What is this thing called Love?

This week I got to reconnect with a great friend from College. It was so nice to chat, remember, laugh about all the things that we reminded each other about.

Coming away from that chat, I was thinking how long was it that I was so caught up in trying to find, understand and receive love.

We think when we are younger we will never find the one, we will never really understand what it all means, or maybe we will never love just one lol!

I am reminded of when we used to do the growing in God’s word challenge at a church I pastored. Each class who wanted to participate in were given verses to memorize and if they accomplished their two sets of verses they were able to receive a medal. This was a great way to get God’s Word into the hearts of kids.

There were some quite challenging scriptures: the armor of God, Roman’s Road, The ten commandments just to came a few.

Anyone ever try to memorize the ten commandments? All those thous and thou nots.

Then trying to remember them in perfect order.

Then later on in Sunday school we come to learn of a conversation Jesus had with the Pharisees in Matt. 22 where Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment and he responds: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and Love your neighbor as yourself

When you heard those words especially after the struggle in memorizing all those thous and thou nots to find out you only needed to learn those two!

UGH!!! What is going on here? Is this some kind of trick?

We did not have to learn all ten when Jesus said these are the greatest commandments.

We are Made to LOVE!

Take a look at Rom. 13:8-12

Romans 13:8–12 NKJV

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

Prayer: Lord let the power of your love sink deep in our hearts that we would heed your call to love you deep and hard and love those around us the same way.

We are made to LOVE

The book of Romans talks of a fellowship that consists of mainly Gentile believers. There is great teaching in the book of Romans.

Paul lays out the Gospel and what it means to be a Christian.

Our text today comes at the end of the letter and it talks about responsible citizenship - what it means to live for Christ as a citizen - as a part of a community.

We owe love to each other.

Paul knows the law. He knows the commandments. All those commandments are summarized down to one rule. Paul uses Jesus’ words here - love your neighbour as yourself.

This is found in Mosaic law in the book of Leviticus.

Paul knew the law inside and out.

We all remember Paul’s life and all that what happened to him right?

Before His Damascus Road experience Paul was Saul and Saul was a Pharisee. He was trained in the law.

A good Jew faithfully kept the commandments. The commandments are found in the Torah, there are 613 commandments to keep and then there are laws that promote other rules and then there are other rules that help you keep from breaking those other rules that break the commands.

This is a lot to remember and this sounds so complicated. But if anyone had the credentials to summarize those commandments it is Paul. Our text show those 613 commandments summed up with LOVE. This is also where we see Paul teach Jesus’ words.

We were made to LOVE

What is LOVE?

There are so many songs, so many poems, so many philosophies that try to truly define Love.

This morning we are going to get the real true meaning of what love is and How love fulfills the law?

What does it mean when Paul says loving is obeying all the law?

Let’s simplify here:

If we look at the 10 commandments with Jesus’ summary overlaid first we see the most important is: This summaries the first four commandments

LOVE GOD EXCLUSIVELY

No Other gods

No other images, No other idols

Keep the Lord’s day and set it apart

Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain

As Jesus summed up the first 4 commandments He said Love the Lord heart, soul, mind and spirit.

This way of love is easy to understand - All that we are, all that we have been created to be we are to love God!

When we love God in that way - all that we are - it leads to the second call.

The second call is:

Love OTHERS

This brings into play our actions towards people:

parents

friends

strangers

neighbours

people

Anyone and everyone we come in contact with on a daily basis.

Don’t want

Don’t steal

Don’t lie

Don’t take what’s not yours what is not yours whether it is someone’s cow, life or wife.

The summary by Jesus and Paul here is love your neighbour as yourself.

The summation here that we are to take note of here as well is that we are to:

Love OURSELVES

Sometimes it gets distorted. Sometimes we feel we cannot do it. Sometimes we do it too much.

God has given us value, love and respect

We are to take that love that we have for ourselves and extend it to others.

What does love look like?

How does it fulfull the law?

Fredrick Beakner in his Book Wishful thinking a seeker’s ABC - He defines a lot of words.

He defines love here.

Love - Love of a neighbour

of all the powers there is love is the most powerful and the most powerless

it is powerful because it can conqueror the most impenitrible stronghold which is the human heart

it is the most powerless because it can do nothing expect except be consistent.

In the Christian sense - love is not primarily an emotion but an act of the will.

When Jesus and Paul tells us to love our neighbours, He is not saying respond to them with a cozy emotional feeling on demand like a yawn or sneeze.

He is telling us to love our neughbour in being willing to work for their well being even if it means sacrificing our own well being to that end.

Even if it means sometimes just leaving them alone.

In Jesus’ terms - we can love our neighbours without liking them - liking them may stand in the way of loving them, making us over protective and sentimental instead of resonably honest friends.

This does not mean that liking may not be part of loving, only that it does not have to be.

Sometimes liking follows on the heels of loving.

It is hard to work to help other for people's well being without starting to like them.

Love satisfies all the commandments.

Paul is saying that our highest obligation towards the other person we encounter is to LOVE THEM.

This doesn’t mean the other commandments and other obligations don’t apply. It instead means that when we love when we are motivated by love we are going to get the rest of the commands right.

We will do good

We will reach out

We will be a help

It is the realtionship because the inner motivations and eternal law or commands is where love dwells.

The word LOVE without the commandments is a plastic word which can be twisted and shaped in many different ways. Then this makes it take a course of action which is contrary to God’s law.

As followers of Christ we are to put love into action.

We need to be devoted to loving people no matter who they are, or where they come from.

As dedicated disciples we need to be seeking to share the good news with ALL people.

We are to love our neighbour as ourselves.

We were made for LOVE!

Conclusion:

Remember the Sunday School kids who were disappointed when they learned Jesus’ summary of all the commandments?

The 10 commandments are an important part of who we are although we are no longer under the law because of the grace and mercy of Christ. The law still plays an important part of our faith to help us define our actions.

Now it is not important to memorize them and parrot them back in perfect order 1-10. It is important to get the jest of them. To truly know both in your head and heart - body mind and spirit that we were made to love.

Love of God

Love of Self

Love of neighbours

The core of the law and who we are as believers

Love apart from God is not really love.

Love satisfies all the commandments.

There is no stronger demonstration of the truth of our faith, the core of who we are and what we believe than how we love.

We were made for LOVE!