You already have agape love. You already have brotherly love. Now do it more and more!
God Urges Me to Express Christian Love, Even More Than I Already Do
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12. This morning I am continuing to teach on action that God is urging us toward accomplishing as His family. Without exaggeration, this is one of the most important sermons I can preach. It has nothing to do with my eloquence. I do not, and never have, claimed to be eloquent. It has nothing to do with my approach. It has nothing to do with any imaginative stories, or captivating sermon illustrations. I seldom use those things anyway. It has to do with the subject. As you are turning to 1 Thessalonians 4:9, I want to read something that helps set the stage for the direction I'm taking in preaching our passage. It is a quote by Dr. Douglas Moo. He is currently the Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. What he has to say about the law of Christ is pertinent to the passage we will be learning from this morning. It has to do with the law of Christ and specific teachings, and principles that explain how it directs our lives from the New Testament. Dr. Moo says,
"It is more difficult to determine whether the law of Christ includes specific teachings and principles. Many deny that this is the case, but their reasons for doing so often betray a bias against finding any specific demands as binding on Christians. The work of [various scholars, 1] has shown that Paul and the other apostles were quite willing to impose specific commandments on their charges; and these commandments were, in fact, often drawn from, or reflective of, Jesus' own teachings. For these reasons, I think it is highly probable that Paul thought of the law of Christ as including within it the teachings of Jesus and the apostolic witness, based on his life and teaching, about what it means to reverence God in daily life. This is not, however, to deny the importance of love or the direction of the Spirit. The 'law of Christ,' Paul's shorthand expression for that form of God's law applicable to new covenant believers, includes all these. [A particular scholar's, 2] succinct summary says it well: The law of Christ stands in Paul's thought for those 'prescriptive principles stemming from the heart of the gospel (usually embodied in the example and teachings of Jesus), which are meant to be applied to specific situations by the direction and enablement of the Holy Spirit, being always motivated and conditioned by love.'" (Five Views on Law and Gospel,) [1] Doug Moo, in Gundry, 369. [1. of Schrage and others. 2. Longnecker]
This quote really gets across a huge concern for all of us. It has to do with our relationship to the New Covenant, and Christian living. Please keep Dr. Moo's words in mind as we read 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 together. I am going to be using the ESV, because the language in it helps bring clarity. Paul says,
"9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, [because] you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, [excel still more] 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly [behave properly] before outsiders and be dependent on no one." 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 ESV
Please prepare your heart to learn, along with me, from the preaching of God's word, in this sermon titled,
God Urges Me to Express Christian Love, Even More Than I Already Do
[prayer]
As we dig into our passage, and we remember the words of Dr. Moo that I just read, we also must remember Paul's flow of thought moving up to this point. Starting in 4:1, Paul has been urging the Thessalonians to walk according to how they were taught by the apostles in those first days of quick discipleship. Paul reminds us that the commandments he gave by the authority of the Lord Jesus, are the will of God for walking in a manner that is pleasing to God. The primary concern is that Christians keep themselves separated, (sanctified) from sexual immorality, and not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. Then Paul makes a key comment in the flow of thought. It still has to do with separating from sexual immorality. He says, that no man is to transgress and defraud his brother or sister in the matter. What Paul is doing, (by commanding that we don't transgress and defraud our brothers and sisters in the matter of sexual immorality), is going back to the base foundation concerning his commandments that he (Paul) teaches. What Paul is doing is simply building his commandments upon the great motivation, which is the greatest commandment of all. The base foundation for all your Christian activity; my Christian activity, and any other Christian's activity, is love. The base foundation is expressing your love to God by obeying Him.
Do you see how this works?
