Bible college professor Yohanna Katanacho, who pastors a
small church in Jerusalem, is subjected to much persecution. Israeli soldiers
who patrol the city looking for potential terrorists impose spontaneous curfews
on Palestinians and have the legal right to shoot at a Palestinian who does not
respond quickly enough to their summons.
Yohanna tried and failed in his attempts to love his
enemies. The Israeli soldiers’ random daily checks for Palestinian
identification cards—sometimes stopping them for hours—fed Yohanna’s fear and
anger. As he confessed his inability to God, Yohanna realized something
significant. The radical love of Christ is not an emotion, but a decision. He
decided to show love, however reluctantly, by sharing the gospel message with
the soldiers on the street. With new resolution, Yohanna began to carry copies
of a flyer with him, written in Hebrew and English, with a quotation from
Isaiah 53 and the words “Real Love” printed across the top. Every time a
soldier stopped him, he handed him his ID card and the flyer. Because the quote
came from the Hebrew Scriptures, the soldier usually asked him about it before
letting him go.
After several months, Yohanna realized his feelings
toward the soldiers had changed. “I was surprised, you know?” he says. “It was
a process, but I didn’t pay attention to that process. My older feelings were
not there anymore. I would pass in the same street, see the same soldiers as
before, but now find myself praying, ‘Lord, let them stop me so that I can
share with them the love of Christ.’ ”
—“When Love Is Impossible,” Trinity Magazine (Fall 2005)
This morning I hope I can give you a taste of what it means
to love God and love others. Truthfully, I have been working on this for nearly
a year and half and I still believe I have much more to learn about Love. The
likelihood that I will be able to condense all there is to know about
practically living out love in a 30-minute sermon is nil. If I were to preach
on the what the Bible teaches about love every Sunday it would take nearly 4
years to deal with every passage that the Bible mentions love. There is no way
possible to accomplish that task in a few sermons. So, my hope is to highlight
a few things and then encourage you to do some exploring on your own.
God’s Faithful Love
In God’s word we read that God is love.
Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is
from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one
who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was
revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so
that we might live through him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but
that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No
one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love
is made complete in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us:
He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and we testify that the Father
has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son
of God—God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to
believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in
love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete
with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he
is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect
love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So, the one who fears
is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I
love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person
who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom
he has not seen. And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must
also love his brother and sister.
God is love. We look to the life of Christ as the
manifestation of God with us. He is our Emmanuel which means God with us. In
this passage I just read Jesus demonstrates His love by pursuing us and
ultimately sacrificing His life for our salvation. He was willing to give all
for you and for me for our ultimate wellbeing. That we might be able to be
saved from sin and destruction.
In the Old Testament we learn about “Faithful Love.” The
Hebrew word is hesed (Hay-sayd). This word is most often translated “faithful
love.” It also is translated “Kindness” “Loyalty” “Gracious” “Faithfulness” and
“Constant Love.” When we say God is love it is this love that we are
referencing. God’s love is faithful, God’s love is kindness, God’s love is
gracious, God’s love is constant!
The first time this word is used in the Bible it is in a
prayer by a servant of Abraham while seeking a bride for Abraham’s son Isaac. Genesis
24:12-14
“Lord, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “make this
happen for me today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. I am standing here
at the spring where the daughters of the men of the town are coming out to draw
water. Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your water jug so that I may
drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also’—let her be
the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you
have shown kindness to my master.”
As he finishes the prayer Rebekah arrives. She is beautiful
and full of hospitality and grace. She invites the servant of Abraham back to
her father’s house. She was a perfect match for Issacs. So the Servant praises
God saying: Genesis
24:27 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not
withheld his kindness (hesed) and faithfulness from my master.”
Prayer as it relates to love
Before moving on I want to note something about prayer as it
relates to love. This servant knew something about God’s faithful love. He
prayed that God’s faithful love would be made reality. When it came to pass
then He worshiped and praised God for His faithful love. This seems to me a
good pattern for us to follow. We seek to learn about God’s faithful love, we
pray that God’s faithful love be a reality in our lives, and praise God when
His faithful love is manifest in our lives.
There are many other occasions that God’s people praise
God’s faithful love. One such instance is in the song the Israelites sang after
crossing the Red Sea on Dry land. The whole event was evidence of God’s mighty
hand at work. The protection from the Egyptians pursuing them, the parting of
waters, the crossing all of it was God’s hand. They sang a song of praise. One
stanza of this song says
With your faithful love, you will lead the people you
have redeemed; you will guide them to your holy dwelling with your strength.
300
Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon The Love of God Burns in Our
Hearts (1
John 4:7, 19; Jude 21)
You have a magnifying glass and hold it up before the
sun until you focus the rays on a piece of dry wood and set it on fire. Now,
while you see the wood burning to ashes, will you tell me what it is that
burns? Does the heat of the sun burn the wood or does the wood burn? The heat
that you feel while the wood is burning, is it due to the sun or to the wood?
