Love
Jesus said this is a commandment, that you love one another. Many times we say we love one another, but love demands action. Inactive love is not love. True love, the Godly kind of love will always demand action. And, eventually love will draw a reaction.
I. (JOH 3:16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
A. Here we see the action of God's love. ? What did God do? He gave.
1. JOH 15:13 Here in this V. we see the love of Jesus. What was the action of Jesus' love? He gave himself.
2. The principle of love taught in the Word of God is to give love & it will be given unto you.
3. 1JOHN 4:19
a. The thing that has enabled us to love God is that He 1st loved us.
i. (GAL 6:7) “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (KJV)
ii. That tells me if I sow seeds of strife, then I'm going to reap strife from others.
iii. If I sow seeds of friendliness then I will reap friends.
B. Look at 1 JOHN 4:7‑8
1. This V. tells us to love one another. That means that we are to reach out to one another.
a. We already said that love demands an action. Love without an action is dead.
II. I just want to look at husbands & wives for a second.
A. EPH 5:22–33
1. As we look at the subject of husbands and wives, you need to notice that in (V 22), Paul makes the comparison between husbands and wives, and Christ and the Church.
a. God has chosen the marriage relationship to give man a clear understanding of the relationship Christ should have with the Church.
b. In looking at the relationship between husbands and wives, we can see that God had something very different in mind to what we see in most marriages today.
i. What's surprising is how born-again, Spirit-filled Christians have used to world as the role model for love and marriage. (We've gotten our ideas from the world.)
ii. When you stop and think about it, what does the world know about love? I think the answer to that is obvious from their examples.
iii. They've proven over and over again that they don't know what love is. Why do you think that there are so many broken homes, so much child abuse, so many divorces, so many couples living together who are not married.
iv. The world doesn't understand anything about love.
B. Those who are not born-again do not know what love is.
1. If a person doesn't know Jesus they can't know what real love is.
2. We already read (1JOHN 4:7) which said “God is Love.”
a. If you don't know God or Jesus you can't know real true love.
i. Real true love is an unconditional love.
ii. The kind of love that the world has is the kind that says, “I love you IF you will love me, or I love you if you will do something for me.” (Like treat me good, buy me things, show me affection, and many times it says for those that are dating, “I love you if you will have sex with me.”
iii. There is always a condition attached to it.
b. But real true Love, the God kind of love simply says, “I love you.” That's all it ever says. (Unconditional)
III. Whether it's your husband or wives, or if it's your brother or sister in the Lord and you tell them that you love them, but don't reach out to them, than you don't really love them.
A. JAMES 2:15‑16
1. John says that “if you don't love them” & James adds “with action,” then you don't know God.
B. ROM 12:10
1. We need to be reaching out to our brothers and sisters with brotherly love.
a. (EPH 4:3) Says, “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (KJV)
b. When we are trying to reach out to one another with brotherly love, we are endeavoring to keep unity.
3. What does it mean to “Reach out in brotherly love?”
a. The Greek word is “philadelphia” & it means “fraternal affection, brotherly affection.”
b. Not with just a few, but with all the body.
c. I am not in agreement with cliques. There is nothing wrong with close friends, those that you can confide in & trust, or even have the same hobby. But that doesn't excuse any one from reaching out to others.
i. & having fellowship with them.
d. To often you can get involved in a clique without even knowing it if you're not careful.
e. Purposely reach out to others. You have to choose to do this. You have to make yourselves do this. You have to force yourself to do this.
i. It's not going to be easy. Your own desire wants to fellowship with those who you know well.
ii. GAL 5:24 “Crucify the flesh”
iii. There are times that we have to crucify the flesh & fellowship with someone else.
vi. Maybe you feel that someone has wronged you in some way or another, and that's stopping you from having fellowship with them.
vii. (1COR 13 From the AMP translation) Says that “love is not self‑seeking, it's not touchy or fretful or resentful, it takes no account of the evil done to it; it pays no attention to a suffered wrong, it is ever ready to believe the best of every person.”
IV. 1COR 13:8 This V tells us that love never fails. Love is going to change the person or it's going to change you.
A. There's another way you could look at that. Love doesn't have an end. Your love for the brethren is never to end.
B. EPH 3:14‑19 1st of all Paul's praying that these Christians would be rooted & ground in love.
1. Love is one of our foundations. We've got to have love for the brethren or we don't know God.
2. Then Paul says in, (EPH 3:19) “And to know the love of Christ...”
a. How can you know the love of Christ until you know Him? But that also means entering into His love and practicing it.
V. Love is the nature of God, God is love.
A. Letting the love of God that is in you and me begin to move, is to let God move.
TFC & WOLCC 12/27/92 SUN AM Mostly from Ken Stewart's mini book “Is It Really Love?”