The Very Nature of Love

Good afternoon! I hope that everyone is doing well today. Today we begin a new series that I am calling Love Well Love Right. It is going to be a six part series, beginning today with a look at the nature and source of love. My hope through this series is that when we are done we have not only a better understanding of what true, and righteous, and good love looks like. But my hope is that we all become better lovers. Lovers of God and Lovers of one another.

Why is a series on love so important or even needed. Unfortunately our world, I believe, has caused love to become something that it was never meant to be. In fact today love has been so twisted by humanity that it often times does more harm than actual good. But before we can get to defining what love is I think it is necessary to first understand how things went so terribly wrong. Then we can begin to see the solution to the love problem that our world faces today. So, let’s begin with a contrast between the love of God and the love of humanity.

You see I believe that I can make a very strong argument that all love that is experienced within this world flows from God and God alone. Now, I understand that that is a very strong statement to make. And I suspect some of you here today are not quite certain I am right on this one. So let’s start with the argument I am assuming some of you might make at this moment in order to prove me wrong on this one. Well, we see people all over this world even unbelievers, in fact even professing Satanists perform acts of love. And you would be completely correct in making that statement. Yet, again I would state that the source of that love is God and God alone. Now, some of this flows from my view of humanity. In the book of Genesis God created all things and when he had finished creating he stepped back looked upon His handiwork and said “it is good.” All of creation including mankind was good at that single moment in time.

But then this unfortunate incident occured just a couple of chapters later in the book of Genesis, and in Genesis chapter three Satan sneaks into the garden of Eden and tempts Eve to take and eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, unfortunately Eve takes the fruit and convinces Adam to join her and they both eat of the one thing that God had told them not to eat. But, even prior to this God had given a command to Adam to guard the garden and by extension Eve. By failing to guard and protect the garden from Satan and then eating of the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil all of mankind, all of humanity, that means each and every human that has ever breathed the breath of air fell into what we today call sin. And the curse of sin, ever since, has tainted all of creation. But, particularly mankind. Prior to this moment that we call the fall not a single human had known neither death nor sin. Now through the sin of Adam all of mankind will now know both sin and death.

And it is the fall of humanity that informs my view of mankind. You see at that moment our very nature changed. And we went from righteous loving humans to humans cursed with what is called a sin nature. Our very nature changed and now our first inclination is not righteousness, it is not love. Rather our first inclination is to sin, and it is towards hatred. Just look around and you can see the hate filled acts that so many perform and even at times in the very name of love.

You see I don’t believe that mankind since the fall is truly capable of love in the manner that God originally intended. You see each one of us has been touched by the curse of sin and that includes our ability to actually love well and to love right.

And so I would argue that when true love is truly seen within this world. The source of that love is God and God alone.

The source of love is God

I fully believe that part from the Father who is in heaven love would not exist within this fallen and broken world.

But it does. In fact I would argue that the love that we do see and that we do experience daily is proof that there is a God. And that our God, our Father who is in heaven, loves us His children very much.

And so when we see someone who does not believe in God or worships someone or something other than the one true God act in a loving manner. What we are actually seeing is the grace and mercy of our God expressed through that person as love. We call this God’s common grace, because it is a grace that is shown to and through all of God’s creation. It is common to all of mankind.

And we are so blessed with these moments because in those moments we are given a glimpse of the very character of God. His attributes. That which makes up and defines God. It is Gods character to love that which he has created. It is a part of what defines who He is in relation to His creation. In relation to each one of us here today.

The character of God is love

Not much different than the love that parents instantly have for a new born child. It is a moment that is unfortunately impossible to understand until one experiences the joy and overwhelming love that one has the moment they look into the face of their new born child. The pure love of God that was placed within each of us at our creation is experienced in that moment perfectly. It is in that moment I believe that we come closest to knowing the heart of God towards us His children. It is in moments like this that we begin to see who God truly is. It is not that God IS LOVE. Right, but rather it is that God loves. That’s what is meant by the statement God is love. All that is within him loves perfectly all the time. This is who our God is. This is who Jesus is.

In 1 John 4 verses seven through eight we read.

1 John 4:7–8 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Right here right now in this verse is everything that I have been stating summed up in only thirty-five words. It took me fifteen minutes to lay a foundation though so that we might fully understand what John meant when he wrote these words.

We might say that God is the first lover. He loved so much that He chose to create each and every single one of us so that we might have a special relationship with Him. So that we might know His love. And when we come to know His love, His unfailing love. We will in an instant be born again by the love of of God. And in that moment and many more we will come to know God. Because God loves us His children and so He wants us to know the love of our Father who is in heaven.

One of the difficulties that we particularly have in the english speaking world is that we only have one word for Love that describes so many different realities. From emotions, to actions, to understandings that we have, to various relationships that we experience. All of these can be described with the singular word love. And often times not with the same meaning.

For instance the love that I have for the following people is all similar and at the same time all different. Autumn my wife, Alyssa and Gabe my children, Shirley and Garey my parents, and all of you who are here that I call my friends. I love all. But the word means different things for each relationship.

