Love
1 Corinthians 13:1 Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become
sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing. 3
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my
body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is
kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not
seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the
truth; 7 bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.
Paul
has just given a beautiful definition of what true love is and he is letting us
know that no matter what you do or how
smart you are if you don’t have love you have nothing. Paul goes in the
chapter and talks about how tongues, prophecies and miracles would cease but
love will remain.
1 Corinthians
All of Christianity hinges
on true love and Gods words teaches us that Love is the most important thing we
should have in our lives.
Colossians 3: 12
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies,
kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if
anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also
must do.
This is very important
list of what is Christian should have in their lives. But look at verse 14 But above all these things
put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Love is at the top of the
list. Love is like mortar for bricks Love binds each Christian together so that
they can strong in the Lord.
The Love of God
1 John 4:8-10 8 He who does not love does not
know God, for God is love. 9
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins.
You see this is what love
is all about. God gave up something very precious to him and Jesus accepted
this fate willing all in the name of love.
2 Corinthians 8:9 9 For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor,
that you through His poverty might become rich.
We are Gods creation and
loves beyond all measure. Mankind had constantly failed God time and time again
and God had every right to destroy us but instead he gave us his best his only
begotten son. That is true love and that is God is love. We would have never
knew what true love was if God had not taught it to us.
Romans 5:6-9 For when we were still without strength, in
due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man
someone would even dare to die. 8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. 9
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through Him.
Paul is putting Jesus
death in human perspective. Paul is telling us that sometimes a person would be
willing to die for a righteous person. I
am sure their were some people in the first century that would had died to protect
the apostles. The he goes on to say that someone just might just maybe might
dare to die for a good man. That would be someone that is just good old boy.
Overall very few would be willing to give their life for another person. It
from this example that we can really put God love in perspective because we
were his enemy because we stained with sin yet Christ died for all of us. You
see it only through the great love of
god that we could become justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
So we just rejoice that
God loves us this much. We should take great comfort in words found in
Hebrews 13:5-6 5 Let your conduct
be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.
For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake
you." 6 So we may boldly say:
"The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to
me?"
Another
aspect of Gods love is found
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
Now God will not forsake
but if we choose not obey his commands that we have chosen not to love him
back. God is not going to force you to love him he gave you a free will because
he wants you chose to love him. I hope everyone in this morning will make the
choice to love God by obeying his commands. It’s the least we could do after he
showed so much love to us.
Love one another
We just learned that the
love of God includes us keeping his commandments. Turn to John 13:34 and lets examine one of his
commandments we are to keep.
John 13:34-35 34 "A new commandment I give
to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love
one another. 35 "By this all
will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another."
Jesus makes it very clear
for us. If you a Christian and you want to be pleasing to God than we must love
one another just a Christ loved us. When you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John and you study Jesus short work here on this earth you learn very
quickly of the great love and compassion he had for those around him. A lot of
people during that time wouldn’t have anything to do with the poor, sick or the
maimed but Jesus was the kind of man that would put his around them and eat
with them. He such a deep love for those around him that he would even shed
tears for them when the suffered. This is the same kind of love that we are to
have. When we love each other and those around us we will stand out and be
different from those in the world. Many today only care about themselves and
the immediate family but when you see Christians who sincerely care for one
another and have compassion on those out in the world people will know that we
are Jesus disciples.
Galatians 5:13-15 13 For you, brethren, have been
called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the
flesh, but through love serve one another.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in
this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one
another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
You see whenever we
became Christian we liberated from sin and as we study Gods word we understand
that there is something greater than just ourselves and our immediate family.
That is why Paul tells us to serve one another. Jesus our master example said,
Matthew
Again you can see how
powerful love is in the fact that the whole law is fulfilled in on word Love.
Notice it says you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Life is so much more
pleasant when people love each as the Bible tells us to do. Once again notice
verse 15
." 15
But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one
another!
