April 12, 2015
Morning Worship
Text: John 13:34-35
Subject: Love
Title: What Love Does
I’ve been talking to you for a little while now about love. Love is a subject that has stirred the interest of mankind from the beginning of time really. There have literally been hundreds of thousands of songs written about love and as many novels… not to mention how many movies have at least an underlying theme of a love story. Let’s face it – love has been and will continue to be a hot topic.
Elvis – Love me Tender – 1956
The Supremes – Stop in the Name of Love – 1965
Huey Lewis – The Power of Love – 1985
Not to mention country songs…
One of the classic country songs is,
Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places…
And that title leads us to where we want to be today. The general perception of the world is that love is an emotion to be felt rather than a lifestyle to be lived.
John 13:34-35 (NKJV)
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
I believe this is God’s word…
I believe it is for me..
I accept it as mine…
I appropriate it to my life today…
We have to begin today then by trying to find out what love is and what it isn’t. The world’s definition of love is that strong emotional feelings that we might have for another person. Love is not an emotion but true love will stir the emotions.
We have to go to the bible to understand what true love really is. A couple of weeks ago I told you that in classic Greek literature there are four words that are translated love. Of those four words three of them are used in the New Testament. “Phileo” love – theaffectionate love you have for others; “thelo” love a fondness or desire for or to delight in something; “agape” love or the unconditional kind of love that God has for everyone. The word “love” is used 175 times in the New Testament not counting the times “loved” is used. Of those 175, 155 times the word “agape” is used. 19 times “phileo” is used, and only once the word “thelo” in Mark 12:38, And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and [love] salutations in the marketplaces…
Every time the word of God in the NT talks about God’s love for you, your love for God, or your love for one another the Holy Spirit used the word “Agape”.
Now for us to understand what is required for you to love the way God loves we have to understand the way that God loves…
John 3:16 (NKJV)
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Did you ever do anything that was good enough to earn God’s love?
Was there anything in you that made God love you?
No. God loved the world because that is who God is. Of all the different characteristics that we can understand of God through the scriptures the center of all of them is God’s love.
Is God faithful?
Is God just?
Is God holy?
Is God powerful?
Is God consistent?
All of those things find their foundation in the loving nature of God.
1 John 4:16 (NKJV)
16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Going back to John 3:16 – what is the one thing that is the manifestation of God’s love for the whole world? HE GAVE… So if we are called to love one another as Christ has loved us how do we show that kind of love? We give… our time, our talent, our treasures… in reality we give everything we are to God and to one another. Can we do that? It’s easy for God, since that is his nature. But can a Christian love with the same kind of love that God loves with?
First of all we have to understand this principle. The Lord has never commanded anyone to do anything that He has not already empowered them to do.
Second, we have to understand this. Is the Holy Spirit living inside of you? Is the Holy Spirit God? If so then isn’t love living inside of you? If love is inside of you then the only thing that you have to do is allow love to flow out of you.
Here is where you now see that your love has a direct connection to faith.
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Just because you don’t feel the love in you, just because you don’t see the evidence of that love that is in you does not mean that you can’t love with a God type of love. Since you know that LOVE lives in you are you able to take that step of faith to allow love to flow out of you even when you don’t feel like it.
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Do you want to please God?
Do you want that love to flow out of you?
1 John 2:5 (NKJV)
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
Whoever keeps His word…
Do you know that you have to be careful with your words? Christians are funny creatures sometime… a peculiar people… I’ve heard people say, “well, I just hate this or that or a person”. And then they realize what they are saying – Christians aren’t supposed to hate – so they change it to, “I don’t like them very much…”
Is that keeping God’s word? I said, is that keeping God’s word?
God’s word says that we are supposed to love. What would happen if, even though in an emotional sense, you don’t love someone, you began to say out loud, “I love them…”? and keep saying it over and over. What do you think might happen?
Proverbs 18:7 (NKJV)
7 A fool's mouth is his destruction, And his lips are the snare of his soul.
Proverbs 18:21 (NKJV)
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Would you agree with me that you have a responsibility to love with the kind of love God loves?
So what happens when you do that?
1 Peter 4:8 (NKJV)
8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."
1 Peter 4:8 (NIV2011)
8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1. Love leads to forgiveness…
A Christian’s unselfish love and concern for others should be exercised to the point of sacrificially giving for others’ welfare. Love covers over (kalyptei, lit., “hides”) a multitude of sins. This kind of strenuously maintained love is not blind but sees and accepts the faults of others.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty.
2. Love removes fear from your life…
1 John 4:18 (NKJV)
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
Can love and fear live together? Where does fear come from? When the Lord touches someone or calls someone throughout the whole bible He admonishes them to be fearless.
Joshua 1:6-9 (NKJV)
6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Daniel 10:12 (NKJV)
12 Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.
Revelation 1:17 (NKJV)
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
What does perfect love do? It casts out fear…
Is perfect love living inside of you? Are you able to let that perfect love flow from you?
2 Timothy 1:6-7 (NKJV)
6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Does fear have anything to do with Love?
1 John 5:1-5 (NKJV)
1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.
5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
The world tells us to "Feel good about yourself." That is fine, but many miss the mark about how to do this. I cannot imagine a better "feeling good about yourself" than an awareness that I have "overcome the world" . The power is not in self, but in God and His love.
Love obeys God and love casts out fear. Those two things go together. It is not a reverential love that does not obey.
Love obeys God in every way possible (Colossians 3:17). Love treats others the way God has commanded (1 John 4:20-21). God's love is the love of service to Him and to our fellow man. When we are engaged in these, it is then that fear (the fear of punishment and wrath) has no place in our lives. After all, God is for us. God is love. He wants us to have victory. By His grace and power, neither He nor we shall be disappointed!
By Jon W. Quinn
From Expository Files 14.10; October 2007
1 John 3:1 (NIV2011)
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 2:5-6 (NIV2011)
5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him:
6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
Are you able to love the way that God wants us to love?
Love is not giving approval to everyone. Love is having the same heart for others that God has.
2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
John 13:34-35 (NKJV)
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Can you love with a God type of love?
