for several weeks, we don't assume someone else will reach out. We send a text. We make a phone call. We ask, "We've missed you. Is everything okay?" The Good Shepherd pursued wandering sheep, and His people do the same.

Five, it means discipling one another. Mature believers invest in younger believers. Older men teach younger men. Older women encourage younger women. Parents help younger parents. New believers are not left to figure out the Christian life alone. Love opens the Bible and walks patiently with others toward maturity.

Sixth, it means practicing loving biblical confrontation. Because we love one another, we refuse to watch a brother or sister drift into sin without speaking. We restore gently. We exhort faithfully. We receive correction humbly. Love tells the truth because eternity is at stake.

Seventh, it means forgiving one another. Every church is filled with sinners. We will disappoint one another. We will misunderstand one another. We will sometimes wound one another. Yet we forgive because Christ has forgiven us. We refuse to allow bitterness to take root among God's people.

Eighth, it means rejoicing and weeping together. We celebrate weddings, baptisms, new babies, answered prayers, and God's blessings. We also sit together in funeral homes, grieve miscarriages, pray through cancer diagnoses, and weep with parents whose children have wandered from the faith. Love enters another person's joys and sorrows.

Ninth, it means serving without seeking recognition. Jesus washed feet that night knowing one disciple would betray Him, another would deny Him, and the rest would abandon Him. He served anyway. Christian love does not wait to be appreciated before it serves.

Finally, it means gladly sacrificing for one another. Love costs time. It costs convenience. It costs comfort. It costs money. Love does not insist on its own way. Sometimes it even costs reputation. That is exactly what the cross teaches us. The love Jesus commands is cruciform love—a love that willingly lays itself down for the good of others.

Brothers and sisters, over the last several months I have had the privilege of speaking in churches across our country and around the world about the beauty and glory of the local church. Every place I go reminds me that Jesus is building His church exactly as He promised. But it has also deepened my gratitude for what God is doing right here at Park Baptist. By God's grace, I see so many evidences of the love Jesus describes in this passage. I see members opening their homes to one another, taking meals to hurting families, praying together after the service, pursuing those who begin to wander, bearing one another's burdens, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep, discipling younger believers, and quietly serving without seeking recognition. None of that is ordinary from the world's perspective. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit producing the love of Christ in His people.

I also thank God that our life together is continually shaped by the gospel. Every Lord's Day we gather around the cross. We confess our sins because we remember our need for Christ. We hear the assurance of pardon because Christ has borne our guilt. We sing of His death and resurrection because the gospel is not merely how we begin the Christian life but how we continue in it. We gather at the Lord's Table because we never move beyond the sacrifice of Christ. Week after week, the Lord reminds us how deeply we have been loved so that we might increasingly love one another.

My prayer is that God would only deepen that work among us. May people walk into this church and find a family. May lonely people find belonging, grieving people find comfort, struggling marriages find encouragement, wandering believers be lovingly restored, and young Christians be faithfully discipled. Jesus says this is how the world will know we are His disciples. The greatest apologetic for the gospel is a church whose life together reflects the sacrificial love of its Savior.

Church, the love Christ creates among His people is never meant to remain within these walls. It is meant to overflow into a watching world. Jesus did not say the world would know we are His disciples merely because we possess sound doctrine, faithful preaching, or biblical church polity—essential as those things are. He said they would know by our love for one another. The unity of the church is not merely for our own encouragement; it is God's chosen witness to a watching world. When unbelievers see a congregation marked by humility, forgiveness, patience, generosity, and genuine affection, they encounter something this world cannot produce. They see a glimpse of the transforming power of the gospel and the love of Christ made visible through His people.

