Eph 5:1-2
1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
1 John 4:7-12
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. 9 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. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Our world is desperately in need of love, and this is the defining attribute of the Christian life.
• It is the first attribute of the Fruit of the Spirit because that is the most vivid expression of the character of Christ.
• Paul says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels… If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge… and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Cor 13:1-2)
I want you to remember this tag line:
“We are called to love, the way He loves, with the love He gives.”
(1) We Are Called to Love
The spiritual vital sign that can tell us how healthy or mature we are as Christians is love – love for God expressed through our love for people.
• 1 John 4:7 “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
• If God is love and He dwells in us, then the outflow of such a life is a life of love.
• That’s why Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35). That defines us!
But the Scriptures go beyond just loving in general.
(2) We Are Called to Love the Way He Loves
There are kind and compassionate people around who do really love others.
• But the Lord calls us to love the way He loves - John 15:12 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Jesus made that distinction. Matt 5:43-48
43 "You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
To put it in another way, we are called to love “supernaturally”.
• To love naturally means I love those who love me, I love those I like, I love those I can get along with, I love the charming and the beautiful …
• But God’s love has no favourite and no condition. It is radical and sacrificial.
It is not just loving others above self, but loving others beyond self.
• It is unconditional. But how can this be possible?
• It is possible because God has made us partakers of the divine nature. (2 Pet 1:4)
(3) We Are Called to Love the Way He Loves with the Love He Gives
We are called to love because we’ve been loved. 1 John 4:19 “We love because He first loved us.”
• 1 John 4:7 “love comes from God.” Rom 5:5 “… God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit….”
When Jesus spoke to the Father (in John 17:26), this was what He said: “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
• The love the Father has for the Son is the same love God showers upon us today!
God deposits His love in our heart, and calls us to release it.
• God has not called us to do something unreasonable or impossible. He calls us to love because He has given us that love.
Imagine this – you take the wallet of the person on your right, open it up and take whatever you like and give it to the person on your left. Are you happy? Yes, it feels good to bless someone, with something that is not yours.
• You are taking from what is God’s and giving it away to those in need.
It’s like saying to God: “Lord, the problem is not with you and me. I loved you with all my heart but I just can’t stand my brother.”
God turns around and say, “That is spiritually impossible, because when I come into you, I reproduce my love for your brother in you.”
The beautiful thing is this: You are not impoverished as a result of that. You did not become poorer but richer, in a sense.
• 1 John 4:12 “…if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” Most versions put it: “His love is perfected in us.”
• We can only experience God’s love in its fullness when we let it go from our hearts.
• If you hoard it like a Dead Sea, it turns stale and kills. You let it go and it stays fresh and revitalising. So let it go.
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“We are called to love, the way He loves, with the love He gives.”
Two things that I like to suggest in living this life of love:
(1) YOU NEED TO DRAW FROM GOD - “Take from His wallet!”
We never hear of an apply tree struggling to produce its fruit. As long as sap flows within the tree, apples will form and blossom.
• It is spiritually impossible to be in union with God but not feel a love for people. The only way that can happen is when we’ve moved from your relationship with God.
• Phillip Keller: “I have the love of God only to the extent that I have God Himself…. To put it another way: I only have the love of God to the degree that God lives His life in and through me.”
• The more God has my heart, the more His love can flow. Draw near to Him whenever you can and be blessed by His love.
The way to grow is not to focus on your love, but His love.
• Don’t boast of your love; focus on the love God has for you.
• Peter learnt this lesson the hard way. In John 13:37-38 he said he will follow Jesus wherever He goes, even if it means laying down his life for Him. Jesus said he will disown Him three times.
• If you focus on your love for God, that’s a shaky ground. Be moved rather by God’s love for you. The more you see His love, the more you become like Him.
(2) YOU NEED TO CHOOSE TO LOVE
To love is a choice, not a feeling. We tend to be reactive in this – we respond in love only to things beautiful, nice, charming and good.
• But we are called to live a life of love. It is a choice we make. Our love must be proactive. Even if there’s no feeling of love, you can choose to love.
(A) Start with the small things, the ordinary things of life.
• Matt 25:35-40 - 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 "The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
• Matt 10:41-42 - 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."
You realise something – you don’t have to prove your love by doing big things – like dying for Jesus, buying the most expensive cake, climbing Mount Everest, etc.
• Small things are big enough for God to remember and to reward!
• It is the small, daily things that we do, that matters. It is the small, little habits that shape our character.
Somerset Ward quotation – p.70 in THE VIRTUOUS LIFE
“The necessary materials for the building up of a saint are in every life; they need only to be used… It is not necessary to be hung upon a cross in order to be crucified; an idle slander accepted meekly will do instead. It is not necessary to kiss a leper to secure self-discipline; a genuine effort to be kind and companionable to a person we dislike intensely will do as well. It is not necessary to face martyrdom before a heathen judge to secure a severe test, for the humble acceptance of a sudden insult or the true and instant forgiveness of a wrong will serve as well.”
(B) Be on the lookout for people you can bless
When you see a need, it is God giving you an opportunity to show His love.
• When you are moved with compassion, don’t ignore it. God may be prompting you about someone to whom you need to reach out.
• If somebody’s name keeps coming up in your mind, do something about it. Don’t put it off; make a phone call, SMS a note, email him, and pray for him.
The Holy Spirit did not move us for no reason. He put that concern in your heart and in your mind on purpose. Respond to it by faith.
• You may not understand it, but God knows the person is in need.
