Read I John 4:7-8
Jesus walked in love. Make no mistake about this. He perfectly demonstrated the statement found in verse 16 of the same chapter. “God is Love”. When Jesus offered forgiveness to the woman caught in adultery, he demonstrated love. When he told her “Go, and sin no more.” he also demonstrated love.
Jesus walked in love when, in Mark Chapter 6, he equipped the disciples to go on a ministry tour, sending them out two by two to proclaim the Good News, heal the sick, and cast out demons. He also walked in love as recorded in Chapter 9, when he rebuked them for their unbelief when they could not cast the demon out of a demonized convulsing boy.
Jesus acted in love when he told the disciples that he would soon go to Jerusalem, be delivered into the hands of evil men, and suffer and die there. When Peter tried to de-rail this plan, and Jesus rebuked him sternly, he was still walking in love. When Jesus went to Jerusalem, for the purpose of, as he had said in John 15:13, “laying down his life for his friends” he demonstrated the greatest expression of love. Jesus also spoke the truth in love one verse later when he said, “You are my friends if you do what I command.”
EXPLORING WALKING IN LOVE
Walking in love that is God’s love, is something far different from the sentimental. It is something far different from magnetic attraction. Let me explain about three different Greek Bible words, which are all translated “love” in English.
(Explain)
1. Eros (magnetic attraction)
2. Phileo (mention Philadelphia)
3. Agape (love which seeks the ultimate good for the other party, and only comes from God)
Some ways of walking in Godly love are obvious. For instance, when we are moved with compassion for a suffering person, who is going through something through no fault of their own, and we do something to alleviate their suffering, we are acting in accordance with Godly love.
However, there are many times, when people are suffering due to their own sinful choices. If we respond to that suffering in a way that enables the sinful choices to continue, we are not acting in love at all. Some of these choices are pretty obvious. For instance: - Giving money to an alcoholic so that he can get a fresh supply of booze is not love at all, even though he may be begging you to do this.
But, what about instances where the matter is not as in your face as drunkenness is? Suppose a professing Christian who is in the local church, begins a dating relationship, and then begins living with their dating partner, and the two are not married. It would be easy to rationalize ignoring the situation, because it is risky to confront sin. Some people even would go so far as to say, the only Christian response is to “live and let live, after all, it is their business, not ours. Besides, its normal now to live like this.”
CONFRONTING CULTURALLY POPULAR SIN IN THE CHIURCH
There was a situation like this in one of the churches in the New Testament. Let’s see what advice the Bible gives for such matters. Turn with me please to I Corinthians 6:18-20 (read it). The apostle was not shy about going against 180? against the prevailing culture of Greece and especially that of the sexually loose Corinth of his day. The reason for this is the reality that God’s standards do not emanate from culture. They are rooted in eternal, immutable truth. They stand apart from and above all cultures. Therefore, Paul declared the truth about fornication, that is, sexual sin. He did not water it down, and he did not hide it for fear of hurting the feelings of some in the church. If Paul had watered down this part of the Christian message for any reason, that would not have been an act of love.
Some would have called it that. Those who think that love is simply whatever makes people feel self-actualized, also think that it is hateful to declare moral standards. They think that the right thing is to let each person decide what is true for them, for each person to construct their own moral reality… They would be right, if there was no such thing as objective truth. But there is indeed truth, which exists apart from the opinions of human beings.
The Apostle Paul, understood the human centered nature of the false gods of Greece, and the whole tide of humanism so prevalent in that culture. Yet he spoke up to the largest Christian church in that land, and warned them that they were becoming contaminated with the prevailing amoral mindset of their city. He clearly warned them, in verses 9 and 10 of the same chapter, that the wicked shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He then cataloged various sexual sins, classifying them as wicked. He told the Corinthian believers, that some of them had been wicked, but were now washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of God. In stating this, he clearly made the point that the practice of sexual immorality stops when one is truly washed in the blood of the savior.
How was this received in the Corinthian Church? They brought church discipline, in the form of dis-fellowshipping, to bear on the man who thought that he was in good standing, even though he was living in sexual immorality. The man repented, and in II Corinthians, Paul instructed them to welcome him fully back into the life of the church. Surely, a spiritual virus was contained by the quarantine of correct church discipline. This was indeed an act of love, first on the apostle’s part, then on the part of elders of the Corinthian Church.
SHARING JESUS WITH OTHERS
It is also walking in love when we pray for openings to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with friends, co-workers, loved ones, neighbors, strangers, and the downtrodden, and then walk through the openings God gives us, and share the message of Jesus Christ with them. According to Ministries Today, who surveyed the home offices of many major denominations in 2003, only a small minority of Christians had given a clear presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to even one person in the last year. This sad situation included a great many people who had been Christians for many years. They had heard hundreds or thousands of messages and teachings of God’s word, yet they were largely paralyzed when it comes to sharing our savior with others.
