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Jim Kerwin’s Show Notes for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 014 – A New Gift from Jesus
Reminder:
A New Gift from Jesus
- Read through the First Epistle of John once a week
- Remember to substitute the phrase “the Anointed One” for Christ or Messiah for the next few weeks, to get in practice.
This Week’s Passage: 1 John 2:6-11–The New Commandment, the New Gift
- A Christian is someone who abides in Christ, and, thus, ought to walk in the same manner as He walked. Your walk looks more and more like the walk and life and person of Jesus.
- What is the New Commandment?
- “Love one another as I have loved you.”
- First mentioned in John 13:30-35 (specifically v. 34)
- “I give to you”—anything given is a GIFT.
- “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples”; not by doctrine, miracles, worship, denominational or political stances.
The New Commandment in John 15:12-17
- If there’s a “new commandment,” what’s the old one?
- Three challenges/tests made against Jesus in Matthew 22:15-40
- The third test was the most revealing:
- The first and great commandment–Matthew 22:37-38–in which Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5
- The second great commandment–Matthew 22:39 (“You shall love your neighbor as yourself”)–Jesus quotes from Leviticus 19:17-18.
- The new commandment (“as I have loved you”) supersedes the old one (“your neighbor as yourself”).
- New Covenant inner life and inner righteousness superseding Old Covenant law is an overriding theme in the Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard it said…but I say to you.…”
- God is always after what’s on the inside. He wants obedience to spring from what’s on the inside. No matter how deeply God looks, He wants to be able to find righteousness and purity.
- Examples:
- Matthew 5:21-26–from “you shall not murder” (one of the Ten Commandments–Exodus 20:13) to looking at the underlying hatred in the heart which leads to murder.
- Matthew 5:27-30–from “you shall not commit adultery” (another of the Ten Commandments–Exodus 20:14) to “What’s in the heart which would lead to adultery?”
- Matthew 5:31-32–from divorce allowed (e.g., Deuteronomy 24:1) to treating divorce like adultery.
- Matthew 5:33-37–superseding vows
- Matthew 5:38-42–rewriting the law of vengeance
- Leviticus 24:19-20
- Deuteronomy 19:21
- Exodus 21:24
- Matthew 5:43-48–from “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” to love and bless and do good to your enemies. (Be like God the Father–perfect in love! Matthew 5:48)
- Matthew 5:20–Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Going from the realm of what is true to the realm of what is more deeply true.
- God wants more than outward obedience, so He goes deeper and takes us into “that’s not fair!” territory.
- In the same vein of “going deeper” and getting at the root of things, Jesus puts “the second great commandment” through a metamorphosis – Love each other as I have loved you.”
- A different relationship – from servant to friend
- “Friend” of the king
- You get to be the friend of this king when you are toweled and kneeling and serving in love like He is.
- Love which lays down life for friends
- God incarnate put on a towel and washed the feet of His creatures.
- Footwashing — the job of the lowest, meanest (from the same root as demeaning) slave in the household – cleaning the road dirt, “toe jam,” urine, animal dung from filthy feet and sandals. “You love one another as I have loved you.”
- The next day Jesus demonstrated this teaching again — on Calvary.
- The apocryphal story of John teaching in the church of Ephesus.
- We would rather have “new revelation” than be constrained to live out and work out the basics of love in the real world.
- We don’t want to deal with inward sin, darkness, and selfishness.
In obeying this new commandment, we find the new gift from Jesus.
- Ultimately, loving like Jesus proves that He is in you, and that you are in Him.
- It’s one thing to love Jesus, and prove it by obeying Him, but…
- …it’s a much deeper thing to love like Jesus! That’s the goal for which we strive and the goal toward which God works in our lives.
- “They’ll know that you’re My disciples if you love like I do” — in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- This commandment, if you seek with all your heart to obey it, is the gift that works in your heart to make you like Jesus – a wonderful gift indeed!
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More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.
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