Pastor A

For those who work in the business world, allow me to say that love is even a part of your world, consider:

LOVE IS THE KEY TO BUSINESS SUCCESS

Love your customers and you will do your very best to serve them well. You will operate honestly in all ways and with integrity. You will price your products and services fairly. You will treat your co-workers with respect. Selling from a motive of love will assure you of reaching your quota. Leading because you love your people will cause them to follow you better than any other tool or tactic. Love will keep the appearance of your business at its best. You will do all of these things because you love what you do and love the people you do it for and do it with. This love will be rewarded. Your customers will reciprocate by loving to do business with you.

Someone has said, “Love is the law of God. You live that you may learn to love. You love that you may learn to live. No other lesson is required of man.”

There is certainly an element of truth in this quote. Solomon said to fear God and keep His commandments. One of God’s commandments is that we love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Then, we are to love others! May this resonate today as you consider your relationships with the other people in your life.

Don’t try today; DO today!

“There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer. There is no disease that enough love will not heal. No door that enough love will not open. No gulf that enough love will not bridge. No wall that enough love will not throw down. And no sin that enough love will not redeem. It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble. How hopeless the outlook. How muddled the tangle. How great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. And if you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful person in the world.”   Emmet Fox

Love can heal any hurt and fix any problem. Love is it! Here are some key thoughts.

LOVE WHAT YOU DO

When you love what you do, you will become excellent at it. The more excellent you are at what you do, the more you will be rewarded to do it. Therefore, loving what you do in the key to your personal compensation. In addition, when you love what you do, you will he happier, more confident, healthier, and a joy to be around. Others will want to be around someone that loves what they do.

LOVE THOSE YOU DO IT FOR

This means the company you work for as well as the customer who ultimately receives your service. If you do not love the company you work for, then you will not give them your best and will end up cheating them and yourself by withholding the best you have to offer.

Sometimes, businesspeople will pray for customers, and then when they show up they say, “Lord, I didn’t mean them!” But those customers, even the ones who drive you crazy, deserve your love. Only by loving them enough to serve them well, will you ultimately be rewarded with either their business or their appreciation of you.

LOVE OTHERS

When you love others, sincerely caring about them, then you will serve them in an ultimate way. You will show respect, treat them with courtesy, listen to them, encourage them, comfort them, and give them your best. Then all who come in contact with you will want to do the same for you. They will want to extend to you the same love in the same way you have shown them your love. Can you imagine the life you would lead if all who came in contact with you wanted to give you the very best they had to offer? Then, love others the way you want to be loved! It is your choice.

Don’t try today; DO today!

John, the impetuous young disciple whom Jesus called “the soon angry one,” outlived all his contemporaries. He was the only one of the Twelve not to die a violent martyr’s death. But he did live a martyr’s life. He was beaten, persecuted, and finally exiled to the Island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea.

And yet, what was the overriding theme of John’s life? What filled his heart and mind? The love of God! Not anger or bitterness or resentment; just love. Over 50 times in I, II, and III John, letters he wrote, he talks about love; the love God has for us and the love we share with our brothers and sisters in Christ. He shared the love we are to carry to a world full of hatred and strife. In submitting yourself to the Master, you are filled with the very God of love Himself.

When you allow Jesus Christ to totally control your heart, your thoughts, your actions and reactions, then you, like John, will walk in love. Ephesians 5:2, “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.“

Jesus was an advocate of self-love. Consider His words in Matthew 22:39, “…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…” Jesus taught that a natural, respectful love for yourself is normal; and it is essential in our relationships with others. Without a proper love for yourself, you are sure to have a rough time loving anyone else.

When we think of loving our friends, we are reminded that Jesus said that the identifying mark of the Christian is love for fellow believers. A famous Jewish historian wrote that it was said of the first-century Christians, “Behold, how they love one another.” Today, some historians might be prompted to write, “Behold, how they stab one another in the back.” How tragic it is that unbelievers often to a better job of showing concern than Christians do. We need to continually remind ourselves that our Lord commanded us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

What about our enemies. Should we love our enemies? Yes, Jesus said we are to do this too. Perhaps you wonder: can I do it? The answer is yes and no. Yes, we can do it; but no, not on our own. Romans 5:5 says that the Holy Spirit supplies the love we need. “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.“

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that it is normal to love those who love you and hate those who hate you. But He then pointed out that when you love those who hate you, you demonstrate spiritual maturity. And God’s Word reveals that when we love this way, we are loving with agape love.

