Ho w Worldly Love Compares to Biblical Love
I Corinthians 13:4-7
The late Charles Schultz in his comic strip, “Peanuts” teaches a lot of common sense about life. Schultz has Lucy asking Charlie Brown a question: “You know what I don’t understand?” Then she answers her own question, “I don’t understand love!”
Charlie Brown replies, “Who does!” Lucy says, “Explain love to me, Charlie Brown.” Charlie says, “You can’t explain love. I can recommend a book or a poem or a painting, but I can’t explain love.”
Lucy comes back, “Well, try, Charlie Brown, try.”
Charlie ponders in deep thought for a moment and then says, “Well, let’s say I see this beautiful, cute, little girl walk by.” Lucy quickly interrupts, “Why does she have to be cute? Huh? Why can’t someone fall in love with someone with freckles and a big nose? Explain that!”
Charlie changes his story and says, “Well, maybe you are right. Let’s say I see this girl walk by with this big nose…” But Lucy interrupts again, “I didn’t say great big nose.”
By this time Charlie Brown gives that “woe is me sigh” and says, “You not only can’t explain love, you can’t even talk about it.”
One of the best descriptions of love is found in the Bible in I Corinthians 13. Let’s read together verses 4-7:
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
There are many things that Biblical loves pushes a person not to do. Biblical love sets boundaries. The boundaries are for our own good. Biblical love does not say “yes” to sex before marriage. Biblical love motivates young adults who are dating to say “No” to immoral conduct.
Persons practicing Biblical love understand the physical differences between men and women and take safe guards to live a pure Christ honoring life.
Guys are sexually motivated by sight and girls more by relationships. By the way you dress or the way you touch a person you can cause that person to commit the sin of lust. The Bible makes it clear that is a sin to cause sexual arousal that cannot be righteously satisfied. Sex outside of marriage in any form is not blessed of God. For immodest dress at our Christian School we keep Willow Vale T Shirts on hand to give to the ones who need a modest shirt.
The Biblical boundaries of love are safeguards to marriage. Being faithful to your spouse in marriage builds life-long trust. Saying “no” to sex before marriage also builds trust in the marriage relationship.
It’s helpful to look at love from the standpoint of how the world views love and compare worldly love to Biblical love.
Worldly Love is Conditional Love
Love promoted by this world’s standard is conditional love. Relationships of love lived outside the Christian Faith have many “ifs.” Love is conditioned by the attitude, “If you meet my needs then I’ll meet yours. In the view of many people today God has been humanized. God’s love has been perverted. Many view God as a giant Bayer aspirin. Take god three times a day and everything will work out alright. God’s love has been refashioned into man’s own image and likeness.
Conditional love is selfish love. Selfish love is the attitude that God made man to indulge in lust. Selfish love will tell you to pull your own strings, manipulate others through intimidation, do anything to get your own way.
In marriage, conditional love often plays the game of one-upmanship. I’m one good deed up on you so you owe me. “I carried out the trash, you must do the dishes. I worked ten hours today, you must tuck the kids into bed. I was the last one to say, “I love you,” Now it’s your turn.”
Conditional love is mechanical and cold and does not last.
Conditional selfish love says, “It’s my way or you take the highway.” Selfish love quickly turns to anger and often ends in violence. Selfish love practices the opposite of what Jesus taught that we are to love our neighbors.
One of the front page headlines in last Sunday’s Mercury News read: “Neighbors’ Feud Turns Tragic.” A geophysicist lived next door to a criminal defense attorney and his wife in upscale Carmel Valley.
The geophysicist had planted a huge rock in the fork of the two driveways to the houses. The rock made it difficult for the attorney to drive his sunshine VW Bus to his carport.
On the fateful day, the attorney was out with a sledge hammer starting to break up the huge rock. The oil geophysicist came out of his house with a gun and shot the attorney and then shot the attorney’s wife when she tried to help. Both were killed.
Biblical love calls for us to love our neighbors and pray for them and not kill them.
Worldly selfish love is hateful, divisive, cruel and blessed by the Devil. Selfish love has one person in mine – self.
Biblical Love is Unconditional Love.
One of the first verses many of use learned as new Christians is John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
It was God’s love that sent His only Son to die in our place. God is all knowledge and knows all about each one of us. He knows every detail of our lives and loves us anyway. There is one thing God’s love can’t do. God’s love cannot forgive an unrepentant sinner. The Bible does give the assurance that it doesn’t matter what sin we have committed God loves us and will forgive us when we truly repent and turn from sin.
