Pursuing the Truth About Love

Intro

Story of how my friends and I got a city ordinance installed simply by not paying attention to the rules set up by a landowner.

It is really important to play by the rules set out by the guy who owns the land. And what do we know about our world?

Psalm 24:1 NASB 2020

The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who live in it.

Our world has some messed up ideas about much which is fundamental to understanding who we are as people.

Truth

I. Understanding what love is starts with knowing who God is. (1)

II. Loving other people starts with loving God. (2)

We Christians cannot take our cues about what is true and right from this world.

We are only really loving others when we pursue what is best for them.

We are only pursuing what is best for others when we are obeying God and encouraging them to do the same.

The way of Adam can only ever bring death.

If we want to break the cycle of sin and death in this world we can only do so by turning away from sin and pursuing Christ with all that we have.

III. Loving God means doing what He says. (2-3)

It is simple. If we claim to love God and/or other people and yet we compromise on what God has called us to be, we don’t really love God or others.

John 14:15–17 NASB 2020

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.

Mark 12:28–31 NASB 2020

One of the scribes came up and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘hear, israel! the lord is our God, the lord is one; and you shall love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

IV. Only by walking in faith can we overcome the world. (4)

Faith is a spiritual gift which comes from God by His grace, enabling us to reject the falsehood of this world and embrace the truth of Christ and His kingdom.

In other words, it is the Spirit who empowers us to be born of God.

Through Christ we are given a new mind which enables us to see through the false fronts the world puts on in an attempt to compensate for the fact that they have lost Christ, the center they were created for.

1 Corinthians 2:16 NASB 2020

For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Application

IV. What do I do now?

Gospel

Challenge

Do you want to be a person who loves well and in truth?

Pursue Christ. To the extent that you love Jesus and pursue Him, you will be empowered to love others well too.

The sad fact is that far too few American Christians seriously pursue Jesus. Sure we go church, and we give Him a nod when we pray before meals, but are we really going after Jesus?

Do we carve out time to be with Him? Do we pray intently and intentionally? Do we read our Bibles for the joy of knowing Him? Do we worship Him personally?

I believe that God’s challenge for us from this passage is to go after pursuing Jesus like never before.

Because if we are going to actually pursue truth, then we must pursue the incarnation of God’s truth which is Christ Himself.

John 17:17 NASB 2020

Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

John 1:1–5 NASB 2020

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.

John 1:14 NASB 2020

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 16:12–15 NASB 2020

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; this is why I said that He takes from Mine and will disclose it to you.