We are making a big deal about this whole love thing, but how much of an issue is it really to the Christian life, how important is it that we understand this, and live it?

Firstly, let’s have a look at one of the most famous scriptures on love, 1Corinthians 13:

1Corinthians 13v1→3: ¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1Corinthians 13v13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Does God take love seriously? YES!!!

In the letter that John wrote called 1John, John lays out several tests that one can do in order to check your spiritual health. He says in 1John 5v13: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. You see his desire is that we know that we are saved, if you ever question your salvation; “Am I really a Christian?” go and have a good honest read through the book of 1John and compare yourself to the questions that he asks.

One of the tests that John puts forward is this; Do you love other Christians? John sets out to polarize people, he makes it a black and white issue, a light and dark issue.

1John 2v9+10: ⁹Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

John lays it out like this; if you do not love other Christians, you are not a Christian. If you hate other Christians, then you are not saved yourself. What we tend to do is we look on a macro scale, and we say, I do not hate all Christians, in fact I really get on with most of them, as long as they don’t irritate me… But this is not what it is about here, John isn’t talking about just getting along, or liking most other Christians, he is rather asking; “Do you have a deep compassion, love, and connection with other Christians?” and “Are other Christians really like brothers and sisters to you?”

Do you love other Christian? Is this issue important? Yes, it is a litmus test for your salvation, no love, no salvation!

1John 3v14: We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

If we get back to our key scripture, we read that Jesus said: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” So is loving each other important? Yes it is, not only is it a litmus test of our salvation, it is a demonstration of who we are. Do Christians really look all that different from the rest of the world? The divorce rate is essentially the same among Christians as among the rest of the world, how can the world know that we are Jesus’ disciples? We must demonstrate the love of Christ to each other, that the world may look and see!

1John 4v19→20: ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

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1. Love each other – Intro
2. Love each other… How – Servant…
3. Love each other… How – Grace…

The third example of Jesus’ love that we will look at in this series is how He loved in grace. Jesus’ example –  2Thessaloians 2v16+17: ¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, ¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Jesus came and demonstrated His love for us in showing us grace, and giving us mercy. It was through Jesus that we have access to God. Jesus demonstrated grace to many on earth, think of the woman caught in adultery; she was about to be stoned by the crowd (and rightly so, by the law of that day), yet Christ comes, and reveals every single persons sin to them and then shows the woman grace. This is just how Jesus operated, He demonstrated His love to us by showing us grace.

And us – how can we copy Jesus in this area? We need to show each other grace, this is a demonstration of our love for each other. This doesn’t mean that we never confront each other about issues, or that we never have a disagreement. But rather, that when we do have disagreements that we are quick to show each other grace. When we love each other in grace, this means that we don’t love because we are loved back, no rather we love each other whether it is reciprocated or not. This ought to be our aim, this is the model of love that God has set out for us:

1John 4v19: We love because he first loved us.

God has loved us before we loved Him, He was the one that initiated this love. He loved us even when we hated Him, He loved us when we ignored Him, He loved us when we loved sin, He loved us first. Take this example as you love one another, loved gracefully, show love even if it is not returned.

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1. Love each other… How – Servant…
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This week we will have a look at how Jesus came as a servant, the King of kings came to earth and served. Jesus’ example – Mark 10v43→45: ⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus here is teaching those that will be leaders the manner in which they are to lead, that being servant like. Again Jesus came and gave the example of His love, when God referred to Christ during His time on earth He called Him as servant. This is the attitude that Jesus came with, His very attitude was that of a servant. Jesus was the highest authority ever to walk the earth, He was the single person that was most worthy of respect, He deserved to be worshiped whilst on earth (an indeed was worshiped), yet whilst Jesus was on earth here He demonstrated His love by washing His disciples feet (John 13)!

And us – How can we follow Jesus’ example in this and love each other with the attitude of a servant? You need to look around and seek out opportunities where you can serve each other in love. Jesus didn’t wait until someone gave Him a suggestion, He sought out the opportunities to demonstrate His love in service. We need to do the same; is there someone who is always serving, how about you serve them for a while. Is there a need that no one wants to do because it is not very glamorous, or not seen, why not be a servant and fulfil that need. Do you think of yourself higher than Jesus, or are you more worthy of being served than Jesus was? Remember Jesus example:

Philippians 2v5→8: ⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!

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1. Love each other… Is it that important?
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Last week we saw that as Christians we should love other Christians, the reason tat we should love other Christians is because God loves us. Now over the next few weeks we are going try and get very practical in how we should love each other, as Christians. We are going to look at three ways that we should love each other, each week we will first look to Jesus’ example (how He loved like this), and then we will focus in on some of the ways that we can begin to love like this, following Jesus’ example.

