Text: 1 Cor. 13; 1 John 4:8-21
Introduction:
1. For the past few weeks we have been looking at Living a Legacy. A Legacy is something you possess and pass on to someone else (typically, but not limited to, family). Generally what is transferred is of value to the recipient . So far we have seen the benefits of Living a Legacy of Hope and Faith. This morning we examine Living a Legacy of Love.
2. Love seems to be allusive. Waylon Jennings wrote this about love:
I was looking for love in all the wrong places
Looking for love in too many faces
Searching your eyes, looking for traces
Of what.. I'm dreaming of...
3. Love tends to be just that… a dream. We conjure up the best we can imagine and then go hunt for it. But love can only come from God. Mankind may develop substitutes, but real love is only found in God. Love is not a feeling or emotion; yes, that is how the world would describe it; but love is a choice with regards to how we are to live our lives.
Transition:
Understanding love is a choice, there are three aspects of Love we will examine this morning: Love is the FOUNDATION upon which we are to live, the COMMAND by which we are to live, and the EXAMPLE for how we are to live.
I. Love is the Foundation upon which we are to live.
Thursday at Cory and Michelle’s wedding they had read verses from 1 Cor. 13 also known as the “Love chapter” of the Bible.
Read 1 Cor. 13 -
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
a. Without Love I am nothing.
i. Paul is addressing the Corinthian church regarding the use of gifts. There had been some issues raised that one gift was greater than another, but Paul (who was experienced with a variety of gifts) noted love as the greatest of gifts.
ii. Love is a gift of God. Man with his deceitful, corrupted heart is incapable of love on his own. Lust, infatuation, tolerance, but not love.
iii. On the outside you can look fantastic. You can serve others, teach, even have faith like a giant; but without love it is worthless.
So what is this love from God? Paul describes it:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
b. True Love like this can only come from God. True Love is selfless.
i. Phil 2:3 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”
ii. Living a Legacy of Love means living a life that is selfless and humble. Much easier said than done; this is why it is necessary to seek God’s strength instead of relying on your own. On your own (pardon my bluntness) you are selfish, sinful creatures. And so am I. On our own we would fail miserably, but God’s love does not fail.
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
c. True Love is the expression of Faith and Hope. You can have faith and hope in many things but without love your faith and hope are unfounded. Love is the foundation by which we are to live our lives.
Transition:
Just as it is the Foundation, Love is also the Command by which we are to live.
II. Love is the Command by which we are to live.
Read Deut. 6:4-7
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
“You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
a. Christ said this is the greatest commandment.
i. Matt. 22:37-38 “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.”
b. In verse 39 He states the second greatest:
i. Vs. 39-40 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
c. Living a Legacy of Love requires we live by this command. 1 John even suggests that the two are co-dependent.
i. 1 Jn. 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Transition:
Love is the Foundation and the Command by which we are to live, but it is also the EXAMPLE for how we are to live.
III. Love is the Example for how we are to live.
Continue reading 1 Jn. 4:8-10
The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [8-10]
a. Jesus Christ is our EXAMPLE.
i. He chose to leave His throne on high and take on the form of a servant, becoming man; suffer the indignity of being falsely accused and tried by guilty men; He who knew no sin, became sin for us. That is our example of true love. Loving not only those that love you, but extending that love to those who hate you, to your enemies.
Read Rom. 5:8-10
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
ii. It is only when we have been justified, when we have believed that Jesus is who He said He is (God’s Son) and that we admit we are sinners in need of a Savior, and that Jesus is the only One qualified to save us; that He died and rose again… it is only then that we can, just as He did, love our enemies. Love those who want to harm us. This is the example of true love that Jesus showed to the world.
Continue reading 1 Jn. 4:11-17
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
b. As Christ is our example so we must exemplify Him to the world.
i. When I was a kid we would sing,
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
c. Love is being perfected in those who love Christ.
i. You may be struggling with this in your life. Perhaps your circumstances are difficult right now and you don’t see how you can love… That’s the point, you can’t. God can. We have trouble loving because we fear being hurt, abandoned, or rejected. With true love there is no fear, because we have the only love that really matters… the Love of the Father.
Transition:
When you have the love of the Father you have the Foundation by which to live, you are obeying the Command by which to live, and following the Example how to live. You are Living a Legacy of Love.
Conclusion:
It all begins with God. “We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” If you have been trying to love on your own but find yourself unsuccessful, I encourage you to come to the One whose love has no bounds. Let Him fill you with His love.
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