Core Values: Love – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 If I speak in the languages of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 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.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
We are in our series on Core Values. Core Values are the DNA that define who we are, what we are in infancy and in greatness. What God has called us to be. They are not just creeds on plaque or notes in book somewhere. They are the essence of who we are, if you were to describe our church in 12 words, the core values would be it. The core values we’re going to be speaking of for the next few months are establishing a foundation for New Mercy Community Church – Prayer, Holy Spirit, Evangelism, Equipping, Relationships, Love, Family, Sound Doctrine, Character, Excellence, Worship, and Missions. Today we’re going to talk about LOVE.
I. Introduction:
a. Love is a very popular word in our society. Amazon.com lists 2,652 book titles regarding “Heaven,” 10,304 for “Money,” 16,765 for “Sex,” 18,818 for “God,” and 30,066 for “Love.” Love is one of the deepest human needs of all, yet it is also a very misunderstood and misused concept.
b. THIS IS LOVE
i. In the 1986 “Crocodile Dundee” movie, Dundee is, of course, from Australia and visits New York City for the first time.
ii. As best I recall, he is being accompanied by a female newspaper writer and suddenly finds himself cornered by a gang of young thugs. When Crocodile Dundee does not give them his wallet, one young hoodlum pulls out a switchblade and threatens Dundee.
iii. Crocodile Dundee simply reaches behind his back, while saying, “that’s not a knife,” and pulls out a large Bowie-type knife, saying, “THIS IS A KNIFE!”
iv. As we read I Corinthians 13, we can almost hear the apostle Paul saying to the Corinthians about the world, “That’s not love...THIS IS LOVE!” The world’s version of love is not love! Most of the time it deals with lust.
c. Love is like a bridge that connects our hearts when we’re apart, The rainbow that colors our world when we’re together, And the bond that keeps us learning and growing together in the LORD!
d. SUBTEXTS:
i. Matthew 22:39 "And the second [great commandment] is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
ii. John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
iii. 1John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
e. You can’t say you know God and fail to love others. It’s a sign you know him—and know him by experience.
f. Love is the distinguishing mark of the child of God. It is also the distinguishing mark of the church of God!
g. "Christ demands that the driving force in your life must be love. All other things, although important, are secondary. Love is the sign of true discipleship. "
i. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He willingly laid down his life for us.
ii. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
h. Christians sometimes define love in terms of feelings like our culture does.
i. I feel good about you, I love you.
ii. I feel sexually attracted to you, I love you.
iii. I feel secure, happy, strong around you, I love you.
i. Do you see what all those definitions revolve around?
i. ME! God’s love is so counter cultural and revolutionary that the Bible writers had to take a word that was seldom used: AGAPE.
ii. A word for love for the unworthy, a love that puts the onus on what the Lover does for the Beloved.
iii. Reminds me of 1 John 3:18, Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
j. OUR GENERATION NEEDS LOVE!
i. It has always amazed me that when people look at society & try to analyze what is wrong with us, why we’re killing & abusing one another, that those experts always seem to come back with the same answer, "We need more education.
ii. We need to get everybody educated, & then we won’t have these problems anymore."
iii. But I don’t think education is the answer.
1. I’m certainly not opposed to education.
2. But listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:1, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up."
3. I don’t think we need more knowledge near as much as we need more love.
4. We need a whole lot more love & the hearts of people need to change before society will ever change.
k. WHAT IS LOVE?
i. Someone sings, "I can’t help falling in love with you."
ii. Someone else sings, "You’ve lost that loving feeling."
iii. Someone else sings, "I love you. Please tell me your name."
iv. That’s really deep stuff, you know.
l. LOVE – ABSTRACT VS. REAL
i. A Peanuts cartoon shows Lucy standing with her arms folded and a stern expression on her face.
1. Charlie Brown pleads, "Lucy, you must be more loving.
2. This world really needs love.
3. You have to let yourself love to make this world a better place."
4. Lucy angrily whirls around and knocks Charlie Brown to the ground.
5. She screams at him, "Look, Blockhead, the world I love. It’s people I can’t stand."
ii. Friends, in all seriousness, I suspect many of us have found that it is easier to talk about love, easier to believe in love, easier to be committed to love, than it is to actually do it.
iii. Someone said, “It is no chore for me to love the whole world. My only real problem is my neighbor next door.”
