It All About The Love
Scripture: Mark 12:30-31; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:16-19
Introduction
There is a controversy going on right now in reference to the use of the word Christmas to describe this particular holiday season. It is politically incorrect to wish someone a Merry Christmas unless you know for sure that they are a Christian. Even though a lot of our holiday stories centers on Santa Claus, Christmas for Christians, started as a celebration of Christ’s birth. Christmas, as we know it, is a rather modern innovation. Christ’s birthday was not celebrated until more than 300 years after his death and resurrection. For the early Christians, His birth was not as important as His death and resurrection. Based on biblical account of His birth, Christ was probably born in the spring. The celebration of Christmas being on December 25 was chosen to coincide with a Roman holiday in which the sun god was worshipped. By 386 A.D. church leaders set up the celebration of “Christ Mass” so that Christians could join in the festival activities that the Romans were already participating in without bending to paganism. After the Roman empire dissolved, Christians continued the December 25 birthday custom. Through the years other customs were added to the celebration to the point that what we have today does not resemble what was originally celebrated. So we find ourselves in the midst of wondering can I wish someone on my job a “Merry Christmas?” If I know a person is a Christian, I can wish them a Merry Christmas but if I do not know, now I run the risk of offending them, especially if they are Jewish or Islamic. Retailers are also getting away from using “Christmas” in their advertising as to not be offensive. They are now wishing everyone a very “Happy Holiday Season”.
I was watching a talk show this week and the host had an atheist, a Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest as his guest. The host was also Catholic. The focus of the conversation was on why “religious” people believe in God and why the atheist did not. They also discussed the obvious fact that there is a division among those who believed in God but reject the belief in Christ. Both the rabbi and the priest could not believe that the atheist could teach her children that all that they were existed within them now, that there was no higher power than them. Her response to them was that the so-called “religious” people cannot agree with one another. The first place she went was Christ. She said to the priest and the rabbi that one of them must be wrong since one believed in Christ and the other did not. The rabbi responded by saying that both believed in God and that was more important. He took it a step further and said that he believed that Christ was truly the Messiah for the Gentiles, but he did not think that Christ was God’s Son. I did not hear all of the conversation, but the prevailing thought of the atheist was if the religious people could not agree how could she agree with and/or believe either group. It was easy to see the difference between Christians and Jews, but it is much harder to explain the differences between Christians, which is a point that the atheist quickly pointed out.
Christians are divided on a lot of issues, from how to baptize correctly to the words that must be said when the baptism takes place. We are divided on worship service, to have music or not, beliefs around the gifts of the Spirit, Church buildings versus meeting in someone home. We are divided on how we should dress, how we should act, what can and cannot be done in Church. We are divided on what we can eat, what we can watch or what music we can listen to. We are divided on who can stand in the pulpit or who can serve in other ministries of the Church. We are divided on what we believe about Jesus Christ, His teachings and the Word of God. We are divided on what is sin and it true penalty. We are divided on what we believe about salvation, who can have it and who cannot. We are divided on Church name, if the name of your Church is not right, you cannot be saved. Christians are divided, not just between denominations, but it can be found in individual Churches. There are people in this congregation that do not hold all of the same beliefs as someone else. Is it important for everyone to believe the same thing? Let me tell you what can be a motivator for some of the divisions – the belief that I am right and you are wrong and neither of us being willing to change or consider something different from what we already believe. If you hold beliefs that are the polar opposites from someone else, we may never say it, but deep down we have the tendency to believe that we are right and maybe someone else is wrong. If I truly believed someone else is right, then I will be faced with a decision about changing my belief and that can be very hard to do. So what do we do, we remain divided in a lot of situations. It is this divide that fuels a lot of the controversy that we find within the religious community. There is little tolerance for beliefs that do not agree with our beliefs. This division is one of the key elements as to why many choose not to go to church at all. When there are 15 churches on one city block and all of them claim to have the right answer, the right path to God and salvation, how can someone know what is right? How can five people read the same bible and walk away with 5 different interpretations? This is what we are faced with and what is hindering the church as a whole from growing. One point of interest for you, if you read the writings of Paul, this has been an issue from the very beginning of the Christian Church.
For me, this time of year increases my awareness of just how divided we are as Christians. For a group of people who is supposed to live by love, we truly have a hard time expressing it. The bridge that must be built to close the division will be built on love. Love is the reason for this season and if we are expressing love, love is welcomed regardless of beliefs. Let me share with you a few points on love so that you will understand the true importance that it has on your life.
