United Church of God
Sermon Transcript — February 9, 2008
How many of you have love for God and love for other people? Anybody? Uh, I think we can all raise a hand to that one. The next question is, what type of love do you have for God and for other people? Humans have love. There are some definitions of love you can find in the dictionary. They include narcissism, the love of oneself; nepotism, the love of one's family. There's empirical love, the love for my little empire and the things that I consider dear to me — putting your church, your friends, your Facebook circle, your environment, your... your... your...There's patriotism, love of your country. There is benevolence, love for your cause or love for one which you want to focus your love on.
Let's turn to John 4:6. It says,
John 4:6 - Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Verse 7 — And a woman of Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."
He probably said, please, but He would like some water.
Verse 8 - For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Verse 9 - Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."
Now we begin to see how human love is conditional, whether you're part of a group that I favor or that favors me.
There is a parable that Jesus gave about the Good Samaritan and just as this lady defined for us, Samaritans and Jews had no dealings with each other. And so it was when the Samaritan came along behind a lot of Jewish religious leaders and found a Jew who was injured, it was something profound that Jesus used as a lesson, one who reached outside of empirical self, or all these other definitions of the love that we typically have, and helped what one might consider an enemy.
A different type of love is presented to us. You might ask yourself, what is on the mind of society today? We hear all about the economy. The economy is in trouble. How can I survive the economy? How can I protect myself, set myself up, create a little buffer, position myself? Maybe, since it is an election year, we can elect a leader who will fix the economy. You see, we kind of, as humans, burrow down into ourself and wonder how we are going to take care of ourselves.
CNN said this, one of the commentators said, "We have spoiled ourselves on borrowing and overspending on ourselves." Spoiled ourselves. Borrowing money and overspending on ourselves. And so we cry out to the government, "Oh, the economy is going down" because we have over borrowed and overspent on ourselves. So what does the government do? Well, the government responds by borrowing a hundred and sixty some billion dollars from the Chinese and then giving it to the American people to go spend and continue their habit and buying Chinese goods with it. Now, it is a passion that people have to spoil themselves.
To contrast this, Jesus told a man who was rich or had enough things, "Go and sell all you have and give it to the poor." and that didn't jibe with the human, carnal mind. That man went away sad because he had a lot of possessions.
Today I want to continue to talk to you about the important things on the mind of God and the important elements that are missing. In the previous sermon I talked about faith and how Jesus Christ and God, the Father, are looking and searching for faith, the rarest element on Earth — faith. And the second rarest element is like unto it, love. What about love?
Today's sermon is entitled, 'The Love of God In You'. And so, that begs a question. What is the love of God? Do you have the love of God? How can you have it? How can you have more of it and grow in it? We are going to learn today the concept of what God's love is, the source of that love and then we'll find out also how we can grow in that love.
So, what is love? Do you know what love is? Can you feel it? Do you have it? The answer is, yes and no. Yes and no. Let's turn to John 21:15-17 and see an example here of the two types of love in two types of people. John 21 and beginning in verse 15:
Jo. 21:15 - So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?" And Peter said to Him, "...You know that I...am fond of you.
Two types of love. One is God's love, and another is carnal, human — you might call it physical love. Love, in the Bible in the New Testament, comes in three forms, three different types. A different Greek word is used for each type of love. There is eros, there is philia or phileo and there is Agape or agapao. Each of these is a different type of love. And so the question comes, which type do you have? Which type do I have?
Let's look at these three words. First of all, eros is a word — it is a noun, in fact — that refers to a romantic type of love. Now, everybody loves romance and eros is good, romance is good, it's the stuff that marriages are made of. For nearly three thousand years, Western civilization in its literature has spoken of and talked of eros, this romantic type of love. They've used a concept to demonstrate it from old times and it involves an arrow into the heart. We are very familiar with this. We still see it today, the heart with an arrow through it, some three thousand years after it was first begun to be used. Love's arrows often are attributed to various deities from the past: Cupid, Eros, and Rumor. Those are the three deities that are associated with love's arrows. It says in the dictionary, "These arrows arrive at a lover's eyes and and then travel to and pierce his or her heart and overwhelm him or her with desire and longing called 'love sickness'." Yes, you see and you behold and then it comes into your heart and you have love sickness. This arrow, you see, goes in and hits the heart, but it is accompanied by pleasure and pain. Ahhhh! Romance has its prickly side. Sometimes the one who is lovesick isn't loved by the one they're lovesick over and there's pain. And there are all kinds of games and all kinds of problems that come with romance and so it's a bittersweet kind of a thing that's been played out in so many novels going back to ancient times — various authors down through times have written about it and you can just think back on all the various stories that have this twisting of love and fate and problems - kind of like country music today.
