God’s Love Language
(Acts 10:44-48 I John 5:1-6 John 15:9-17)
In our first reading in Acts this morning Peter and the Jewish believers were astonished to see evidence that the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. They were “born again” after hearing the gospel preached and believing in Jesus Christ. And this common thread united them.
That’s what John said in our second reading…”everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”
In our third reading there it is again, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”
The recurring theme in our scriptures this morning is love.
Love is a complex word.
Ask 100 people what love means to them and you’ll probably get at least 50 different answers.
People say: I love my wife. I love my cats. I love cherry cheesecake. I love to garden. I love to paint. I love old movies. I love… well, you fill in the blank.
Today is Mother’s Day and I think probably the closest example of God’s kind of love is a mother’s kind of love for her children and grandchildren. Mothers sacrifice so willingly to make their family happy.
You have probably seen on the internet how some small children defined love when asked about it:
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love."
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.”
"Love is when someone hurts you, and you get so mad, but you don’t yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings."
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is okay."
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
"You really shouldn’t say ’I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
In John 15 Jesus says he loves us exactly like the Father loves him and he wants us to love each other “as I have loved you.”
What did Jesus mean by that?
Think about the passages in the Bible where we see Jesus loving people. He loved the religious people who still had questions such as Nicodemus with patience. He loved sinful and outcast people such as the Samaritan woman at the well with compassion. He loved little children with open arms. He loved the disciples by humbly washing their feet and serving them.
I am challenged by the command to love this way so genuinely and sacrificially.
We tolerate some people, ignore some people and show interest in others. Rarely do we love them as much as ourselves much less the way Jesus loves us!
Yet we are commanded to love….forgiving one another, making friends with one another and bearing fruit that shows our love for each other.
We are not commanded to FEEL love but to SHOW it by our actions. Our faith prompts our actions.
The scriptures say we love by keeping the commands of God and we know they boil down to two: loving God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves.
So the two distinguishing birthmarks of a true believer are:
1. A love for God, demonstrated in the way we obey Him.
2. A love for one another, demonstrated in the way we treat each other.
We lay down our lives for each other, not physically as Jesus did for us, but by laying aside our own plans when we can serve another’s needs.
By giving up some of our money, food or clothing to help others who need it, we show the love of Christ. By making phone calls to check on sick folks, sending cards or visiting them we are loving as Christ loved us. And the reward is that we receive His joy and our joy is made complete.
God knew we would search for happiness and joy and he gave us the prescription for it. Lay down your life for others and gain the life you lose this way by feeling joyfully fulfilled.
One writer wondered if a stranger entered our church services would he notice our joy?
Non-believers might not understand the symbol of a dead Christ hanging on a cross so perhaps we need a statue of the triumphant Jesus rising from the dead!
The famous love passage in the Bible, I Corinthians chapter thirteen, says that if we do everything else right and fail to love then we have messed up the message in the delivery of it!
Jesus says we are his friends not his servants. Servants MUST obey what their master asks of them. Friends choose to help carry out a friend’s request. They spend themselves for one another, not counting the costs. They are eager and ready to help. They trust each other and count on each other.
I read that you need a friend when you are young to keep you out of trouble. Then you need a friend in the prime of life to enjoy doing things together. And in old age a friend will do the things for you that you can’t do for yourself.
Jesus is your forever friend. He chose you to help you succeed in living and loving and bearing much fruit.
I chuckled when I read a story about a Sunday school teacher trying to teach a lesson on the ten commandments. She began with “Honor they Father and Mother” and after that she asked the children if there was a commandment about how to treat your brothers and sisters. One little boy excitedly raised his hand and said, “Thou shall not kill.”
Our passage in first John says if we love God we will love God’s children! It’s a family thing. But as in any family, sometimes the family of God has quarrels and fails to show love.
Loving God doesn’t mean intellectually or even just with affection. We love God by faithfully carrying out His law of love.
A rich man, out of his abundance, might make a generous donation to a worthy cause, but only love can compel a poor person to make a sacrificial donation.
I read recently that a homeless man put eighteen cents in an envelope at church and wrote on it, “Please don’t be mad, this is all I had.”
Verse 3 says God’s commands are not grievous, or burdensome, but joyous to us. Really? Is that the way you have found them to be?
We are quick to judge how awful it was that Adam and Eve could not even obey just one command, “Don’t eat of the fruit of that one tree.” But we can’t seem to obey that one command about forgiving everyone either, can we?
Psychologists tell us that children need the discipline of rules for their mental and emotional well-being just as much as they need food for their physical well-being. God’s laws are given to instruct and protect us because he loves us
When we love God, it is really more difficult to disobey him than to obey him. We want to please him. We freely submit.
Our passage from First John says Jesus is the one who came by water and blood. Jesus had a physical body and died a physical death. He showed us it is humanly possible to live a life of love.
He gave His life, when He shed His blood, for "the life is in the blood" (Duet. 12:23; Lev. 14:7). His life for our life was the sacrifice he willingly made so that we could overcome the pull of sin in this world.
And when He ascended he left the Spirit living within us which empowers us to live a sacrificial lifestyle as the children of God. This is how we overcome the world and live in victory by our faith demonstrating God’s love.
This victory that overcomes the world gives us: fellowship over loneliness, honesty over lies, righteousness over sin, purity over lusts, truth over error, confidence over fear and doubt, hope over discouragement, love over hatred, and eternal life over death.
There is peace and joy in knowing you are living obediently.
The world is looking for love in all the wrong places. Will you be a beacon of light and love in this world of darkness and hatred?
Someone has suggested we remember the word BLOW such as the wind of the Spirit enabling us to live this way. B is for BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus Christ, L is for LOVING God and man, O is for OBEY and W is for WINNING the victory!
Go out from here with a new determination to show God’s love language : BLOW Spirit, BLOW…..
Amen.
