CHRISTIAN AFFECTION
PHILIPPIANS 1:7-8
(Part #2)
11/16/94
The lived a Greek writer by the name of Lucian who lived around 120-200 AD. This man was an unbeliever, who notice a certain thing about Christians. He wrote the following, "It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator, (Jesus) has put it into their heads that they are brethren."
What Lucian had noticed about the Christians of his day was that they shared a amazing love for one another. A love that was so very clear to the rest of the world. Now in the past 900 years we can say that the church as come a long way. Now a days you would be hard pressed to find someone who could, let alone would write such a thing about today’s Christian church. With all the in fighting between denominations, fighting within denominations, and fighting within individuals churches themselves, we certainly have moved away for the fact the Jesus "has put it in our heads that we are brethren".
I firmly believe we need to get back to the biblical principals of loving one another as the scriptures teaches. That includes loving other Christians no matter what church they attend and certainly loving each other right here in our own fellowship.
Last week we began talking about the command we have for loving one another. And we began this whole study by looking at Paul’s word in Philippian chapter 1 verses 7&8. Let us just look at that passage again,
"just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ."
Her Paul makes mentions of the affections of Christ that he has for these people. From there we began to look at what kind of love it is that we are to have for one another.
To very briefly review what we saw last week. We noted that to love one another is a command of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact as was pointed out the command to love for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ is given more often the any other command in the New Testament with the exception of the command to receive Jesus as our personal Saviour.
We also saw that it is a love which God enable us to give, scripture states that God has given us his love through his Holy Spirit. We saw that this is a love taught to us by God, through his word and example.
We saw that is a love of concern and action. That it is as the scripture states a love not of "word and tongue" but a love a deeds. So we need to put the love we have for one another into action. I just want to ask how many accepted that challenge I gave you last week to show a brother or sister in Christ that you loved them. (Don’t have to answer it but just think about it.)
We also saw that it is a love which shares in the suffering and affliction as well as the joys of our brothers and sisters in Christ. As was noted, no Christian should ever have to go through any suffering alone.
And finally last week we saw that it is a love which puts that needs of others before ourselves, it is an unselfish love.
So that is where we left off. Today we again will be looking at several passages, and I again encourage you to jot these down an refer to them as you look at yourself and how you should be loving one another.
The love Christians should have one another is a love that continues on and on. It is love which needs to continue regardless of circumstances, a love which continues weather that person has offended us or our family or friends. It is a love which like God’s love is eternal.
Hebrews 13:1 "Let brotherly love continue." Too many times we find reasons for stop loving each other. We grow to love another brother or sister in Christ, then he or she will do something that offends us, or we do something that offend them, so we decide that we will with hold our love, because that person is no longer worthy.
But Scripture states that is not how it ought to be. Our love for each must continue if we are to be obedient to God. Could you imagine if God withdrew is love every time we did something that offended Him. If God decided to withhold his love based on weather we offend him or not I will tell you know that there would be not one person alive here today.
So I have no idea why we think we have the right to withhold our love from another Christian because they have offended us. It is wrong, it is sin.
The love we are to have for other Christians is a love which is pure and sincere. This not a love which comes and goes. A love based on conditions, it is love which like it’s source, is a pure love, a sincere love.
1 Peter 1:22 "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,"
I would like to ask you question, have you ever said to yourself or maybe someone else, "well I don’t like that person, by I love them in Christian way" To quote Col. Sherman Potter from the TV show MASH, "Horse Hockey Pucks!" Saying we don’t like someone but that we love them in Christian love is garbage. You cannot love someone with the sincere and pure love God has called you to love them with and say well I don’t like them. And if you feel this way about anyone in this fellowship, or any Christian for that matter, you need to do something about it, because I will guarantee that it is getting in the way of the relationship God wants you to have not only with that person, put the relationship which God wants you to have with Him. So scripture calls on us to have a "pure and sincere love" for one another.
The love Christians are to have for one another is a love of which will cause us not to stumble, it is a love which show whether we are living in darkness or in the light. It is a love which helps us to see the light of Christ.
1 John 2:9-11 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
We see in this verse a couple things concerning Christian love. Looking back to what we discussed about not liking someone but saying we love them. This verse shows the impossibility of that. Either we are in darkness or light. Either we love our brothers or sisters in Christ or we hate them. No middle ground here. It’s black or white, no grays.
We see the seriousness of not loving one another as we should. If we do not love a fellow Christian we are in spiritual darkness and we are not living in the light. We also see how serous a matter loving each other is. In chapter 3 verse 15 of this book John equates hating your brother with murder.
I think of that woman who killed her to children, we think of her as a evil murderer. Yet when we don’t love each other as we should, that is what Scripture equates us with.
When we do love our fellow Christian John states we live in the light. And because we are living in the light, we are less likely to stumble. The implication which John presents here is that anyone who hates his brother, that is any one who does not love his brother or sister in Christ, will cause his or her own downfall. They are blinded by that hate, they are blinded by that lack of love.
The love Christians should have for one another is a love which proves to others that we are followers of Christ. Here is, other then the fact that God commands us to, is that most important reason for us to love each other, as a witness to unbelievers of the love of Christ.