In other words, we are obeying God when we sanctify ourselves. We are accomplishing the first part of Christ's law. It is the upward (Godward) focus, where you love God. The second part of Christ's law, is that you love your brothers and sisters by not sinning against them, whether in sexual sin, or in any other sinful way. This is the outward focus. Both the upward focus and the outward focus, also have an inner focus: It is the power connection that we have to the love foundation. The inner focus is that God has put Himself in our hearts, as Holy Spirit, and so it is the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to do this loving, in accordance with the command. God is love, and this is so important--The Spirit Himself is incarnate love in your heart, and so this is why you can do true works of love. So, when you look at the first part of chapter 4, you see that Paul ends this point on abstaining from sexual immorality in love for God and for others, but continues in the same way. He is touching on some more principles of the foundation of love, but this time, Paul is going to mention an affection, (which is also called a kind of love in English translation). He does it by using a word that means the family kind of affection that siblings have for one another. So Paul starts out the next thought with,
"9 Now concerning brotherly love [brotherly affection; Gk. philadelphia] you have no need for anyone to write to you, [because] you yourselves have been taught by God to love [Gk. agape] one another," 1 Thessalonians 4:9
@1 God teaches me to _______________ others. (1 Thess. 4:9)
When Paul says "Now concerning," and then he goes on, Paul is probably referring to information that Timothy brought back to Paul. The "now concerning" phrase is a classic example of Bible writers referring to information that has come to light. Paul just said in 3:6,
"6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love [agape]," 1 Thessalonians 3:6
So Timothy has visited the Thessalonians. Then he brings back some good news with him about the Thessalonian's faith, and the love that they have, (which is the committed kind of love for God and God's church). The Greek word is agape back in 3:6; but Timothy also witnessed some other concerns that needed to be addressed for the Thessalonian babes in Christ to excel much more. By the way, these same concerns are timeless. They are the same concerns that practically every church everywhere faces, which means that you and I are not immune from these same concerns. So Paul says, now concerning brotherly love. This love is a different Greek word than agape'. It is that sibling affection--philadelphia.
/1/
I am laying all of this out for us, because this leads us to the first principle I want us to glean this morning concerning God's urging to you and me to express Christian love even more than we already do. As a first principle, when someone is saved, they immediately have love for other Christians. This particular part is not something you need to learn.
Remember when you first got saved?
All of a sudden, you love Christians.
Why?
Because you love Christ, and Christ is in the body, and God has shed His love in your heart through the Spirit.
Even if you disagree with them on various opinions that they have, or they disagree with you, or you don't exactly flow with their personality, you found that, all of a sudden, you love Christians; whereas before, you either cared less (which is a form of non-love), or you hated them by despising them.
So, it's like a miracle happens--right?;
because it is a miracle.
This miraculous God-given attribute of the Spirit is usually called this Greek word, agape. Agape is divine enablement love. God gives it, and it is characterized as your affinity for God and other Christians as a true child of God. Jesus said,
"By this all men will know that you are My students, if you have love [agape] for one another." John 13:35
Love for other Christians is an identifying brand mark of all Christians. Like I say, God gives this to you. You don't create it yourself. You don't naturally feel it like an emotion. You don't muster up this love;
"5... the love [agape] of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5:5
@2 God poured out love within my heart through the _______________ when I receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior. (Romans 5:5)
The Thessalonian Christians already have this committed love poured out within their hearts. Timothy told Paul that the people of Thessalonica, who claimed to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior, had faith and agape love manifesting as evidence of their salvation and stability in absence of the apostles. You and I who are saved, also have this love poured out in our hearts. We can not be the church without the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit, we will not have this love for the body of Christ. If you do not love other members of the body of Christ, then you do not have the Spirit. You are not saved. It is that simple. But the Thessalonian Christians have the Holy Spirit, and so they have faith and love already. Paul says in the sentence before this one,
"8 he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you." 1 Thessalonians 4:8
