9 Essentials to Living the Christian Life: Love

Do you have two handouts? You should have one that says, Living the Christian Life, Nine Essentials. And then you should have one that's a front and back. This is the whole chart filled in. and on the back are the verses, the key verses we use for each of the nine essentials for living the Christian life.

I encourage you to consider trying to memorize all those verses. It's just the front and back of one sheet, folks, but it's a lifetime. A lifetime of work to have all of these qualities in our lives. But I'm going to submit to you, if the church of Jesus Christ has these nine different things in its life, and if we have it in our lives as individuals, the church will be different. So I hope you will take time to study further on that.

The ninth essential. we've done Christ, the word, prayer, community, purpose perseverance, joy, holiness and today love

and so our chart now looks like this and all of you have a completely filled in chart at this point

love love is all you need

if we understand love right I think it's true the Beatles sang it think they understood what true love was. But for those of us in the church, I think if we fully understand love, it is the key virtue for us as Christians. It was 1956 at Scroon Lake, New York. It was to be an enjoyable day on the lake. But before the day was over, there would be tragedy.

we would learn about the biblical definition of love. Let's pray. Lord, this day I pray that as we think of this critical virtue of the Christian life, this virtue we call love, I pray that you will help us to examine our own hearts and minds to see where we lack this quality, where we may speak truth as Christians, but do we speak truth in love? We may relate to many people but do we relate to them in love? I pray that you will revolutionize individuals in this class this class, this church the church of Jesus Christ around the world by helping us to recapture the full orbed understanding of this notion we call love.

name we pray amen Jesus was being grilled by various groups in the book of Mark the Pharisees and the Herodians wanted to know is it right to pay taxes to Caesar and Jesus gave that great answer render unto Caesar what is Caesar unto God what is God's then the Sadducees asked him what about the resurrection of the dead? You remember the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. That's why they were sad, you see. They don't believe in a resurrection. And they asked him, well, what if a man, if a woman has seven husbands on earth?

You know, one dies and she remarries and another dies. Who will be her husband in heaven? Jesus says, you folks don't get it. Heaven's a whole new dimension. we won't marry and be given in marriage in heaven.

We're going to be like the angels. There's going to be a dimension in heaven that transcends even that close relationship we call marriage on earth. But then finally, a teacher of the law asked Jesus, of all the commandments, which is the most important? Of all the commandments, which is the most important? And I'm now at Mark chapter 12, verse 28.

If you don't have your Bibles open there, you can open them. 12 28.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.

Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer. See Jesus has already given good answers on the other questions I already told you about. So this teacher of the law asked Jesus of all the commandments which is the most important. we know that the rabbis of jesus day had gone and counted all the various statutes and laws of the old testament now i haven't gone and tried to count these but by their count there were 613 different statutes or laws in the old testament to which they began to append more and more regulation but 613 different statutes and laws and these sadducees excuse me these teachers of to figure out which of these commandments were most important, which were less important. And so this question would be a very honest question of a teacher of the law.

I want to know which of these many is the most important. There had been a great Jewish rabbi who lived before Jesus' day named Hillel who was asked by a man, please teach me the whole law while I stand on one foot. Hillel to summarize it very quickly before he fell and Hillel's response was what you hate for yourself do not do to your neighbor this is the whole law the rest is commentary go and learn it's sort of the reverse side of the golden rule Jesus would state it later in a positive way but in response to the question from this teacher of the law which commandment is the greatest, Jesus then responds. And in this teaching, we learn what the preeminent virtue for Christians is. I mean, this is the chief virtue, folks.

Of all the virtues that we should have in our lives as Christians, this virtue is number one. It is the chief characteristic. It is the characteristic that we should be as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that characteristic is love.

Love. I want to persuade you this is the chief virtue. I've given you a number of verses in your handout. Let me just summarize why I say this is the chief virtue. I don't want you to leave today thinking there's another virtue in the Christian life more important than this one.