Of course at first the fire is purely and simply the flame of the sun, but
afterwards the wood itself begins to burn; the sun burns the wood and then the
wood itself burns.
Even so the love of God comes into our heart, and then
our heart loves too, and in both cases “love is from God” (1 John 4:7).
No man is a Christian unless he himself loves God with his own heart, but yet
our love to God is nothing more or less than the reflection of God’s love to
us: so that it comes to the same thing.
The point I think is to understand how to love God we must
first learn to understand God’s faithful love for us, seek to have that love
manifest in our lives, and praise Him for his faithful love. The foundation of
our love for God is not something that we find in ourselves ultimately. It is a
manifestation of God’s faithful love flowing through us back to God and toward
others. God’s faithful love in us.
God’s Love Is Faithful
Our affections can ebb and flow. The things I loved as a
young adult seem quite trivial to me now. And the things that seemed trivial
back then have become more important to me now. Love expressed in this way is
not really the type of love we are seeking to understand here. God’s love is
faithful. If we are to represent and manifest God’s love then our love ought to
be faithful as well. What does faithful love look like?
As a Christian we know that God highest love is the atoning
work of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Jesus said before He died on a cross
that
“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved
you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
We also read that:
This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his
life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
When we look at these words of Christ and John, Christ’s
sacrifice is central to the love we are discussing here today. You see our sin
separates us from the faithful love that God wants to show us. So much so that
left to our own ends we remain separated and unable to obey the command to love
others. So, is Jesus asking us to do something that is impossible then? Well
yes and no. It is impossible to love as God has commanded us without some
supernatural change in our hearts and lives. Jesus is more than an example of
how to love others. He is the very substance of Love that enables us to love
God and Love others. It is the Gospel that is the source of ultimate love that
flows into our lives and redeems our souls so that we can love God and love
others empowered ultimately by God’s Holy Spirit.
Now if you have obeyed the Gospel then you already know what
I am talking about. However, if you are here this morning and you have never received
the message of salvation for your soul then the rest of this sermon is unlikely
to do you any good. You must settle in your heart today whether you will
surrender your life to Jesus Christ and make him savior and Lord of your life.
Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead is the most supreme
and loving act of all history. He wants you to respond and follow in his loving
sacrifice. That is the obedience Jesus and John are proclaiming here. To Love
God is to respond favorably to this Gospel call. This is the first step of
obedience that grows and matures into the fullness of loving God and loving
others.
Loving God’s Truth
Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the
truth.
Time and again God’s word connects obedience to loving God.
Last week a shared several verses with you that stated how if we love God, we obey
his commands.
But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God
is made complete. This is how we know we are in him:
Truly obedience to God’s word is our act of love. We are
walking in love when we are faithful to God’s commands. This loyalty to God’s
commands then is an expression of faithful love. It is this love for which we
are striving. Why do we love God? Because God first loved us!
Jesus said it this way:
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
You see this love for God is Loving God with all your heart,
soul, and mind.
How do we know God’s truth?
So, if loving God is obeying his commands, then the next
logical question is how do we know God’s commands? Jesus has already answered
that by quoting the verse in the Old Testament. Let’s look at that verse now:
“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to
your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk
along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on
your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the
doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
So how do we know God’s commands? Well one thing you are
doing correctly right now is showing up. When we come together to hear from
God’s Word, we are learning a bit about God’s commands. So, seeking out solid
Bible teaching is essential. We have life groups that meet on Sundays and some
during the week. These groups spend time in God’s word learning from God’s Word
and challenging one another to live out God’s commands in our lives. One thing
though that is often missing is study God’s word for ourselves. Your love for
God will be directly related to the amount of time that you spend in the Bible.
This passage says to have God’s word in your heart repeat them to your
children, talk about God’s word as you go through life, bind them to your hand
write them on your forehead. God’s word is to be an intimate part of everyday
life not just something you study once or twice a week. If you want to love God
more, you would do well to spend more time studying and meditating on God’s
word. Then as God’s will becomes more and more apparent, then you will learn
and live out faithful love.
I just finished reading the Bible cover to cover in 90 days.
I am going through a second time and am about a third of the way through. I
read about an hour a day. Now think about this how many activities during the
day do you spend an hour or more that have no eternal consequence. Would you be
willing to join with me this year to give an hour a day for studying God’s word?
Maybe you don’t read as fast. That is OK it is not a race. Read at your pace,
just get into the word. Maybe you have a short attention span. That is OK as
well. Take 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes midday and 20 minutes in the
evening. My challenge to you is to regularly get into God’s word. It is only by
knowing God’s word that we can truly obey His word and it is only by obeying
his word that we can genuinely love God! If you commit to this hour a day you
will be able to read through the Bible easily within the next year. Even when
you miss a day or two along the way.
Loving Others
I would like to now turn our focus on to loving people. I
will not be able to adequately cover the breadth of this subject. I only hope
that we can get a taste of what it means and that you would as you dig into
God’s word to get the depth of how we are to love each other.