Now, there's another type of love called phileo or philia. Phileo is the verb and it's the natural human type of fondness for another person - especially one's family, one's friends, brotherly love, love for a brother. It's the affinity that we would have for those whom we choose to love and care about. Nelson's Bible Dictionary says this word is defined as "having affection and feeling, a type of impulsive love" and I will add - for one's own. A type of impulsive love for one's own. It's just all of a sudden, hmmm, random acts of kindness. It can even be a type of love that is very, very — sort of almost over the top, as we were — jumping to save somebody. It's an impulse based on how those whom you are saving you deem as worthy — your own country, your own race or you're just motivated out of an instant reaction without premeditation sometimes, to really go over the top. It is often mistaken for Godliness. Philadelphia is a term that is often associated with nobility of love. And yet, it's a pagan town named for a selfish love for oneself and one's friends.
In 1 Peter 1:22, from the New International version, here is an example of how these two words can be contrasted in the same verse.
1 Pet. 1:22 — Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers... doesn't that sound great? You have purified yourself. You now accept the truth and you have pure love for YOUR brothers. Guess what that word, love, is. It's philio, a noun - of human love. But what does Peter encourage us to do from that point as we come to know God? He says, now that you have that type of love, ...love... now he uses the word, agapeo, ... love, have Godly love for one another deeply from the heart.
So we are to transition, as humans, from one type of selfish, human love into the very love that God has for us. We do that, of course, with His help and through His Spirit. Agape, agape, which is the noun form, is the love of God toward others. It's not a type of love or like the love of God, it is actually the love of God Himself for others. And this is the type of love that God expects from His children. We are to develop through Him in us His very love. Vine's Expository Dictionary defines love as "not an impulse and it doesn't come from feeling. It does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only on those for whom some affinity is discovered". It is not a knee-jerk reaction. It is something that is thought out and it's not spent on those that have some affinity to the individual. The meaning is expressed in Christ's statement in John 15:13, where He says,
Jo. 15:13 - "Greater love...using the word, agape, ... has no one than this, than... I believe He is saying, than for the Messiah ...to lay down His life for his friends.
He is not talking about humans having Godly love when they take a bullet for someone else or jump in the river to save someone else. That doesn't elevate a carnal person to have the love of God. He is talking about Himself. Let's notice in the next verse, in John 15:14.
Jo. 15:14 - "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
So He is talking here about Himself, the Son of God, the Messiah and greater love has no man than this, than the Son of God comes down and lays down His life for His friends — those are defined as the children whom the Father is drawing and calling and who have His Holy Spirit, those who are doing His will, doing His commands. We'll see, His command is actually agape, to love God and to love our fellow man.
So He set us a premium, pristine example of Godly love that only He, Himself, could do, but He can do it through us. He promised to come into us by the Holy Spirit. So, God's love is not focused on one's self, not on feelings, not on emotions. It is, rather, an outward focus on other people, wanting the best for them, wanting to serve them, wanting to help them. And it doesn't matter who they are and how they may or may not be related to one.
God's love is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Many times we read this — what we call the love chapter — and try to get our arms around what God's love is, the love of God. And here Paul tries to give some explanations and some examples and some definitions about what it's like if it is in you. From a human standpoint in using verbiage, this is a very good description.
1 Cor. 13:4 - Love suffers long and yet it is kind; it doesn't envy;... it doesn't want what others have for itself ...it doesn't parade itself, it's not puffed up;... it's not about me, it's not about ego, it's not about vanity.
Verse 5 - It doesn't behave rudely, it doesn't seek its own, it is not provoked, thinks no evil;
Verse 6 - It does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
Verse 7 - It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Verse 8 - Love never fails. — it never fails anybody.
In 1 John 4:19 it says, We love Him because He first loved us.