Now, when Paul says this, what he is doing is indicating the strong relationship we have with the Lord in how the Holy Spirit, (that He gives to us, and we all have right now), is operating in teaching us. First, the Holy Spirit, Who is given to all of us, causes you to love. He empowers you to do so. Think of it this way: It is a family trait. Love for the family of God from being part of the family, is inherent from the Spirit in us, and so in this inherent love aspect, the apostles have no need to write. But, the Holy Spirit also teaches us the lessons of the ways to pour out the agape love that we already have poured into our hearts. And so yes, God thinks that you need to be taught how to manifest your family traits more and more. The Holy Spirit teaches us, and He does it through discipleship in His word that He has recorded for His church throughout history. One way the Holy Spirit teaches us how to manifest agape love, is in how to manifest the philadelphia-- family relationship affection for one another--in all kinds of real, practical, self diminishing, caring, committed, ways. It is through listening and learning to God's word, (then doing it) that our love that we have for our siblings in Christ, becomes manifest in all the ways that a functional, spiritually healthy family should have for one another. We are all like pots that are around each other. We are full of love. We do love according to God's word, and it is like we are pouring into one another, and the pouring never stops, because God says, love never fails. At this point, I don't think the family connection of what Paul is saying here concerning brotherly love kind of affection, should be diminished. In fact, Paul magnifies it for us through his choice of his words. Paul makes the immediate magnifying reference to brothers, (or siblings), all through this. He is spotlighting, to illumine the familiness of what he is talking about. In 4:1, Paul says,
"1 Finally then, brothers, [siblings, as the non-gender, adelphoi]..." 4:1
In 4:6, he says,
"6 ... no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter ..." 4:6
In 4:9, he says,
"9 Now as to the love of the brothers, [or brotherly love] ..." 4:9
Then Paul says,
"10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, ..." 4:10
The point is that in the respect of when we are adopted into the family of God through His love, by His grace, through faith, where He supernaturally gives you love, grace, and faith, we supernaturally love the church, which is comprised of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so again, I say that it is your God-given affinity. What this means is that it is impossible for a Christian to hate the body of Christ. But listen to me carefully; because at the same time, it is possible for you to not sufficiently pour the inward Christian love, outwardly toward others, in all the various ways that God wants you to; so you and I need God's word to teach us about those things. And so this is why the Thessalonians do not need to have anything written to them in respect to the Greek word philadelphia, (which is to have affection for the family as family), because they have been taught by the Holy Spirit to do so in the Greek word, agape, which is divinely enabled commitment kind of love to God and His true people. In other words, the Thessalonian remnant are pots that have the water. On the other hand, the world does not have the water. The world does not love the body of Christ. The world does not love the church in either agape, or have the family affection in philadelphia, because the world hates Christ, being void of the Spirit. The world does not need to be taught to hate Christ. The world naturally hates the true Christ. It continues to do so, unless God does His love miracle and puts His love, (fulfilled in the Spirit), in their hearts in being born again. So, here is the point; Paul knows that the Thessalonians love Christians as the family of God. It has been written on their hearts in adoption, and so in this aspect, they have no need for anything else to be written. But Paul has some concerns for this fledgling church that Timothy has reported to Him about, since leaving. In the meantime, Paul wants them to know that he knows that they have love as an affinity from God through the Holy Spirit, (This is our first principle); and so you don't need to be taught along that line. Paul also wants them to know that he knows that they are already manifesting the inner attribute of God's love toward the Christian family at large. So Paul says,
"10 for that indeed is what you are doing [loving] to all the brothers throughout Macedonia." 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
/2/
This leads us to the second principle I want us to glean this morning concerning God's urging to me to express Christian love, even more than I already do. The principle for us, is that this love that God puts in us, is also love that is something that is practiced as a doing word. In other words, it is not an option. It is something that God expects from you as your family trait, and further, it is something that must, must, must, flow out of you.
This fact has certain implications for us in our relationships with people, doesn't it?
