Born To Love Series

INTRODUCTION

 SLIDE 1

 Over the last couple of weeks we have talked about trying to stay clean in an unclean world, or put another way, we were encouraged to stay out of the mud. Last week we looked at why we need to stay out of the mud.

 When you belong to Jesus, we should conduct ourselves in a way that reflects the relationship we claim to have. This means our life will look different that those in the world around us.

 Today I want us to consider something in which we can tell if we have been staying out of the mud, a way that we can tell if we are growing to be more like Jesus.

 One of the things that marked Jesus as being different was His love for mankind. His love was pure, His love was genuine. Jesus loved even those who persecuted Him. With Jesus you knew His love was pure and there were no hidden agendas behind His love. SLIDE 2

 John 13:35 says: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 I do not think Jesus could have made it any more plain than that.

 One of the reasons we were born again was so that we could love one another with a sincere love, not a “pat you on the back” type of love, not a love that loves because you are going to get something out of it.

 Today the title to this message is “Born to Love”

 The Bible tells us that God is love. (1 John 4:8)

 If we are trying to be more Christ-like, then our love should grow. What kind of live does God have for us? Is it a love because of what He can get out of us? Is it a love that has bad intentions or a love that would cause Him to use us?

 One of the things that will hurt a church and the kingdom of God is a lack of love among those who make up the church.

 Let’s turn to 1 Peter 1:22-2:2 together this morning. READ!

SERMON

Our love for one another needs to be pure: SLIDE 3

I. PURE LOVE (22)

Click 3

 1 Peter 1:22 says: Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,

 Our souls are purified when we are obedient to the call of the gospel. This points back to the time when a person is saved by doing what God says we are to do. The word “purified” points to a completed action from the past with lasting results.

 Obedience to the truth is a condition of purification. God’s part of the process was to provide the precious blood of Jesus, man’s part is obedience. God provided the sacrifice necessary for us to be cleansed and presented the truth, man is to respond by being obedient to the truth if he wishes for his soul to be purified.

 The truth is God’s word, the gospel, His system of salvation and redemption. Following false teachings, no matter how well intention will not leave us with a purified soul. SLIDE 4

 John 17:17 says: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

 Because we have been purified or are in a purified state, we are now able to love with a sincere or pure love.

 Notice the passage says we are purified FOR a sincere love of the brethren. SLIDE 5

 The NLT reads this way in verse 22, Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters£ because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts

 IF you have not been regenerated or if your soul has not been purified, then you will not be able to have a sincere love, your love will be affected in a negative way because of the sin that stains us before we are cleansed.

 Our love will be selfish or we will have ulterior motives behind what we are doing.

 The love we are to have is an agape love; this is the love that God has for mankind. Agape love is a love that will cause us to what is spiritually best for another person.

 When we are saved we have a relationship with God and we are to have a relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

 We are to love one another not with a brotherly love, but BECAUSE we are brothers. A sincere love is one that is pure, we are to love each other because we are brothers and sisters in Christ, end of discussion!