That's a profound genesis of love and humanity. It is God. Love comes from God. It is extraterrestrial. It is spiritual in origin. You and I only can sample it as God would bring it to us. We can only feel it and realize it because He first loved us. And this is the God who wants to build in you and me a different kind of love than we even know.
In the human world, we have love games and we are good at love games. Love games in the world of eros and phelia — romantic love and also brotherly love or kindness or fondness — we tend to respond in kind to what we receive from others. Or we respond in advance to what we hope to get from others. Someone loves us, we love them back if we decide that we want their love. We are bad. We really, really are. If we want someone to like us we treat them in a way that they will respond to us. We play these little games. Solomon said that kings have no shortage of friends — important people, wealthy people — no shortage of friends, but our niceties are conditional. If the conditions aren't right, the friendliness is off. The love, the compassion, it dries up and we stop.
I have a new phrase for you: "Humans are Hoovers". Humans are Hoovers. In other words, just imagine that all humans are vacuum cleaners. The switch is on and we are inhaling. We are sucking up everything we can get. We are well prepared. You know, you go to the store shopping for a vacuum cleaner, they have in the last few years just gone crazy developing the power of how much suction you can get out of a vacuum cleaner and how much stuff you can see flying around inside it - see what you've got. These things are pretty crazy. At our house, we have a Wind Tunnel model — 13 amp., it proudly displays. 13 amps. driving a big motor giving out 31.0 performance rating. Now, that's Mary's and it just picks up little, tiny stuff.
Mine, however, is in the garage. Mine is an outdoor Leaf Hog, it's called. A Leaf Hog - right on the side of it says that 230 miles an hour is the airspeed of this thing. It is incredible. It inhales everything and then grinds it to powder. You have to really look out — you know, make sure the dog isn't around. Yep, the Leaf Hog is really, really something.
And so it is, we are all Hoovers and humans want something from each other. We are all running around with our vacuum cleaners cranking them on high. Can you get more out of this thing? You know, trying to enhance the performance out of it and everybody's sucking it in and trying to get what they can get. Now, power upgrades are available. If you're not getting enough, lying helps, alluring others helps, deceit, manipulation, all these things to crank up the horsepower and get increased performance out of your Hoover . And people are good about these things. Books are written to help you get increased performance out of your Hoover. When I think sometimes about people who have marriage problems, often what they are saying is "My Hoover can't get enough out of his or her Hoover and so I need a serious upgrade. Help me. I need a power boost." Is that the kind of love that God is trying to develop in us? No, it is certainly not. Better at receiving love from others? No, that's really not what it's about, is it? Something is missing.
In Ephesians 5:25, there is a statement that addresses marriage. Since I've brought that up, let's just pause here a moment and take a look at what God expects of us between our closest neighbor and ourself — that of our mate.
Eph. 5:25 — says, Husbands, love your wives...husbands, love your wives. You know, that's great. I eros my wife. Yes, I do. And that's good. She likes romance, I like romance, eros is good. I also phileo my wife and that's good, too. Alright? However, you know what? These are carnal and human. They are physical and they are not enough. There's something missing in marriage. You can have the eros and the romance, and you can have the brotherly kindness and affection and that will get you some 50 / 60 years down the road with the guy going golfing and the woman playing Bridge and they will learn all the little niceties and all the rules of getting along together and having the perfect little marriage where they go out to dinner and nobody talks, but that's good. Alright? That's not what God typifies Jesus Christ and His bride by. It's not the example. Something is missing. Something really, really profoundly deep and it is, as it says here, husbands, agape, agapeo your wives. Godly love. That's what's missing and that's why the Bible says you shall not be joined together with an unbeliever because it takes the opportunity for agapeo type of love between those two to kick that love up to a spiritual level, up to a binding marriage that is representative of Jesus Christ and the bride. Going on it says, Husbands, love... agape, agapeo ...love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.
You see, at this kind of level of love, it's not about self, it's not about getting, it's not about 50/50, it's not about yes, you love me and I love you. This is just outright concern for someone else with no kickbacks, no attachments, just sacrifice. 'As Christ gave Himself for the church' is how a husband is to love the wife. So Jesus hits us with this type of love that is foreign to our nature.
In Matthew 5:44, He brings this sharply into focus and really confounds us at first because we cannot even grasp this type of love as a carnal, human being.
