- In 1943, amidst the chaos of World War II, a little-known group of Belgian nuns faced a moral dilemma that tested the depths of their love for God and their fellow man.
- In their small convent, they had been secretly harboring Jewish families, risking their lives to protect them from Nazi persecution.
- One night, soldiers came knocking, demanding to search the premises. The Mother Superior, a quiet woman known more for her prayers than her bravery, met them at the door.
- Without hesitation, she calmly led the soldiers through the convent, speaking to them with such warmth and compassion that they seemed disarmed. All the while, the hidden families were praying silently in a room behind a wall that the soldiers never suspected.
- When asked later how she had the courage to remain so calm, the Mother Superior replied, “I saw them not as my enemies, but as men loved by God. If I couldn’t love them as He does, how could I claim to love Him?”
READ John 3:16
- Before we talk about ‘love’ we need to define ‘love’ in the biblical sense
- Many people have heard, or someone of you may have erroneously said ‘that’s not loving’
- But we don’t have agreement on what love truly is in the biblical sense
- Love donuts, love my wife, kids, church, love the beach, love bbq, love that sunset
- It can’t all mean the same thing. In English, over 350 synonyms for ‘good’. About 100 for ‘big’ maybe 30 for ‘love’. Arabic? Over 300 for ‘lion’. Interesting.
- when we say love or to understand love its important to see it through the correct lens.
- Love is a steadfast commitment to seek the highest good of others through actions of benevolence, guided by truth and justice, enduring patiently with grace while calling others to righteousness and holiness.
- This love is neither passive nor permissive—it is active, principled, and redemptive.
It is marked by:
- Benevolence with Accountability
- Micah 6:8: He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- Proverbs 27:6: Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
- True love requires both mercy and justice. It seeks the good of others but never abandons the truth. It is NOT loving to abandon truth. Two sides of the same coin.
- You can help someone and still hold them accountable to their actions. Its not ‘unloving’
- I can help you, but how did you get in this situation, and whats the plan moving forward?
- Is it ‘loving’ to never help someone become everything that they could be? no
2. Truth in Love
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- Eph 4:15: But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.
- Love tells the truth, even when it is uncomfortable or difficult, because it aims for the ultimate good of the other person.
- You are in sin. You are sexually immoral. You are a theif. You are the author of your destruction
- People have told me they like what my kids became, but they wont do what we did
- We told them the truth. We didn’t soften what was their fault. It developed them into greatness
- Truth without love is mean. Acceptance without truth is unhelpful. We ‘grow up in all things’
3. Justice and Righteousness
- Isaiah 61:8: For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering.
- Love cannot support or enable sin. God’s love is not acceptance of sin
- Thievery, sexual sin, greed, envy, anger, etc. God doesn’t like it. Must be dealt with.
- God has standards of righteousness but also has grace and a path to repentance.
- Forgiveness is always possible. The most graceful thing you can do is bring someone to the throne of God and receive the forgiveness they so deeply desire. Justice and righteousness.
- You don’t say ‘go and keep doing that’ you say ‘don’t do that, you’re forgiven’
4. Longsuffering and Endurance
- 1 Corinthians 13:6-7: [Love] does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- Love is patient and persistent but does not compromise with unrighteousness.
- It lovingly endures while working toward redemption.
- Real love isn’t flippant. It doesn’t give up easy, it looks for the best in people, it hopes for better days, it can handle problems and deal with mistakes
- This is why I never understood ‘one conversation away from destruction’ have endurance!
- You can have a bad day when you’re my friend. You don’t have to be perfect. We both get time to grow. I’m sad when my friends fall into sin. But im in it for the longhaul. No one disposable.
5. A Call to Holiness
- Have you ever had a job? You get to know people there. Make some friends, some lifelong
- Team building, laughing, great times. But some people miss the point.
- You have a job to produce a result. Your paycheck is to make the company money.
- Christianity is great. I love it. But I’m being conformed into the image of his son.
- Whatever it takes is the most loving thing God and this church can do for me.
- Heb 12:6: For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.
- God’s love disciplines and refines. True biblical love calls others to holiness because it desires their eternal good. It central to who we are and what we are supposed to be doing.
- John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
- This definition directly opposes the “squishy” form of love that sacrifices truth or justice for temporary peace or approval.
- Instead, it emphasizes that love seeks what is ultimately best for others—leading them toward God’s truth and righteousness—while remaining kind, patient, and redemptive in the process.
- God’s Love for Us
- God’s love is foundational, unconditional, and sacrificial, exemplified in sending His Son.
