Unconditional Love

This morning Brothers and Sisters I would like to talk to you about one of the most important subjects your will ever discuss. It is more important the stock market, or the cornia virus, or the next election. Everything in your life, rises and falls on this subject.

That subject is LOVE.

God has call us to two types of love. First,

You are Called to Brotherly Love.

1 Peter 1:22 ESV

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

Peter is telling that as Christians we are to show brotherly love.

But that raises the question, what is brotherly love?

First Peter shows us that it flows from a purified soul. But how do we, people like you and me have purified souls? The purification of our souls, our inner life, is what God has done for us. It is a moral and spiritual experience that happens when God forgave our sins, and cleansed us. 1 John 1:9 tells us...

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So if we have confessed our sins, God has promised to forgive our sins, and to cleanse or purify our souls from all unrighteousness.

Then Peter would say, if we have purified souls, then brotherly love can flow freely from our souls.

But Peter would also say, we need to continue in obedience to the truth. The truth is of course the Bible. We, as Christians must bring our lives into submission to the truth of God’s word.

We do not bend the Word of God to fit us, instead we bend to fit the Word of God.

As we continue to grow and obey God’s Word, our love for our brothers and sister will also grow.

Not of that purified soul, and continual growth will come real, genuine brotherly love.

The idea is a love that is sincere, genuine, and hypocritical. The word hypocrite means to be behind a mask. The Love Peter is talking about does not hind it truth motives behind masks. It is honest, and open, and freely given. It is a reciprocal love which means, It is love that given and recieved back.

It’s love you have for your family and friends in the church.

It is why we call the church our family.

That is why Jesus gave us this new commandment.

John 13:34–35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Tony Evans tells about

A HUSBAND and wife who one day were fussing. They were really going at it. So the wife suggested they write down their complaints on a piece of paper and then show the other person exactly how they felt. She thought it might cut down on the bickering. The husband agreed and got the paper. She got out the pencils. They both started writing.

They both wrote furiously for a while. The husband would pause, look at his wife, and write some more. The wife would pause, look up at her husband, and write some more. The husband paused again, looked at his wife with an even angrier look on his face, and then he would write some more. The wife did the same and then put her pencil down. Her husband was still writing. He looked up at her in fury and continued writing. He kept writing. Then he wrote some more. Then he wrote even more. The wife was getting furious because she had covered one side of the page and her husband was finishing the backside of his paper. He kept looking up at her and coming up with more to write. Every time he looked up, something new would come and he’d write some more.

The wife was in pain and agony. She was clenching her fists and tears of anger were welling up in her eyes. Finally, her husband said that he was finished. They exchanged sheets of paper and looked at each other’s sheet. As soon as she gave him her sheet and looked at his, she felt terrible. She wanted to take her sheet back. For when she looked at her husband’s sheet of paper, in spite of his anger and in spite of his pain, he had written on every line, “I love you, I love you, I love you. I’m ticked off, but I love you, I’m angry, but I love you. I don’t want to be here right now, but I love you.” When she saw that much love, it covered the multitude of sins that had brought up the argument in the first place.

When you and I love one another like that, that kind of love can cover up a multitude of sins.

We are called to brotherly love which comes out of a pure heart through the obedience to God which means pure clean and Innocent. Not only is this love genuine, authentic, without disguise or smoke screen or even an agenda.

However, Peter calls us as followers of Jesus to an even greater love.

You are Called to Unconditional Love.

1 Peter 1:22 ESV

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

Peter calls us to love one another with an earnest and pure heart.

The first time Peter talks about love he uses the Greek word “philadelphia” which means brotherly love. But in the last part of the verse he uses the Greek word, “agapao” which means a love that in unconditional.

It is a love that extends beyond the member and friends of the church to everyone. It is a love that expects nothing in return. It is a love that is self-sacrificing.

It is love for those who are often forgotten.

This is the the word that is used in the Bible to show God’s love for us.

See how this works.

God love us, We grow in our love for those in the church, that love grow until it extends to our outside the church, it continue to grow until we are loving the least, the lost, and the forgotten. As more people experience this truth, life changing love, they too will reach out.

We could start a revival of love right here in Russell county, that could reach around the world.

So where do we start, with the neighbor who lives next door.

So I ask you is you love brotherly love, or do you show unconditional love that expects nothing in return. Love that is self-sacrificing?

Be honest, no one is looking, but only the Lord knows your heart. On a scale of 1 to 10 where are today, and where do you want to be a year from now?

I read something recently about Mother Teresa that I did not know. Activist Shane Claiborne, who worked with Mother Teresa, tells about it in his book The Irresistible Revolution. He writes, “People often ask me what Mother Teresa was like. Sometimes it’s like they wonder if she glowed in the dark or had a halo. She was short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a little ornery--like a beautiful, wise old granny. But there is one thing I will never forget--her feet. Her feet,” says Shane Claiborne, “were deformed. Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them. I wondered if she had contracted leprosy. But I wasn’t going to ask, of course. ‘Hey Mother, what’s wrong with your feet?’ One day a sister said to us, ‘Have you noticed her feet?’ We nodded, curious. She said: ‘Her feet are deformed because we get just enough donated shoes for everyone, and Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she digs through and finds them. And years of doing that have deformed her feet.’ [Think of that!]Years of loving her neighbor as herself deformed her feet.”

So, Brothers and Sister, God has called you to love. First, to love those who love you. To love with brotherly love. But God has also called you to a deeper, more fervent love. A love that is will to sacrifice for someone else.

So I ask you how is your love.

Instead of how is your love-life. I ask you how is your Life-of-love.

Amen.