Agape love
1) Sometimes the best way to define something is simply to list all of its qualities.
2) This is what the Bible does when it comes to love.
3) Last week we studied about “brotherly love.”
4) This is the second to the last quality listed by Peter in his description of Christian graces.
5) After brother love we simply read about “love,”(a general reference to this four letter word.
a) What is love?
b) The world certainly has its definition for love.
c) Usually when I hear secular people talk about love the descriptions are negative.
d) We hear charges like, “that is not loving. You are being unloving. You need to be more loving.”
e) Positive descriptions from the world are usually not a whole lot better.
f) Love is typically understood as “you have your view and I will have mine.”
g) Love is generally equated with tolerance. Sometimes it is broadened to include good treatment.
h) In constant to the world, God’s word gets pretty specific about love.
i) The Bible tells us love is patient, kind, and does not involve itself in envy.
j) It is not jealous, boastful, arrogant, rude, insist on its own way, irritable or resentful.
k) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.
6) In the coming weeks we want to look at these qualities, listed in 1 Cor. 13, one by one.
7) True love does exist, and the Bible tells us we can see it in God.
8) John simply said in 1 Jn. 4:8 that “God is love.
9) God is love; this is part of His essence, nature, His very being.
10) Jn. 3:16 says, “for God so loved the world.”
a) No part of the godhead can be excluded from this statement.
b) The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have all loved man.
11) Perhaps one of the most compelling texts in this regard is Rom. 5:8 – READ.
12) Heaven’s love is seen in the plan to save man.
13) It was the Father who orchestrated the plan of redemption.
14) Jesus came to pay the price for sin. The Holy Spirit revealed the truth about the process.
15) God’s love is demonstrated in everything He has done, continues to do, and will do.
16) God’s love is even reflected in His judgment on man.
17) A lot of people look at some part of God and think He is mean or harsh.
a) All of God’s laws are in one way or another somehow related to love.
b) We see this from the very beginning. The first couple was told to avoid a certain tree.
c) God said the tree of knowledge could not be eaten from (Gen. 2:17).
d) God loved the first couple enough to warn them about eating fruit from this tree.
e) When they disobeyed, God loved man enough to provide a way of escape.
18) Critics sometimes come along and respond with, “Well, if your God is a loving God tell me this.”
19) “Do you believe your God is also all powerful?”
20) My reply is God can do all things that power will allow someone or something to do.
21) For instance, a person cannot exist and not exist at the same time. That is a logical contradiction.
22) No amount of power can let us be and not be at the same time.
23) The skeptic waves his hand and says, “okay, okay. Tell me why God didn’t get rid of the tree?”
24) “Why did an all loving God let a tree that could condemn man be there in the first place?”
25) “Why let man fall into sin and suffer so much if your God is as full of love as you say?”
26) I may not know all the answers to that question, but I can offer this much.
27) We all have free-will. I also know that we want that free will.
28) The one who criticizes God about His love is able to criticize as he does because He has free.
29) Would the objector have preferred for the tree to have been removed and he be a robot?
30) Free-will goes hand in hand with the forbidden tree in the book of Genesis.
31) Critics want it both ways—free will and no sin.
32) God did not want man to sin. God loved man and wanted him to stay in a right relationship with deity.
33) Man chose not to take that path.
34) Just as parents have to love their children enough to let them sometimes make some tough choices…..
35) So God allowed adult men and women to make some choices.
36) When man decided to do what was wrong, God was there, ready to help clean up the mess.
37) Free-will cannot exist without choices. Adam and Eve were given a chance to sin and they took it.
38) When they took it, God decided to bridge the gap with heaven itself.
a) God could have told Adam that he had to die for his sin.
b) He could have said to Adam, “I am going to take your wife as payment for the transgression.”
c) He could have said he would take their children or something else.”
d) God required a perfect sacrifice and that sacrifice was His son, Jn. 3:16.
e) When John God “so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” he meant every word.
THIS GREAT LOVE THAT GOD HAS FOR US IS SOMETHING WE WILL PROBABLY NEVER FULLY COMPREHEND OR APPRECIATE. WE CAN CONSIDER IT AND DO OUR BEST TO EMULATE IT IN OUR LIVES.
a) This is what Peter was trying to convey in 2 Pet. 1:7.
b) Peter did not come up with something that was brand new.
c) Deut. 30:6 talks about “circumcising the heart.”
d) Along with these words is a reference to loving God.
e) When Jesus came along He began to preach this same kind of thing, only in more detail.
f) He said in Jn. 3:3, 5 a “new birth” is necessary.