The fist way that we get to love other Christians is through sacrifice. Sacrifice is a taboo word in our culture today, to most people it is the opposite of success. Yet Jesus, the single most well known figure of all history, not only spoke of sacrifice, He lived it, and loved through it. Let’s have a look:

Jesus’ example – Ephesians 5v1+2: ¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Jesus laid down His life as a ransom for you and for all those who call on His name, He suffered at the hands of the Romans, He endured the wrath of God that should have been poured out on you, He took it on your behalf. Jesus sacrificed His very own self for you, He stepped down from eternity in time, He constrained Himself to time and space, the very King of all of everything clothed Himself as a human, He lived among us, and then died for us. Jesus knew what it was to sacrifice in the name of love. That is the example that He has set for us.

And us – How then can we imitate Jesus’ example in sacrificial love? We can give, our time, our talents, our money to others. If Christ sacrificed His very own self in love for you, is it then too much to ask that you sacrifice some of yourself for your fellow believers? You have been given so much, can you not sacrifice some of it for those that you love?

1John 3v17+18: ¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

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1. Love each other – Intro
2. Love each other… How – Grace…
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John 13v34+35: ³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This is the Scripture that we are going to focus on for the next few weeks, the main topic surrounding it is the whole idea of loving other Christians.

“Christians should love each other.” Is this true? And if it is true, why should Christians love each other?

If we begin in John 13v34 we see that Jesus said; “A new command I give you: Love one another…” So obviously it is true that as Christians we must love other Christians. The question then remains; Why should we love each other?

Simplicity would tell us that we must love each other because Jesus told us to, but we are given more motivation than that in the Bible, let’s have a look at some of the reasons that we as Christians should love one another.

The first and primary reason that we love each other is because we are loved. Understand this, make sure that this makes sense to you, your whole Christian life very well depends on you understanding this fact: God loves you.

1John 3v1: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

1John 4v10: This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God loves you; in the cross we learn many things, one of these things that we learn is that we are loved by God. If God never loved us He would never have sent His Son to die for us. If you ever doubt that you are truly loved, look to the cross; see how much you really are loved. God loves you!

Only once you understand and believe that you are loved by God can you ever hope to begin to love others. We do not love other Christians so that God will love us, we know that God loves us therefore we love other Christians.

1John 4v11+12: ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

So therefore the answer to the question why should we love each other is this; we should love each other because we are loved by God.

1John 4v19→21: ¹⁹We love because He first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

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The third type of soil that the seed lands on is soil that is filled with thorns, Jesus said it like this; Matthew 13v7: “…Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them…” and then Jesus explains what it mean; Matthew13v22: “…As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful…” So what is Jesus teaching us here, let’s dig down and see.

This seed landed on soil that already had other seed in it, thorn seeds. As the good seed began to grow up, the thorns just took over, they used all the nutrients, they absorbed all the sunlight, and slowly the good seed began to whither and die. In this parable the thorns represent the things that the world offers us, money, status, fames, etc, etc. What happens to this plant can so easily happen to any one of us, whether we are rich or poor, satan loves to tempt us with the things of this world, to try and slowly draw us away from our relationship with Jesus. This is possibly one of the most difficult soils for us to see within ourselves, so lets ask; “In what way am I like this soil?”

Why is this so difficult for us to see happen to us? Primarily because it is something that happens slowly, and the way in which it happens. There is nothing wrong with having things in and of themselves, it isn’t sinful to be wealthy, fame isn’t evil, but it is our attitude towards these things that draw us away from Jesus.  The seed in the thorny soil is perhaps best illustrated by Jesus talking with the rich young ruler, check out Luke 18v18→23. This guy had it made, he was wealthy, he had status, he was famous, and he was religious; but he valued his wealth above his relationship with God, and at the end of the discussion he walked away sad.

What do you value the most, do you love Jesus more than you love your money, do you love Jesus more than you love your stuff, do you love Jesus more than anything else? The chances are that you said yes to this; then here is the question: What do you think about the most? Do you think more about other things than you do about Jesus? The Bible tells us that where our treasure is there our heart will be also. Are you the seed among the thorns; if Jesus asked you to give up all your stuff and follow Him, would you do it, or would you walk away sad?

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Are you dead or alive? Are you driven by Godly passion that leads to towards God’s will in your life? When last did your heart beat for the purpose of God?

Last week we looked at how Timothy had a heart for the Phillipian Church and as we read further we see Epaphroditus with the same attitude. These men are mentioned in this passage because they are examples of what Paul is talking about.
In Phillipains 2 vs 1-3 we see the encouragement of Paul saying:

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like‑minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

Paul says that if we feel anything for God then we should be like-minded, having the same love and be one in the same spirit and purpose. You see we need to focus on having the same mind as God so that in the future He is able to impress His will in our lives.