Sometimes Christians can
be some of meanest unloving people that you have ever seen. Its like their
heart has became hardened and all they can find is mean words to say. They
focus in on the negative traits of people and they stomp in the ground. Paul
describes this as devouring one another or consuming one another. We have to be
very careful that we don’t find ourselves being like this because it alls it
does is destroys relationships and destroys the unity of love within an
congregation.
Romans 12:9-10 9 Let love be without
hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate
to one another with brotherly love, in
honor giving preference to one another;
When
a Christian is mean spirited to his brother or sister in Christ his love is
with hypocrisy because they are not practicing true love. Some can love their
family a certain people but they cant seem to find love for everyone. I am sure
there are some of us that would struggle with what Jesus says in Luke 6:27-28 7 " But I say to you who hear:
Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you, 28
"bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. If we are going to have the kind of love that
God wants us to have we must love even our enemy. That a tough one but that
what true love is all about. Paul also tells us that Christians are to give
preference to one another. We are brothers and sisters in Christ we are a
family and family should prefer one another because we have the same goal.
1 Peter 4:8 8 And above all things have
fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of
sins."
Once again we see that
love tops the list. Notice Peter says and above all things have fervent love
one another. That word fervent means strong out stretched love for one another.
When we have this kind of love for another we watch out and encourage one
another so that there is little room for sin to enter into our lives. Love
truly will cover a multitude of sins. So lets us never forget to love one
another.
Love between husband and wife.
Marriage
is institution from God between man and women. Once a man a women
are joined together it suppose to be for life.
Matthew 19:6 6 "So then, they are no
longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man
separate."
Marriage can beautiful
thing when it based of the word of God.
First lets take a look at
how Paul describes marriage and compares it the church.
Ephesians 5:22-29 22 Wives, submit to your own
husbands, as to the Lord. 23
For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and
He is the Savior of the body. 24
Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be
to their own husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the
church and gave Himself for her, 26
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the
word, 27 that He might
present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their
own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
This text is not teaching
that a wife is a slave but that she he a humble companion of man. Notice
husbands are to love their wives just as Christ loved the church and also says
that husbands should love their wives just as they love themselves. Using these
guidelines a man and women will have a wonderful marriage. However, we are
human we mess up and don’t treat each other as we should sometimes. Just as
Christ forgives us when we repent our spouses should forgive us when we fail.
Husbands and wives should be willing to make sacrifices for one another and not
let little things cause major problems. You should ask yourself is it really worth it to argue about a small
thing such as leaving the cap off the tooth paste, or maybe leaving the lid up
on commode. Some of these things can be
annoying but they certainly not worth battling over.
1 Corinthians 7:3-5 3 Let the husband render to his
wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority
over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does
not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another
except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and
prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of
your lack of self-control.
When a man and women
marry one another they become one flesh. This means you are to be a part of
each others life. You no longer life for yourself but for each other. Spend as
much quality time as you can with each other because you never know how long
you will have. Not only should your spouse be the love of your life they should
also be you best friend. So make an effort to spend as much time as you can
with your spouse.
Titus 2:3-5 3 the older women likewise, that
they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers
of good things -- 4 that they
admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste,
homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not
be blasphemed.
Paul is speaking of the women here that they love their
husbands and their children and to be discreet chaste homemakers. In passages
we have looked at so far we have learned that husbands are to love their wives
and that wives are to love their husbands. If they have children they are to
share this love with them. Paul mentions one the duties of a wife is being a
homemaker or keeper of the home however this does not mean that the husbands
cannot help out. If he is going to love his wife as himself and is going to
treat her as he would himself then you are going to see a husband help with
some of those house hold duties just as the wife can help her husband with some
of things that maybe only he does. Some men don’t have a clue that keeping up a
house is hard work. Erica Grand paw found this out the hard way. His wife had
to have surgery and could not do her normal task and had never done that much
around the house. But he had to do most of it while she recovered and came to
realization that it keeping house is hard work. So guys show you wife you
appreciate her and help her out from time to time. I hope this lesson has shown
you just how important love really is.