One thing it implies is that whenever you come in contact with someone in daily life, you should immediately try to understand whether they are a Christian brother, or sister, or not. What you are doing, is discerning whether your relationship should be relegated to the realm of association and evangelism; or if you should take it up to the level of fellowship in familiness. Fellowship means to share in commonality. Brothers and sisters in Christ, are supposed to be sharing with one another spiritually in our commonality. This is what we do in the family of God, where we pour our love out upon one another. Practicing love, is where you are manifesting it. Practicing love is where you are doing love instead of studying about it, or talking about it to the family. Instead, you do it to the family. The manifestation is the fruit of the Spirit that the family shares in commonality;
"22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness," Galatians 5:22
@3 The ___________ of the Spirit is love. (Galatians 5:22)
God does not expect us to love the unsaved people in the world in the same manner that we are to love the family of God. Nevertheless, once you have been saved, and you have the fruits of the Spirit being manifested out of your life, there is always room for more.
/3/
This is why Paul gets to what he has been leading up to, which is the third principle. Paul says,
"But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, [excel still more]" 1 Thessalonians 4:10
This principle, concerning God's urging to me to express Christian love even more and more than I already do, is to continuously do it with the mindset that I am seeking to excel still more for the glory of God by not being satisfied with where I am right now in the process. We can call it holy ambition. It is running the sprint to win the highest level of achievement of the Christ like life. It is reaching way up and lunging toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. It is where you pick your selfish, lazy, self up, and you intentionally pour out yourself into the other pots around you, and you never stop. If we remember, Paul said this already in the immediate context when it comes to sanctification from sexual sins to maintain the pleasing God walk. He used the exact same phrase. He just said,
"1 ... brothers, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 4:1
This is the point: God urges me to express Christian love, even more than I already do. So you have the love already, but God says you not only can excel still more in love, but we are urged to do so as a matter of something that should be our craving ambition. God is talking about the doing part that looks beyond what we can barely get by with to what we should be ambitious to achieve as His higher standard. God always urges you and me to go beyond the status quo in our walk that pleases Him. There is always room to love people more. But the point is that we should recognize this fact. We should love this fact to the point that excelling still more is one of the greatest daily goals we thirst for in life. In other words:
The fruit of the Spirit is good fruit, (God likes it).
So why would we not make it our ambition to let the Holy Spirit produce more of it out of our lives?
Let's thirst for this love to overflow in areas that may be uncomfortable to us. The more you love, the sweeter the fruit gets. Let's give it away, as sweet as it gets, and let's give it away in heaping abundance that does nothing but satisfy, fill, and build up the other members of our family to such an extent that they grow. Make no mistake about it, when you are excelling more and more in love, you are ministering; and your ministry is pure edification. Your more and more love will build up others in their faith, and they grow in their grace, and they will also grow in their love; and they will also hunger to excel more.
If you are like me, then you probably wonder about why--not how we excel even more in love. Why can this be? The reason that we can always excel even more in love, is because the ultimate perfection of love is Christ Jesus. In other words, you can not be Christ Jesus, but we remember that He is our standard--right? And our intimate knowledge of Him--our big brother (Hebrews 2:11, Romans 8:29)--is the standard of love that we are making our longing, hungering, ambition to attain to. Paul says that the mature man is the one who is attaining to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, and it is according to the knowledge of the Son of God, Ephesians 4:13. Christ sets the standard in the way He gives His royal command, when He uses Himself as the high standard, saying,
"34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34
Christ has big sandals to walk in. Only He can do it perfectly, but even though this is the case, He commands that we love the same way, according to His standard, which is Himself. Later, Christ describes how He raises the bar; He says,
"12 This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." John 15:12-13
This is knowledge of the Son of God: After He said these things, He, as the greatest man, who made the greatest commandment, went on to express in the greatest perfection of love, the greatest fulfillment of it, in laying down His life as the great sacrificial Lamb. So when you think about excelling more and more in love, think about Jesus. He is our standard. You manifest Christ, then you are manifesting the fruits of the Spirit;
"But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13
Faith, hope, and love, is another description of Jesus among millions. This leads to the fourth and fifth principles.
