A New Commandment I Give to You, That You Love One Another [22nd Founding Anniversary Service]

This sermon centres on the new commandment Jesus gave his disciples, ‘love one another,’ and asks what the true life of a disciple is. The passage does not simply emphasise service or giving; it calls for a love that sacrifices itself for the other, and says that this is the evidence by which all people will know them as disciples. Yet the sermon points out that believers in reality have dried-up hearts because of pride, and cling to a hypocritical faith that treats sin as fine so long as it can be hidden from God's eyes.

The sermon explains that the true character of believers is like a lamp that gives off light, and emphasises that the prayers of brothers and sisters who faithfully keep the faith amid hardship and persecution are God's instrument for changing the world. In particular, it says that humble love begins only when we acknowledge our human limits, that we cannot climb the mountain of sin, and realise that we are saved by the grace of Christ alone. It warns that outward show and pretence in the life of faith will vanish when tested by fire on the last day, and that what God remembers is the small devotion of sincerely loving our brothers and sisters and interceding for them in prayer.

The sermon asks what answer believers will be able to give when they stand before Christ on the last day and look back on their lives. It leads us to examine whether we are living the life of true children: casting off the world's boasting and a faith of pretence, obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit, and giving the Lord rule over our lives. Through this sermon the reader is led to reflect on whether their faith truly practises the commandment to love one another, or whether they are still living a hypocritical life with a dried-up heart.