This is it. In the list of the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. Love comes first in the list. According to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, without love, our religion and whatever spiritual gifts we have are worthless. if I speak in the tongue of men tongues of men and of angels and have not love I am nothing if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all knowledge if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love I gain nothing if I surrender all my possessions to the poor and give my body to the flames but have not love I am nothing nothing trumps love you can be the most gifted person but if you don't have love Paul says it's nothing of faith hope and love the greatest is love according to Paul in Romans I'm echoing here Romans 13 love is the summary of the law and that's what Jesus says love is the summary of the law love shows that we are Christ's disciples a new commandment I give to you that you love one another by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another jonathan edwards would say love is not just one of the faction affections it is the first and chief affection the strength of the others do you hear me love is the preeminent virtue in the Christian life.

Preeminent. I'm preaching to myself. I'll tell you more later. Who are we to love and how are we to love them? Jesus answers those questions for us in our text.

First, we are to love God. the background of this passage jesus says his answer is verse 29 in response to the question the most important one or the chief commandment is this hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all and with all your strength. So we are to love God. Jesus quotes from an Old Testament passage. The background to the passage is Moses, the children of Israel, are about to cross into the promised land, and Moses knows he's not going on with them.

And there before they cross into the promised land, he gives them some principles by which they must live when they go into that land of unbelief filled with so many pagan religions. And Jesus tells them, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

He is telling them that they must carry that with them as they go into the promised land. This is called the Shema.

Devout Jews quoted this Old Testament passage every morning and every evening. Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 through 9. Every morning and every evening. the shema because the first word of what moses said is here in our language hero israel the hebrew word for here is shema and it's a word that doesn't mean you're just supposed to let vibrations hit your eardrums it's the notion that you're to hear to listen to understand and to act on what you have heard so when he says here he doesn't mean just hear and walk away he means incorporate these teachings into your life and the and the command is love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might well why are we to love god why are we to love god well the text we just read tells us that he alone is god the lord is our god the lord is one the sense is that he is god and he is god alone christianity is a monotheistic faith contrary to many of the pagan religions of the day of moses in the day that jesus talked and even today christianity is monotheistic it says there is only one who is god and he is not god whoever you conceive him to be his name is not Vishnu his name is not the Allah of the Muslims his name is not any other name Zeus Apollo whatever this is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in our text in the New Testament, he's kurios. In the Old Testament, he was Yahweh.

This is the God of the covenant. And you want to be loving the one who reigns supreme over all. Why should we love God? Because he is God. He reigns over all.

We should also love him because he is our God, the text says. He is our God. he's our God because number one he's redeemed us he saved us from our sins we have a covenant relationship with him and he is our God because we serve him and him alone no one no thing nothing else takes preeminence over him therefore we are to love him not only because of what he has done for us but because of who he is so we are to love god how are we to love him how are we to love him our text tells us we are to love him with all our heart soul mind and strength basically it's saying we're to love him completely with everything we are and everything that we have as individuals but what does it mean to love the Lord completely? I'm going to give you at least four things that I believe it means. And I want you to ask yourselves, do I love God completely?

The answer to that question will be how you measure up on at least these four things. There are probably others, but there are at least four.