John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
It is beyond me how Christians can talk of the love of Christ to nonbelievers when the do not manifest that very love for each other. We need to show the unsaved world the love of Christ, and that love can be seen in how we love each other. Many people want nothing to do with church because that see how Christians treat each other. We need to understand that Christianity is built of the love of God. And if we cannot show that love to each other, we will not convince anyone of that love.
We need to demonstrate the love which we saw demonstrated in that early church. We need to see today the love which that ancient Greek writer Lucian saw in his day.
So I ask you to ask yourself, do all know that I am a disciple of Christ by how I love my brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ states right here, "This is how they will know". Yet I think far to few people know we are followers of Christ by our love. And I think that is sad commentary on the Christian church today.
And while this love is love which witness to others, it is also a love which witnesses to God. Verse 8 in toady’s passage Paul states, "For God is my witness". God was a witness to love which Paul had for the people of Philippi. What is God a witness to in your life. Is He a witness to that love you have for other Christians. His He pleased by the feelings you have for others Christians, or is displeased at how you act on the outside but feel on the inside.
That is thing with God, there is no fooling Him. He is a witness to all you do, be it sin or obedience.
The love we are to have for our brothers and sisters in Christ is also a love of forgiveness. Keep in mind that the love we have in us through the Holy Spirit is the love of God, and His love is certainly one of forgiveness. For without God’s forgiveness of our sin we could never hope to have eternal life.
1 Peter 4:8 "And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."
Love Peter writes covers a multitude of sin. In others words when we love someone as Christ loves them we are able to forgive the thing which they may have done to us.
I feel that one of the greatest hindrances to loving each other as we should is that fact we hold grudges against our fellow Christian. We don’t want to forgive them even though Christ as forgiven us. Maybe they hurt our feelings somehow, or maybe they have hurt our family or friends. Instead of forgiving them as we should we hold on to that hurt and it prevents us from loving them as we should.
At this point I am again thankful that God is so much more gracious then we are. I think of all that things I have done that have given God reason to hate me for all eternity, yet because of his love for me He has forgiven me.
So perhaps you need to set aside that wrong that was done to you, let go of the hurt. And begin to love that person in the way God commands you to. We need to forgive just as we have been forgiven.
The love Christians should have for one another is also a love of self-sacrifice and meeting the needs of others.
1 John 3:16-17 "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?"
In this verse we again see how the love which brothers and sisters in Christ are to have for each other is a love that is seem by action and deeds. This passage tells us that we know love through the example of Jesus Christ lying down his life that we might have eternal life. It states that this is the same self-sacrificing love that we need to have for each other. We should place the lives of our fellow Christians before our own. Now fortunately we live in world much different then that of John. I don’t think any of us here have to worry about physically lying down our life for another. But the point of the passage is to show how much we are to place our brothers and sisters in Christ above ourselves. To the point that we consider their lives over that of our own.
Another point this passage brings out is the fact that we are called on to meet the needs of our fellow Christians. When we do this we show them the love we have for them. When we ignore the needs of our fellow Christians, and we have to resources to do something about them, this verse asks the question of how can them love of God be in us?
So once again we see the importance of putting our love for one another into action!
Christian love is also a love which produces joy. We noted this in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, of how Paul was filled with joy at the thought of these people. This was due to the fact that he had Christian love for these people. John 15:11-12 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
Loving one another should produce joy in each of us. It is not something we should find difficult, it is not something we should regret doing, it is something that when it is done as the Scripture commands it bring joy to us. And when we Love the Lord as we should, and when we love one another as we should Scripture then our joy will be full.
I think many of us are miserable and missing out on this very joy because of the fact we do not love others as we should, and therefore we are not loving God as we should. And when are relationship with the others and the Lord is not what it should be, our joy cannot be full.
And that statement bring us into the final type of love that Christian love is. That is it is a love that must have if we are to love God as we should.
1 John 4:20-21 "If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also."
When you think about it that is a hard verse to take. I want you to think for minute. Is there one person in this room, whom I do not love. If you answered yes, now ask yourself if you love God, if you answered yes this verse calls you a liar, in fact God himself as called you a liar. John goes on to say how can not love your brother or sister in Christ, whom you can see, who has the Holy Spirit living in them, and claim that love God whom you cannot see? John then answers that question for you. YOU CANNOT!
He states right here, "he who loves God, MUST love his brother also". You cannot love God as you should until you love all your brothers and sisters in Christ.
So let us apply this to our own lives. Let us examine yourself and see where we fall short. Let learn to love one another as the Lord commands. And as we grow in love one another let us put that love into actions, let it be a sincere and pure love, a forgiving love, a love of compassion, a love which begins with God. Let us have the love for each that shows this community that we are Christians, that the love of Christ is in us. And realize that we will benefit when we learn to love each other as we should. We will receive joy.
Know also that you cannot love God and not love your brothers and sisters in Christ, it simply cannot be done.
In closing I urge you as Christ urges you, love on another.
SHALL WE PRAY
