1 John 4:16
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
My challenge is we really don’t know how much God loves us so we are going to spend the next few weeks learning about his love and how we display that love in our lives
Divorce rate: while it declined during COVID is increasing again, hovering around the 50% mark for first marriages
25% of America’s children have been abused, so much so that the second leading cause of death in children is homicide (1st is accident injury, car accidents and such)
Over ½ of Americans experience some intense feelings of loneliness every month. It is epidemic in those 20-40
I could go on, but you get the idea. The sad part is statistics inside and outside the church don’t differ much!
In all of our social media connections, technological advances, all the gimmicks both inside and outside of business, politics, and the church something is missing.
It is no surprise to Jesus….
Matthew 7:22
On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
Don’t get me wrong, these things are real and powerful and it is my desire to see these kinds of things more in our church and others but we know the gifts and callings from God are irrevocable.
We are challenged with the idea that someone could possess these power gifts and the Lord state that “I never knew you” but the Lord gives us why he never knew them ‘Get away from me you who break God’s law!”
Believe it or not, the stats I shared earlier and this passage of scripture reveal the same problem. They show us how many inside and outside of the church are enslaved and are in need of freedom!
What law have these miracle-workers broken, and what is the reason for the loneliness, divorce, abuse, self-hatred, and general weakness among God’s people?
Jesus answers that question for us
When Jesus was approached with the question of the greatest commandment, he gave this answer
Mark 12:28-34
One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. 30 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
32 The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. 33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
34 Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
It is the law of love, loving God with everything we are and living the love out in such a way that our lives reflect that as we look at ourselves and others!
Paul tells us that everything he has written was for the purpose of a believer’s understanding of love!
1 Timothy 1:5
The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.
Somehow, the believers Jesus talked about in Matthew 7 missed all of this. You see, our authority and power to change the world come from God’s love. If we move in the gifts without understanding God’s love, we can accomplish lots of things but still remain empty.
What does having a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith mean?
We will get to that over the next weeks.
We can plainly be religious, wear the labels, even do the stuff, and totally miss God! I don’t want that for you….I want you to do all the stuff….basically change the world, but we need to reiterate the law of love.
Let’s take a look at the difference between God’s love that he wants us to walk in and man’s love.
Let’s walk through a very familiar passage of Scripture
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
God’s love which we can’t do on our own. We have to get out of the way and allow Him to love through us!
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Man’s love – may not start this way but if not empowered by God can quickly turn into this kind of love.
Love is not patient and nor kind. Love is jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does demand its own way. It is irritable, and it keeps records of being wronged. 6 It does rejoice about injustice but does not always rejoice whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love gives up, loses faith, is not always hopeful, and does not always endure through every circumstance.
So how do we get to God’s love? We have to start by understanding what God’s love really is!
There are multiple words for love in Greek and when referring to God’s love. The New Testament was written in Greek as the common language of the day was Greek. We know Jesus spoke Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
In the Greek, love can be described in any of these four ways
Storge – empathy – fond of natural relatives, light love affection, familial love, the natural kind that points to a special bond. Although used sparingly in the New Testament, its meaning shines forth in Romans 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Philia – friendship – brotherly or sisterly love close relationship deeper bond This is deeper than storge.When Mary and Martha told Jesus that Lazarus fell ill, they said: “the one you love is sick”. (John 11:3) Lazarus and Jesus shared a deep, loving friendship, where a friend can be closer than a brother.
Eros – romantic, sexual, passionate love; it describes the unity between husband and wife. Although this word does not appear in the New Testament, it is used in Greek translations of the Old Testament.
Agapeo – unconditional, totally giving yourself over to a person or thing. The highest form of love
We often confuse agapeo (the verb) and Agape (the noun) – agapeo can be a human type of love where we unconditionally give ourselves over to a person, hobby, work, sports or it can be giving yourself over completely to God
The famous passage in John where Jesus is healing and restoring Peter in John 21:15-19
Jesus presents the challenge to Peter that he wants Peter to love him unconditionally and yet in his pain, Peter can only say I love you Lord, like a brother. Jesus has patience and speaks into Peter’s future and explains to him that he will come to the place of loving him unconditionally and so much so that he will even willingly physically die, by upside-down crucifixion, for him.
As we follow Peter’s life through the book of Acts and read his epistles we see a changed man, changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is kind of a catch-22 with love and the Holy Spirit. We can’t fully love God’s way to flow in the full power of the Holy Spirit without surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit.
The disciples had the privilege of knowing Jesus personally, but like Jesus said to Thomas last week, you believe because you see, but more blessed are those who believe without seeing (John 20:29)
Thomas laid down his life 40 years later after leading the queen, the prince, and several other key leaders of India to Christ.
What enabled these men without fear to die for their faith, what enabled the early church to flow in such power, yes it was the Holy Spirit but the Spirit was poured out and continued to flow as Paul stated, we will read again….
1 Timothy 1:5
The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.
Let me share this as a means of wrapping up today….it is something I want you to chew on this week and see how your life full of love compares to God’s way of loving….it should challenge you, like Peter to see what kind of love you really flow in versus the kind of love God challenges us in through 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8
– It is not dependent upon how we think or how we feel. It is not dependent upon our own understanding, our own feelings, or our own desires.
– It is not dependent upon the other person‘s response.
– It is not dependent upon our circumstances!
Let me expand this a little…
-God’s love is unconditional, without conditions of any kind he just loves
-God’s love is one-sided which means God’s love doesn’t have to be returned in order to be kept alive. He will love you no matter what. His is a love that initiates, and it keeps on coming
-His love is a freeing, love it frees you from expectations and presumptions, frees the one being love to love from the heart and not from their defenses. Human love always expects the other person to respond with love and return. God’s love, frees us from those expectations and allows us to love always freeing you to be really who you are! You will be loved for who you are! His love frees you to become who He has called you to be. He’s called you to be free to not have a mask on, you’re free to have a bad day to feel bad, to feel miserable but then free to give that to God and know that he loves you enough to take care of it. When God‘s love is moving through us, we are free to be who we are and allow God to do the work in us. That freedom creates a safety for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
-God‘s love is others-centered! In His love, you are secure enough to put others first, regardless of whether you like every decision God makes for you or every door He opens. God is constantly prioritizing you because you are the one He loves the most.
Can you imagine really living your life this way? The freedom and joy it would bring you? No jealousy, envy, fear, unrighteous anger, only pure clean love! It is possible!
The good and bad news is you can’t do this yourself, the Holy Spirit has to do this through you which requires you to as Paul said
Galatians 2:20
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Chew on that for the week and allow the Lord to show you where you fare in the love factor!