 Conversely, when a church is marked by division, gossip, unresolved conflict, and bitterness, our witness is weakened, and the beauty of the gospel is obscured. So let me lovingly ask you: Is there anyone in this church toward whom you are harboring bitterness? Is there a relationship you have neglected to pursue? Is pride keeping you from seeking forgiveness or granting it? Don't leave those matters unresolved. Repent today. Pursue reconciliation. Fight for the unity of Christ's church, not merely for your own spiritual health, but because the mission of Christ is too important. Every act of forgiveness, every restored relationship, and every expression of sacrificial love becomes another testimony that Jesus truly changes sinners and creates a people unlike anything this world can explain.

The Love of the Sinner (vv. 36-38)

Jesus has shown us the love of the Savior. He has commanded the love of the saints. Now John gives us one final picture of love, a love that has been twisted by sin. Peter genuinely loves Jesus, but mixed with that love is an inflated confidence in himself. Before Jesus leaves for the cross, He exposes the pride that still remains in Peter's heart.

Listen to John 13:36–38,

Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. 

Peter almost completely misses what Jesus has just said. Jesus has spoken about His glory, His departure, and has just commanded His disciples to love one another. Yet Peter fixates on one question: "Lord, where are you going?" When Jesus tells him that he cannot follow now, Peter immediately objects, "Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." Peter is not lying. He sincerely believes he is capable of doing exactly what he promises. That is precisely the tragedy. Sin does not merely blind us to God's glory; it also blinds us to our own hearts. Peter has a higher opinion of himself than he should. He believes he is stronger than he really is. He trusts his own devotion more than he trusts Jesus' words. His confidence is not in Christ but in himself.

Within a few hours, Peter's heart is exposed. When Jesus is arrested, Peter does not stand beside Him. Faced with the possibility of sharing Christ's suffering, he distances himself from Christ to protect himself. Three times he denies even knowing the Lord he had vowed to die for. Why? Because in that moment Peter loved his own safety more than he loved identifying with Jesus. He feared what might happen to him more than he treasured faithfulness to Christ. Beneath his bold promises was a heart still curved inward on itself. Before the sun rose, the disciple who confidently declared, "I will lay down my life for You," denied three times that he even knew Him. Peter's greatest problem was not a lack of sincerity; it was a heart that still needed to be transformed by the grace of God.

If we're honest, Peter's heart looks remarkably like our own. Sin naturally inflates our view of ourselves. We assume we are stronger than we are, wiser than we are, and more faithful than we are. We compare ourselves to others and come away feeling fairly confident. We promise God obedience while underestimating the power of temptation and overestimating the strength of our own resolve. Pride whispers that we can handle life on our own, that we are basically good people, and that God should be pleased with our efforts. Like Peter, we often trust ourselves far more than we trust the words of Christ.

That is why Jesus asks Peter, "Will you lay down your life for me?" It is not a cruel question; it is a gracious one. Jesus lovingly exposes Peter's pride before it destroys him. Sometimes the greatest act of love Christ can show us is to reveal what is really in our hearts. Before Peter can become the bold preacher of Pentecost, he must first learn that his greatest need is not more courage but more grace. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Until we see the depth of our weakness, we will never treasure the greatness of our Savior.

And isn't this the beautiful irony of the passage? Peter declares, "I will lay down my life for you." Jesus knows that before the night is over Peter will fail. Yet Jesus is still going to the cross exactly because Peter is a sinner.  Peter cannot lay down his life for Jesus until Jesus first lays down His life for Peter. That is the gospel. Christ did not die for the strong but for the weak. He did not come to save those who thought they had everything together but those who would confess they were spiritually bankrupt. He died for proud people, self-confident people, fearful people, denying people—for sinners like Peter, and for sinners like us.

Perhaps you're here this morning trusting in yourself. You believe you'll stand before God because you've tried to be a good person, attended church, treated people kindly, or lived a respectable life. Peter reminds us that sincerity cannot save us. Good intentions cannot save us. Religious activity cannot save us. Only Jesus Christ can save us. The good news is that the Savior who willingly walked to the cross for Peter now invites you to come to Him. Lay down your confidence in yourself, repent of your sin, and trust entirely in the One who laid down His life for you. His grace is greater than your pride, greater than your failure, and greater than any of your sins.