Without rehashing last week’s sermon let’s makes some quick
observations and then dig into a couple points. When we think about love for
others there are multiple categories of people that this applies to. Each group
we will experience and express love differently. This is mainly the nature of
the relationships that we have. For example, the love I express toward my wife
Amy is going to be different in experience and expression than the love I
generally express to all of you. Some key groups then we see in scripture are
spouses, family, elders (family and church), friends, fellow Christians,
enemies, and the people world in general. Quickly then in a marriage love is to
be demonstrated in the way that a husband lays down his life for his wife (Ephesians
5:25-33; Colossians
3:19; 1
Peter 3:7). This also is demonstrated in the way that a wife in turn
respects her husband’s loving sacrifice toward her and submits to him. The
Bible is unambiguous on this: A loving marriage is between a man and a woman.
Our culture is working hard to redefine the nature of marital relationships. We
cannot compromise on this to disobey God is to say we really do not love Him.
That being said Husbands if you want to learn love, learn to lay your life down
for your wife. This is not an either or. This love only works when both husband
and wife are doing their part in relationship. With family we are to raise our
children not in anger but to love and honor God (Ephesians 6:4).
With our parents we are to honor them (Ephesians 6:1-3).
With fellow believers we love each other by building one
another up, encouraging, meeting together, seeking unity, seeking peace, and
provoking loving works (Ephesians 4:1-3,Colossians 3:14,
Hebrews
10:24). With our elders we are to care for them (1 Timothy
5:3-4, 8). With church elders we are to honor them and make sure they are
adequately compensated for their work (1 Timothy
5:17-20).
With friends we tell them the good news of Christ and serve
them where we are able; we love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31;
John
15:12-13). With our enemies we love them by providing for their basic
needs, treating them with kindness, and praying for them (Luke 6:27-36).
I have included the references to these verses so that you in your personal
Bible Study time can get into God’s Word and write upon your heart the reality
of God’s faithful love, our love for God, and our love for others. This week
and in the last sermon I referenced about 70 passages about this subject. There
are so many more I could have referenced. Someone joked after the last sermon
“I hope you don’t run out of verses to use in your sermon.” This is not
possible. In fact, God’s word mentions love over 752 times. To put this into perspective
the Bible (The numbers vary a bit depending on the English translation)
mentions the word doctrine 6 times, Discernment 36 times, Teach and teaching
231 times, learn 82 times, truth 170 times, and Holy 653 times. God’s
overwhelming message to is in His Word is Love! The word love is found
throughout the Bible. Here is a graph that shows the frequency of the word
Love.
I will make all the Bible references in the last two sermons
available on the RBC website and a paper copy is on the table in the back. I
encourage you to dig into God’s word.
What does love look like?
I would like to spend these closing moments highlighting a
few things from the love chapter.
Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is
not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not
irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in
unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for
prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for
knowledge, it will come to an end.
Love is long-suffering. The word patient is defined as
suffering long for the one that you love. It is interesting to me that the very
first characteristic of love is suffering. It seems strange, but as you
meditate on in it ultimately becomes a profound truth. When we suffer long for
the person, we love it becomes the ultimate expression of love.
Love is kind. Kindness is greatly missing from our lives in
our culture. We are more likely to experience contempt and rejection that
kindness and love. We can all work at being more kind to one another and those
around us.
Love is not self-seeking. When we use relationships for
selfish ends we cannot claim to be loving.
Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take
the lead in honoring one another.
The goal is to take the lead in the race of loving and
honoring each other. Further:
In every way I’ve shown you that it is necessary to help
the weak by laboring like this and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus,
because he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Giving is a blessing. In fact, Jesus says the blessing that
comes from giving is greater than the blessing from receiving. Giving Love is
greater than receiving love from others! Showing Kindness is greater than
receiving Kindness. This is the mark of the Christian faith, “that we love one
another.”
Conclusion
What can we say then? First Love reflects God’s faithful
love. It is this loyal, kind, gracious, and steadfast love that God has for us
that is the foundation of the love that we have for God and others. It is only
by having this love in us through faith in Jesus Christ that this love is
possible. Second, to obey God is to love God. The only way we can know and obey
God is to saturate ourselves lives in His teachings. We do the through sermons,
study groups, and most importantly individual study of His word. Third, we know
that God has commanded us to love others. This takes many forms depending on
the nature of the relationship. It is unquestionable that we are to love in all
these relationships whether the inmate relationship of a spouse to the
challenge of those that persecute and hate you and everything in between. In
all things persevere in love. Finally, we need to recognize the love is
long-suffering, kind, and self-sacrificing. When we commit to this type of
love, which by is ultimately is expressed in Christ’s laying his life down for
our salvation our souls, then we will be revived, our church will flourish, and
our world will be transformed by the powerful faithful love of God. Let us
pray.
