Love Of Another Kind

Love of Another Kind

1 John 4:7-16

{You can Watch today’s message at: https://youtu.be/XySoAKD5o6g}

{You can Listen to today’s message at: https://mega.nz/file/7AknnAgY#E8uKnTLPhrkqih0h2EJRgJns3xs8_7MO-T_Jkq0_DLA}

As I mentioned last week, the Lord seems to be having me on a new series since we came back from the COVID-19 shutdown. It comes from what Paul said to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that after it is all said and done, only three things will remain, faith, hope, and love.

And seeing how so much is happening in our world today, these three being manifested in our lives are now more important than ever.

We are now two-thirds through our study where we’ve looked at both faith and hope, each relating to what we’ve been going through recently in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic, and the more recent racial tension that has sparked violence here in America and around the world.

Today starts the last of the three, the one that Paul said is the greatest, and that is, love.

An actor, who was playing the part of Jesus Christ in the Passion Play, was being heckled by a tourist. Finally the actor had enough of the abuse, and so he threw down the cross, walked over to the tourist and punched him out.

After the play was over, the director told the actor, “I know he was a pest, but I can’t condone what you did. Besides, you’re playing the part of Jesus, and Jesus never retaliated. So don’t do anything like that again.”

The actor apologized and promised that he wouldn’t. But the next day the heckler was back and it was worse than before. The actor exploded and again punched him out.

The director said, “That’s it. I have to fire you. We just can’t have you behaving this way while playing the part of Jesus.” The actor begged for another chance promising that it would never happen again. So the director relented deciding to give him one more chance.

Well, you guessed it. The next day the actor was carrying the cross up the street, and sure enough the heckler was back. And you could tell that the actor was trying really hard to control himself, but as his emotions were about to get the best of him he looked at the heckler and said, “I’ll meet you after the resurrection!”

Sometimes it’s hard for us who profess to be Christians to behave like Christians, or to be like Christ. We try to carry our crosses,

but if someone crosses us we tend to lose our composure and behave in much the same way as this actor, or, as the rest of the world.

But the Bible teaches that we are to be people who exercise love in all of our relationships.

The Apostle Paul said, “I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:1-2 NKJV)

Loving others isn’t easy, in fact there are times when it’s downright difficult, and that’s because not everybody is all that easy to love. And so, today I’d like to share with you about love of another kind.

The world only knows what is called a natural kind of love. It’s the most prevalent love around. It’s a love that loves only those who are lovely and who are going to love us back, which is only natural and logical

But there’s another kind of love. A love that doesn’t look for value in what it loves, but rather creates that value through what it loves. It’s a love that places no preconceived ideas or conditions on what it loves.

It reminds me of Rosemary’s Rag Doll. Rosemary was three years old when she was given a little rag doll. Soon the two became inseparable, and while she had nicer and more expensive toys, none were loved like that rag doll.

However, over time, Rosemary’s Rag Doll became more rag than doll. It was stained and dirty, and every time it was cleaned it became more ragged. Now logic dictated trashing the doll, but such an act was unthinkable, and that’s because it got to be an important part of Rosemary’s life, and so if you loved Rosemary, then you loved Rosemary’s Rag Doll.

This is that love of another kind that I’m talking about. It’s such a love that Jesus said should be the number one thing in our lives. We see this in Jesus’s answer to what was the greatest commandment.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38 NKJV)

But Jesus went on to add a second, which was like the first saying, “And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39 NKJV)