WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
(Part three)
INTRODUCTION: Two Sundays ago I asked what love had to do with salvation, my relationship with God, my relationship with others and my service to God. Last week I focused on what love had to do with my relationship with my family, my spouse and my kids. Today, I’ll be looking at what love has to do with my relationship with my friends, the church and the lost.
What’s love got to do with my relationship with…
1) My friends?
Friends rejoice with one another. Luke 15:8-10, “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
When something good happens to us we like to tell our friends. And if I’m a true, loving friend I will rejoice with you. It’s easy to be jealous of a friend who receives a blessing and we don’t feel too enthusiastic about sharing their joy. But that’s why love is so important. Love will allow me to be happy for you. Love will enable me to rejoice with you instead of being resentful toward you. Instead of viewing your joy as excessive celebration I’ll be high-fiving right along with you.
And, as the last verse says, we especially rejoice with our friends when they come to Christ! That’s definitely some cause for excessive celebration! That’s the greatest thing that could ever happen to one of our friends and being a loving friend means we are sharing with them the treasure of finding Christ.
But here’s something we need to watch out for. We might spend a lot of time talking to our friend about Christ and it seems to not be doing any good and then along comes someone else who talks to them about Jesus and all of a sudden they are receptive and want to get saved. We can feel slighted over that and if we’re not careful we can lose focus on what’s most important. However, if we’re a loving friend we will push that aside and rejoice with our friend because it doesn’t matter whether it’s because of our work with them or someone else’s; what matters is that they become born-again.
We pray for our friends-even if they haven’t been a true friend to us. That’s what job did. His friends did little more than add to his misery. However, at the end of it all, Job prayed for them. Job 42:7-10, “After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer. After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.”
It’s not too hard to pray for our friends when they are loving towards us but how easy is it to pray for them when they’ve wronged us? I would think that it was probably very difficult for Job to pray for these three so-called friends. If it were me I would’ve been tempted to pray for God to turn the tables on them and see how they liked it. But, we see just what kind of friend Job was-he was obedient to God’s will. We may have a friend who gets us upset, lets us down or even betrays us. If we love them we will pray for them. That doesn’t mean there won’t be damage to the relationship but even if there isn’t reconciliation I still need to forgive and pray-that’s what a loving friend does.
Prov. 17:17 says that a friend loves at all times. Loving at all times means that in good times or bad a true friend doesn’t stop loving. There’s a saying that goes, a true friend is the one who walks in when everyone else is walking out. A loving friend is not a fickle friend; a fair-weathered friend. Loving you at all times means I’m willing to be there for you when it’s inconvenient; like when I’m watching the Giants game. Actually, the way they’ve been playing lately I would welcome the interruption.
A friend is willing to confront. Prov. 27:6, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”
For most people, one of the most difficult things to do is confront someone; especially a friend. It’s risky. It could damage or even dissolve the friendship. But a loving friend will take that risk for the sake of benefitting their friend. A loving friend doesn’t want to see their friend continue to go down the wrong path. If you have a friend that comes to you in love and confronts you about something then you have a true friend; a trustworthy friend. If you surround yourself with a bunch of friends who never challenge you or call you out on something then you may very well have some flattering ‘frenemies’; people who will only tell you what you want to hear-multiplying kisses.
A friend counsels one another. Prov. 27:9, “Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one’s friend springs from his earnest counsel.”
Much like the willingness to confront, a true friend will speak into your life. If you reveal to me you’re thinking about making a major decision I’m probably going to share my thoughts on it; especially if I think you might be making a wrong decision. A loving friend doesn’t want to see their friend make regrettable choices. Or if I feel your viewpoint on some topic is not accurate if I think I have some wisdom on the subject I’m going to want to share it with you. Hopefully, as a friend, I’m leaving room for you to disagree with me or go away and think about it but I will at least give you counsel on it and allow you to do with it what you wish. And if you choose to go against my advice I won’t disown you as a friend; that’s not what a loving friend does.
What does love have to do with my friendships? Everything.
2) The church?
1st Pet. 1:22, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.”