1. To dwell above with saints we love, that will be grace and glory—
2. To live below with saints we know ... that’s another story!
iv. Sometimes loving those closest to us is the hardest thing to do.
v. We can give money to feed starving people on the other side of the world, but to deal kindly with someone at work or our next door neighbor may be a different matter entirely.
m. "That’s marvelous, having a lion and monkey in the same cage," said the visitor to a small zoo. "How do they get along?"
i. "Okay, usually," answered the zookeeper. "Occasionally they have a disagreement, and we have to get a new monkey."
n. HOW TO LOVE:
i. Brothers and sisters, instead of loving people, we usually label them. Instead of caring, we often criticize. Instead of getting close to them, we often stay away from them.
ii. If there are two things that we all need to learn about people, they are: Stop judging them. Start loving them.
iii. Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.
iv. Riches take wings, comforts vanish, hope withers away, but love stays with us
v. Love is the greatest quality we can possess because it best resembles the character of God in His relationship with us
II. Loving God is the supreme commandment and loving others is the second great commandment
a. SCRIPTURE RESOUNDS THE MANDATE:
i. Jesus says ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself’
1. Jesus sets the bar high when it comes to loving!
ii. James 2:8 tells us "If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ’Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right."
iii. 1 John 3:11 wrote: "This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another."
iv. Paul, in Romans 13:8 declared: "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law."
v. Peter, in 1 Peter 1:22 told us: "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."
vi. And, of course Jesus said: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you." (John 15:9-12)
b. It is imperative that we love our neighbor.
c. It is imperative that we love our brethren.
i. John 13:34,35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
ii. 2 John 1:5 – And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.
d. It is imperative that we love our enemies.
i. Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ’Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 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. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
ii. Matthew 7:12 – “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
e. Does anybody sense a pattern here?
i. The pattern?
1. The commandment of the kingdom, the royal law, the proclamation of the King of Kings & Lord of lords is: Love one another.
ii. God lays a heavy emphasis on “loving one another?” … Why say it so often throughout the New Testament? Why not just say it once… and then move on? There is nothing more challenging or more important than this.
f. As a church, we must be more loving than any place on earth
i. Disney creates a fantasy world – unlike any place on earth
ii. Cruise ships create a world where you feel like pampered royalty
iii. I saw a church with a sign that said “the friendliest church in town”
1. We must be more than the friendliest church, we must be the most loving, friendly environment anyone steps into
2. They must know they matter to God, because they matter to us
III. Love is the greatest sign of Christ’s work and presence in our lives
a. Douglas Coupland, who coined the term ’Generation X’, concludes in his book Life After God, "my secret is that I need God - that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem to be capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love."
i. We need God to enable us to love.
b. Jesus set the example of love:
i. There once was a carpenter who didn’t overcharge for his work
ii. Once there was a physician who healed the sick for free
iii. Once there was a man who fed people at no charge…
iv. And you know what they did to Him?
v. They crucified Him!
vi. There will be times as a Christ follower that you’ll feel unappreciated, and taken for granted.
vii. You’ll not feel loved as you should be.
c. LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER
i. Saint Jerome recounts that Saint John the Evangelist, living in Ephesus in his extreme old age, would be carried with difficulty into the church by his disciples.
ii. He had no strength for lengthy exhortation, but could only say, “agapomen allelus" ("let us love one another").
iii. At length, the disciples and church members who were there, wearied by the repetition, asked, “Master, why do you always say this?”
iv. He replied “Because it is the Lord’s command and if that alone is done, it suffices.”
1. Some baptize only adults while others baptize children--what do you say?
a. Let us love one another
2. Some speak in tongues while others do not--what do you say?
a. Let us love one another
3. Some who drink wine while others abstain--what do you say?
a. Let us love one another
4. Some young leaders have new ideas while others want to preserve our tradition--what do you say?
a. Let us love one another
d. Love is easier to demonstrate love than define it.
i. Paul gives to us the essentials of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
ii. Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22.
iii. Love is an added grace as defined in 2 Peter 1:5-8.
iv. Love is a more excellent way as told in 1 Corinthians 12:31.
e. Love is eternal.