This is only one aspect of the word love that makes this difficult. One of these difficulties is that we use this one word to describe both emotions as well as actions. How can the two be the same thing. It is because our acts of love are born out of our emotional love towards one another.

And God the Father understood this perfectly. Why? Because he is love. And so he loves perfectly.

And Gods ultimate act of love towards us his children was revealed through what we call “The Cross.”

God’s Love is Revealed through the Cross

If you remember I started todays sermon not actually describing love. But rather I began by discussing a problem that we all carry. And that problem is sin. All of us fell into a nature towards sin that day that Adam fell. There are none, the Bible says, that are righteous not one. No one here today can stand before God and say that they are sinless. Instead all of us will one day stand before God with the weight and guilt of a lifetime of sin. Why? Because it is our nature to sin. The problem that we face is rooted within our very being. But the beauty of our love story, you might call it, is God has provided a solution. That solution requires a perfect sinless sacrifice so that we might be cleansed eternally of our sin. But, here’s the problem that we all face. None of us are righteous and all of creation is tainted by the curse of sin. So where are we to find this sacrifice that we so desperately need. God has provided the sacrifice. And part of the difficult is that because it is the guilt of mankind that must be forgiven. It must be the sacrifice of a perfect sinless man who might bring that forgiveness to us. The solution to our problem required a tremendous sacrifice on the part of God the Father. You see God the Father sent His only begotten son Jesus to live life here on earth as a man. He was perfectly and completely man. But there was more to Jesus than what first meets the eye. Because you see it is only God who can live life perfect and without sin. And so Jesus needed to be both 100% man and 100% god as he walked this earth. And as both Jesus was able to carry the weight and guilt of our sin to the cross. And on that day that he was nailed to the cross God the father laid upon Jesus the sins of the world from the beginning of time until what will one day be the end. And then God the father poured out all of His anger and wrath towards sin, for all of the destruction that sin had wrought upon His glorious creation. He poured all of that out upon His son. His son, Jesus, needed to take that which we were unable to bear. And in that moment Jesus died for our sin so that we might know forgiveness. It was in that moment that the greatest act of love was ever seen by mankind. And in 1 John chapter three verse sixteen we read.

1 John 3:16 ESV

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Jesus died for each and every human that has or ever will be born. And it is through His sacrifice that we are able to see and know what true love looks like. This is the example given that we should all strive to.

John again says in chapter four verse ten.

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Listen, we did not love God first. God first loved us and he showed us that love when he sent His Son to the cross. And he stood in our place where we could not stand and he took the punishment that we deserve for all of our sin.

Some of you right now might be saying, “Well how is that loving?” To cause ones own son to die for others? Why not just simply overlook or pass by the sin. He has the power to do so. But, that is not what a loving parent does for their children is it? No one here who is a parent simply allows their children to get away with doing that which is wrong. There must be discipline. And our sin so great that a life was required. And that life was given by our God, by our savior, by our Jesus. And he bore the full weight of the wrath of God against our sin that day. And the wrath of God was fully satisfied so that we no longer need to fear that wrath any longer. That is what that word propitiation up there means. The wrath of God towards our sin was appeased. It was not simply turned away. It was satisfied on that glorious day in which Christ Jesus died for each one of us.

In the moment of the cross the greatest act of love was seen and the world hasn’t stopped talking about it since.

It was the perfect example that the Father set for us as His children.

And so Paul writes in the book of Ephesians chapter five verse two.

Ephesians 5:2 ESV

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Jesus put on full display the perfect love of God not only that we might be eternally forgiven and given the opportunity to enter into the heavens with Him. But he died also as an example that we are all called to walk out daily.

This love is not something I believe someone who does not know God is capable of expressing as God ultimately intends. This level of love is only possible for those who know God. Because when we know God and when we know Jesus. Then we also will come to know the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit comes and fills us with His person.

Then the Holy Spirit, God living within us, is the one who will express His love through each of us as His vessel, so to speak, within this world.

This is what is often times called the fruit of the spirit

Love is a part of the Fruit of the Spirit

The fruit of the spirit are the character traits of God within us coming forth through us from the Holy Spirit. God is the source of these godly actions we are not. These are fruit that the Holy Spirit bears within us and then those fruit overflow into the world around us. Many of the fruit of the Spirit are listed in Galatians chapter five.

The section begins in verse twenty-two and reads.

Galatians 5:22 (ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

And so on. We are not the source of the fruit. It is the Holy Spirit within us. And as we yield our lives over to the control of the Holy Spirit we will yield in greater and greater measure the fruit of the Spirit.

The source of all true and perfect love that is found within this world is God and God alone.

I also believe that this truth shows the greatest truth of all. We were created for a relationship with our God. And that relationship as we have seen throughout the Bible is founded upon His love for us as His children.

As a result there is no greatest force for righteousness for good within this world than love.

Love is the most important reality that any of us could ever experience. It is the single reason a relationship with Jesus is so important. It is why parent child relationships are life transforming.

Love is Pre-Eminent above all else within our lives.

