Today, we are going to continue talking about the purpose of the church. The purpose of the church is to love one another. Jesus said to His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). We need to understand how Jesus loved His disciples if we are going to fulfil this purpose and love as Jesus loves.

Jesus gave up heaven and being with the Father to be sent to earth and be born of a woman. “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman” (Gal. 4:4a). This action demonstrates His love for us because of what He gave up coming to this earth—He gave up being with the Father.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). He gave up the reputation of being equal with God and “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:5a ESV). Jesus is the Creator of the universe (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2), yet He made himself of no reputation. Try to imagine the love it took for the Creator of the universe to humble Himself and become obedient. “Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:6-8).

The Almighty became like His brethren so “that He could be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17b). The love that flowed from Him was immeasurable, that He was willing to be made in all things like His brethren (Heb. 2:17a). One of the reasons Jesus had to become a man is that it is impossible for God to be tempted. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (James 1:13). Jesus loves us so much that He gave up the fact that He could not be tempted to become a human being for the reason of understanding what it means to suffer being tempted. He was willing to go through all this suffering and more for the purpose of helping us through our temptations.

Before becoming a man, as God, He did not know obedience; He learned it by the things He suffered so that He could be the “author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Heb. 5:8-9). Leaving heaven, He gave up more than we could ever know or understand, all because He loves us and yet, He still loves us more. He gave up His own life and died the cruelest death possible while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:7-8). This act showed the greatest love possible. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).

If we want to fulfi ll the purpose of the church, we must learn to have the same type of sacrificial love as Jesus. Then and only then will the world know that we are His disciples. We must make it our purpose to truly love one another. Next week, we will dive more into this love that Jesus demonstrated to us so that we can better understand it and know how to apply it to our lives. If we understand and apply love, we will make the church great. Go forth and love as Jesus loved, and there will be no doubt that you are His disciple. Just something to consider.