Mat. 5:44 - "But I say to you, love your enemies... now, what kind of love do you think He just said? Phileo, I hope. Be fondly nice to your enemy. Nope. Looked it up: agapeo, the verb. Have godly love for enemies. ...bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. What is He talking about? He's talking about Himself in His mind. He's talking about God, the Father, in His mind because we have all been enemies. We have all been enmity and at cross purposes with God and we still are because we have our carnal, human nature. Be like Me, He says. Notice the next verse:
Verse 45 - "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven...Join the family mentality. Be one with the family — with its mind, with its mentality. That's what God wants from us. And that is certainly different than what we are in our normal, natural state.
Agape, actually, is the opposite of philia, Philadelphia, phileo. Agape is the opposite. If phileo or phileo is a vacuum cleaner, sucking it in, agape is switching the motor to exhale, blowing it out. It's going around and sending and helping and giving to others without concern for oneself. Imagine turning that leaf sucker into a leaf blower. Again, you get 239 mph. That thing will blow rocks around. It'll take the dog off its feet. You know, imagine the children of God in the Kingdom of God with all the vacuums on blow. Brrrrrmmmm! "How can I help?" "How can I serve?" "What can I give?" Can you imagine somebody with a marriage problem coming to the minister and saying, "I'm very upset with my partner. They will not let me give enough! They just will not let me give enough. I try and try to give more and they say, 'No more! No more!' I think I need a new mate." In verse 46 he continues:
Verse 46 - "For if you love those who love you... you have phileo, you have human, carnal love — or you have romantic love. "...what reward have you?..." In other words, how's that going to work with God accepting you into His family if you have a selfish, incoming nature? That's not what God is looking for in His children. "...Do not even the tax collectors do the same?"
Verse 47 - "And if you greet your brethren only..." Notice that — the empirical self, whatever your group is — you only greet them. "...what do you do more than others?" After all, didn't we just welcome an enemy into the Phoenix Suns? "Well, Steve, Stoudemire, we have a new buddy on the team — the big old guy who used to steal all the balls from us. Now he's come over and he's on our team. Big old welcome for him." (clap, clap, clap - haha) The games that we play, you see. Aren't these typical of the world — what he's saying here?
"Therefore..." verse 48 "...you shall be teleios ..." — is the Greek word - " ...you shall be teleios." What is that? Teleios means 'wanting nothing necessary for completeness'. Being in want of nothing necessary for your completeness. It means perfect, full, whole, complete, and wanting nothing in relation to your completeness as a child of God or in a Godly mentality. Going on, "...just as your Father in heaven is..." wanting nothing in relationship to completeness of a Godly mind. We are to fill up, Ephesians 4 tells us, into the whole mind, the whole being, the whole stature of Jesus Christ to become truly a child of God with that mind and that mentality. The Father is the point aimed at. He is our ultimate goal. That is what we desire to be, complete — complete in His mind and in His ways. We need to better understand God and the goal, which is God, before we can say, "well, I have love" or "I don't have love", really we can't define that in ourselves and say, "that person has love". It's nice to see those examples, but really it's God, the Father, and Jesus Christ who are the targets we shoot for. And no human has those things.
I'd like to make a shocking statement that we need to understand. Shocking statement: the Ten Commandments do not fully exemplify the love of God. I hope you will understand that. The Ten Commandments do not fully exemplify the love of God. Why do I say that? Well, let's define them, if we will. You summarize the Ten Commandments and here's what they say: don't do, don't do, don't do, remember to, love your own, don't do, don't do, don't do, don't do, don't do. Those are the Ten Commandments. Now, does that sound like they summarize the love that God has? Or, rather, would you say that they were laws and rules given to carnal people to protect themselves from each other? Don't do, don't do, don't do, remember to, do this for your own, don't do, don't do, don't do, don't do, don't do. Those are more rules for protection for people who are playing games with a carnal mind.
Godliness, on the other hand, is defined as something other than what the Ten Commandments speak of directly. Godliness goes beyond that. It's defined as this: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." In other words, the entire Word of God hangs on two commandments that are also given in the Old Testament. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind. Guess what kind of love we are to use? Agape. We are to agapeo God with all of our heart, soul and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Guess which kind? Agape / agapeo your neighbor as yourself.
