The 5-W’s and 1-H of Love

Introduction

This past week our nation celebrated Martin Luther King’s birthday and the incredible impact he has had on life in America.

One of the most important things about Martin Luther King, Jr. was his love for Christ. As a pastor, he wanted to obey the Lord and preached the Gospel. He also wanted to obey the Lord in doing something about the social injustice being done to blacks all over America, especially in the South.

As he prayed the Lord impressed on him to lead peaceful marches to bring attention to the plight of many. He also sensed that the Lord was going to use the peaceful marches and the brutality that would happen, to prick the hearts of men and women all across America, especially, Christians.

There were some, like the Black Panthers who wanted to use violence to force change. MLK, prayed and asked the Lord if what he was leading was the right way.

He said the Lord gave him a real peace about using peaceful marches and protest.

Sure enough, there was the brutality that took place at the hands of Alabama State Troopers. It was during this march, that John Lewis, who died just a few months ago, suffered a major skull fracture and concussion.

What was the result of MLK’s obedience to the Lord?

In the past 50 years, blacks and whites have been talking, eating together, worshiping together, working together and even getting married.

George Floyd’s death a collective un and outcry that it was wrong, but people of all races.

While there are still issues, we have come a long way. My observation looking back over the past 200 years, is it takes about 1 generation to see major changes in attitudes and actions. Change is slow, but steady.

This bring us to the message today, because had many of the issues our country faced in the past and even in the present could be addressed if we obeyed the Word of the Lord.

Jesus was in a conversation with a lawyer. Lawyer—among the Jews, was one versed in the laws of Moses, which he expounded in the schools and synagogues. The functions of the “lawyer” and “scribe” were identical. Easton Bible Dictionary

They had documented 613 commandments in the Law, 248 positive and 365 negative. No person could ever hope to know and fully obey all of these commandments. So, to make it easier, the experts divided the commandments into “heavy” (important or major ones) and “light” (unimportant). A person could major on the “heavy commandments” and not worry about the trivial ones.

What did the lawyer ask Jesus?

English Standard Version Chapter 22

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Love God

Love yourself

This is a healthy view of oneself

Love your neighbor

Jesus was asked in another passage this question: Who is my neighbor?

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan

It also means we are to love people from other nations, races and languages… The foreigners among us.

English Standard Version Chapter 19

33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Love other Christians

John 15:12–17 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Love our enemy

Matthew 5:43–48 ESV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus said it was not enough to love God, but that we were to love out enemy.

What are we to do to show love?

To love God, means we are obedient to Him.

To love our self, means we are going to have a right relationship with God.

To love our neighbor, means we will look for ways to build a relationship, look for ways to serve, ways to pray for and opportunities to share Christ.

This could mean we are to help those who are new to our country, learn our language, teach how to function in our society.

To love other Christians, mean we do not forsake assembling together…we need each other.

The pandemic has clearly demonstrated the need we have to be with others. One of the reasons for the church is provide a place for sharing, praying, caring, serving and lifting one another

To Love our enemy, means we are to pray for them. We are to treat them like we want to be treated. Golden Rule!

When are we to love?

Love God all the time. First place in our heart.

Love yourself by addressing sin as fast as it happens, by asking The Lord to forgive you.

Loving oneself means getting into a right relationship with the Lord.

Love our Neighbor, means do so even when it is not convenient.

Jesus told the story of a man who had a visitor come late at night. He went to his neighbor to ask for bread. The neighbor was indignant that he was asking in the middle of the night. However, he reluctantly gave him some bread.

The real issue here has to do with attitude. Do we care for others with a good attitude or sour one when we are interrupted? or do we only want to help when it is convenient?

The Samaritan in the Good Samaritan Story was inconvenienced, because he had to deal with race relations. He chose to not allow a broader conflict affect his personal choices.

Love other believers doesn’t mean just when gathered together for church or a social.

Loving other believers means we are not gossiping, tearing down or seeking to make them look bad.

When are some good times to show our love to others?

When they have gone the extra mile

When they are hurting

When they disagree about some issue

When they have been absent

When they are sick

Love our enemies when...

When we want to hurt them

When they have done us wrong

When we think they deserve wrath, not mercy

When we rejoice in their calamity

Where do we love?

God...

Where ever we may be...

Grocery Store

Driving

Home

Vacation

Work

Ourself

On our bed… begin memorizing and meditating on scripture

Dinner table… by taking time to pray and thank God for our food.

In the tub or shower… thanking God for a clean heart

Neighbor?

Where ever we are and we hear this deep inner voice or thought to do something

I recall the time in the grocery line a mom and kids were just in front of me. The kid wanted a balloon. The mom looked but didn’t get it. The thought crossed my mind to buy the balloon. I failed to do so. To this day, I regret I didn’t.

Other Believers

If they are in hospital

Funerals

Church

Prayer groups

Enemies

Where ever we encounter them

Where their past action triggers a hateful thought

Where The Lord prompts to bless them

Where we are facing persecution

( Remember the 27 Christian men who were executed on the beach for refusing to denounce Christ)

Why Love?

God

Because He first loved us.

He has forgiven us much.

The older I get the more I realize how incredibly wicked I am. O.S. Hawkins shared how Paul’s writing changed over time. At first He was proclaiming that he wrote as an apostle.

Then as a follower of Christ.

Then as a sinner saved by God’s grace.

Then as the worse of all sinners.

Ourself

God’s love for us and precious thoughts about us, lifts us up.

He gives us forgiveness.

He gives us hope. He gives us blessings,

He gives us a right relationship with Himself, thus making us right with our own self.

Neighbors

They need to know God loves them.

We are God’s hands and feet to show them His love, and how to have a relationship with Christ.

Other believers

They need us and we need them.

Like an file sharpening a hoe, knife or scissors, believers sharpen one another.

Enemies

God wants us to see them from His perspective.

He loves them and wants them to be like Saul, who encountered Jesus on the Damascus Road and became an ardent follower of Christ.

He doesn’t want any to perish, but that all would come to faith in Christ.

How are we to Love God, Ourself, our neighbors, other believers, and our enemies?

The word love we see in these passages is not the word, Eros or erotic love. It is not philos or love as a friend. It is agape. Divine love. Where does it come from?

This love only comes from Jesus filling us with Himself. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us

English Standard Version Chapter 5

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

So how does God produce His Fruit in us?

1- First we must have a personal relationship with Jesus. That means we have trusted Him to be Lord and Savior. If you haven’t done that, you can begin by praying this:

Dear God,

I know I have no relationship with you. Will you please forgive me of all my sins and come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for saving me now. I ask this in Jesus name.

2- If you have trusted in Christ, then you need to apply I John 1:9.

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

Then do what Ephesians 5:18 says:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

You should pray this:

Dear God,

You are my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me of ____. Please forgive me for not allowing you to control my life. Please fill me with your Spirit and produce your Fruit in me. Lord please help me to love others with your love. Please let your Spirit overflow in my life onto others. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

To conclude todays message, I would like to read a very famous passage of scripture:

1 Corinthians 13 ESV

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 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 gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.