Love is Pre-Eminent

We are all going to experience many different things within our lives as we simply live life. First Corinthians chapter thirteen is called the love chapter and is often times read at weddings. It defines love in a glorious and grand manner. Within this chapter there is this very brief statement that Paul writes and in verse thirteen we read.

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Look these three realities are some of the most powerful and necessary at times for us just to make it. Faith, hope, and love. But then Paul puts in this little statement at the end. But the greatest of these is love. Why? Because love above all else will lead a person to lay down their life in a way that the other two simply can not. It’s almost like faith and hope can often times get us just to the top of the mountain right to the crest of the mountain. But that one thing that we need to get us over the hill is love. Love pushes us beyond ourselves and into a realm of otherness that the other two simply can not. Faith and hope will drive us to do for ourselves and sometimes for others. But love will push us so far outside of ourselves that we will die for those that we love.

This is why a life of faith and hope is important. But a life of love is necessary for a life well lived. This is why we need to learn to love well and to love right.

While Jesus walked this earth a man came to him and he was not acting loving towards Jesus. In fact he was trying to trip Jesus up in regards to the law that is found within the Old Testament of the Bible and he asks Jesus about the law and in Matthew chapter twenty-two verse thirty-six he asks.

Matthew 22:36 ESV

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

This man is trying to get Jesus to say that one of the commandments given within the law actually holds great weight than the others. There are over 600 different commandments found within what is called the law of the Old Testament. However, all of them are summed up within what we like to call the ten commandments. And well you see the first several all relate to our relationship with God and the last ones all relate to our relationships with others. And so Jesus responds to this man and he says in verses thirty-seven through thirty-nine.

Matthew 22:37–39 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In these two commands love your God and love your neighbor Jesus sums up all of the law. And the one common thread of these two commandments is love.

And so if you are to satisfy all of the law perfectly. You must love God perfectly with all of your heart, with all of your mind, and all of your soul. And then you must love your neighbor as much as you like to love yourself.

But all of that is simply impossible. We are present with yet again our ultimate problem. Which is sin. Sin will always get in the way of our ability to love like we are created to love.

Jesus is the solution to the problem that we all have. He first loved us so that we might then love Him.

Amen.

I like to end my sermons by trying to find some means of applying this to our lives. And at the end I like to ask the question.

So What?

So What?

I mean really I have been going on and on about all of this love stuff. What difference should it make in our lives.

I believe that the most important thing for us to walk away with today is that.

Jesus first loved us.

Jesus First Loved Us

I hope that we each see the problem that Adam brought into this world. When Adam first sinned our very nature changed. And as a result what defines humanity today is not love, it is not righteousness. If you just take two seconds and look around the world today you will find more than enough examples of sin around you. I won’t ask you to look within your own lives. But you see you really do need to. In fact, I suspect that the moment I made that statement God brought something to mind that you struggle with that you know is wrong. Well it’s not simply wrong. It is sin. And you see the problem with any small amount of sin within us is that it taints all of us. And it is this sin that creates the ultimate problem that humanity has ever faced. You see God does not simply see himself as our creator. Who created us then stepped back just let the thing unwind on its own. God views himself as our father. And our Father who is God in heaven is perfectly loving towards us His children. And so he wants what is best for us His children. Any good parent would. Right? And so God the Father has a solution for the sin problem that plagues humanity. God created the only possible solution to our problem because of the depth of His love for you and I. You see our Father who is in heaven sent His only Son, Jesus, into this world. And he had him born into this world as both a man and as God. As a man he is capable of offering himself up as a sin offering for humanity. A human created the problem and so a human must solve the problem. But, the problem is that humanity is fallen. It is this reason that Jesus was the only one that could be the solution. You see Jesus has existed since before time. Because He is God. Jesus was born into this world as both completely human and at the same time completely God. It is this combination that was necessary for the solution to be carried out. Because as God Jesus is incapable of sinning. This is why Christianity says that Jesus lived His life perfectly without sin, without fault. Jesus as the perfect human was the only one ever to walk this earth that was capable to go to the cross and offer himself as that single sacrificial offering to God the Father. And it is this one and only offering that is capable of appeasing the wrath of God eternally. And this is the love that God the Father showed to us His children. He sent His son to die for you and I. And Jesus chose to walk boldly to the cross and offer His life upon the cross. He died as a sin offering in our place. He was willing to go to the cross and take upon himself the full weight of Gods wrath and anger towards our sin and to die in our place. And the Bible says that if you believe in heart this to be true and you place your faith in the work of Jesus on the cross you and you confess this with your mouth you will be saved from your sin. This is Gods plan to right the wrong that Adam brought upon all of humanity.

This is how God ultimately shows His love to you and I.

This is how Jesus ultimately shows His love to you and I.

The question for you and I today is whether or not we will allow God to love us as He wants to love.

This is love.

Love doesn’t count the cost.

Love only sees the reward.

And love is willing to offer up the ultimate sacrifice.

This is love.

Amen.

amen.

Let us pray

Benediction

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.