Why is this so? The biggest reason, according to Barna Research and others who have surveyed such things, is fear. Christians don’t share Christ because of the fear of rejection and ridicule. It seems that we American Christians have forgotten the power of our savior’s words. Jesus, in Matthew 5:11-12 said: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Indeed, we are partaking of the sufferings of Christ when we are rejected because we proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. Listen to what the apostle Peter wrote to believers during the first official Roman persecution of believers around 60 AD, not long before his own imprisonment and death. (read I Peter 4:12-14)
STORIES FROM REAL LIFE
It is not shameful to be made an object of ridicule because of sharing the words of Life with people who need the Lord. When, at age 18, I first began to follow Jesus, I shared with those at home, the good news that our sins can be forgiven by God through Jesus Christ as we trust him as savior and follow Him in a new life. I was rewarded with ridicule. My older brother said that I was now a Holy Roller. That was a term I didn’t know at all in those days. My mother said that I was onto a new kick that would soon pass. My Father declared that immortality only comes to us through having children, and a lineage that goes on after us. My younger sister said that I was now “holier than thou”.
Soon I got a job as an auto re-conditioner at the Ripley & Fletcher Company. From time to time I invited different ones of the workers there to attend church with me. The sneering could be heard for a long distance.
Everyone listened to the radio there as they worked on the cars. In those days, 1972 to be exact, the Back to the Bible radio program was broadcast over WKTQ at 11 AM Monday through Friday. Now the men in that shop had no problem with various sexually suggestive Country or Pop songs that regularly drifted through there. They also had no problem with the name Jesus Christ being used as a swear word, which happened often there, but when Theodore Epp began to speak of Jesus in a reverent and uplifting way, there was great upset in the room.
Many of these men didn’t even want me around at mealtime because of their filthy talk. My presence was an offence in that atmosphere, but when someone would get into real trouble with some terrible misfortune or stupid choice, he would seek me out quietly and privately, to talk about eternal things.
Eventually several members of my family did come to faith in Jesus Christ, but it took years of following the Lord steadily on my part for them to listen to me. As for the guys at the shop, fifteen or twenty years later I would run into them one at a time, while I was doing chaplain work at the hospital for instance. Then they were open, sometimes desiring that I pray for them or their family.
Being rejected for the Gospel’s sake, you see, is really nothing to fear. There is no shame in it, as long as we don’t retaliate. Jesus, Paul, and Peter all called it “Sharing in the sufferings of Christ. It is actually a privilege.
Hiding the Lord from those who need Him, is not walking in Love. The same agape that compelled the Lord to go to the cross to redeem us, also compels us to share Jesus Christ with a sin soaked and needy culture, made up of people Jesus suffered and died for.
APPLICATION
1. Are there people in your life whom you have known God desires for you to share the Gospel with, to invite to church, youth group or your Home Fellowship, but you haven’t done it? God can give you His burning love that overcomes the fear of this.
2. Are there situations where you just say nothing as a fellow believer in Jesus slips further and further into sin? The same love that empowered the apostle Paul can also empower you to appropriate action in such situations.
3. Are there times when identifying with the Bible is embarrassing because certain sins are now popular and considered to be right? The Lord can give you the resolve to stand for God’s eternal and unchanging reality regarding such matters, while also filling you with love and compassion for those trapped by the false popular philosophies of our age.
Like the Lord, by His grace you can care for the hurting one, and also stand for right choices that are eternally true.
Believer in Jesus Christ, I invite you to ask the Lord to empower you today, but first, I wish to take a moment now to talk to anyone here who has not personally placed your trust in Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord. I ask you today, have you personally come to grips with the truth from Romans Chapter three, which states in verse 23, that you have sinned, and fall short of God’s Glory? This means, you cannot get into the Kingdom of Heaven on your own. All have sinned and fall short… Now it is offensive to the natural mind of people to tell them that they are sinners. People like to think that they can stand before God on their own merit. God’s word, however makes it clear that His standard is unattainable, due to our sin. It simply can’t be done. Verse 10 of the same chapter states bluntly: There is no one righteous, not even one.
I am so glad that the story doesn’t end there, for the sin of the World was paid for by Jesus Christ as he came to Earth for that purpose, and was literally born to die, for us! Listen to Lord explain this situation. (Read John 3: 13-18)
Invite people to repent and receive the Lord
Invite believers to pray for empowerment.
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