If we love God completely, it means we worship Him exclusively. there's nothing else in our lives that commands our worship there's nothing else that we serve above him or follow above him the old testament commandment the very first commandment was you shall have no other gods before me and immediately it's followed by that you shall not make for yourself any idols in the form of anything in heaven above on the earth below or the waters underneath for I the Lord your God am a jealous God he won't share he wants exclusive worship and exclusive love we tend to in this day pass off this notion this fear about other idols because we don't go to places that too often in this country that have little shapes and statues that people bow down to so ours don't take that form they are other things that we give our lives to that we really follow it can be our stuff it can be sex it can be self it can be status it can be position where do you give you time where do you give you money where do you give you effort you answer those questions and you start to see who you love and who you worship the second thing it means to love him completely is that jesus had is our supreme has our supreme loyalty in other words we have a single settled supreme loyalty to him this is the notion of having a pure heart blessed are the pure in heart a pure heart is a heart that is committed solely to jesus christ there's no other impurity in our heart nothing else commands our attention we are given solely to him and this kind of loyalty complete loyalty to him is the kind of loyalty we see in folks like shadrach meshach and abednego who when the most powerful man on earth says look if you don't bow down it's death in the fiery furnace and they look king nebuchadnezzar in the eye and they say king nebi our god's able to deliver us but even if he doesn't we're not going to bow down even if we burn in the flames for him we're not going to bow down it's that kind of loyalty that we should have if we love the lord our god completely john wesley said this give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but god such alone shall shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth one reason we are so insipid in our christianity is we have too many divided loyalties we are not loyal to him first always last in everything in every moment at every time in every situation he's first he's first That's what it means to love him completely. The third thing it means is obedience. He who has my commands and keeps them, he it is who loves me. Do you love Jesus?

Well, let's check and see. Do you obey Jesus? Do you obey God? Your love is shown in your behavior.

If you genuinely love God, You will do what he says. You will follow his teaching. You will be obedient. And no matter what you say, no matter what words come out of your mouth, if when you walk away, you just live any way you want to and don't live in obedience, your words just ring totally hollow. They mean nothing.

The proof is in the pudding. If you love God, you will live like you love God. saint augustine knew that love of god genuine love of god meant we would be obedient so that he said quote love god and do whatever you want that's a pretty strong statement but if you genuinely love god you can do whatever you want because whatever you want to do will be that which pleases him and is obedient to him the last quality of what it means to completely love him is delight The psalmist says, I will go to the altar of God, to God my joy and my delight. Psalm 73, 25. Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you. We love most. I'll let you finish turning. We love most that which gives us the deepest joy.

I'm going to press this. That which gives us the deepest joy is that which we're going to love the most.

So you better start finding your joy and delight in him

because if you don't, your love and your loyalty is going to slip off somewhere else.

The reason we don't love him completely is because we're finding our delights in other things. our ultimate i'm speaking in the ultimate sense here our ultimate delight must be in him in him so we're to love god we're to love him completely to give him our exclusive worship our loyalty our obedience and our delight but then we're to also love others or as the text says we are to love our neighbors this is a quote from jesus quotes another old testament passage leviticus 19.18 where it says love your neighbor as yourself

who are our neighbors? You know the Jews had a great practice, they agreed with this verse love your neighbor but then they just sort of limited who their neighbors were they were folks like them you know who looked like them thought like them worshipped where they worshipped you know it's kind of their own strata but Jesus, Jesus shoots down all such notions, doesn't he? We remember the story of the good Samaritan, don't we? A Samaritan who stops to care for an injured man who in the context must be Jewish, has got to be. And in that teaching, Jesus says, look, I'm not talking about loving folks who are just like you.

I'm talking about loving anybody, anybody, particularly those who are in need. So who are our neighbors? Our neighbors are those within our home, those we meet at work, those we meet in church, those with whom we recreate. They're our employers, those with whom we work. They're those who serve us in the shops and in the stores, the men and women who empty the dustbins, those who keep the streets and parks clean.

They are the people of Jamaica, of West Africa, of East Africa, of Germany, of Russia. They're black. They're white. They're red. They're yellow.

They're rich. They're poor. They are men. They are women. Some are saints.

Most are sinners. And we're to love them all. How are we to love them?

No, next is why. Why are we to love them? we are to love them because we love God

love of God and love of others are two sides of the same coin an essential corollary to saying I love God is to love others now I had a hard time with this many years ago God you're a lot more lovable than they are why can't I love you and not love them loving you but look at them are you kidding me you mean i've got to love him don't you know what he is like don't you see how he behaves jesus says yes because if we genuinely love god we will obey him number one and he has told us to love others so to say i love god is to mean i will obey him and he has already said I must love others.

So to say I love God must mean I love others because I'm always obedient to God if I genuinely love him. Do you see the point I'm making? The two go together. If we do not love others as demonstrated by positive action, we do not love God.

