Sermon Tone Analysis

!

A Time to Embrace and a Time to Refrain from Embracing

Professor Henry Drummond (1969) says that "the greatest thing in all the world is love," and Paul reminds us that among the gifts to man there are three of outstanding quality: faith, hope and love, "these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor.

13:13).

It is John, however, who declares the final word when he affirms that "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

In saying this, the apostle is informing us that love is more than "the greatest thing," or even the "greatest gift."

Love is /God/ giving and forgiving; love is not impressive verbosity, but redemptive activity.

The Bible teaches, moreover, that love not only /has/ its own laws, but /keeps/ its own laws.

Indeed, "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom.

13:10).

Thus Solomon establishes a principle when he says there is "a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing" (Eccl.

3:5).

This means that there is the constraint of love, and there is likewise the restraint of love.

Let us proceed to examine these two aspects of the greatest thing in all the world.

!! The Constraint of Love

As we have observed, love is never static: it is always active.

We have to read only the song of love as recorded in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians to see this.

There we have set forth the priority, activity, and eternity of this greatest of all gifts.

Essentially, love is fellowship between persons.

It is an act of self-surrender.

This is how love operates between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And this is how love ought to operate among the sons of men here upon earth.

So we see that there is such a thing as the embrace, or constraint, of love.

For the purpose of this study, let us begin with the constraint of /spiritual/ love.

The apostle John sums up the constraint of spiritual love when he says, "We love Him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

If we understand the nature of spiritual love, we cannot withhold an appropriate response.

The New Testament is full of examples of this quality of response.

Think of the love response of /conversion/ in the life of the woman who entered Simon's house to anoint the feet of her Savior and Lord (Luke 7:36-40, 50).

We read that she "kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil" (Luke 7:38).

Little wonder that Jesus turned to her and said: "Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace" (Luke 7:50).

No one who appreciates full and free forgiveness can withhold the love response of conversion.

Then we read of the love response of /communion./

Consider Mary, the sister of Lazarus, who came to the Lord Jesus on the eve of His passion with a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus until the house was filled with the fragrance of the precious oil.

Our Savior's comment to those who criticized her was, "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial" (John 12:7).

Here was a woman whose communion with the Lord Jesus had given her an understanding of His redemptive mission beyond any one of the disciples.

She knew what Jesus was about to accomplish at Calvary, and in appreciation of His sacrifice, she presented her own sacrifice.

Truly, this was the love response of communion.

Another telling example is the love response of /confession./

This occurred when Peter opened his heart to the Savior and cried, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You" (John 21:17).

He had miserably denied his Lord, but having sought forgiveness and restoration, he now matched his denial of Christ by his devotion to Christ in genuine love.

This, then, is what we call the constraint of spiritual love—"We love Him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

There is "a time to embrace" (Eccl.

3:5).

Then there is the constraint of /social love./

Before He went back to glory the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12).

In fact, He added, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

This is the supreme evidence of true discipleship, and the rest of Scripture corroborates this.

The constraint of social love involves the/ family./

Addressing the head of the household, Paul says, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Eph.

5:25).

And just as the Lord Jesus is the Head of the whole church, so the husband is the head of the whole family.

A home is no longer a home where love does not exist between husband and wife, parents and children; in this context there is "a time to embrace."

The constraint of social love involves the /brotherhood./

Peter says, "Love the brotherhood" (1 Pet.

2:17).

This, of course, is another name for the community of the redeemed, or the fellowship of the church.

Such was the love among the brotherhood, in the early days of the Christian church, that the pagans had to exclaim, "See how these Christians love one another."

There is nothing that convinces the world of the reality and authority of the church of Christ like a manifestation of such love.

Surely, it is "a time to embrace."

The constraint of social love involves the /neighbor./

Jesus said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt.

22:39).

This is the natural overflow of our love to God.

If we truly love God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and strength, we cannot but love our neighbor as ourselves.

It is because we have lost the vertical constraint of spiritual love that we fail to experience the horizontal constraint of social love.

The secret of social action is not so much a matter of governmental policies or beneficial niceties, but rather a matter of spiritual power and action.

In this regard, there is "a time to embrace," and the world around is waiting to see this.

The constraint of social love involves the /enemy./

The Master said, "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Matt.

5:44).

Only Calvary can bring about this miracle of forgiving love.

The Lord Jesus exhibited this social concern when He was being nailed to a wooden cross.

Instead of cursing His enemies He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34).

That same spirit of loving concern motivated Stephen, as he was being stoned to death, for he, like the Master, cried with a loud voice: "'Lord, do not charge them with this sin.'

And when he had said this, he fell asleep" (Acts 7:60).

So even in the moment of death there is "a time to embrace."

With the constraint of social love, there is also the constraint of /sexual love./

The sanctity of sex is one of the great themes of Biblical revelation.

When God created Adam and Eve, He pronounced their relationship as "very good" (Gen.

1:31).

Indeed, it was He who saw that it was not good for man to be alone, and so produced a help meet for Adam.

In His purpose and plan He willed that husband and wife should enjoy the constraint of sexual love.

Commenting on this aspect of love, Paul says, "Let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband" (1 Cor.

7:2).

Then he adds, "Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband" (1 Cor.

7:3).

The Revised Standard Version renders this even more specifically: "The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband."

The only exception to this normal practice is a mutual restraint for the purposes of fasting and prayer.

So the apostle continues, "Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control" (1 Cor.

7:5).

Under the control of the Holy Spirit, the constraint of sexual love can be real and romantic for as long as God wills it.

On the other hand, to grieve the Holy Spirit in this regard is to despise God and to merit the vengeance of the Lord (1 Thess.

4:6, 8).

So there is "a time to embrace," but there is also "a time to refrain from embracing" (Eccl.

3:5).

It is:

!! The Restraint of Love

Someone may well ask whether there is any Scripture that forbids us from loving.

The answer, of course, is in the affirmative.

Writing to his converts, the apostle John says: "/Do not love/ the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).

It is quite clear from these verses that the restraint of love prohibits the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

In terms of human relationships, /the restraint of love prohibits the unlawful embrace/—"the lust of the flesh" (1 John 2:16).

Contrary to the tenets of the "new morality" and "situation ethics," love has its own laws.

Paul makes this abundantly clear when he states, "For he who loves another has fulfilled the law" and then immediately adds, "You shall not commit adultery.... Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom.

13:8-10).

The biblical interpretation of love is seen only within the context of God's moral law; therefore, there is such a thing as the /unlawful/ embrace.

Indeed, the Scriptures are very clear on this.

For example—Paul advises, "It is good for a man /not/ to touch a woman" (1 Cor.

7:1).

That word "touch" is an important one.

Our Authorized Version tends to mislead us.

Actually the verb means, "to fasten to," "to kindle a fire," or "to handle with intention."

Without question, it has reference to the unlawful embrace.