A Scriptural-Spiritual Lens for Resolve in 2022 - Part Seven
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Introduction
Introduction
Jay Adams, What a wonderful Savior we have. It wasn’t lovely people for whose sake He died; it was for ungodly people, for His enemies. It was for law breakers that He suffered. He loved us, says (the Apostle) Paul, in spite of how unlovely we were. Just as He loved us, Paul insists we are to love one another.
Mark Dever, “Do you want to know that your [Christian] life is real? Commit yourself to a local group of saved sinners. Try to love them. Don’t just do it for three weeks. Don’t just do it for six months. Do it for years. And I think you’ll find out, and others will, too, whether or not you love God. The truth will show itself.”
PRAY
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Unconditional devotion reigns supreme in the new man
Unconditional devotion reigns supreme in the new man
And above all these
The imagery of putting on clothing is still in play and Paul places love above the other pieces of clothing that he has already mentioned in verse 12. Why would Paul elevate love above these other activities? He understands, if one loves truly, he will accomplish all that is desired in the kingdom of God.
8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
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.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Unconditional devotion is desired in the new man
Unconditional devotion is desired in the new man
Put on love - Once again, we see the use of the imperative mood as the Apostle communicates the necessity and requirement of love within the new man that God has created.
What is this love that is commanded? Love is a devoted commitment resulting from a conscious evaluation and choice; used of divine and human love, devotion; affectionate regard, goodwill, benevolence
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Though it cannot be derived from this text, the desire to love is also found in the new man.
9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,
Why is this desire for love so prevalent and natural in the new man?
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
How’s love in your life?
Unconditional devotion produces commonality in the new man
Unconditional devotion produces commonality in the new man
Which binds everything together - (1) literally, as the middle item that joins two or more things together link, joint, bond; of the body sinew, ligament, muscle (2) figuratively; (a) in a positive sense of spiritual forces that unite people bond, what ties together
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,
In perfect harmony - as a state of being completion, perfection; (1) with a component of totality wholeness, perfect unity
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Practical Understanding
Practical Understanding
Where do we look to know how to love?
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We look to Jesus and the way he loves us and the way he treats us in our relationship to him.
It should be knowable
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
It should be personal
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
It should be powerful
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
It should be unbreakable
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
It should be sacrificial
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
What are practical expressions of love?
Love is patient when your spouse interrupts you while you are speaking
Love is kind when someone within the body is annoying
Love does not envy a brother that has been promoted at work and seems more successful
Love does not boast when a recognition is given
Love is not arrogant when someone disagrees theologically and cannot defend their position well
Love is not rude and gives courtesy to others
Love does not insist on its own way when choosing among choices not clearly unbiblical.
Love is not irritable even when things have been tough at work
Love is not resentful when a friend brings hurt
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth in all of life from sports to work
Love bears all things when a brother messes up again
Love believes all things when another believer is struggling in sin
Love hopes all things when a grievance occurs and reconciliation will be hard and diffcult
Love endures all things to see God glorified in the church
Illustration: This was the reaction of the unbelieving Greek writer Lucian (a.d. 120-200) upon observing the warm fellowship of Christians: “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator [Jesus] has put it into their heads that they are brethren.”