Loing Each Other With A Pure Heart Fervently

Loving Each Other With A Pure Heart Fervently

Preached at Skillman Bible Church

June 5, 2005

Re-edited and preached at CGEFC

December 2, 2007

Main Sermon Text:

1 John 4:7-5:4

Supporting texts:

1 Cor. 13:13

James 2:15-16

Matthew 22:39

1 John 3:11-24

Central Proposition: Christians must love each other fervently and this is displayed through our actions toward each other in the working out of our faith together and in our service in the church and in each other’s lives.

Sub proposition 1: Christ is the ultimate model for love.

Sub proposition 2: Out of the three character qualities listed in 1 Cor 13:13, Love will be all that remains in the new creation. We will have no need for faith or hope in heaven. So if we are to live by God’s standards with heaven in mind, we must practice love.

Applicational truths:

1) We must love each other with our actions (or in deed) and not just give lip service (in word).

2) We must love each other “in truth” and not simply “in tongue”

3) Three blessings will come to the believer who practices Christian love:

a. Assurance - A Christian who practices love grows in his understanding of God’s truth and enjoys a heart filled with confidence before God.

b. Answered Prayer - love for the brethren proves that you are living in the will of God where God can answer your prayer.

c. Abiding - when a believer walks in love, he finds it easy to obey God, and therefore he maintains a close communion with God.

4) We must follow Jesus’ example and lay down our lives for each other.

When I was nearing the end of my seminary education, I took a class titled “Eschatology” in which we discussed and examined Biblical texts and historic theology concerning End Times events. Now you would think that the majority of this class would be discussing the cataclysmic destruction of the world, the battle of Armageddon, Christ’s Return and so on… but in fact much of our discussion focused on the three basic tenets of Christianity, the three core values of a Christian: Faith, Hope and Love.

Most of you know the scripture in 1 Corinthians 13. It’s a famous one which is spoken at many weddings. The last verse of this chapter states, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Faith, hope and love. Three core values of the Christian’s life. Faith is what we have when we say that we believe in Jesus. Hope is our trust that He will come back again to redeem His creation. Love, which is the greatest of these three, in which we have been created and in which we have been redeemed.

Love is the reason why we are here. It was out of love that God created the World. It was out of love that He chose to redeem His creation when it fell to sin, instead of wiping it out and starting anew. God is love. His very essence radiates this fact.

During that Eschatology class we studied the doctrinal statement of Dallas Seminary. Under the section on which defines the church the statement reads that believers in the community of the church should love “one another with a pure heart fervently.” I love that! A pure, heart fervently! What kind of love is this? What spurs this kind of love into action?

Today we’re going to look at one of the major texts of the Bible which expounds to us this mystery of love and how it applies to us today in this fallen world. Open your Bibles to 1 John 4 verse 7. It’s fitting to look at this passage as enter the Christmas season and as we look into the future of 2008 and the enormous task before us of building a new place for ministry because this passage deals with Christian love within the community of believers, within the church and with all of mankind. Please follow along as I read:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.