Real Love / Amor Verdadero
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Introduction
Introduction
What is love?
Many people think of love simply in romantic terms. To them, love is best represented when a woman finds her prince charming.
Others associate love with physical demonstrations of affection.
Some parents think love is best demonstrated when they give everything to their children that they did not have growing up.
We live in a fallen world. We are under the effects of sin. For this reason, we have a distorted view of what love really is.
The apostle John exhorts us to:
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
Hijos, no amemos de palabra ni de lengua, sino de hecho y en verdad.
We will study this verse in light of . We will consider:
The call to love in deed and truth.
What love is not.
I. The call to love in deed and truth.
I. The call to love in deed and truth.
I. El llamado de amor de hecho y en verdad.
I. El llamado de amor de hecho y en verdad.
John the apostle rights to the church of God and focuses on God’s love and our love for one another.
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
En esto conocemos el amor: en que El puso su vida por nosotros; también nosotros debemos poner nuestras vidas por los hermanos.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 Jn 4.
Amados, amémonos unos a otros, porque el amor es de Dios, y todo el que ama es nacido de Dios y conoce a Dios.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Amados, si Dios así nos amó, también nosotros debemos amarnos unos a otros.
1 jn 4.
How could we forget one of the most well known verses in the Bible - …?
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que cree en El, no se pierda, mas tenga vida eterna.
John teaches us that God loves humanity. God showed his love to humanity not through mere words but through actions:
He created us.
He allows us to experience the goodness and beauty of creation.
He has offered humanity salvation and forgiveness of sins through the giving of his own son.
He allows sinful humanity to continue existing even though we continually rebel against our Creator.
But John also teaches us that our love for God is meaningless if we do not love our brother.
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Si alguno dice: Yo amo a Dios, y aborrece a su hermano, es un mentiroso; porque el que no ama a su hermano, a quien ha visto, no puede amar a Dios a quien no ha visto.
It is much easier to say “I love God” than to demonstrate true love towards our brother.
Why is it more difficult to love our brother? The reason is that love is much more than saying “I love you…brother”. Love requires deeds.
This is John’s message - we demonstrate our love through our deeds.
John call us to show our love “in deed and truth”.
This does not mean that we should not be affectionate or say kinds words to those who we love; rather it means that our love should not consist only of what we say but should be demonstrated in all our actions.
It is possible for our actions to completely nullify the love we say we have for people.
The alcoholic could bring roses and chocolates to the woman he loves but his abuse towards his wife and children demonstrate his love is meaningless.
A child could lavish her father with praises and kind words to get what she wants; but at the same time she will insult him or disrespect her father for putting a time limit on cellphone use. By her actions, she’s demonstrating the shallowness of her love towards her father.
In our journey through the book of Genesis we see a broken family attempting to express love in very wrong ways.
Sometimes we think that the Biblical characters were perfect in every way.
However, we should understand that they were just as sinful as we are and in need of God’s grace.
II. What love is not.
II. What love is not.
II. Lo que el amor no es.
II. Lo que el amor no es.
Love does not show favoritism.
Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Genesis
Y amaba Isaac a Esaú porque le gustaba lo que cazaba, pero Rebeca amaba a Jacob.
In this passage of Scripture we see one parent (Isaac) favoring one child and the other parent (Rebekah) favoring another.
No wonder these two children became mortal enemies for they saw first hand how their own parents showed a different measure of love towards the other.
The same can be seen when we favor other people because of their status, their wealth, or their position.
James 2.1-
My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes,
and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,”
have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
Hermanos míos, no tengáis vuestra fe en nuestro glorioso Señor Jesucristo con una actitud de favoritismo.
Porque si en vuestra congregación entra un hombre con anillo de oro y vestido de ropa lujosa, y también entra un pobre con ropa sucia,
y dais atención especial al que lleva la ropa lujosa, y decís: Tú siéntate aquí, en un buen lugar; y al pobre decís: Tú estate allí de pie, o siéntate junto a mi estrado;
¿no habéis hecho distinciones entre vosotros mismos, y habéis venido a ser jueces con malos pensamientos?
