Love Is Alive

There are many “one another” statements throughout New Testament scripture. One that I sense the Holy Spirit guiding us to today is “love one another”. To love one another well, it takes us continually reminding ourselves of Christ’s love and humbling ourselves in a place to be exposed to that perfect love, again and again.

A scriptural example of this fro me has been John the Beloved (one of the 12 disciples). John was exposed to the love of Christ… he never recovered from it. He was never the same - to the point that his writings later to the church would have a theme “love one another”.

Misconceptions About Love:

Love is only a FEELING.

Sometimes in society we can think that human affection is enough to transcend and move past our barriers to create goodness - especially in relationships. The truth is: it takes an experience of something divine or we’ll always come back to something rooted in selfishness instead of a love that puts another first.

Love demands commitment.

Love is UNCONTROLLABLE.

“Love just happens… you cant control it.”

Love is CONDITIONAL.

“I’ll love only if…”

“Loving one another” doesn’t come from exposure to Christ’s love alone… it’s where it starts… Love has to be activated. It doesn't flow by osmosis. It takes action.

The Truth About Love:

God says love is a matter of CHOICE to release the love we’ve experienced.

Jesus chose to sacrifice His life for us on the cross. The outpouring of the Fathers love took the choice of the Father to send Jesus to die and the choice of the Jesus to lay His life down.

Look at 1 Corinthians 13:1–3 “If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. 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.”

Something so interesting about this passage. It follows the passages of Pauls letter where he gives instruction on the gifts of the Spirit being in operation in the body of Christ to edify it.

He begins chapter 13 with four different veins of ministry: 1. Prayer/Speaking 2.Spiritual Gifts 3. Faith 4. Activism/Benevolence

All these things are good things; but when they’re not done with the motivator and guidance of the love of Christ… what is meant to be a passionate part of the church becomes a divisive part of the church.

Here’s how… the most powerful sounding prayer can become empty when it isn’t motivated and held together with the love of Christ. When we come together to pray there needs to be agreement. When love is lacking, it’s easy for a false sense of superiority and spirituality to arise.

Even as we move with the help of the Holy Spiritual gifts, we need love to be a guide and our motivator. Paul reminds us to administer these gifts with a loving pattern. Because when we don’t, there is the risk that opens up that we’ll operate outside of love and become self-serving, manipulative and that opens up to an atmosphere of abuse with the gifts.

Even when when we move if great faith - when love is not the motivator and the glue, it can lead to just self serving performance of a person that doesn't rely on the Holy Spirit. The Corinthian Church = Their faith produced impressive external demonstrations while their internal orientation remained self-directed. That becomes trouble for the body of Christ.

Even giving to the poor and being active to help the need, without love, it can become decisive because it breeds a pridefulness communicating that “you’re not as [passionate about helping others as I am”. - That really leads to it not being really about the needs of others as it is fulfilling the need for you to look good helping others.

Pauls was instructing them to have an adhesive and structure and he called it LOVE.

Colossians 3:12–14 “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

Paul preceded “love” with a list of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving…

Love is the ADHESIVE

Love is the glue that holds people together—it keeps the community from falling apart. Without it, individual believers might drift into isolation or conflict.

Love is the STRUCTURE.

As structure, love actually shapes how the community functions. It’s not just holding things together; it’s organizing them into something coherent. Love determines how decisions get made, how conflicts resolve, how resources flow, how people treat one another.

The difference matters. You could theoretically glue bricks together randomly and have them stick—that’s adhesive alone. But a well-designed building uses structure to make the bricks work together toward a purpose. That’s what Paul means by “perfect bond of unity.” Without it, there’s a tendency to take the very bricks we’re to build with, and throw them at each other. (reference back to 1 Corinthians).

Paul also says in Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:1–3 “Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

Love is the operational guide in our Christian community and with mankind. It keeps things straight and free from the risk of abuse toward one another.

So if the love that we’ve been exposed to is activated by our choice to release that love; then how do we that concept play out in everyday life? How do we practically see it come alive in our actions?

Lets look at a poetic passage in the Apostle Pauls letter to the Corinthians…

1 Corinthians 13:4–13 “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 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. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 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. 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. Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.”

Our love is alive when we are PATIENT. It is dying when we are HURRIED and dead when it refuses to WAIT. (verse 4)

Dying when hurried… “the problems / needs you have aren’t altering fast enough and I’m getting tired of it”.

Dead when it refuses to wait… “Simply, I’ve had enough and I don’t want to try anymore.”

Patience can be really difficult —- especially when a person is difficult. In this situation, it’s really important to remember - how patient God is with you.

