Labor of Love
What is love?
Any of you 90’s kids may have thought that Haddaway was the only one who had that question, but Howard Jones had the same question back in the 80’s. In fact, since the year 2000, there have been about 365 songs with the word “love” in the title. There are an estimated 100 million recorded songs about love.
The ultimate love song, however, is found throughout the Bible, and it has the best song lyric of all time, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son…”
There are three common levels for the word love.
The Greek words are:
Phileo - which means brotherly love and is where we get the city name for Philadelphia.
Eros - which means romantic love
Agape - the highest level of love because it is unmotivated, spontaneous, overflowing and seeks nothing in return.
Do you know that The Scriptures can show us how to love like church is to supposed love and how to have relationships? All relationships are based upon love. If we are all honest with each other, we need help with our relationships. We may sometimes think, “everyone in my family needs to change.” Amen, yes everyone in your family needs to change, including you, including me. We cannot change the people around us, but we can do our best to be more loving.
Let’s jump into Scripture to find out how like produces like and how love produces love.
1 Corinthians 13: 3-8 – “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
Did you catch the last verse? Love NEVER fails. Verse 8 goes on to say, “But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”
We can prophecy, we may be able to speak in tongues, we may have all the knowledge in the world, but if we have no love in our heart for one another, these mean nothing.
Love never fails, love always wins. Hatred may gain ground every once in a while, but love will always win in the end, as it did on the cross. Hatred doesn’t win, violence doesn’t win. Love wins.
You have to keep trying when you love. Life lesson here is, love never gives up. Keep pursuing to love people. Even if we love in the small ways, Christ takes it as loving in BIG ways. In whatever small ways it may be, like holding the door open or letting someone jump in line ahead of you, taking a friend to lunch/dinner or buying them a cup of coffee and listening to them share what is going on in their lives.
Of course we might think we’re pretty loving unless it comes to certain people. That’s an interesting perspective, isn’t it? It makes us look pretty good, huh? Maybe some people are involved in our lives so that we can express love in a situation that we naturally may not usually express it.
Boy, if we want to get convicted about a term we find in the Word, do a word study about “one another”. Wow, those two words are heavy.
Let’s look at a few “one another verses”
Leviticus 25:17 – “Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God.”
Basically, Don’t rip off people
Romans 12:10 – “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves”
Romans 13:8 – “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”
Do you understand that we “owe” love to the other person? It’s not a question of if the other person is deserving of love. No, we owe it to the other person.
Romans 14:13 – “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother’s way.”
Galatians 5:13 – “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
We are called to serve one another, this church does an awesome job when it comes to serving one another!!
Ephesians 4:2 – “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Ephesians 4:32 – “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
John 13:34 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
We need to show love to people out there. You know that is what the world is looking for? They are actually looking for love, mercy, hope, forgiveness. They don’t need to be told what is wrong, they already know. They need to be told they are loved by God Himself, through His Son.
The world will know us by our music, no. They will know us by our tithes, no. They will know us by our love.
Let’s keep in mind that we are following Jesus, who is the ultimate expression of love. So, how can we excuse our actions or words when we are not being very loving? If we do not love on people and show them the forgiveness that Christ has shown us, there will be people who will slip through the net of Salvation.
Let’s understand that in that act of Salvation, Christ died for us. Jesus has one level of love and that is Agape Love. He cannot not love people, He hates sin, but He loves the sinner.
As it is written in Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Have you stopped and thought about what this verse is saying? “While”, it is not saying after we have “gotten our lives” right with God, Christ died for us. NO, it says WHILE we were still sinners, in the very act of us sinning, Christ took on the punishment for our sins & hung on the cross. Jesus even went on to say “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”. Speaking about the people who mocked and cursed at Him while he was on the cross.
We have the choice to love, we have the choice to hate.
CHOOSE LOVE
We have the choice to accept His love, we have the choice to reject His love.