1 John 3, 17. material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him how can the love of god be in him john says it's not so again you can say all you want about loving others but is it shown in demonstrated positive action toward others you cannot separate love of god and love of neighbor So we love others because we love God, and we love others because he first loved us. We weren't all that lovable, folks. In fact, we weren't lovable at all. And he gave it all for us.

John, 1 John again, verses 19 to 21. We love, John says, because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he's a liar.

remember john was a son of thunder john doesn't mince words if i if anyone says i love god yet hates his brother he's a liar for anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love god whom he has not seen god has given us this command whoever loves god must also love his brother john knows that god commands it we must do it if we're going to say we love God. So we are to love others because we love God and because he first loved us. Well then, how are we to love others? Well first, the text says, we are to love others, you're to love your neighbor as yourself, the text says. As yourself.

now I want to try to disabuse a notion that I sometimes hear given about this verse and stick with me a minute I think I'm right here biblically but often we hear it stated this way it says love your neighbor as yourself therefore this is a commandment that I am to love myself

because I must love myself before I can love others. Have you ever heard this stated that way? I want to suggest to you that turns this whole teaching on its head. This is not a command to love self, but to love others as yourself. The command here is to love others in the way that I would want to be loved if I were in their shoes.

love your neighbor as yourself as if you were in their shoes it's in essence the golden rule to treat others the way you would want to be treated we are to turn that love we typically direct toward ourselves and instead of directing it toward ourselves we're to direct it to others and treat them in the way that we would want to be treated if we were in their shoes as one writer says if we love our neighbors as we love ourselves we shall want for them the treatment we should want for ourselves were we in their place another reason i think it's clear that this love the command here is not to love self but to love others is that the love here is agape love when we're talking about love here in this passage the underlying greek word is this agape love agape love is love that is always directed at the other person it is not self-seeking it is not self-centered so to try to make this command say well i'm supposed to love myself is to turn agape love on its head agape love is always about the other person not about me the last reason i'm pressing that this is talking about loving others and it's not talking about loving self is that in the scriptures, love of self is clearly condemned. 2 Timothy 3, 1-2. There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy. so love of self that self-centeredness self-seeking self-desire is not what this passage is talking about now let me hasten to add and i'm drawing a distinction here but i think it's a biblical distinction scripture clearly teaches self-esteem we are created by god made in his image wonderfully him as Christians we're children of the King we're to honor and serve him but self-esteem is different from this notion of self-love because self-esteem recognizes that God is the center of the universe not me he made me I am here for him not for myself I am here to serve him not myself I am here to seek his glory not my own but when we drift into self-love suddenly we become the center and the scripture says we're not

so how are we to love others as yourself meaning you treat them the way you would want to be treated if you were in their shoes and you treat them with agape love the best definition of agape love is 1 Corinthians 13 but just listen to some of the qualities that we should display toward others if we genuinely love them We're to be patient with them, kind to them, not to be selfish or self-centered. We have to forgive others. We're always to show love that is anchored in the truth and doesn't delight in evil. We are always to protect others, to seek to help them when in need. our love is never to fail but to persevere through all circumstances at all times no matter how difficult the best example i think of this kind of love is the early church

acts 4 32 listen to these words all the believers were in one heart and mind no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own but they shared everything they had power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and much grace was upon them all there were no needy persons among them for from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone as he had need most people read this passage and say oh that can't work today well it's not because there's any problem with the model it's a problem because of our sinfulness and it's not that they didn't own their own private property in jesus day it was their in the apostles day it was their property but they didn't treat it like it was their own they voluntarily sold it when somebody had need they took care of others first not themselves it's a great model the bishop of Rome in AD 251 would write to the bishop of Antioch and say that we're caring now for more than 1,500 widows and distressed persons in this one congregation how many widows and distressed persons does Greer First Baptist help the pagan emperor Roman Emperor Julian noted that the impious Christians support not only their poor but ours as well. And this was beyond his comprehension.