Now I want to make sure we understand that when there is abuse in a situation - being patient in love does not mean we don’t take the action to remove ourselves from being mistreated… but it does mean that we refuse to retaliate and trusting the situation to the justice that God brings.

Our love is alive when it CARES. It is dying when it FORGETS. It is dead when it IGNORES. (verse 4)

I know sometimes in our society kindness can be hard to find.

Operating in kindness is growing the ability to care for each other in the practical details of life. It’s in the small things… “you go first”, “thank you” “please” “smile” choosing to notice the good”( doesn’t mean we cover up sin) etc.

Have you ever noticed, it can sometimes be easier to be kinder to people that are total strangers than people we’re closest to?

Why is that? We become comfortable and familiar. Familiarity is many times the enemy of honor and kindness. Treat something as ordinary and not with the understanding that God thought that person was someone He died for.

We easily let things slide from our lips that later make us stop and go “wow”.

OR sometimes we can allow care and kindness go for so long “I’ll care for that later… I’m busy at the moment..” that we forget after a while and we forget enough, —— we begin to ignore all together caring for the need of another. And we find our love isdead and needs to be made alive again.

How do we make that alive again? We need to remember that we experienced God’s love because of sacrifice and that it will take us beginning to stop and care/show kindness out of sacrifice ourselves.

Our love is alive when it’s SECURE. It Is dying when it start’s DOUBTING. It is dead when it stops TRUSTING. (verse 5)

Envy+Doubt+Pride=Insecurity

At the center of any healthy relationship is the security to be able to be vulnerable toward one another… to be honest with one another… because they know the other person has there best interest at heart.

It’s like having a net beneath you on a high wire. With that security of the net, you’re more willing to risk for a greater outcome. The net releases the relationship to reach it’s God given potential. It’s people in relationships treating one another with true grace.

If someone is doubtful that there is an atmosphere of security and trust where they can bear their soul without fear of judgment or ridicule; it begins to run the risk of dying — and if doubt isn't dealt with —- it leads to a failure in trust which leads to the death of love.

Ministry moment… if you’re someone who has caused an atmosphere of broken trust, I want to encourage you that trust is built and be careful to not demand it back. In every way, through honesty and actions - you’re rebuilding that net of trust and security. And trust has to be earned and given.

If you’re someone who has been hurt because of broken trust… I would encourage you to lean into the Lord in prayer AND you’re not wrong for not diving right back into the depth of that relationship… time does not heal all wounds; but it is a revealer of a wound that God wants to bring healing to.

Our Love is alive when it’s GIVING. It is dying when it begins to EXCHANGE. It is dead when it is TAKING.

See if a loving relationship is anything, it’s a giving relationship. God the Father modeled this for us…

John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

The father loved us first… and to go first in risky… cause what if they don’t love you back.

C.S. Lewis wrote:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

Love is a giving relationship… but if we’re not careful we can settle for a much lower level form of it… basically negotiating. “Ill do this; but only if I can get that in return”.. We keep score… we’re rude…easily irritated when we’re not getting our won way… seeking for ourselves instead of the other.

It’s becomes a contract instead of a covenant… that’s written on a heart that has been captured by the New Covenant made in Christs blood.

And it’s in that contract type love that we come to a place where all we want to do is receive love; but not willing to give love.

In closing…

“It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

I don’t think Paul would have been inspired by the Holy Spirit said these things to us unless he understood, that at times in our lives, our love would encounter hurdles - unless our love was going to have something that it would need to persevere through.

But these last statements capture the resilience of love that we receive from Christ…

bears all things… we accept the weight of one another’s burdens. Not in a way that just builds up a tolerance; but we’re accepting our role to care for each others wellbeing.

believes all things… that doesn't mean we act naive to whats actually going on ;but we maintain in Christ, there is potential for growth and redemption despite the past. ITs not covering sin… it’s believing for greater righteousness.

hopes all things… that love holds onto a confidence in the redemptive work of God despite the circumstances. Paul told us in Romans that if you have to see the outcome to have hope than you call that hope at all… our hope is God’s redemptive work and “we patiently wait for it”. Our hope is anchored in the truth that God’s purpose will ultimately prevail. Even when evidence seems to contradict it.

enduring all things speak to love’s power to keep us steady through every trial and opposition.

Romans 5:3–5 “And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

We can endure because our hope is grounded in the perfect love of God poured into our hearts through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

Action step today —- Love now. Don’t wait for later.

Love now and later.

Altar:

Salvation I want to be seated with Christ, I need to make Him Lord of my life.

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name, amen.

Open alters for prayer

Receive prayer from a team member.