The demonstration of genuine love in a Christian’s life draws attention to Christ. This truth is illustrated by a thrilling experience of Peter and John. They were going into the Temple on one Sabbath day when they met a crippled man. Peter spoke to the man and commanded him in the name of Jesus to stand and walk. Miraculously, the cripple’s legs were healed. He not only stood, but began leaping with joy. Peter used the opportunity to preach to the people gathered around. The City Council of Jerusalem got very uptight about this and called Peter “on the carpet” so to speak. They asked him to testify and he gave them just what they asked for. How did they respond? Acts 4:13 says,

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.“

Peter and John were not geniuses. In fact, in the eyes of the world, they were just two dumb fishermen. But they showed a real love in their lives and in so doing, they magnified the Lord Jesus Christ.

God wants the same wonderful thing to happen in your life.

The Ten Commandments may be divided into two sections. The first section (Commandments 1-4) deals with man’s relationship to God as instructed in Exodus 20:

“3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.“

The second section (Commandments 5-10) deals with man’s relationship to man:

“9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.“

Love is the key to obeying all Biblical principles. I sure know I am not perfect; but this is a great reminder to all of us of the importance of still obeying God’s commands for the believer.

Never could we repay God’s great love for us. But we should so live as if we could. To do this, it is important to know about two things: your responsibility and your response.

A responsibility is something that is required, something you are obligated to do. As a Christian, you have a responsibility to love God. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ are very clear in Matthew 22:37, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Jesus did not suggest a choice. What He said was in the truest sense a command. Our responsibility is to obey His command.

Many are turned off by the mention of responsibility. Some react by saying, “I don’t want to get bogged down with Christian ‘responsibility.’ I want to serve God in my own way.” It is the old law vs grace hassle. But the matter is too important to pass off with flippant remarks about Christian liberty. There is a definite command which calls for a definite act of obedience. But for some reason, this rubs many people the wrong way.

One well-known Christian author suggests that we change our thinking to emphasize “Christian response” instead of “Christian responsibility.” By this he means that we should not get bogged down in “loving” God just to obey a law. Rather, we should make sure our obedience to the command is a joyful response.

One Scripture passage sheds a lot of light on this in Ephesians 5:21-25, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;“

These verses present a simply analogy: as the husband is to the wife, so is Christ to the church. We, being the church, are compared with the wife. The Bible refers to the church as “the Bride of Christ.” In the Ephesians passage the wife is instructed to submit and subject herself to her husband’s position and authority. The husband, on the other hand, is instructed to love his wife.

Now the important thing to remember is that the marriage relationship is one which is founded on the basis of love. The husband occupies a distinct position; the wife occupies another equally important but different position. The reason is simple: men are made one way and women another. When a man wants a wife, he does not go out to find a woman who will love him. He looks for a woman he can love. However, when a woman desires a husband, she desires a man who will love her, not one whom she can love. Man is by nature the initiator; woman the responder. It has always been this way.

So, how does this relate to our love relationship to God? Simple. He is the initiator; we are the responders. He loved us first; we love Him in response to His love for us. It is hard to love God when we keep thinking about His commands and warnings as just black, bold-faced commands and warnings. But, when we discipline our minds to think about His love for us, it is easy and natural to respond in loving obedience to Him. How is that love for Him today?

“God loves you.” Maybe you’ve heard it a thousand times, but it still puzzles you. How does God love me? you wonder. What is His love like? What do I have to “do” to earn His love?

The dimensions of God’s love are totally beyond our comprehension. To think that the One who spoke this universe into existence would love enough to send His Son to a cruel death in payment for man’s sin! It’s true. And perhaps no other verse in the Bible says it as well as John 3:16,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.“

It seems impossible, but it’s true: God the Father loves you as much as He loves His Son Jesus Christ. Can you imagine a father loving the murderer of his son as much as he loved his son? God does; and Jesus Himself said so. In the “Lord’s Prayer” which Jesus prayed in the loneliness of Gethsemane, He said that He desired “that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.“

God’s love is unearned! It is easy to love someone who has shown affection and concern for you. So if man had in any way demonstrated a love for God, perhaps we could understand how God could then be motivated to love man. But that didn’t happen. God loved us first. The Bible says in Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.“

In spite of our sinful condition, He loved us. And there are not any strings attached to His love. He does not say, “Christian, I will love you if you do this and that.” NO! He loves you unconditionally. Believe it or not, God loves you just as you are right now. He may not be pleased with the way you are living; but He still loves you.

The Apostle Paul wrote these thrilling words in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“

There is only one thing the wonderful love of God cannot do: it cannot fail! God’s love is truly unlimited, unearned, unfailing, and unconditional!

