HERE'S WHAT LOVE IS - Part 2
Notes
Transcript
British journalist James Bartholomew observed a trend in modern Western culture and coined a new English term to describe it. He called it “virtue signaling.” What is virtue signaling? I will define it by using an illustration. I recently saw a Facebook post about feeding the homeless which received over 10,000 likes. The post said, “It’s so very satisfying to be making a difference in people’s lives!”
When companies advertise their support for the environment or homelessness to convince you to buy their product – they are virtue signaling. When people wear wristbands proclaiming their awareness of cancer, plaster their bumpers with stickers decrying everything from inequality to bullying, or participate in an “ice bucket challenge” – they are virtue signaling.
Virtue signaling is a way to make yourself feel and look good without actually doing any good. We will soon celebrate the king of virtue signaling holidays: Valentine’s Day – how much easier is it to buy a box of chocolates or a dozen roses than it is to actually sit and listen or do the chores! Virtue signaling is a shallow excuse for not showing real care, compassion and love. We live in a world of empty expressions of love – so we need our Lord to tell us what genuine love looks like.
Last week we studied the biblical definition of love. Paul uses a series of participles, verbs with instructions, to paint for us a portrait of love. He begins he portrait by telling that love must be genuine (without hypocrisy). In other words, when God looks for love, he looks at our hearts.
Genuine love flows in two directions. First, Jesus says: love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30) Secondly: love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:31)
God knows when our kindness is little more than a cover for a bitter, jealous, greedy heart. God knows if we do good things for others even though we’d rather not. God demands that we love him and love others with genuine, sincere, perfect love. Self-examination time. How do we stack up?
If we’re honest, we must confess that we have not loved as God demands – and even the best we can do is tainted by sin. The perfect Law of God reveals that if our salvation depends on our love, we are doomed. But here’s the good news:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
When we were unlovable, wretched, rebellious enemies of God, he loved us. He didn’t just tell us about his love – he proved it by sending Jesus to live and die for us. If you want to see genuine love, look at Jesus. He didn’t just talk about helping those in need – he actually rebuked the proud, he comforted the hurting, he fed the hungry, gave sight to the blind and life to the dead. When his enemies showed their hatred by beating him and nailing him to a cross Jesus showed his love by praying: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34) And then, Jesus performed the greatest act of love in human history: he laid down his life to pay for the sins – of not just his friends, but his enemies. Through faith, our lovelessness is covered by his perfect life of love. That’s genuine love. That’s genuine love from our God whose very essence is love. (1 John 4:16)
Only when our faith is firmly fixed on God’s perfect, genuine love for us will we be ready for Paul’s answer to the question: what does genuine love look like in our own lives?
Genuine love is not just being nice to people. Genuine love has a moral orientation toward the good. When we show love toward someone, we are moving them toward God's goodness. Genuine love is not being nice to people by catering to specific likes or dislikes. Genuine love is acting in a way that helps them to experience more of God’s goodness.
Look with me this morning at the second half of verse 9 and let us see Paul’s first strokes of his portrait of love.
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Genuine love hates evil and holds fast to good.
Genuine love hates evil and holds fast to good.
Genuine love hates evil
Genuine love hates evil
Genuine love, love without hypocrisy, demonstrates itself by “hating what is evil”. Biblical love never endorses, aligns itself with, or encourages attitudes or behavior that is evil.
Paul tells believers in Philippi
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
Remember our altar binding verb in Romans 12:2 “do not conform to this world”. We discover our depth of worldly conformity by the intensity of our hatred of evil. Unfortunately, familiarity with a culture that is shaped by the forces of Satan has ground and soften too many believers into a state of general tolerance for whatever deviant behavior is in vogue at present. We are to hate evil because it is the enemy of all that leads to Christlikeness.
The proper Christian response to evil is not simply to avoid it, but to be repelled by it. Let’s be honest for a moment. We are often disgusted by evil but we rarely hate evil. Adjectives, such as disgusted, do not act they just describe. Verbs, such a hate, act because it is hard wired into every verb. Our predicament presents us with an important question. How do I move from disgusted to hate?
Before I answer that question let me address the pink elephant in the room. I realize that preaching a sermon entitled “here’s what love is” and opening that sermon with growing our hatred seems incompatible. Such a conclusion reminds us of sin’s pervasive influence in our lives. Scripture redefines love by teaching us that loves hates. Biblical love will not support our modern day anthem “a true friend will support you in anything you want to do”.
How do we move ourselves from disgusted to hate? We discipline ourselves to a daily re-grounding of our faith so that we can accurately discern the line between good and evil. Genuine love is discerning. It compels you to act on the behalf of those who are flirting with or fully involved in foolish and dangerous activities.
One effect of genuine love is the hatred of evil. I could provide you with other Scriptural references to support my statement but for times sake I will give you one.
O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Do not be deceived abstaining from evil is not the same as hating. Paul taught believers in Thessalonica
Abstain from every form of evil.
Both commands aid us in our fight against sin in their own unique way. Abstaining on its own deteriorates into legalism. It simply has no power because is not fueled by love. Abhorring fuels abstaining for it is resourced by love.
Consider for a moment Roman crucifixion and its brutality. Why crucifixion? Could the Lord of Glory not devise another manner of salvation less gruesome? I believe the Lord allowed this horrific act to forever remind us of the evilness of evil. It was His love for evil people such as you and I that held him to the cross.
Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon his shoulders
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished.
Long deep meditations of Christ on the cross will inflame an abhorrence of evil in our hearts.
If we are to obedient to Scriptures command to love as God loves we must abhor evil because the genuineness of God’s love is demonstrated in his hatred of evil. He cannot over look evil. He demonstrates grace towards all unrepentant and repentant sinners. However, he cannot and will not forever be gracious to those who will not repent. His love for holiness drives Him to unleash His full wrath (hatred) against the unrepentant. Love which does not hate evil is sentimentality (mushiness).
Christ died on the cross to show us the evilness of evil and to show us His abhorrence of evil. It was there on Golgotha’s Hill that Christ “destroyed the works of the devil (the evil one 1 John 3:8). At the Cross “he disarmed the power and authorities of evil and put them to open shame” (Colossians 2:15)
Our abhorrence of evil does not makes us narrow minded it just means we are walking the narrow way. It does not make us judgmental for we are living the Jesus way by taking the log out of our own eye so that we can clearly take the speck out of our brothers eye (Matthew 7:1,5). Abhorrence of evil will not make you acceptable to everyone yet it is the acceptable will of the Lord.
Let me be clear that this command to hate evil is not a command to hate evil doers. Paul gives clear instruction as to how we are to act towards those who do evil.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
The exhortation is to bless our persecutors in the sense of returning kindness and love to those who mistreat us because of our testimony to the Lord Jesus. It is “to speak them good”. What? Why? Paul uses the same word in Ephesians 1:3 when referring to God
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Bless is a present imperative verb which commands an habitual action, “Be constantly blessing.”
Persecution often follows a commitment to practice biblical love. Genuine love the highest good of those who do not understand genuine love.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
Peter reinforces Paul’s teaching in
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
The phrase “give thought” in verse 17 carries the idea of premeditated. We are not being called to premeditate every possible scenario. We are being called to meditate on all-encompassing Scripture.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Checks are only good when they are written against an adequately stored treasure. Checks written against under funded accounts results in a transactional failure.
Genuine love holds on to good
Genuine love holds on to good
Kollao is the Greek word meaning to glue together and is the word from which we get our English word collagen, the fibrous protein found in bones, skin, tendons, and cartilage. What Paul is calling us to do here, then, is to glue ourselves “to that which is good”—to connect ourselves “to what is good” as inseparably as tendons bind bone to muscle. When we injure a tendon, disconnecting bone from muscle, the injury is physically crippling. So, also, is any rupture of our bond “to that which is good” spiritually crippling.
In Romans 7, Paul examines the struggle against sin from the perspective of a believer. He says,
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Have you found that true in your life? Maybe there is a sin that you hate, but you engage in it anyway. Your hatred of performing that sin is evidence of true spiritual life: A true Christian hates evil and loves righteousness. Spiritual life isn't determined by merely professing to believe in Christ at some point in your life. The proof of your salvation is your love of righteousness and hatred of sin, even though you might still do evil things. In verse 17 Paul says,
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Consequently, he says,
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
I think every one of us as Christians can identify with that struggle. You love righteousness and the things of God. Yet, you might have a bitter attitude, and be critical and unkind. Or, maybe you expose your mind to ungodly desires and practices. Possibly you have struggled with pride or indifference, and say to yourself, "I hate doing such-and-such! Why do I do that?" So you say with Paul in frustration, "It is because of sin that dwells in me--it's not what I really desire. Who will get me out of this mess?"
Hopefully, in the midst of such struggles, you yield yourself to the Holy Spirit so that He might cause you to live righteously. At the same time, you long for the day when you will be free from the sinful desires of the flesh and go to be with the Lord. In Romans 8, Paul expresses that hope for the day when we will be redeemed, not only in soul, but in body as well (vv. 18-25). From 1 Corinthians 15 we know that we will be like Christ
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Paul helps us to understand that we are to be people, who, in our deepest desires, hate sin--even though we occasionally do evil things. That's the best test I know of for determining if you are a Christian. When you sin, do you hate it? Is the inclination of your heart to do what is right? That is a principle Christian duty. Christians are to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. That's clearly Paul's desire in Romans 7: He wants to hold fast to what is good. That should be our desire too. There can be no neutrality with good and evil: You either stick to what is good, or you move to what is evil.
Conclusion
How can I grow my hatred for evil and yet obey the command to love my neighbor as myself? Meditate on the mercies of God. His mercies toward you fuel your obedience to not be conformed to this world and to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It is the confluence of this activity which enables us hate evil while seeking to help those who do evil experience God’s goodness. Genuine love does not endorse evil. It expresses His goodness by holding fast to what is good.
Hating evil and holding fast to what is good is the life of a living sacrifice. If those are altar binding verbs of verse 2 are not being lived then a living sacrifice you cannot be. These participles will cause you crawl off the altar. They are too potent and penetrate too deeply to be lived out in the power flesh. Christian there resides within you a power to live this way and attached to this power is an unction. A divine spiritual influence that compels to walk in this manner.
There is no book but the Bible that transform you into this person. There no teacher or preacher but the Holy Spirit that can transform you into this person. There is no conference or even that you can attend that can transform you only time spent in prayer and meditation. Don’t wait on desire for it will not come. Deep abiding change comes from discipline. Obey the Spirit’s unction by disciplining yourself for godliness.
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.