God knows all about your life. He knows your situation and all your challenges. God loves you and wants to give you His love and help you.
When you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior you begin to practice Biblical love. Worldly love is conditional while Biblical love is unconditional love.
Biblical love loves others as Jesus loves them.” Biblical love is Christ-like. Biblical love is based upon the Word of God. Biblical love is described as selfless commitment. It is the quality of love at work in the hearts of people who have invited Jesus to be Savior and Lord of their lives.
Biblical love when lived out in the home is mutually shared unselfish love. Outside of Jesus Christ that dimension of Biblical love is virtually impossible.
The Apostle Paul describes Biblical love as living a life of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Galatians 5:22-25 “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, we have patience, kindness, goodness, fruitfulness, gentleness and self control. Here there is no conflict with the law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”
Let’s read I Corinthians 13:4-7 with a slight revision. Where the word “love” appears put your own name there. As we read it I’ll put my name where love goes and you put your name in the blank place.
_________ is patient and kind. _______ is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. __________ does not demand his/her own way. ________ is not irritable, and _________ keeps no record of when he/she has been wronged. _________ is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. _______ never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (NLT)
Think about what kind of impact that level of love would have in our homes and our work places.
Biblical love is the work of God in transforming the human heart to become more and more like Jesus. The Apostle Paul taught the Christians in Corinth that when people become Christ followers they stop living for themselves and live to the glory of God. They allow the love of Christ to control them. They no longer live to please themselves they now live to please Jesus who died for them.
II Corinthians 5:17 “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” There is transforming power in the love of Jesus.
John Powell years ago was a professor of religion at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. He tell how one of his students found God’s love.
Professor Powell was teaching a class on the Theology of Faith and in his first class session he met Tommy. Tommy was a hippy looking person, long hair, tattered jeans, and sandals.
Tommy claimed to be an atheist. He objected to the idea that God was an unconditional loving Heavenly Father.
At the end of the semester Tommy sarcastically commented to Professor Powell, “Do you think I’ll ever find God?” John Powell decided to use a little shock therapy and replied, “No!” “Oh”, Tommy responded, “I thought that was the product you were pushing.” Tommy started to walk away and Professor Powell called out: “Tommy! I don’t think you’ll ever find God, but I am absolutely certain He will find you!”
Tommy graduated from the University and the report came back later that Tommy had terminal cancer. One day Tommy came back to visit Professor Powell. Tommy’s body was wasting away. His long hair had fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice firm, for the first time.
Professor John Powell writes of their conversation: “Tommy, I’ve thought about you so often. I hear you have cancer!” “Oh, yes, I’m very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It’s a matter of weeks.” “Can you talk about it, Tom?” “Sure, what would you like to know?” “What’s it like to be only twenty-four and dying?” “Well it could be worse?” “Like what?” “Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that alcohol, seducing women, and making money were the real ‘biggies’ in life.”
“But what I really came to see you about is something you said to me on the last day of class.” “I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, “No!” which surprised me. Then you said, “But He will find you.”
“When the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, then I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven. But God did not come out. I almost gave up on finding God.”
“I decided to spend what time I had left doing something profitable. You once said in class: “The essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally said to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.”
“So I began with the hardest one: my Dad. He was reading the newspaper when I approached him.” “Dad…” “Yes,… what?” “Dad, I would like to talk with you.” “Well, talk.” “I mean….it’s really important.” His newspaper came down three slow inches. “What is it?” “Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that.”
“The newspaper fluttered to the floor then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. And we talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me.”
“It was easier with my mother and little brother. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years. I was only sorry about one thing; that I had waited so long. Here I was, in the shadow of death and I was just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to.”
“Professor Powell you were right, God found me.”
Professor Powell asked Tommy to do him a favor. He said, “Tom, when I had you in my class you were a real pain. But you can make it all up to me now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what you just told me? Tom said he would think about it and give the professor a call.
A few days later Tommy called and said he was ready and they set a date for Tommy to come and talk to the class. Tommy never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than the one with the class. Tommy made a great step of faith into the very presence of God. His life was not ended, only changed.
Worldly love is conditional. God’s love is unconditional. God’s love reaches out to all of us here this morning. All we have to do is reach out and accept it by faith. Have you said “yes” to God’s love? If not you can do so today.
Let’s pray
Invitation – “More Love to Thee O Christ” # 363