As you love God and are obedient to what you read in His word, you will become like minded, you will start to love others in the same way that God love others and you will start to have the same mindset as our Father. When you choose to love God first He will make your heart beat for His will and purpose. Just like Timothy and Epaphraditus had hearts that desired to be with the Phillipian church.

The desire on their hearts lead them to their purpose. Simply because the desire on their hearts was placed there by a perfect God who was in a loving relationship with them.

Is God calling you to something? If not, I encourage you to search through His word - not to find His will but rather to learn how to love Him. The rest will come in His time.

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So the 14^th of Feb is Valentines Day, there’s going to be flowers, chocolates, cards, hugs, kisses, and people everywhere showing their love for one another. This is great! And today we’re going to take a look at Valentines Day, and how it may have began. Hopefully by the end of this post you may have spent some time thinking about the greatest love of your life.

So where did it all begin?

No one is exactly sure as to how Valentines day began, some say that it came from a weird pagan fertility festival, that was changed. The most popular explanation as to the history of Valentines day is that back in about 270 A.D. In Rome the emperor Claudius II decided that he only wanted single men in his army, so that they would be able to fight better, not getting distracted by a family and all that. So he made it illegal for young men to get married, now Valentine (or Valentinus) was a Priest who was in Rome at this time, and he realised how wrong this whole thing was. Valentine knew that it was right for young men and young women to get married and to start Christian families and raise Christian children in a loving, Godly environment. Therefore, what Valentine decided to do was he would secretly marry young couples without the emperor knowing about it, in order to see these Godly families become a reality. When Valentine was found out he was put to put into jail to await his death sentence. When he was in jail, the young loves that he had married would come and visit him in jail, and bring him flowers and notes to show their appreciation for what he had done for them. The story then carries on that a little while before he was to be put to death Valentine fell in love with his jailer’s daughter. On the day that he was executed, February 14^th, it is said that he gave his love a letter and at the bottom, he signed: From Your Valentine.

The name Valentine come from the Latin name Valentinus, which is derived from the word valens which means worthy. Today however, according to a Discovery Card survey, the average American Husband is expecting to spend 8.30 (about R1170.00) on a Valentine’s Day gifts this, Valentines Day brings in an average of Billion in America!

Love received…

Showing love for one another is good, and God wants us to show love for each other in the right way, remember God is the One who invented love. The Bible tells us not only that God loves, but that God actually is love! So don’t think that love is something that God is against! But what is the greatest love that there is? The Bible tells us in Romans 5v8: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the greatest demonstration of love that there ever has been, because this is the greatest love that there is! Remember the verse that the Apostle John wrote: 1John 4v10: 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. This is what love is, love is God sending Jesus Christ to pay the price for our sin!

Love returned…

But what about our love for God? Why should we love God? We know that God hates sin, He cannot be in the presence of it, it is impossible. We know that we are sinners, and that by our earthly nature we do nothing but sin. Therefore we know that God hates our sin, and that since we choose to sin, we are deserving of punishment, eternal hell. This is scary! When we realise these facts, and then we look to the cross of Jesus, where Jesus took the full penalty of our sins because of love. Because of God’s love He made a way for us to be with Him forever, God loves us! This love eclipses our fear of God, we see His anger at our sin, and then we see the love that He has in paying the price of it on our behalf! This love that God has for us is amazing, it is out of this world, there is no greater love than the love displayed by God on the cross, towards us! That is why John writes in 1John 4v18 that perfect love drives out fear! We no longer have any fear of punishment, because of God’s love for us! In verse 19, John helps us to see our response to this, because God loved us first, we love Him!

Love right…

Matthew 22v36+37: This is to be us, we should live like this, and this is the love that we are to have for God. This should not be an effort; it is the natural response to who God is! We see how much He has loved us, and therefore we will show that love back to Him! Remember He is the One who made the first move, not us…

1John 5v3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome… John here define how our love for God looks like, he is telling us what love for God is. Our love for God is to obey His commands, these two things are one in the same, there is no difference between the two of these things! Obeying what Jesus has commanded us to do, is the way we show our love to Him. Do you love Him, how much do you obey His commands.

Let’s look at some of Jesus’ commands:

Matthew 5v38→48 Jesus commands us to be graceful, not to be vengeful people, we commanded to repay our enemies with kindness.

Matthew 6v1→4

we are commanded that when we give to those in need, that we are to do it quietly, not so that others know about. We should give to glorify God, not ourselves.

Matthew 10v28 Jesus commands us to fear God more than we fear man, that means that we must be more concerned about what god thinks of us than what man thinks of us.

John 13v34+35 Jesus gives us the commandment that we are to love one another, we are to especially love our Christian brothers and sisters.

