What Love Is
Notes
Transcript
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 1941 My Love and Baby’s Love
A gentleman who was a professed Christian was taken seriously ill. He became troubled about the little love he felt in his heart for God, and spoke of his experience to a friend. This is how the friend answered him.
“When I go home from here, I expect to take my baby on my knee, look into her sweet eyes, listen to her charming prattle, and tired as I am, her presence will rest me; for I love that child with unutterable tenderness. But she loves me little. If my heart were breaking it would not disturb her sleep. If my body were racked with pain, it would not interrupt her play. If I were dead, she would forget me in a few days. Besides this, she had never brought me a penny, but was a constant expense to me. I am not rich, but there is not money enough in the world to buy my baby. How is it? Does she love me, or do I love her? Do I withhold my love until I know she loves me? Am I waiting for her to do something worthy of my love before extending it?”
This practical illustration of the love of God for His children caused the tears to roll down the sick man’s face. “Oh, I see,” he exclaimed, “it is not my love to God, but God’s love for me, that I should be thinking of. And I do love Him now as I never loved Him before.”
—Gospel Herald
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
“Love - a word that comes and goes,
But few people really know,
What it means to really love somebody,
Love, though the tears may fade away,
I'm so glad your love will stay,
Cause I love you,
And you show me, Jesus,
What it really means to love.”
Kirk Franklin wrote that song for his fourth album, a collaboration project with the group, Nu Nation, in 1997. The album was famous for the song, “Stomp,” but this song, “Love,” was one of my favorites. In it, Kirk drives home the unrelenting, ever-persevering, unfailing love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Because so many people do not really understand love, they do not understand the love that God has for us, nor do they understand how to love - either God or their neighbor.
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
God’s love is so strong, so relentless, so ever-persevering, that He is not influenced by your response to it.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Our Gospel text comes from the same apostle who wrote that verse. In it, Jesus tells us what our relationship with God is like.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
On the surface, it sounds like Jesus is saying that God will stand back, like we do, wait for evidence that we love Him, like we do, and then respond in kind - like we do. That is how we tend to think of love, but in reality, that isn’t love, that’s reciprocity:
“The practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, especially privileges granted by one country or organization to another.”
John tells us in his first epistle, that God isn’t dealing with us like that:
We love because he first loved us.
Not just, as some scribes added, “we love him” or “we love God.” No, the reality is far deeper! The only reason that we love at all - our spouse, our children, our neighbor, our enemy, God Himself - is because He first loved us!
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Think about that - whatever you’re going through right now, good, bad, or indifferent. You are here, going through that, feeling what you’re feeling, experiencing what you’re experiencing, because God did that!
When God made man, He didn’t just speak us into existence, as powerful as that is. Yes, that is powerful, because what God speaks - is. It isn’t “maybe,” isn’t “could be” - it “is!” It’s powerful that God, contemplating His own sacrificial death for us, could take bread, give it to His disciples and say, “This is My body, given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” Jesus gave of Himself for us , He didn’t need to be bread for Himself, He didn’t need to be contained in a cup for Himself. That was for you! But that’s another sermon.
What I’m saying right now, is that God did more than that! God made us in His image, after His likeness. God gave man dominion over His creation, over every living thing...
“And God blessed them.” Don’t just fly be those words to get to the “fruitful and multiply” part, linger there for a moment. Man came into being with a blessing. Their initial experience of life was that it was a blessing.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
It took sin to make life a curse. It is because of sin that we don’t know God. It is because of sin that we walk in fear, of God, of one another, of God’s creation, even of ourselves. We fear our weakness, we fear our strength, we fear our potential. We could be so much, but settle for so little, because of fear.
We cheat ourselves out of the joy that we could have as God’s beloved children because of fear.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
Fear leads us to disobey Christ’s commandments. We fear that we will be hurt, or we will suffer loss. God knows - He suffered because He loved us.
Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
God loves us enough to forgive us our sins, not on a whim, not just simply by speaking a word, but by suffering and dying for them. God loves us enough to engage with us, to get His hands dirty for us:
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Why do I talk so much about Christ and Him crucified? Because you need to know, right now, that God loves you. He loves you enough to live with you, to suffer with you, to bleed for you, to die for you, to rise for you, and to return for you! He has not left you without comfort. The Holy Spirit is another comforter, and He is available to you, promised by God, given in Holy Baptism as the down-payment of your inheritance that was stolen by sin.
The devil tries to cheat you of what is yours by deceiving you into thinking that you are not loved by God. That’s a lie! The devil tries to cheat you by telling you that there is no God, that you were not created, that there is nothing special about you or your existence - that is a lie! The devil tries to cheat you by making you think that death has the final say - that is a lie!
Christ is risen - He is risen indeed - Hallelujah!
He still loves you. His Commandments are still for your good. The love that He has for you and works through you is still good - good for you, good for your family, good for your neighbor, good for your community, and good for this world.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
We are not alone, we are family, we are part of the communion of Saints. We can look forward to the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. We can rest in hope, knowing that “as He is, so are we in this world.”
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.