- Its in the OT and NT, the character and nature of God is love.
- 1 John 4:16: And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
- God loves us. He loves you. You were made, sent here, living here, experiencing life
- Sin entered the world by the will of Satan, not the will of God and he wants to redeem us.
- 1 John 4:9-10 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
- This is the essence of Christmas. Every single part of what Christmas means is connected to God’s love for us. Its why we sing. Why we give gifts. Why we celebrate.
- “O Holy Night” “Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” “Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.” “Silent Night” “Radiant beams from Thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.” “O Come, All Ye Faithful” “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.”
- Everyone loves Christmas because everyone loves to be loved. Sooo many romantic movies
- John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
- The arrival of Jesus is the most demonstrative example of God’s love for us to redeem us to HIM
- For some people, gift giving becomes the litmus test of someones love for someone
- That probably isn’t fair. Some people aren’t good at gift giving. But God gave us the best.
- You say ‘but what did God do for us’. He came as man to save us and redeem us to himself
- if you haven’t accepted, received, believed that Jesus came to die for you, you don’t know God’s love for you. Worst thing you ever did, he died so you wouldn’t suffer the punishment for it.
- This is the central theme to what we believe- Jesus came to save sinners. BIGGEST LOVE
- Our Love for God
- Loving God is our response to His love, demonstrated through worship, obedience, and devotion.
- When people do not want to worship God, be obedient and have no devotion to God, I question if they’ve experienced God’s love. And God’s love is forgiveness of sin and restoration.
- Not an emotional experience with the presence of God. This is a distinction.
- An emotional experience with the presence of God will encourage a believer, but it can detract and misguide an unbeliever.
- But you can fall under the power of God and don’t know the truth of God
- Retreats- people come through and get all the sugar. They think that’s what its all about
- But they are blessed by being surrounded by submitted and committed believers.
- The come away and realize that experience is only possible through full submission and leave
- When you experience the TRUE love of God- forgiveness of your sin, it CHANGES YOU.
- Matt 22:37 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
- EASY. Because I didn’t experience the presence of God I experienced the forgiveness of God
- That’s sustainable. If you don’t love God and the things of God, go back to the cross.
- 1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.
- And that first love was Jesus coming to us to save us from our sins. Makes you want to love
- And when you get that, you want to worship him, you want to be in the assembly, you want to give and serve and walk with God and his people.
- Psalm 73:25-26 Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
- If that’s the truth of your life, your life will reflect it. If its not, your life reflects it
- Your life reflects your values. Period. You show it in how you live
- Raquet ball, tough mudder, mountain biking, fishing, shooting etc. life don’t reflect
- John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
- I keep his commandments because I love him. Not in fear. In love. I love him.
2.5 love for ourselves
- Little pause here- you got to have some self love. Its not a large theme in the bible
- Mark 12:31 You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater
- Eph 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
- You’re not supposed to hate yourself. Or think of horribly of yourself.
- Don’t worship yourself. Look at yourself with sober judgment and consider other better
- But don’t do the devils work for him by beating yourself up.
- The whole point of the Gospel isn’t for you to love yourself and think yourself awesome
- Our Love for Others
- Our love for others is the evidence of God’s work in us, and it reflects His character to the world.
- Luke 6:32 But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
- 3 main groups- church people, family people, other people.
- Bible speaks mostly about church and family people, not the third group as much.
- John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
- We show the world that God is real and that we are followers of Jesus by loving each other.
- 1 John 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
- Charity begins at home. We need to be loving towards each other in every thing we do.
- We also need to honor our fathers and mothers and our families. We’re called to love them.
- But remember- these loves are connected to truth, justice, mercy, redemption, forgiveness
- Its not celebrating sin. not accepting abuse. not pretending that repentance isnt necessary.
- regardless of how others treat us, we need to show kindness and mercy to them.
- Matt 5:44 love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you
- Now every scenario cant be covered, but love comes in many forms.
- Some love is spending time with someone you don’t care for, and some is distancing yourself from someone you actually like spending time with that is a bad influence in your life.
- Some love is truth, gifts, praise and support. Some love is acts of service. Some love is punishment and chastising. Some love is truth telling. Some love is distancing.
- You need scripture, the holy spirit, the church and others to help you navigate this.
- But loving others isn’t easy and cant be explained with one scripture.
- 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind;
- Always kind. You can be loving and kind. Nice about it.
- be a loving person. All days in every way. Put on love. Walk in love.
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