Matthew 22v36+37 is the greatest of all the commandments, and that is that we are to love God with all of ourselves, be extreme in your love for God, there is no greater love in your life.

Back to 1John 5v3 you see the last part of that verse, And His commands are not burdensome. This is the whole key to this scripture, God is not calling us to a grudging love, He is not telling us to tick all of these things off of your list and if you get over 75% then you love Me. God is telling us here that the love that we do have for Him will show up in the way we automatically obey His commands. When we look at the commands of Jesus, we should be thinking, something like; “Oh wow, i am doing that anyway, that is so cool!” Not “Sigh, more things i have to do…” I hope that you get this, that these commands that Jesus has given to us, are not to be a burden, but a joy! There is joy to be found in serving God, because we are doing things for the One we love the most!

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1. Love each other – Intro
2. Love each other… How – Grace…
3. Love each other… Is it that important?

Read: 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
Focus: 1 Corinthians 13: 3

Verse 3: “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

God has gifted us with the ability to achieve many many great things. We can acquire wealth. We can show compassion on those in need. We can rally people up to give to a very meaningful cause. We can give our time, resources and energy to the church, or any other cause that may seem Godly.

The people around us may thank us and we may receive a lot of positive feedback because of what we have done but if we did it without the love that God instills in us – we have nothing.

We need to realise that the almighty God created us. He created us in His image. Surely that means that we can do pretty incredible things in our own strength. Bill Gates designed windows and subsequently became the richest man in the world earning millions a day. He did that on his own. Hitler raged a war on the Jewish nation that shocks the world even to this day. He did that on his own. Oprah Winfrey has become the most influential women in the world and she did that on her own.

People are beautiful creations and are capable of many great things. That’s how God created us! However, like we have seen in the previous verses, without love guiding our thoughts and actions, without love guiding us to obedience, without love moulding our success – we have nothing.

We can look at it another way as well. God created us in His image. Is it possible then that we are designed perfectly to carry the love of God? I believe we are, and I believe that our primary purpose is to display God’s love to the people around us. As we obey God in loving those around us, we love God in our obedience to Him.

You see, unless we are fulfilling the purpose we were created for, the purpose God created us for – we have achieved nothing in the eyes of our God. That’s because ‘love is our purpose.’ in Matthew this is commanded to us by Jesus as the Greatest Commandment (Matt 22: 36-38)

“”Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”

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READ: 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
FOCUS: 1 Corinthians 13: 1

“Verse 1: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal”

A man decides that he wants to marry the girl that he is currently dating. He surprises her with tickets to Cape Town for the weekend and they spend the Saturday driving around the garden route and stop for lunch at a quiet wine estate. That afternoon they are driving back the Cape Town and the gentleman surprises her once again with a Hot Air Balloon ride. She has always dreamed of this moment and now it is finally happening.

Up in the balloon with the Ocean on the one side, lapping the shore beneath them, and the Cape Winelands stretching out on the other side. He turns to her and recites a poem that he has been struggling to write for the last few months. The words are the most eloquent words she has ever heard, they touch her deep in her heart. She feels so much in love with the man before her. He asks her to marry him and she accepts.

Heres the hiccup:

Later on in life the man becomes complacent and his new wife starts to feel unloved because of his selfish behavior. As much as he says he loves her she will not feel loved. He can buy her all the presents in the world and she will not feel loved. What she needs is obedience… That man promised to love her, to care for her, to respect her, to build her up, to help her and to support her.
As he became complacent in their relationship he started spending more time at work, less time with his wife, more time with friends on the weekends and less time helping her around the house, more time in front of the TV and less time talking to her like they used to.

This man has become disobedient to the very promise that he made to his wife.

My wife once said to me when I told her I loved her that I don’t need to tell her, but rather my actions towards her would tell her that I love her. (This is why I love her so much!!)

How often do we proclaim our love to God. We sing “How Great is our God”, “I Love You Lord” and “Blessed be your name.” But it is our obedience to the laws in His Word that gives those words meaning, that brings those words to life in Gods eyes.

Our words and even the words of angels are a resounding gong. A loud harsh noise that only attracts the attention of those around us. If we want our words to mean something more than a ‘resounding gong’ to your heavenly father then we should make sure that our lives are obedient to His laws, to His ideals, to His will, so that He can see that we really mean the words we say to him.

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!!

1 John 5:3 gives us a litmus test of how our love for God is shown to God.

“This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome.”

Everything you do at church or at home in your attempt to show God that you love Him will only been seen as love if your heart is in such a place that you are not burdened by God’s commands. Rather you see the purpose of His commands and how they actually set you free.

Note: God’s commands are not designed to restrict us but rather to aid us in living fuller lives in Christ who saved us and the God who loves us

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