Live in Love

Introduction

In the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge the main character Christian, a poor bohemian play-write, falls madly in love with Satine, a burlesque performer and prostitute. In a private exchange, while Christian’s friends are attempting to distract Satine’s wealthy suitor, Christian explains to Satine exactly what love is. He exclaims “A life with out love, that’s terrible.” To which Satine responds “no, being on the street, that’s terrible.” This then launches Christian into a short exposition of love. He says, “love is like oxygen, love is a many splendor thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love.” This leads into the introduction of a medley of love songs, most of which you would probably recognize.

Christian is talking about the romanticized love that we often equate the word love with. That deep longing for a romantic connection with another person. While this is not what true, heavenly love, is Christian makes some valid points. For humanity love is like oxygen. It is something we all require, something that we cannot live without. The quality of our lives is diminished without the presence of God’s holy love. That is why in our passage today John tells us that we are to “live in God’s love.”

We must live in God’s love because .........

Live in Love, Live without fear

Fear Comes From Punishment

When we do something wrong there is a punishment

Only if you get caught

When we break the rules but don’t get caught we live in fear

Usually its not fear that we will have to own up to our action

Usually its not fear about the people we hurt

Usually its fear of the punishment we will face

Then even if we aren’t breaking the rules we will still live in fear

There is no punishment for those who live in Christ’s love

We don’t have to fear God’s punishment when we live in his love

When we live in God’s love we follow God’s prescribed system

When we don’t stray from his direction then there will be no punishment

Because we know we live in love we have assurance there will be no punishment

full assurance of faith

when we are living in God’s love we .................

Live in Love, Live Perfected

Perfection = complete

Something is perfect when there are no flaws, no aberrations

perfect SAT score 1600, perfect golf score would be 18, perfect baseball card, etc.

We cannot be perfect alone

It is impossible for us to be perfect

Pelagianism = no original sin, we have the will to choose perfection, we just don’t.

Because all of creation is tainted by original sin we can never be perfect

We simply don’t have the ability to be perfect by ourselves

God makes us perfect through his Spirit

vs. 13 “He has given us his Spirit”

vs. 17 “In this way love was perfected with us”

Passive verb τετλείωται (ppi3s)= we don’t do it, it was done to us

We can’t perfect ourselves, only God can perfect us.

We open the way to that perfection when we surrender to the Spirit

when we are perfected......

Live in Love, Love All

Jesus had love for all people

Jesus did not agree with everything people did

He constantly pointed out people sins

The woman at the well

Peter

Woman in adultery

He wanted repentance from them

Never the less, he ate with them, he traveled with them, he lived with them

All without compromising his perfect nature

Like Jesus we should have love for all people

This does not mean we must agree with everything people do

This means we should share our lives with them

This means we should encourage them

This means we should show them God’s love through our actions and our words

Living in God’s love means we should love others

Conclusion

The greatest gift God could ever give us is His love. When we live in his love we live a life without fear, a life lived in total perfection, and a life where we are so filled with God’s Amazing love that it flows from us. This is what it means to live in God’s perfect love. He offers it to us all. The only thing we have to do is open our arms, empty ourselves, and accept the love that God is offering to us all. Let us pray.