Love- The Greatest of These

Galatians 4:19 “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,”

Has Christ’s love been formed in you? ARE YOU A PERSON OF LOVE?

All 9 graces tie back to the Upper Room, where Jesus gave His last instructions to His disicples.

John 15:9 “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.”

John 15:10 “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”

John 15:12 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”

Needless to say, there is a real mccoy…the genuine article…version of love, and as we will see, this type of love is a gift from God. However, there is a counterfeit love— a Canal Street in Chinatown version. That type of love is fleshly, sensual, self-serving, and cheap. It is of the flesh. When Jesus refers to my love, is that type of love in you?!

What is Love?

SECULAR DEFINITIONS OF LOVE:

Stendhal in his fantastic 1822 treatise on love: Love is like a fever which comes and goes quite independently of the will. ... there are no age limits for love.

SHAKESPEARE in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.

Ambrose Bierce, with the characteristic wryness of The Devil’s Dictionary: Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage.

Katharine Hepburn in Me : Stories of My Life: Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only with what you are expecting to give — which is everything.

Philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, he of great wisdom, in The Conquest of Happiness: Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

As we all know, the English word doesn’t do its best work when it comes to love. In the Greek New Testament, there are three words used, and if we add the fourth Greek word which is not used specifically in the NT but certainly inferred, we gain a full picture of what Paul means when he refers to love.

phileo- brotherly love

storge- family love

eros- sexual love

agape- sacrificial love

Someone noted that love is better described than defined. So, how can we describe love?

The Origin of Love

1 John 4:8 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

The Nature of Love

Unconditional- Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

Intentional John 15:9 “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.”

Sacrificial John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 1 John 3:16 “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

Destiny

John 13:1 “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” The word end here is the word “telos” and means, “the end of a purpose or an age.” This love purposes in Christ to unite us to Christ and grace and love. Ephesians 2:7 says, “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

Why is Love Listed First Among the Nine Graces?

We need to remember the audiences that Paul is writing. He is writing 2 abusers of grace: the lawless and the legalist. The legalist is adding works to grace and seeking to earn God’s love through works, while the lawless believes that he can live as he pleases because of God’s grace. BOTH ARE ABUSES in need of response. So, Paul writes to the church to clarify God’s priority of love. Indeed, God’s love encapsulates everything else that He requires.

613 Commandments

10 Commandments- Ex. 20

3 attributes Micah 6:8 “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; And what doth the Lord require of thee, But to do justly, and to love mercy, And to walk humbly with thy God?”

The Great Commandments Matthew 22:36–38 “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” Great Commandment- encapsulates first 4 The Second Great Commandment- encapsulates 5-10- LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF!

The Exceeding Greatness of Love

it is greater than the law Romans 8:3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”

it is greater than sin 1 Peter 4:8 “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”

it is greater than money 2 Corinthians 8:9 “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” THIS IS WHY THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, because He who is love gave up all rights to riches and accepted poverty as the cost of love.

it is greater than religion John 5:16–18 “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” Then He said, “But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.” (5:42) This is the essence of 1 Corinthians 13, where Jesus reminds us that we can feed the hungry, donate our possessions, and do all manner of good deeds, but without love, we are not like Jesus.

it is greater than talent or spiritual gifts

How Should We Live out Love in our Christian Lives?

By loving our Lord Deuteronomy 6:4–5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

one another Romans 12:10 “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;”

Our spouse Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;” Titus 2:3–4 “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,”

the word of God Psalm 119:97 “MEM. O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:163 “I hate and abhor lying: But thy law do I love.”

the lost Romans 10:1 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”

Our enemies Luke 6:27 “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,”

ILL. Jim Cymbala