Put on Love

Object lesson - cut and restore rope trick.

Whole rope - once without sin

cut rope - lost in sin

restored rope - Jesus love restores us again.

This year at Bible Camp we are going to be learning what it means to love others. In our theme passage this year it says that we are to put on love above all else. There are other traits that we are to show as followers of Jesus but it says above all else we are to put on love. I already talked to you guys about this passage not to long ago so we are going to go somewhere else to show what this means. There are lots of places in the bible that show what it means to love others.

In my object lesson I went through The love Jesus showed us, How we can be restored like this rope was restored. But it is no illusion, or trickery like I used, it is the we can be restored through the love of Jesus. It is Jesus love that shows us what love is really meant to be like. We can say we love others, what are some ways that you have shown love to others?

In 1 Cor 13 it goes through lots of different things that might be good to do as followers of Jesus, or are permitted to do but it says that without love they are all but useless.

above all else put on Love. Unless our lives start with loving others we will be of little use, and the love we are to show is seen in How Jesus first showed us love.

13:1-3 - Put on love

above all we are to put on love. We start out with gifts of the spirit. The church in Corinth was having a problem. There was a heavy emphasis on the gifts of the HS and the miraculous gifts most of all. This was even to the point of dividing over things like this. There was an abuse over the the different gifts that are being mentioned, people where being selfish and disgracing the name of the Lord to those around them.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 CSB

1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

I heard a quote from someone that said “Love is the circulatory system of the body of Christ”. We are told that all these things are good, they are even called gifts of the HS but without love they mean nothing.

Human or angelic tongues. We don't see it hear very much, but we do know that it is a gift of the HS, not for every person but for some. This without love is useless it says. It says it is like a noisy gong, which is not that much fun at all, mostly annoying. Even if we give up all that we have to the poor but don't do it out of love then again it becomes meaningless, it gains nothing.

We are told to put on love, that Love is the key but we need to get a little more context on what this love actually means. The word used here for love is Agape love. Agape love involves faithfulness, commitment, and an act of the will. It is distinguished from the other types of love by its lofty moral nature and strong character. I want to jump to 1 John 4 to see more of what this means.

1 John 4:9–11 CSB

9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

This is the same word for love, Agape, that we have in 1 cor 13.

originates in God - to sacrifice ones most beloved possession for another’s gain

sacrificial and unselfish

We are loving because He is loving

God is present through our love

forgiving the sins of the beloved and remembering them no more

pointing people to the savior of the world - who is our example of love. To not do this is to water down love.

The Epistles of John God’s Love and Our Love (4:7–12)

If the propitiatory death of Jesus is eliminated from the love of God, it might be unfair to say that the love of God is robbed of all meaning, but it is certainly robbed of its apostolic meaning. It has no longer that meaning which goes deeper than sin, sorrow, and death, and which recreates life in the adoring joy, wonder, and purity of the first Epistle of John

so without presenting the gospel in the way that we love others as Jesus did in how he loved others then our love loses meaning. Looking to 1 John, this is the way that we are to put on love. Above all the way that we love needs to point people to Jesus. If God has loved us in this way then the way we love others is to point them to Jesus

13:4-7 - what love is

With his in mind, this type of love that we are to put on we have more examples of what this looks like in the world around us. Many people have memorized these passage but before I put it up on the screen, who can tell me what 1 Cor 13 tells us what love is?

1 Corinthians 13:4–5 CSB

4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs.

1 Corinthians 13:6–7 CSB

6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This passage echoes some of the same things that we read about in 1 John . Love serves the needs of others for whom Christ died over our own desires. Love does not boast, I have heard this word braggart defined as “to be a windbag”. I love that definition, to think highly of oneself whether you are deserving or not. It is not puffed up or rude

Love keeps no record of wrongs. This has to do with forgiveness, the message of the cross, unselfishness. If we are loving each other the way that we are supposed to then we wont keep that little black book of all the wrongs that have been done to us. Isn't it easy to go back and count all the wrongs that have been done to you and get mad all over again about what someone has done. Literally THIS MEANS “DOES NOT RECKON THE EVIL”.

God, through the death of Jesus does not hold the record of wrongs we have done against us, he forgives them and they are gone, the slate is wiped clean. If we echo the love of Jesus the way that we are supposed to then we are to be like this as well. We are not meant to get even with others or seek vengeance but when we love others like this, the wrongs that have been done are forgiven and left behind.

Sometimes this is very hard and we need to be in constant prayer. When the old hurt comes back again and we start to dwell on what has been done do not let it go to far but rather give it up to God in prayer and ask for His strength to love instead of seek vengeance or anger.

13:8-13 - Love is the greatest

Pursue love because that is the greatest.

1 Corinthians 13:8 CSB

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

These gifts that we are given, that was dividing the church at the time, which still lots of people seek, will end but love will last forever the way it is defined here. Even then the gifts of the spirit we read about if not done by the motivation of love only benifits the individual practicing them and no one else. That is not what they are for.

1 Corinthians 13:9–10 CSB

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.

These gifts that have been given to us to build up and edify the church and to glorify the Lord, they are temporary. Because when the “perfect” comes, which is the messiah, they will no longer be needed. They are important yes but if don for the wrong reasons is useless, they are temporary so first and foremost we must seek to love like the Bible defines love.

1 Corinthians 13:11–13 CSB

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

The gifts we have now are appropriate and they can be used for the glory of God but again they are temporary. There will come a time when the present spiritual gifts will come to an end and things will change.

right now we do not see things clearly for we are but finite beings, this can be confusing but we look forward to a time when we will see clearly and we will be with Jesus and see Him face to face. so in the mean time we must love others, we must put on love the way the bible defines love.

so what?

What do we do with love? it is more then just doing good things and showing kindness to people.

Works without love is meaningless.

There is no love without the gospel.