Undoubtedly the most beautiful prose ever written about love is found in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians. This chapter reveals the majesty, power, and influence of love; it compares love with two other virtues: faith and hope. The chapter concludes that though faith and hope are important, still “the greatest of all is love.”

Love is the mark of the Christian. Imagine the scene: the disciples are solemn and puzzled as they listen to Jesus’ final instructions before His arrest, trial and death. For more than three years these twelve men have been with Him, and still they are not ready for all that is going to happen. He speaks words of comfort and encouragement to them. One thing He says to these twelve men is: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:35

Jesus did not say that the world would know them as disciples because of their eloquent sermons, Bible knowledge or church activities. Instead, they would be known by their love for one another. The true test was in their personal relationships.

Down through the centuries, Christians have tried to identify themselves in many unusual ways. They have worn special clothing and jewelry. Some have even distinguished themselves by certain kinds of haircuts. Perhaps God has led some Christians to do such things. But the one identifying mark of the Christian which fits every generation is the one Jesus singled out: genuine love.

Love is even mentioned as the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” These nine qualities are evidences which show up in a life controlled by the Holy Spirit. Some Bible scholars suggest that the fruit of the Spirit is love and the other eight qualities are by-products of this love. Regardless, the emphasis is placed on love.

Matthew 22:34-40 relates an experience in Jesus’ ministry in which He presented a new perspective of the Ten Commandments. A brilliant Jewish lawyer had tried to put Jesus on the spot by asking Him this profound question: “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus silenced this young attorney by saying in verses 37-40,

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.“

Jesus answered the question by summarizing the Ten Commandments in two commandments. Then He added a “P.S.” to His answer: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” In other words obedience to these two is the same as obedience to all ten!   

Jesus nicknamed the young disciple John, “boanerges” in Mark 3:17. Translated from the Greek, this means “the soon angry one.” In other words, John had a short fuse. When something displeased him, he exploded in a fit of anger. John was impulsive, over-aggressive. He lacked self-control; but, more seriously, he lacked genuine love.

Then, a gradual change began to happen as John witnessed Love personified in Jesus. For three years he learned about genuine love from the Son of God Himself. The impact of this experience was evidenced more than sixty years later when John wrote his account of the life of Christ. Perhaps the most interesting thing about his gospel is that not once does he mention himself by name. Rather, he refers to the “one whom Jesus loved.“

What a change from the “soon angry one” that Jesus met that day on the Galilean seashore. He had come a long way since then. He had learned well the meaning and power of genuine love.

There are three kinds of love. In fact, the Bible has a lot to say about love. Love is one of the major themes of God’s Word.

There have been more songs composed, poems written, and movies filmed about love that any other subject. Love is Number One. But what is it? Can it actually be defined? Maybe not. But it can be described.

The New Testament writers used three different Greek words which are all translated “love” in the English version we use. These three words are used to express the three kinds of love:

1. Eros: Sensual desire
2. Phileo: Brotherly love or friendship
3. Agape: Spiritual love

The greatest of the three is “agape” love. I Corinthians 13:13, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” Most of what the Bible says about love centers on this kind.

How is your love meter? Tomorrow we will examine the importance of love in our own life.

Much to the disappointment of many Christians, the Law of Liberty was not the only law given. And to make things even harder, the second principle, the Law of Love, supersedes the Law of Liberty! The Law of Love applies to the Christian’s responsibility to other Christians. Consider Romans 14:13-15, “Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. 14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.“

Even a brand-new believer knows that some Christians do things that other Christians would never dream of doing. In Romans 14, Paul singled out one particular problem which was creating a lot of dissension between Christians of that day. In that day, worshippers of the pagan gods had the practice of presenting meat as an offering to their idols. After hanging within the temple shrines for a certain period, this meat would then be taken to the marketplace and sold at a “discount” price.

Some Christians had openly purchased this meat. This created a stir within the church about whether or not it was right for Christians to buy and eat the meat. Those who bought and ate the meat vehemently defended their liberty to do so. Other Christians, just as vehemently, accused them of violating the bounds of their liberty. Paul was very direct in what he had to say about the situation.

Paul said this: 1) It was wrong for the Christians involved to judge one another; 2) the problem was a stumbling block in the path of weaker Christians; 3) there was nothing wrong with the meat, even though it had been offered to idols; BUT 4) if eating the meat on the part of some Christians would cause a weaker Christian to eat the meat without a clear conscience, then the practice was wrong.

Of course, this principle applies to all problems which occur in relationships between Christians. The important thing to remember is that anytime debatable issues divide Christians, the Law of Love has been broken.