2) In Jn. 13:34 He said He had a “new commandment” for His people – love. READ Jn. 13:34.
3) Love was a common theme in the first century church.
4) One passage that deals with this subject in an excellent way is Col. 3:12-14.
a) This is probably one of my choice passages in the Bible.
b) The very first sermon I preached was Colossians 3.
c) It took me a month to find a sermon text way back when and this was the text I finally selected.
d) There are 25 verses in this chapter and I talked about them all in less than 15 minutes many years ago.
e) Today we want to mention just three of the verses in this chapter.
f) Paul told the Colossians they had formerly lived a life not consistent with the gospel.
g) They had changed, and here are some of their changes – verses 12-14 – READ.
5) Real Bible love comes from becoming a Christian and assuming the qualities found in the New Testament.
6) A lot of people do not believe that, but it is true.
7) Only when we can comprehend the love God has for us can we begin to really love others well.
8) Too, true love begins with loving God.
a) In Mt. 22:34-40 we find some information about loving God.
b) We are told to love him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind.
c) Our model in this regard is Jesus. As a son of man, He loved the Father supremely.
d) Jesus always did the Father’s will, not His own will.
e) Phil. 2:8 reminds us that Jesus was obedient even to the point of death.
9) Jesus had His eyes on the right things and those eyes never strayed.
10) With us, we sometimes get distracted.
a) Instead of loving God with all the heart, soul and mind we can begin to wander in our lives.
b) Rather than keeping focused on the Creator, we can become enthused about some part of the creation.
c) Any part of God’s creation can be put above the Creator.
d) Our love can be shifted from things that are eternal to items that are temporal.
e) Rather than keep concentrating on love for God, our love can be turned to self love.
11) Even the best people can struggle with love.
12) Jesus once said (Lk. 14:26) that we must “hate” father and mother.
13) Jesus did not teaching something contrary to the Ten Commandments that were still in force at this time.
a) Part of the Old Testament law was honoring mom and dad.
b) Honoring mother and father can also found in the New Testament.
c) Jesus had in mind “loving mom and dad less than God.” God comes first.
d) If we really love God first, there will be some natural consequences.
14) We will work to have in our lives all the Christian qualities Peter listed.
15) We will also, as Jesus once said, “love our neighbor as ourselves.”
16) Sometimes our neighbor is our brother; last week we noted how Peter said we need to have brotherly love.
17) In other cases our neighbor is not a Christian.
a) Loving a neighbor is a willful decision, a choice we make.
b) Loving our neighbor means we show respect and concern.
c) We put their interests and safety on the same level as our own.
18) A good example of this is found in the Old Testament, Deut. 22:8.
a) That passage describes something like a “guardrail.”
b) God said to the Hebrews, “If you build a new house you need to include something.”
c) “There is a safety measure you must have with new construction.”
d) A rail was to be included in the building project to keep people from falling after the house was in use.
e) Why do that type of thing? Why not just tell a neighbor to be careful?
f) Why not just hang out a sign that says, “warning. Danger area. Proceed at your own risk?”
g) Under the Old Covenant system there was love for one’s neighbor.
19) Another example in the Old Testament is found in Deut. 24:6.
20) People used millstones to grind grain into flour.
21) If this were taken, a person lost a tool they needed to survive.
22) Taking this for a pledge was not a loving act and was therefore forbidden.
23) A third Old Testament example is found in Lev. 19:9-10 – some crops were to be left in the fields.
24) A farmer could potentially glean his crop but God said, “Do not do that.”
25) “Leave part of the food for the poor.”
26) All these items are rooted in love. When we tie them together we see that love is an action word.
27) We sometimes sing words that say, “love is the golden chain that binds.”
28) This is right – listed to 1 Jn. 3:18 – READ.
29) God has loved us and we must show that love to others. Do we?
30) When I was in Boy Scouts there was an emphasis on receiving badges.
31) All kinds of badges were available.
32) Many years ago I met a Christian who talked about love being the Christian’s badge.
33) He was right. Love is to be our badge. Do we wear it, and work to wear it every single day?