This is confirmed in Romans 13:10 where it says, "Agapeo is the fulfillment of the law." Loving others with Godly love is the fulfillment of the law. I think it's important for us to understand that about the Ten Commandments. Rather than using that as a check list and saying, "Well, now, let's see. Am I meeting the love requirements here? Let's see. I'm not killing anybody. I'm not stealing from anybody, etc., etc."
Jesus Christ came and in John 13:34 said, "A new commandment I give you, that you..." who have the Holy Spirit in you "...that you agapeo one another; as I have agapeoed you, that you also agapeo one another."
I use those terms to show the distinct difference there, that we love one another not in our social group, not in our racial group, not in our societal group, etc. etc. etc. - we just love one another.
In verse 35 - "By this all will know... by this all will know ...that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Now, think about that statement. You look around and you see people befriending one another, helping, giving, serving one another. You have not seen Christ's disciples necessarily because all humans do that for their friends, for their church, for their ball team, for whatever. Jesus said, By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have agape — if you have the love of the God family, His love in you. That is rare! That is one of the two rarest elements that exist on planet Earth and only in those where God's Spirit brings that type of love. And where that love would be manifest, able to be seen by others, then those individuals who could perceive that would realize those are the disciples of Jesus Christ.
God created man to need love. God, Himself, needs love. Love is important to all living things. There is help, appreciation, validation. That is why you and I pray to God and praise God. That is why He praises us in return. We all have the responsibility as well as the need to love others as ourselves. That will go on forever.
Imagine again the high-powered vacuum cleaners on blow, actually shooting out good things. You talk about the windows of heaven opened. You talk about the joy that is at the right hand of God forevermore. You talk about the peace, the harmony, the happiness, the unity that God promises those who will be in His kingdom forever. That's the vacuum cleaners supercharged - blowing out. And that's a world that is very, very unique to us. It's even hard to imagine that. But we can to the degree that God will work through us in living that and growing in it now. These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. You and I were called to learn to develop love and give that love to others. Agape is the missing dimension in human minds. It is what the Spirit of God is all about. It is the mentality of the God family. We are called to be receptacles of it; examples of it; models of it; ambassadors of the love of God to other people. And the results of having the Holy Spirit in us, having God, the Father, and Jesus Christ in us — they said, I will not leave you, I will come to you. So God and Jesus Christ come back to us — that is the Holy Spirit — that is God, the Father, and Jesus Christ living in us. And living in us we can, then, know His love, we can develop that love. If we have that, we will be in His family, we will be in His kingdom. That is what He is developing and promoting.
Revelation 22:14 shows the contrast between the Hoovers on inhale and the Hoovers on exhale, as it were. There is a reward that God is going to give to those who learn to give like He does, who learn to have that mentality that He does.
Rev. 22:14 says - "Blessed are those who do His commandments..." What were His commandments? We read them. Agape — love God with all your heart, soul and mind - and agape — love your neighbor as yourself. You are blessed if you do those commandments "...that you may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into..." new Jerusalem. Those are the ones that are going into the family of God. Those are the ones who God authorizes and accepts as His children because they have become like their Father. Their nature has changed.
But, in the next verse, verse 15, outside is a Hooverville and notice what's going on out there. Sorcerers.. . Sorcery is used for getting one up. You know, you go to a medium and you find out what's going to happen tomorrow. You get a little edge on the stock market, a little edge on the horse race, a little edge on what's coming along. You know, you are cheating, but you're doing it for yourself. " ...sexually immoral..." you are taking things that don't belong to you and you are getting more for yourself while you are hurting others. "... murderers..." you're taking the life of other people, but why? So you can take whatever they have or get rid of, whatever negative things are coming your way. "... idolaters..." trying to get more than what God is blessing you with. And " ...whoever loves and practices a lie..." what's a lie about? Promotion of the self, getting things, not paying penalties, etc., etc,. All of these are suction performance enhancers. They add to the carnal, human nature's ability to get for itself and this passage shows us that that is outside of the Kingdom of God , that does not enter into the Kingdom of God by this analogy.
What will Jesus Christ judge us for as we hope to enter into that Kingdom? Will it be the spiritual knowledge that we have? The number of scriptures that we carry around in our head? How much we gave in support of the Church? What important people we knew etc., etc? We find the answer to that over in Matthew 25:31.
Mat. 25:31 - "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, He will sit on the throne of His glory."