I. We All Need Love
Everyone, regardless of your race, background or religious beliefs, needs love. There are many people who have taught themselves that they do not need love, nor do they want it. They based their decision on things that have happened to them in life so to protect themselves, they stay as far away from love as possible. This is not natural. Let me tell you why, from a medical viewpoint then we will look at Scripture. There is a medical condition found with newborns called “Failure to Thrive (FTT)”. It can be organic or non-organic. With organic FTT there is something physically wrong with the baby that is causing the baby not to get its nutritional needs from the food it eats. With non-organic FTT, there is nothing physically wrong with the baby, so the cause is non-organic. This condition is diagnosed initially by monitoring the baby’s weight gain. This is the first initial sign, a baby that is losing weight or is not gaining weight based on parameters that are set. One of the later outcomes is the size of the baby’s head gets smaller. This is caused by malnutrition because the baby is not taking in the nutrition it needs. When this condition is diagnosed, the physician admits the baby into the hospital and monitors the baby and its interaction with the parents while increasing the baby’s nutritional intake. Although the baby will start gaining weight while in the hospital, if something is not done to correct the interaction between the mother and the child, the baby will revert back to losing weight when discharged from the hospital.
Here is my reason for telling you this. A newborn baby is born into this world with a physical need to be loved, held, caressed and interacted. Since the baby is a newborn, this is not a learned response; it is something that was placed within them by God. It is as much spiritual as it is physical. When this does not happen, the baby literally begins to die. Yes, the condition can lead to the death of the baby if not corrected quickly. So when they bring the parents in, they teach them how to interact and express their love for the baby. However, in the studies that have been done, the prognosis has been disappointing. If the child does not receive the love and interactions in needs to develop, they remain behind physically, emotionally and intellectually. They easily become the “troubled” kids in the school system. I want you to understand this clearly, you were born with a need to be loved. God placed that within you. If you believe you do not need love now and you can be an island unto yourself, you are only fooling yourself. God created us to love and to be loved. When God made Adam, He saw that he was alone. God knew that this was not good for Adam; he needed someone to be there with him. Genesis 2:18 records “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make him a helper, suitable for him.” God made Eve so that Adam could be loved and so that he would be able to express love.
Jesus spent a lot of time talking about love. The greatest commandment is “And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31 We were created to love and to be loved.
II. The Effects of Love
When I started this message I told you that the only way to close the division that separates us is through love. Love can do miracles when nothing else works. Love can penetrate the thickest wall and the heaviest heart. It started with Love and it will end with love. John 3:16 tells us that God sent Jesus because he loved us. Jesus suffered and died on the cross because He loved us. No matter how we say it, the truth of the matter is that we are about love. The word of God says this about love:
1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love
covers a multitude of sins.”
When you love, it covers a multitude of sins. It covers the faults, the weaknesses, the hurts, the transgressions, the differences, everything. When you begin to walk in love, you do not choose who you will love based on what you receive back from them, you love indiscriminately. You love everybody. Yes I know some of you have been hurt, love anyway. Yes I know you do not want to put yourself out there, love anyway. When we perfect love, our fears are released.
1 John 4:16-19 “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us.
These verses are talking about our relationship with God. We have come to know and understand God’s love for us and who we are in Him. That understanding gives us confidence that when we stand before Him, we will not receive punishment, but eternal life. We have no fear of hell because we are wrapped up in the love of God. God’s love when perfected within us casts out all fear of hell. That is what these verses are saying to us. But I want to take it one step further so that you can understand what love can do for you right now, today, and for the rest of your life.
Some of you here or who is reading this message has been hurt. Some of your hurt runs deeply, so deep that you are afraid of caring for anyone. What these verses tell us is that the fear and torment that we carry within can be replaced with our understanding of God’s love for us and our accepting that love. When we accept God’s love, we become love. Why does this happen? Whatever God abides in becomes like He is. We cannot make God become like us, but He can make us become like Him. When His love is perfected within us, the fears that we carry, whatever they are, but especially pertaining to relationships, cease to control us. Does that mean we will never experience any hurts again? No, but you always have a Father to go to when it happens. When we love, we receive love in return. If we focus on loving others while allowing others to love us, we live. If we believe that we are an island unto ourselves and we do not need the love of others, we are living, yet we are already dead. We are dead emotionally and spiritually. Physical death is all that remains.
Love is the bridge that will enable us to interact with anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs or if they are atheist. Love is the one gift that continues to give, over and over and over. It never fades, grows old or stop giving. During this Christmas season, wherever you are spiritually and emotionally, will you give love a try. It can change the rest of your life. You may be in a very bad marital relationship, give love a try. Allow God’s love to envelop you and you will find how easy it is to share it with others.
If you get nothing else from this message, please remember this: “When you were created, God created you to need love. Although you may be older now, what God placed within you is still there – you still need love.”
May God bless and keep you. Have a very Merry Christmas with those you love.
