“What Love Really Looks Like!” #5
“Love
Doesn't Seek It's Own!” - vs. 5
Real Love, that agape "Christlike" love, isn't looking to gain, but to lose and to give!
John 15:8-17King James Version (KJV)
8
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall
ye be my disciples. 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I
loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my
Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things
have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye
love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye
are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15 Henceforth
I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord
doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have
heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 16 Ye have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
The cultural definition of love is vague at best, watered down, these days it's just a word used loosely, typically to get an advantage or a desired outcome! We're so removed from the practical use of the word but what's scary is how far removed we've become from the spiritual weight of the word! So far we've learned that love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous, love does not brag, love is not arrogant, and love does not act unbecomingly!
With this series I want to go verse by verse through
the thirteen pictures of what “agape”, true, biblical love looks
like! I want us to see how Jesus' loved! In each blog I want to view the particular picture
of love in these scenarios, Spiritually, Specifically, and Socially!
** Before we dive into what it looks like lets do a word
study concerning our text **
** It's used 121 times in the New Testament but is
vividly displayed in it's essence in
But seek ye G2212
first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you.
|
- The greek for It's own is heautou; - heh-ow-too' which means …...
himself,
herself, itself, themselves and is used 339 times in this same style!
So, love is not searching for self, not meditating on
how to help self, isn't striving for self, isn't requiring for self,
doesn't crave, demand, or require of someone else for self but the
exact opposite! Dying to live, sacrificing to gain, giving to
receive, losing to possess!
What does this look like?
1.) Specifically
* Person to Person Relationships, spouses, friends,
siblings, etc. *
This is displayed in Joseph's relationship and
reaction to Mary! Joseph had every right according to the culture, the customs, and the Law of God to put his wife Mary away publicly! To publicly shame and stone her to death! Think about that! Yet, in his true love for her he believed her report then had it confirmed by an angel but in the time between the story could have went very differently had Joseph not been a man of integrity, a man of forgiveness, and a man of love!
2.) Socially
* Individual to Society, to Individuals with which we
don't have a “personal” bond. *
We see this play out in the story of Esther. Esther had lost most of her family, she had lost her father and mother and was now with her uncle Mordecai. As a Hebrew they found themselves in captivity to the babylonians far from their homeland and far from the promises of God concerning the nation of Israel because of their forefather's disobedience. Yet, in God's sovereignty, he would save a remnant through the love and obedience of Esther! She was brought into the kings court, eventually becoming queen! An enemy who despised her uncle set a plan to extinguish the Jews and had convinced the king to follow(he didn't know Esther was a Hebrew) and a date was set with the kings seal to kill all Jews on that certain date! Esther knew she needed to do something but wasn't sure what she could do. Her uncle urged her to approach the king and reveal her heritage unto him and plead that his decree be reversed. She knew the law, if she came into the kings presence uninvited and he didn't motion her to the throne it was a death sentence but Mordecai encouraged her "you exist for such a time as this!" In courage and faith she approached the king, he listened to her plea and in risking death she saved her people and the enemy was destroyed! Think about how important this type of love is..... Had not Esther been obedient, there would not have been a return from exile back to Jerusalem, no rebuilding of the temple, no Jewish state, no Jesus Christ, no cross, no redemption, no hope!
3.) Spiritually
* God to Man and Man to God! *
- Spiritually is the most important as it's correct
position will produce the first two! -
- Man to God -
** All three are Christ in his humanity! **
Personally – Specifically to each one of us! He
personally loves us, saves us, died for us, hurt for us, was tortured
for us, cried for us, prayed for us, for us, for us, not broadly but
specifically for Bradley Testerman, the hypocrite, sinner, terrible
person that I am, Christ specifically died on the cross of Calvary for me!
Socially - “For God so loved the world that he gave
His only begotten Son!” He denied himself in his humanity in the
Garden as he cried “If it be possible let this cup pass from me,
but if not Lord, thy will be done!”
Spiritually – Man to God! Christ in His humanity laid
down that selfish, self gratifying nature of flesh and fulfilled the
Father's will! Obedience is better than sacrifice but sacrifice is
typical of obedience!
God to Man!
At the Cross God secured man at His own cost!
At the Cross God secured man at His own cost!
** Since we made it quickly through that let's dive
deeper! **
1.) Love
is Costly
- Love gives, love loses, love hurts, love offers, love
sacrifices, love let's go! -
Matthew 16:24King James Version (KJV)
24 Then
said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
- It cost Christ everything! His life, his prominence,
His comfort! -
2.) Love
is Consuming
- To truly love it must be ALL that you are! -
Hebrews 12:28-29King James Version (KJV)
28
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be
moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with
reverence and godly fear:
- His love for us consumed His actions, All that He did
and endured was because he loved us! -
3.) Love
is Completing
- The most sacrificial, self-denying, selfless love is
the most self-gratifying, self-preserving, self-empowering, and
self-stirring action a Christian can make in their pursuit of God! -
John 14:3King James Version (KJV)
3 And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
- We are here, we exist, we breath so that the love and
mercy of God may be on display for the universe to see! -
- What are you willing to risk? -
In
Closing:
- Do you love the people in your life? Truly? So much so
that you're willing to sacrifice, be uncomfortable, hurt, feel pain,
deny yourself, give, do, persist, even lay down your life for them? -
- Christ did! -
1 Corinthians 13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
The Excellence of Love
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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