Verse 32 - "Nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats."
Verse 34 - "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world..." This is the blessing, the promise.
Verse 35 — "for..."now, it gets into detail. Here is how they are separated. Here are the fruits of their lives "...for I was hungry and you gave Me food..." The interesting thing about this passage is that you have to care about people in order to know. How many of you here can look around and see somebody hungry today? Look around and pick the hungry people? I can see all of you, but I can't tell which ones are hungry. And "...I was thirsty and you gave Me drink..." I don't know any thirsty people in the room at this moment. Okay? "...I was a stranger and you took Me in." If I just come here and hang out with my friends and go home, I don't know who the visitors are. I don't know who the travelers are, the strangers as it were who may have needs. All of those things would require us to care, to know, to go to people who aren't in our social group or to go around and actually care about somebody else's life instead of what tie I'm wearing or what dress I'm wearing, or how I look or do I impress somebody, etc., etc. We actually have to be thinking, turn that vacuum cleaner on blow and think, what can I give, how can I serve.
Well, going on down we find that those who don't have it in verse 46 will go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. There is a consequence for having that Hoover mentality. But, you say, "I have an ace up my sleeve." And I think we all do at times. "Yes, I'm not a giving, loving person. I don't express the Holy Spirit of God, but I have something else, I have a substitute for love. I have a substitute for love." And we could probably all come up with what that is: I donate to the Church; I'm involved in charities; I call people on the phone who are sick; I give sermons or sermonettes or song lead; I'm a deacon in the Church or a minister in the Church; I'm over a program in the Church; I drive a long way to get to Church or whatever it is. You know, we all have our little things that we do and those aren't necessarily little things because they are good contributions, but are they — are they a replacement? Do we really love our families and really love other people or do we actually do something instead of - or in place of — like Martha was doing something in place of showing her affinity for Jesus Christ? You might say, "I was a minister. I was a minister and I gave sermons. I motivated people. I didn't love them, but that's okay, I preached at them." (haha) I use this a lot and I think many of us do in the Church, we go to 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter.
1 Cor. 13:1 - "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels... — you know, fabulous — ...but if I do not have agape..." the love of God "...in me, then I have become a sounding brass or clanging cymbal..." just a loudspeaker and when you turn it off, it's done. You can pack it away or throw it away. There have been many, many individuals down through time who have used some work, some Godly gift as an excuse for having Godly love. They might say, "Well, I understand prophesy, I know what's happening, I know what's happening in the end time and I know all those little things that are going on in the government and everything else, and I keep up with that so I may not have a lot of Godly love, but I do know what's going on. That's a good substitute." Well, verse 2:
Verse 2 - "Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have all faith, I can remove mountains, if I don't have love, I am nothing." You see, it is love and people with the mind of God that are going into the family of God and the Kingdom of God and there are no other substitutes. And those who say, "Well I don't have a lot of love, but I give a lot. I do a lot for others. You know, I send things. I do things. I give things. I really dig deep and I give out to charities. So that's going to cut me a lot of slack. Doesn't it say in the Bible that love covers a multitude of sins? So this is my act of benevolence and that's going to cover a multitude of sins." Well, that's not exactly what it's saying. And as it says here in verse 3,
Verse 3 - "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." Nothing whatsoever. There is no substitute for having Godly love.
We are told to no longer be carnal people seeking the selfish way, but to get rid of that. Put off that old self, that old man. We are to be lead, instead, by God living in us and let Him do His loving works through us and not resist them.
In Romans 8:2-17, there's a very important passage that I would like to share with you. It says,
Rom. 8:2 it says, - "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the..." penalty of the " ...law of sin and death." Death is the penalty of the law and sin.
Verse 3 - "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh..." we can't do this by philia, we cannot love God with all our heart, soul and mind, love our neighbor as ourself, using eros, romantic love, or philia, a fondness for someone else. Just can't do it. But " ...God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on the account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,"
Verse 4 - "that the righteous requirement of the law..." what is that? Loving God with all your heart, soul and mind. Loving neighbor as yourself. That's the righteous requirement of the law — that this " ...might be fulfilled in us..." we are to do that " ...who do not walk according to..." carnal philia love only "...but according to the Spirit." What are the fruits of the spirit? Love. Galatians 5:22 starts with love. It's framed — all those attributes are framed with love and faith.
