"Love First" pt.1
What would Jesus do?
Anybody ever heard that question before? Maybe we’ve even found ourselves asking that question in scenario after scenario over the course of our lives.
It’s almost one of those questions that’s more of a phrase than it is a question though isn’t it.
Maybe it’s something that you ask yourself before responding to a coworker, friend, spouse, or kids.
Maybe it’s a phrase that you use as a pause button in your life.
Or maybe it’s more of a phrase that is used between friends as kind of an inside joke based off of a certain response to a prior situation
It’s a question that quite honestly has become cliche. We’ve seen on shirts, hats jewelry as kind of catch phrase, but have you ever just pondered that question, what would Jesus do?
Now, I’m not knocking anyone’s viewpoint on the question at all, but I am asking the question to us. What would Jesus really do?
That question really holds a lot of weight if you really think about it, doesn’t it?
He would forgive
He would give more grace
He would care
He would listen
The list could go on and on, but why?
Why does he care, forgive, listen, etc?
Because he loves
Jesus’s lived a life that was characterized by love. It was an identifying characteristic of Jesus, and it is an identifying characteristic of his followers.
God wants us to live a life that is saturated with his love. Love for him and love for others.
“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.””
John 13:34-35 ESV
In the first 12 chapters of the book of John, which is where we’re going to be today, the word love is mentioned 12 times, but from chapter 13 to the end of the book it’s mentioned 44 times.
The back half of the book is Jesus’s final days before the cross, and as he neared the cross he started drilling this idea of love into his disciples because it’s that big of a deal.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
Jesus said the entire law could be held up with two principles: love God and love people
“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. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”” Matthew 22:37-40 ESV
Here’s the caveat though:
““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12 ESV
You have to understand that God loves you before you could ever love him or love others
God wants you to live a life that has received his love, that remains in his love, and then releases his love into the world.
But you have to receive it first and the only way to receive it is to understand it to the best of your ability.
So then bears the questions, how does God love me? What does it mean to be loved by God?
God’s love for you is immeasurable (vs. 16a)
I love you so much
I love you more than the stars in the sky, fishes in the sea, deeper than the ocean, around Pluto 15 times and back, then it gets real serious when you start saying things like I love you times infinite or infinite times infinite
Love is a real thing that dictates direction in our lives, but our understanding of love is dependent
The so in I love you so much is variable depending on response
In Greek there are four words that we translate the word love from
Eros- passionate love
Storgay- stored love that’s settled yet without much passion
Philo- brotherly love
Agape- the love of Jesus
It’s a love that chooses to value another person regardless of the other person
It’s a selfless and sacrificial type of love
Our culture has taught us that love has limits and is dependent on me or someone else
My love for you depends on the measure of love that you show me
It’s a dating type of situation
Physical attraction eventually leads to an emotional connection
This can be true of any scenario, there are tendencies that I trust in you so a relationship can start to grow
The love that we express is proportional to the love that we experience
God loves you where you are
Jesus loves me
Our comparison culture has lead us to believe that we have to act, talk, look a certain way to be acceptable and our cancel culture has caused us to grow bitterness towards each other because we have differences and for some reason we have allowed those viewpoints to corrupt our understanding of God’s love for us
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9 ESV
That sounds good for everyone else doesn’t?
I believe God can love every one but me
God loves me based on my performance or situation
The creator of the universe, maker of the stars, the one who tells seas and storms to part and cease, the one who defeated death and reigns above all authorities, loves you without limit
Jesus gets you, he’s jealous for you, he fights for you, he doesn’t laugh at your mistakes, he isn’t ashamed of you because of your failure, he loves you where you are in every season of life perfectly
Can I just say no matter faithful you are, you have probability to fail.
Jesus meets you those moments
There is no thing you can do to make him love you any more and there no thing you can do to make him love you any less
God’s love for you was his idea (vs. 16b)
Let me try to humble us a little bit, Loving Jesus was not your idea first
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 ESV
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10 ESV
Love becomes fluid because it’s based on how I feel
When I do a lot of things right I’m affirmed and when I do a lot of things wrong I’m chastised
So we find ourselves constantly questioning could God really love me
“but God shows (demonstrates) his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 ESV
God’s love for isn’t based off of feelings and emotion. It’s based on action
Some of us have no idea what it means to love other people because we have no clue what to means to be loved
Jesus demonstrated his love for you when he died the death that you deserved
He was abused by his creation, became poor, walked through temptation, pain, betrayal, and suffering. Was killed by the very thing that he once spoke into existence just to prove how much he loves you
He did it all just to prove that he loves you selflessly and sacrificially
Jesus’s love doesn’t talk it does
Stop scratching around looking for something that only Jesus can give
“and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5 ESV
I am loved period. I am enough period. Because Jesus loves me.
God’s love for you is life giving (vs. 16c)
If there’s a heaven to be gained there’s a hell to be missed
There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
The picture is eternal pain, sorrow, and darkness because of permanent separation from God
It’s a conscious choice to trust Jesus
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” John 1:12 ESV
We’re talking life or death
We’re drawn to similarities
His love is inclusive and empowering
Receiving the love of God in your life is life giving, identity changing, and destination altering
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1a ESV
There is no one outside the scope of God’s love