1. Faith and hope are temporal, needed only in this present life. They will disappear when we get to heaven.
IV. Love is essential for success for the life and mission of the church
a. If we plan to be the church that is the aroma of Christ to this community – if we hope to impact others thru our existence then we need this kind of extreme love.
b. A community of amazing love will be irresistible to an unbelieving world.
c. LOVE NEVER FAILS – Other methods may, so let us love people into a relationship with God
i. Newspaper columnist and minister George Crane tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband.
ii. "I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even.
iii. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me."
iv. Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan "Go home and act as if you really love your husband.
v. Tell him how much he means to you.
vi. Praise him for every decent trait.
vii. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible.
viii. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him.
ix. Make him believe you love him.
x. After you’ve convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb.
xi. Tell him that you’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him."
xii. With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Beautiful, beautiful. Will he ever be surprised!"
xiii. And she did it with enthusiasm. Acting "as if."
xiv. For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing.
xv. When she didn’t return, Crane called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?"
xvi. "Divorce?" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him."
xvii. Her actions had changed her feelings. Motion resulted in emotion.
xviii. The ability to love is established not so much by fervent promise as often repeated deeds.
V. Love and mercy must permeate the life of Christians and the church
a. How are you sharing God’s love with our community?
i. Are you aware of those who are lonely? Those who are in need?
ii. Those who need a hug or a handshake, a card or a phone call.
b. The Catholic saint Francis de Sales said, “You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so, you learn to love God and man by loving.”
c. ICU Church of God
i. I have spent long hours in the intensive care waiting room…watching with anguished people…listening to urgent questions:
1. Will my husband make it? Will my child walk again?
2. How do you live without your companion of thirty years?
ii. The intensive care waiting room is different from any other place in the world.
1. And the people are different. They can’t do enough for each other. No one is rude.
2. The distinctions of race and class melt away.
3. A person is a father first, a black man second.
4. The garbage man loves his wife as much as the university professor loves his, and everyone understands this. Each person pulls for everyone else.
iii. In the intensive care waiting room, the world changes.
1. Vanity and pretense vanish. The universe is focused on the doctor’s next report.
2. If only he will show improvement.
3. Everyone knows that loving someone else is what life is all about.
iv. Can you imagine how very different our homes and our church would be if we realized that our everyday life is in fact the crucible of the intensive care waiting room?
d. LOVING SACRIFICIALLY
i. Jack Kelley, foreign affairs editor for USA Today, tells this story:
ii. We were in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, during a famine.
1. It was so bad we walked into one village and everybody was dead.
2. There is a stench of death that gets into your hair, gets onto your skin, gets onto your clothes, and you can’t wash it off.
iii. We saw this little boy.
1. You could tell he had worms and was malnourished; his stomach was protruding.
2. When a child is extremely malnourished, the hair turns a reddish color, and the skin becomes crinkled as though he’s 100 years old.
iv. Our photographer had a grapefruit, which he gave to the boy.
1. The boy was so weak he didn’t have the strength to hold the grapefruit, so we cut it in half and gave it to him.
2. He picked it up, looked at us as if to say thanks, and began to walk back towards his village.
v. We walked behind him in a way that he couldn’t see us.
1. When he entered the village, there on the ground was a little boy who I thought was dead.
2. His eyes were completely glazed over. It turned out that this was his younger brother.
3. The older brother kneeled down next to his younger brother, bit off a piece of the grapefruit, and chewed it.
4. Then he opened up his younger brother’s mouth, put the grapefruit in, and worked his brother’s jaw up and down.
5. We learned that the older brother had been doing that for the younger brother for two weeks.
vi. A couple days later the older brother died of malnutrition, and the younger brother lived.
1. I remember driving home that night thinking what Jesus meant when he said, "There is no greater love than to lay down our life for somebody else."
e. When you practice love, you are practicing… not what God feels, but the very nature of God himself.
i. To love someone is to apply God to his or her life in a simple, fragile human form.
ii. Showing love to your fellow believers, to your bank clerk, to the person who delivers your mail, to the kid at the ice cream store… to show love is to share God.