Well, let me give us our lessons for life. Number one, biblical love is more than an attitude. It is a way of life for real women and real men.

Sometimes we guys hear this quality, love,

you know that's that's for the ladies huh this is for real men too men who love jesus secondly let's begin to just to show this love to our nearest neighbors we don't stop there but let's at least start there how about your spouse how about your children how about your brothers and sisters in christ in this classroom do you show love to your nearest neighbors at home and then let's work outward thirdly biblical love ask us to identify with and put ourselves in the shoes of those on the margins of society we must love the poor the jobless the homeless, the sick, the aged, prisoners, the sinners, AIDS victims, starving children in Ethiopia. Have you ever even stopped to imagine the plight of a 12-year-old girl starving in the Sudan? For many, she's just a sex object. She wakes up in the morning, doesn't know where she will find food. there's no one there to care for her.

Do we ever even stop to give a rip about that?

Do you grieve for the children starving on the streets of India or Honduras? Are you moved by the oppression of so many women in the world? we must learn to see that people of other countries other skin colors other nationalities are god's creation made in his image who are who should be objects of our love fourthly biblical love is concerned with societal structures and social injustice the revolutionary Che Guevara said this above all always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone anywhere in the world I think Jesus would agree with that statement but Jesus remedy would have been different from Che Guevara's not violent overthrow and armed conflict Jesus says it's love. I am the answer. But Christians too often, I'm going to talk to us a minute, we too often in the evangelical church don't feel injustice.

We aren't angered when there's societal structure or social injustice. It's sort of like the church in the South

during the 60s and we just turned a blind eye to social injustice where were we why were we so silent it's because we didn't love as god commanded us to love it's my prayer that we will repent of that sin and never let it happen again are you moved or concerned because so many in this country don't have health insurance or do you just sort of pass them out oh it's their own fault their own If they weren't the way they were, they would be able to get it. To be sure, there are many answers, and it's a complex situation, but to never even give a thought or a concern about it shows our hardness of heart and our lack of love. The gospel wrapped in genuine caring love is the most attractive way to present the gospel. Sixthly, biblical love is active and always does the obvious. I read the story of a young man who went to work in the hospital that Method Teresa had for the dying poor of Calcutta he went in, there were people dying all around, thirsty, open sores, needing bandages and he stands there while and watches and he finally walks over to a nun and he says, what you want me to do?

The nun gives him a cold stand and says look around and do something don't just stand there at us and he says what you doing he says quit just looking around the needs are enormous do something the last one jesus is one guy going to ask us what we did i will tell you folks i'm going to ethiopia thursday one reason i'm going because i know for one day jesus is going to ask me what What did you do? What did you do?

Well, it was Scream Lake, New York. Two young girls were thrown from the motorboat into the water. Dawson Trotman, the founder of an organization called The Navigators, which has ministries all over the world now, college campuses and military bases, Dawson Trotman was on the speedboat when the two girls were thrown. Without thinking about himself, he dove into the water, and in the process of saving those two girls, he drowned.

and demonstrated that love of which none is greater by giving his life for another. And in doing so, he identified with Jesus Christ, who became obedient to death, even death on the cross, because he loved us. Therefore, God has exalted him to the highest place and given him the name that is above every name. The name, and before him one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The reason love is a preeminent virtue for us is because it was the characteristic that characterized Jesus Christ above all others. He loved us.

May we love others. May we love others. Let's pray.

Lord, this day, I ask for your forgiveness. We are so wrapped up in self so often and when we see them we have so many excuses or reasons why we don't get involved don't do something don't act help us to be active help us to move forward help us to stand up for you and others who need our help help us to be active in some way help us to find a focus a mission somewhere to help someone who needs to see the love of jesus christ and by that love may they come to know you, be drawn to you, to worship you. It is my prayer that the church of Jesus Christ will be a lighthouse of love, attractive, drawing many to it. For it is in Christ's name we pray. Amen.