ACCEPT HIS LOVE
Any of you 90’s kids may have thought that Haddaway was the only one who had that question, but Howard Jones had the same question back in the 80’s. In fact, since the year 2000, there have been about 365 songs with the word “love” in the title. There are an estimated 100 million recorded songs about love.
The ultimate love song, however, is found throughout the Bible, and it has the best song lyric of all time, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son…”
There are three common levels for the word love.
The Greek words are:
Phileo - which means brotherly love and is where we get the city name for Philadelphia.
Eros - which means romantic love
Agape - the highest level of love because it is unmotivated, spontaneous, overflowing and seeks nothing in return.
Do you know that The Scriptures can show us how to love like church is to supposed love and how to have relationships? All relationships are based upon love. If we are all honest with each other, we need help with our relationships. We may sometimes think, “everyone in my family needs to change.” Amen, yes everyone in your family needs to change, including you, including me. We cannot change the people around us, but we can do our best to be more loving.
Let’s jump into Scripture to find out how like produces like and how love produces love.
1 Corinthians 13: 3-8 – “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
Did you catch the last verse? Love NEVER fails. Verse 8 goes on to say, “But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”
We can prophecy, we may be able to speak in tongues, we may have all the knowledge in the world, but if we have no love in our heart for one another, these mean nothing.
Love never fails, love always wins. Hatred may gain ground every once in a while, but love will always win in the end, as it did on the cross. Hatred doesn’t win, violence doesn’t win. Love wins.
You have to keep trying when you love. Life lesson here is, love never gives up. Keep pursuing to love people. Even if we love in the small ways, Christ takes it as loving in BIG ways. In whatever small ways it may be, like holding the door open or letting someone jump in line ahead of you, taking a friend to lunch/dinner or buying them a cup of coffee and listening to them share what is going on in their lives.
Of course we might think we’re pretty loving unless it comes to certain people. That’s an interesting perspective, isn’t it? It makes us look pretty good, huh? Maybe some people are involved in our lives so that we can express love in a situation that we naturally may not usually express it.
Boy, if we want to get convicted about a term we find in the Word, do a word study about “one another”. Wow, those two words are heavy.
Let’s look at a few “one another verses”
Leviticus 25:17 – “Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God.”
Basically, Don’t rip off people
Romans 12:10 – “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves”
Romans 13:8 – “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”
Do you understand that we “owe” love to the other person? It’s not a question of if the other person is deserving of love. No, we owe it to the other person.
Romans 14:13 – “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother’s way.”
Galatians 5:13 – “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
We are called to serve one another, this church does an awesome job when it comes to serving one another!!
Ephesians 4:2 – “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Ephesians 4:32 – “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
John 13:34 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
We need to show love to people out there. You know that is what the world is looking for? They are actually looking for love, mercy, hope, forgiveness. They don’t need to be told what is wrong, they already know. They need to be told they are loved by God Himself, through His Son.
The world will know us by our music, no. They will know us by our tithes, no. They will know us by our love.
Let’s keep in mind that we are following Jesus, who is the ultimate expression of love. So, how can we excuse our actions or words when we are not being very loving? If we do not love on people and show them the forgiveness that Christ has shown us, there will be people who will slip through the net of Salvation.
Let’s understand that in that act of Salvation, Christ died for us. Jesus has one level of love and that is Agape Love. He cannot not love people, He hates sin, but He loves the sinner.
As it is written in Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Have you stopped and thought about what this verse is saying? “While”, it is not saying after we have “gotten our lives” right with God, Christ died for us. NO, it says WHILE we were still sinners, in the very act of us sinning, Christ took on the punishment for our sins & hung on the cross. Jesus even went on to say “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”. Speaking about the people who mocked and cursed at Him while he was on the cross.
We have the choice to love, we have the choice to hate.
CHOOSE LOVE
We have the choice to accept His love, we have the choice to reject His love.
ACCEPT HIS LOVE
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