We see that part of being obedient to the truth is having sincere love for our fellow Christian brothers and sisters. We see Peter using words like sincere, deeply and from the heart to describe what level of love we need to have for Christians. But what does that look like?
When love is present, unity is there with it. John 17:20-23, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Jesus’ prayer for all believers is that they would be unified. That doesn’t mean we all have to agree about everything but that we would all be living in harmony with one another-despite our differences. And we see why Jesus wants us to live in unity-so that the world would come to believe in Christ and God’s love for them. How does unity show this? Because the world will see the love of God shine through the hearts of believers towards one another and that unity and harmony would be inviting and they would be drawn in by it. The world can become convinced that Christ was legit and that God’s love is real when they see that love exhibited toward them in Christ’s name. Where there is love there will be devotion.
Rom. 12:10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
To be devoted means I’m dedicated, loyal, committed, caring, supportive. I’m enthusiastic about showing you the love of Christ. We see Paul use the word honor. Whenever troops fight in war you see a loyalty among those who are fighting. A band of brothers, a loyal union of soldiers who understand the code of honor to not leave a man behind; especially if he’s wounded.
Christians are fighting a spiritual war. We need to have that element of devotion for each other. When we have disagreements we settle them, even if it’s agreeing to disagree because there’s something more important than winning a debate. The bigger purpose will be hindered if we allow a wedge to be driven between us. Satan wants to divide and destroy relationships. United we stand; divided we fall. When love is the glue we will maintain our devotion to each other.
When love is the foundation there will be generosity and hospitality. Rom. 12:13, “Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
That’s pretty straightforward. Like what I shared last week from 1st John 3:17 where it says that if I see my brother in need but have no pity on him how can God’s love be in me. In the first chapter of Acts you’ll read about how the church came together and shared their possessions with those who had needs. I don’t think that was done without determining who had legitimate needs but the point is that from the onset of the establishment of the church you saw the elements of generosity and hospitality. Acts 2:46 talks about the early church coming together on a daily basis and sharing meals in each other’s homes and that they did this with glad and sincere hearts.
What does love have to do with my relationship to my church family? Everything.
3) The lost?
If God so loved the world as John 3:16 testifies then we should too. If God wishes that none would perish as 2nd Peter 3:9 declares, then our desire should be the same. We need to realize that if we are born-again God has made us an ambassador; a representative of his. We have been given a purpose-to share the message that someone shared with us.
2nd Cor. 5:17-20, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Since we have experienced this wonderful reconciliation we need to pay it forward. Someone loved the lost enough to share it with me and I need to do likewise and keep it going.
“We implore you”. To implore means to plead. Paul wanted so badly for people to be saved that he would plead with them.
In the previous chapter, we see Paul describing some of the factors involved that showed he loved the lost.
2nd Cor. 4:1-9, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. [Regardless of setbacks and difficulties he was going to continue to spread the gospel.]
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. [It was of upmost importance to Paul that in loving the lost he was accurate in presenting the word. He knew that since they didn’t know the word, and would therefore be vulnerable, he would be responsible and not misuse it].
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. [This unfortunate reality allows us to have love for the lost who don’t understand or even oppose the gospel. We can get discouraged when people don’t see what we have seen. People’s resistance to the gospel frustrates us and we might want to give up. But we press on, compelled by our passion to see satan’s hold on people destroyed.]
For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. [Our desire to see the lost come to Christ means we keep the focus on Christ and not ourselves. If we boast we boast in what Christ has done in us. We realize that we are fragile jars of clay; bringing no attention to the container but only to the precious contents inside. We want people to be attracted to the Jesus they see in us.]
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”[Paul expresses the difficulties in carrying this message but also the triumphs. We might have pressures but we will not be crushed by them. We might face persecution and sometimes feel alone but we are not abandoned by God. We might get knocked down a few times but our passion and purpose will not be destroyed. This describes Paul’s love for the lost.]
If we love God we will have a strong desire to reach the lost. Knowing we were once lost should inspire us to want to bring the gospel to as many people as possible so that they can find what we have found.
What does love have to do with my relationship with the lost? Everything.