Peter's story did not end with a rooster crowing. The man who denied Jesus was restored by Jesus. On the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the risen Christ graciously asked him three times, "Do you love Me?" and then commissioned him to feed His sheep. The proud fisherman became a humble shepherd. The man who once trusted in his own strength learned to depend upon the grace of Christ. Years later, Jesus' prophecy would come true. Peter would indeed lay down his life for his Savior. Early church tradition tells us that when he was sentenced to die in Rome, he requested to be crucified head-downward. Whether every detail of that tradition can be verified, the picture captures the remarkable transformation of a man who had learned that everything he had was by the grace of God.

That is the power of the gospel. Jesus does not merely forgive sinners; He transforms them. He takes proud hearts and makes them humble. He takes fearful disciples and makes them faithful witnesses. He takes selfish people and teaches them to love as they have been loved. The same Peter who once declared, "I will lay down my life for You," would later write to suffering believers, "Clothe yourselves...with humility toward one another," because he had learned firsthand that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." The gospel changes everything.

That is not merely Peter's story; in many ways it is mine. Like Peter, I have often been a proud, self-reliant person. I have been the kind of person who wanted to figure things out myself, solve my own problems, and serve Christ in my own strength. Even after coming to faith, I struggled to know what it really meant to follow Jesus. Looking back, I can see how often I trusted my own determination more than I rested in the grace of Christ. I needed the Lord not only to forgive my sin but also to humble my heart and teach me that apart from Him I could do nothing.

When I arrived at that camp a struggling Christian who wanted to live for God, but wasn’t. God used the people around me to transform me. For the first time, I witnessed what Francis Schaeffer called "the final apologetic"—the observable love of true Christians for one another. I watched believers encourage one another with God's Word, pray together, serve one another with joy, confess sin, forgive freely, and genuinely delight in Christ. Their love pointed me beyond themselves to the Savior who first loved them. In many ways, God used the love of His church to do in my life what He did in Peter's life. He began teaching me to stop looking at my own strength and to keep looking to Christ. That has been His gracious work in my life ever since, and it is my prayer that I would spend the rest of my life looking to Christ and His love for me, so that I might increasingly love His church the way He loves His church.

And that is the kind of church Jesus is building. A church captivated by the love of its Savior. A church marked by sacrificial love for one another. A church whose unity bears witness to a watching world. A church filled with sinners who know they have nothing to boast in except the cross of Christ. Imagine what God might do through a congregation where pride gives way to humility, bitterness to forgiveness, isolation to fellowship, and self-love to Christlike love.

Over the years, one of the things I have heard most often about Park Baptist is, "That is such a friendly church." And I thank God for that. I pray we never lose that reputation. But I also pray we become known for something even deeper. Friendliness welcomes people at the door; Christlike love walks with them for a lifetime. Friendliness smiles on Sunday morning; Christlike love bears burdens on Tuesday afternoon. Friendliness remembers a name; Christlike love remembers a need. My prayer is not simply that people would leave saying, "Those people were friendly," but that they would leave saying, "Those people genuinely loved one another, and I saw something of Jesus among them.

That is the kind of church Jesus is building. Such a church becomes a living testimony that Jesus is alive and still saving sinners. It becomes, in Francis Schaeffer's words, "the final apologetic"—a visible demonstration that the gospel truly has the power to transform proud sinners into humble servants and strangers into family.

One day, all the church will be gathered in perfect love with Christ. The church that now struggles against pride, conflict, and remaining sin will stand perfected before the Lamb. In the new heavens and the new earth there will be no more betrayal like Judas, no more denial like Peter, no more broken relationships, no more tears, no more death, and no more sin. We will love Christ with undivided hearts, and we will love one another perfectly because we will finally be like Him. Until that day, let us keep our eyes fixed on the Savior who first loved us, so that we may increasingly love one another as He has loved us. And as we do, let us remember that the world is watching. May they see in our love for one another a glimpse of the love of Christ and be drawn to the Savior.