Agape - Abiding in love
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
What is love?
What is love?
If I asked you to describe God in one word what would you say?
If I asked you to describe love in one word, what would you say?
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
So God is love. It seems simple enough right?
I remember growing up, I had this skewed perspective of what love was. I knew the Bible answer, but I was always confused with how to love.
In todays world, we use it almost as an excuse to just accept anything. We talk about love from an accepting perspective. We say that in order for us to effectively love, we must first affirm.
This was always hard for me. I would end up affirming someone or accepting their beliefs and their lifestyle and “them doing them.” As I got older I realized that loving and affirming are not mutually exclusive. Okay then, I am going to judge right? Thats the opposite of affirming. Rather than see how we can love, we tend to fall back in this pattern of going to the other extreme.
If I am not affirming your lifestyle, I am not affirming you. So if I am rejecting your lifestyle, I am rejecting you.
But this is not how Jesus describes himself. As a matter of fact, Jesus describes himself as gentle.
In Matthew 11 Jesus is explaining how we are to rest in him and in verse 29 he says this:
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
So I am going to ask you the same question I asked myself. How do you love someone who might not share in your way of thinking? What does God’s love look like?
If you have your Bibles turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We are going to be reading verses 4-7.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
At first glance you read this and you think to yourself, “oh okay I get it. This is the way I am supposed to love.” But this is not describing how you should love. This is describing the nature of God. If God is love and love is all of these things, then God is all of these things.
In 1 John when it says that if we abide in love, we abide in God, it is talking about this. If we abide in God and in his perfect love, this is what that outpour looks like. It is patient and kind and just and does not keep records of wrongs.
Love is not an act. Love is what we live and how we live.
If we abide in love, this is what that looks like.
So going back to the question I asked a little bit ago… how do we love someone who shares different beliefs than I do? The answer is the same way we love those who share in our beliefs. Jesus loves with gentleness and kindness even to the cross where one of his final pleas to God was asking for forgiveness for those who were literally killing him. Jesus loved those who were seen as the worst kind of people: prostitutes and tax collectors. His love exuded the traits of God’s love which allowed to correction. It opened the door for him to be able to call people out in their sin. It doesn’t mean we sit and affirm someone’s lifestyle and praise them if what they are doing is contrary to what the Bible teaches because “we are loving them.” It means that just as Jesus loved in spite of the sin and lifestyle choices of others we are do the same.
The title of this series is Agape which is the Greek word used to describe the unconditional love that comes from God.
Agape: The highest form of love; Selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional. Love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance
As we go through this series and as we look forward to this year, it is important for us to establish where the foundation of what we do is at. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the different kinds of love that Bible talks about and what our greatest call is. But before we look at that, I want to leave you with this
LET. LOVE. LEAD.
I’ve said this multiple times. I have used this as the foundational piece of ministry since I took over. Because God doesn’t care what you have done or where you’re at. He still loves you. If even in my darkest of moments, God found a way to love me, I can do the same for others.
That’s the challenge. What is leading you as you live your daily life. At school, work, church, youth group… what is leading you as you go? If it is love, is it Agape love?