Biblical Love: A Sacrificial Love

We know live in a world wherein every form of morality and values is being redefined. The shift in perspective from a biblical standpoint to a socially acceptable one in the name of equality and tolerance is the norm nowadays. This mindset would ultimately lead to a very tragic end. The greatest change that we have seen today is the redefining of marriage. The change had been brought about in part by the redefining of a unique and the most important Christian value we know as Love. The church had been called to imitate its head which is Christ (Eph. 5:1). 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; How do we do it, and here it is in verse 2 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.  If we want to be a true child of God, if we want to manifest His character, if we want to imitate God, then walk in love, because that is characteristic of God.  God so loved the world, as John 3:16 reminds us.  As 1 John says, “God is love.”  And John defines the extent of God’s love, in verse 2, as Christ loving us and giving Himself up for us.  There is the clearest and most precise definition of love given anywhere in Scripture, and it is this: love is ultimately self-sacrificing.  It is not primarily defined as an emotion.  It is not primarily defined as a feeling.  It is an act of self-giving.  It is an act of self- sacrifice.  When you look at God, and you recognize that God loves you, you recognize it by virtue of the sacrifice which He made.  So the simple flow of the text is imitate God.  How do you do that?  Walk in love.  How is love defined?  It is defined by Christ, who loved us, and gave Himself up for us.  In other words, the simple characteristic of love is that it gives always.  It gives in extreme measures.  It gives unselfishly, with no concern for itself.  It is self-sacrificing.  And love is the product of humility. Nobody can love like this who is self-centered.  Nobody is going to give up his life or her life; nobody is going to make the ultimate sacrifice. Philippians 2 says, “Not to his own things, but the things of others.”  One who considers others better than himself can make that sacrifice.  That’s biblical love.  And only humble people can exercise it, because only humble people will give themselves away for someone else.  Humility is not a personality trait.   It is not to be equated with being poor or quiet.  It is not to be equated with speaking softly and gently.  It is to be equated with selfless sacrifice, where someone abandons themselves for others.  That is the love that flows from humility.  And where there is no humility, there will be no love. Our world knows absolutely nothing about this.  I want you to follow this text, and I’ll point out what it says and then show you in the culture how it is being manifest.  Notice Ephesians 5 verse 3; Paul immediately says, “Do not let immorality, or any impurity.”  Immorality, by the way, is porneia, sexual sin; fornication is usually how it’s translated.  “Or any impurity,” and that word simply means every other form of sexual sin.  “Or greed,” which is what’s behind sexual sin, and he’s not talking about monetary greed here; he’s talking about that lusting after this kind of evil.  “Let none of that even be named among you, as is proper among saints.” This is the world’s perverted definition of love.  Verses 4 and 5 even goes further: “There must be no filthiness,” that’s actually a word that means obscenity, “silly talk,” which has to do with coarse talk of sexual things, coarse jesting, both are very similar in meaning.  “Which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.”  In other words, we’re talking about love, and all of a sudden we descend to this terrible counterfeit that the world exercises in the category of its sexual preoccupation.  That is the world’s substitute for love. This is what the world says: When a guy says he loves a girl, what is that love asking for?  If you’re married, and you fall in love, that justifies sexual sin.  If you’re single, and you fall in love, that justifies sexual sin.  If you’re a man, and you fall in love or you have a love relationship with another man, that justifies homosexuality.  If you’re a woman, and you say you have a love for this other woman, that justifies lesbianism.  It is the world’s perversion.  And all these love songs endlessly, and all these television programs and films, and all the stuff that keeps defining love purely in sexual terms, demonstrates that this is the world’s corruption of the real thing.  Abortion, fornication, adultery, divorce, homosexuality, even feminism, those are all sexual issues.  And they are all an outright assault on love. We tolerate wickedness.  We not only tolerate it, we elevate it to a freedom status.  The most powerful means to destroy society is to destroy one fundamental building block, and that is the family, where sacrificial love is learned.  The only institution where we can learn unselfishness on an everyday basis – being demolished right before our eyes.  The family is destroyed by destroying marriage.  Marriage is destroyed by loosening its glue, sexual fidelity. Fidelity is destroyed by the sexual revolution.  That’s just the way it all works out.  The sexual revolution will quite possibly prove to be the most destructive revolution in history; far worse than any revolution we know of.  The sexual revolution is demanding that we be free to do whatever we want sexually. Now the big question: How do you show biblical love to the world that does not know what True Love means? Allow me to focus your attention to a classic example of love in the life of Jesus and His disciples. In John 13, verses 1-4, it says: 1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 *got up from supper, and *laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. There’s no question about the agony, but there was no fear about how it would turn out.  Jesus knew how it would turn out.  He had come from God in His incarnation and He would go back.  And, of course, He prays to that end so magnificently in the seventeenth chapter.  “He rose” – verse 4 says – “from supper, and laid aside His garments.”  He took off His outer cloak, and was probably stripped down to the waist, with just the garments that were discreet and modest worn around the waist.  His legs, perhaps, bare, and His upper body bare, as He stooped down, took a towel, it says, and girded Himself about.  He put a towel around His waist.  “He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”  None of the disciples wants to put himself in some kind of humble light for fear he might lose out on the argument on who is the greatest.  So nobody does it, and so the Lord does it.  He’s waiting, and nobody does it.  He takes off His outer tunic, and then puts a towel around His waist, pours water into a basin, and washes the disciples’ feet.  As He begins, He comes to Simon Peter, and Peter says things of note, whether he should or not, and you have to keep in mind that Peter spoke not only for himself, but was really the spokesman for the rest.  And when he spoke, he may not have been speaking unilaterally, but sort of articulating a consensus.  So “He came to Simon Peter.”  There must have been somewhat of silence as He started this process – the king of glory doing this most dirty and menial of tasks. He comes to Peter, and Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?”  And I’m sure he spoke for the rest, “You shouldn’t be doing this.”  “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What I do, you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter.’”  What does He mean?  Peter still didn’t understand the condescension.  He still didn’t understand the self-emptying of Philippians 2.  He still didn’t understand how low Jesus would come.  “Peter said to Him, ‘Never shall You wash my feet.’“Never shall You wash my feet.”  And there’s a part of it that is admirable; I mean Peter just said, “It’s not right.  You’re the perfect, sinless one, You’re the Lord and Master; this isn’t right.  I’m not going to let You do this.”  And “Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’”  And Jesus is speaking spiritually here, and He’s saying, “Listen, Peter, don’t tell Me not to wash your feet, because spiritually, if I didn’t wash you, you wouldn’t have any relationship to Me.  This is a symbol of that washing.  If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.”  And Peter said, “Then wash me; I want a part with You.”  But “Jesus said to him” – and here’s the further spiritual teaching – “‘He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’”  What is He saying?  “Peter, I don’t need to wash you from head to toe, I’ve done that.”  What do you mean?  “You’re saved, Peter.”  That’s the spiritual implication.  “I don’t need to rewash you; you don’t need a bath, you just need your feet cleaned.”  We who come to Christ are washed from head to toe, as it were spiritually.  We are totally cleansed, our sins are completely washed away, but as we walk through the world, we need the constant confession and repentance and cleansing, day to day, that keeps our feet clean, so that we can continue to have part with the advancement of Christ in His glorious kingdom. We need to speak the truth in light of God’s word. We need to forsake our self-centered motives and ambitions and seek what God wants for others, even to the point of death. Let us love one another as Christ has loved us. Let us pray.