Love does not take advantage of the weak.
Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home,
Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying,
‘Bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat, and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’
“Now therefore, my son, listen to me as I command you.
Rebeca estaba escuchando cuando Isaac hablaba a su hijo Esaú. Y cuando Esaú fue al campo a cazar una pieza para traer a casa,
Rebeca habló a su hijo Jacob, diciendo: He aquí, oí a tu padre que hablaba con tu hermano Esaú, diciéndole:
“Tráeme caza y prepárame un buen guisado para que coma y te bendiga en presencia del Señor antes de mi muerte.”
Ahora pues, hijo mío, obedéceme en lo que te mando.
The Bible describes Isaac as being almost at the end of his life and practically blind.
However, Rebekah takes advantage of the opportunity and calls her son - the one she loved - to disguise himself and present himself as Esau - the firstborn to receive his father’s blessing.
Rebekah is willing to take advantage of poor blind Isaac. She is deceiving her own husband.
If God had wanted to bless Jacob - he would be able to do it. However, Rebekah does things the wrong way causing further rifts in the family.
Love deals fairly in all things.
So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,
and said to them, “I see your father’s attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me.
Jacob, pues, envió a llamar a Raquel y a Lea al campo, donde estaba su rebaño,
y les dijo: Veo que el semblante de vuestro padre, no es amigable para conmigo como antes; pero el Dios de mi padre ha estado conmigo.
Jacob has been taken advantage by his father in law.
Jacob was a shepherd over Laban’s flock. God was blessing Jacob. Laban had made a deal that if the sheep were speckled he could have them; then all the sheep were born speckled. Then he would change the terms of the deal saying that only the striped sheep would be his; and God caused all of them to be born striped.
Laban kept of changing the deal terms until Jacob finally makes a decision to leave severing the family bond.
Love deals fairly with all people. We do not seek to take advantage of others, we do not change things mid term. We honor and respect others and leave the rest to God.
Love does not seek revenge.
They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went forth.
Genesis
and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went forth.
E hijos de Zilpa, sierva de Lea: Gad y Aser. Estos son los hijos de Jacob que le nacieron en Padán-aram.
Jacob’s sons have done a terrible thing upon the house of Hamor.
Hamor was a man of the land of Shechem who had a son named Shechem. He had fallen in love with their sister - Dinah. However, he acted sinfully and took advantage of the young woman.
The sons take justice in their own hands by going to Shechem killing Hamor (father) his son and taking for themselves the livestock and the servants.
This put Jacob and his sons in a very difficult situation the surrounding tribes could have taken revenge.
What Shechem did was awful. It was utterly sinful and he should have been justly punished. However, Jacob’s sons had no right to take revenge in their own hands.
Love does not take revenge; rather we put everything in God’s hands. The judge of all of the earth will do right. We must pray for our enemies - which is very hard - and let God do his perfect will.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We could go on and on speaking about what love is not.
We come to the realization that our love falls short. We must seek to love others as God loves.
It is possible to love as God commands us to love.
It is possible to love our enemies.
It is possible to deal justly with others.
It is possible to treat others as we would like to be treated.
It is possible only through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
Although Jacob and Esau failed greatly in showing love to each other - there came a day when they were, in a sense, reconciled to each other:
Then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
Entonces Esaú corrió a su encuentro y lo abrazó, y echándose sobre su cuello lo besó, y lloraron.
Jacob had been living as a nomad going from one place to another.
Finally he would come to his homeland knowing that Esau, his brother, was seeking to kill him.
However, there came a day when they finally saw each other - face to face - God worked in both of their hearts for they ran to each other, embraced, and wept together.
One can only imagine what those two estranged brothers felt in that moment.
Many of us find it difficult to love for one simple reason - we have not forgiven. Let us forgive one another. This is how the Father demonstrated his love towards us - in the forgiveness of our sins through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf.
Let us forgive those who have wronged us and begin to demonstrate true love in deed and truth.