Rom 8:5 - "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh..." vacuum cleaner on suck "...but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit..." v acuum cleaner on blow. Two different mentalities.
Verse 6 - "For to be carnally minded..." which is the love of self " ...is death, but to be spiritually minded..." agape " ...is life and peace." Why is it life and peace? Because those are the ones to whom eternal life will be bestowed upon.
Verse 7 - "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God..." it's the opposite of agape. " ...for it is not subject to the law of God..." Why? Because it's on inhale and the law of God is on exhale! You see the opposition there, the enmity?
Verse 8 - "So then, those who are in the flesh..." of the flesh is what it means, of that human, carnal mentality " ...cannot please God."
Verse 9 - "But you are not in the flesh..." you are not of the flesh, in other words, that mentality " ...but of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." If the Spirit of God dwells in you the result is going to be that agape mentality. "...Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ..." no agape "...he is not His." Why? Doesn't have the mind of Christ. Agape is missing.
Verse 10 - "And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness..." What is righteousness? Acts of Godly love. " ...And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness."
Verse 11 - "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."
This really, brethren, defines it for us — the difference between philia and agape. These two are very well defined as well as those who are going to have mortal bodies raised into spirit bodies.
Verse 14 - "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God..." these results framed by love and faith "...these are the sons of God" - the future divine children of God now, even, called sons of God in a begotten type of sense.
Verse 16 - "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,"
Verse 17 - "and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him..." what was Jesus Christ doing when He was suffering? He was giving, He was serving while He was suffering. He gave everything He had. What do you do when you suffer at the hands of someone else? You give what you have. When your giving, it doesn't mean you're getting. It doesn't mean your bank account's going up. It doesn't mean your possessions are going up. When you suffer, when you give, you actually are hurting yourself as those of you who serve in the Church know. If you get ordained, look out. It's going to cost you money. Next thing you know, you're going to want to serve somebody and that's going to cost you gas. And then you're going to want to help somebody and that's going to cost you time. And then you're going to want to do something for somebody and that's going to use your tools and mess up your knuckles and use up resources and first thing you know, you're going to be poorer than when you started out — and happy about it, I might add. As one of my friends, a deacon ordained several years ago said, "I just love it under the bus. Wouldn't be any other place." And that's the way it is for us. That's part of the suffering, always giving, suffering loss as it were, as He did. Suffering's not bad. Feeling a little pain, a little ouch isn't bad. It can be a good thing. You feel good when you help others. "...that we may also be glorified together." If you have the love of God, you will be glorified with God. What a wonderful thing that will be.
In conclusion, we each need to ask God for daily repentance of our sinful, natural type of love that we have — the promotion of ourself that might start with daydreams and self-enhancement and desires for me that are all consuming — and keep knocking that down. And instead, looking for God to promote His love in us so that we can serve others. Not a recognition or an exploiting of ourself, but rather helping others - an abasement of the self as we help to raise others up. We are to seek that mind of Christ that is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 2:16. And the fruits of the mind of Christ are deep faith, absolute awe in God, absolute trust in God and absolute obedience in God. The obedience in God which comes from living faith is agape. The result is being outgoing. Faith and love go together. You can't pull them apart anymore than you can go and take the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 and 23 and separate them out and say, well, this person has that one or that person has that one. No, it is the mind of God. It is the nature of God.
Let's close with a scripture that speaks of the bonding of the Spirit of God, the faith of God, the love of God, the family of God — all of that — and how they are all intertwined and how they all go together. It's in 1 John 3:23-24.
1 John 3:23 - "And this is His commandment..." Jesus' personal commandment that He gave "...this is His commandment: that we should believe..." there's faith " ...believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another..." with Godly love "...as He gave us commandment."
Verse 24 - "Now he who keeps His commandments..." two great commandments — love God / love your neighbor. "...abides in Christ, and Christ in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us."
Faith, love, obeying God with the help of His Holy Spirit. All of these things are inexorably intertwined in what we call Godliness. So, brethren, let's remember our life's purpose, your life's purpose and my life's purpose - to grow in faith, to grow in Godly love obeying that law of love. And we do that by the help of Jesus Christ and God, the Father, in us. When we do that, our inheritance is sure into their family, into the Kingdom of God.