Love’s Tug
1 John 4:7-8, / 1 Cor 13:4-7
God’s has empowered his people with a great gift: Love.
This gift affects us in several ways:
1st Love brings renewal of self
2nd It brings a closer relationship between man and God,
3rd It effects mans relationship with man.
SCRIPTURE
1 John 4:7-8 NIV
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
LOVE IS AFFECTION
Love flows in a personal way, which is directed towards another, for another’s benefit. Not self seeking
The unmerited grace bestowed upon us, where we bestow it upon men
Mans nearest approach to it is philanthropia or philadelphia-the love between those of the same blood.
GOD ALONE IS THE SOURCE OF LOVE
Christianity is the only religion that sets forth the Supreme Being as Love. In heathen religions He is set forth as an angry being and in constant need of appeasing.
(1 John 4:7-8); he "poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us"
EVERY VIRTUE IS AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE.
No virtue is really a virtue unless it is permeated, or informed, by love.
If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every other Christian virtue. Thus, for example,
Justice without love is legalism;
Faith without love is ideology;
Hope without love is self-centeredness;
Forgiveness without love is self-abasement;
Fortitude without love is recklessness;
Generosity without love is extravagance;
Care without love is mere duty;
Fidelity without love is servitude.
Love is more than emotion the love demonstrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan shows that agape love is not emotional love, but a response to someone who is in need.
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love.
Henry Drummond
GREATER BENEFITS FROM GODS LOVE
1 Cor 13:4-7 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. (NLT)
The gifts that come from love are many. Here are a few: (1) forgiveness, (2) patience, (3) kindness, (4) love for truth, (5) love for justice, (6) love for the best in a person, (7) loyalty at any cost, (8) belief in a person no matter what. Love does not allow for (1) jealousy, (2) envy, (3) pride, (4) a haughty spirit, (5) selfishness, (6) rudeness, (7) a demand for one’s own way, (8) irritability, (9) grudges.
Love frees us
Love brings healing
"Two people can’t hate each other if they both love God!"
A man is only as good as what he loves.
WE ARE "LOVE BREAKERS" MORE THAN "LAW BREAKERS."
Our love, can be easily misdirected, it can focus on self, to the exclusion of others. Its not that we purposely do wrong, we fail to do right.
Leaving the sanctuary, a church member comments: "I’d like to see you love MY neighbor."
Do you love that neighbor of yours whose yard is full of trash and who has too many animals?
Do you care about alcoholics and drug addicts?
Do you care about people with tattoos, body piercings and painted hair?
Do you care about those are mean,
Do you know someone who is pushy
TO LOVE AT ALL IS TO BE VULNERABLE.
Love anything and you heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to be sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness, but in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken, but it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside of heaven where you can be safe from all dangers of love is hell.
C.S. Lewis
APPLICATION IN LIFE.
We can receive Gods love
We have benefited from God Love
We are free to use Gods love
Its Christ’s love that tug at our heart to be his very hands, eyes, ears, to feel with his heart.
1st God tugs us to a greater Love.
A classic struggle: the conflicting tug of love.
Abraham loves Isaac, the son of his old age, the child of God’s promise. But God tests his love. For the sake of the love of God, Abraham is willing to sacrifice the son he loves. His response is to a greater love.
2nd A Tug to a greater way to Love
The Old Testament charge was to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18). But Jesus gave his disciples a new command with a radically different motive: "Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12).
3rd A Tug to a deeper purpose of life
Love of God is a response of the whole of the believer-heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deut 6:5; Matt 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34)
4th It is a tug to be a channel of love
God loves through believers, who act as channels for his love; they are branches who must abide in the vine if they are to have that love (John 15:1-11).
Are you seeking the greater love from God no matter what the Tug?
1 John 4:7-8 NIV
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