/4/
The fourth principle is that the primary place that we excel in manifesting Christian love to others in this world, is toward the other members of our family. Or to put it another way, we manifest this love to other members of the body of Christ. It is in the family, (the body--the church) that God wants us all to treat each other as equals, in one sense, because we are all united in Christ Jesus. But at another level, God wants you to look at all the other members of the family as being better than yourself. In the Spirit filled life, this is the attitude of the more and more love that God wants out of you. It is from looking at others as equal in Christ, and important in God's mind, to being better than you are in your own mind. You look at them with the eyes of Jesus. You look at them as being worth the torture and crucifixion. It is from His eyes that God wants you to practice out love for them, to them, and even with them. In it all, Christ is still the standard. Christ really is better than all of us, and it is Christ that we love when we love our brother and sisters with actions. It is Christ that we imitate when we love our brother and sisters with actions. It is Christ that we obey when we love our brother and sisters with actions. It is Christ that we "please," as Paul says, when we love our brother and sisters with actions. You and I do this when we help each other, or we go to one another in encouragement, or we pray for brothers and sisters that we are angry with, instead of maligning them. When we bear one another's burdens, we are reflecting Christ. When we forgive, and then forgive again, and then forgive and forgive again, and again, we are doing love--manifesting Christ. Nobody in the family of God can say that they are superior to any one else. Nobody can say that they don't need to bear one another's burdens. If you do, then you are saying that you do not need to manifest Christ in you, and that is a grievous sin. But you are also sinning in another way. You are not recognizing the Holy Spirit among you, which is right there in front of you giving life to your brother and sister in Christ. This also means, then, that it is your responsibility, and it is your anointing to build up the other members of the family. It is not your ministry to tear down, or ignore people, or to be casual, detached, or indifferent, with the body, because being that way is not the ministry that Christ is doing. According to God, it is your ministry to do the more and more love, because this has always been Christ's ministry. Sometimes we can hurt people with our words. What I mean by hurt, is we can tear down, instead of speaking for building up. Sometimes we must speak strong, uncompromising words. They are words that may be hard to receive, but even though they are strong and hard to receive, we must speak them with a view and purpose to build up. Jesus spoke this way to His disciples. Paul speaks this way in all of his epistles. Peter, James, and John speak this way, by the Spirit, in their epistles. Nevertheless, sometimes we can hurt people with our words; and I am talking about words meant to tear down. We don't need to be dishonest to tear someone down. We can be telling the truth, but in telling the truth without love, we can level people. Love is the key, because love always wants to build up. Paul says,
"15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ," Ephesians 4:15
Love always wants to see growth. The point is that manifesting love is not an option. And it is not based upon emotions either. We may not feel like being self sacrificial, but godly love cuts through the feeling, and the more excellent way is for you to be self sacrificial anyway. We may not feel like being committed, but godly love is not something that we feel into commitment. It is love that we do as commitment. Emotions will come and go, and they will change in a flash, but godly love never fails. By its very definition, it is committed action love. It never fails because it is not a sentiment, nor is it romance, and neither is it passionate affection; or sexual attraction, or like warm friendly feelings around certain select people we are comfortable with that make us feel especially good. Those people are easy to love, but it is still a love based upon contingencies. Once they quit giving you warm feelings, God says to keep on keeping on with them anyway. True love loves the unlovely, and that is what we are talking about.
"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;" 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
@4 Love never ___________ . (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
Love never fails, but feelings, and impressions, will fail you all the time just like pride will fail you, and arrogance will fail you. But there is a reason for excelling more and more, and it goes beyond love for the body.
/5/
It is the fifth principle. What I mean is, it has to do with our behavior toward outsiders. Paul says,
"11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly [behave properly] before outsiders and be dependent on no one." 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
As we look at this fifth principle, there is something that we must instantly understand. If we don't, then we will go off in all kinds of directions in trying to identify who Paul is saying to behave properly toward at this point. In the New Testament, the word describing those who are outside, is consistently used of those who are not saved (meaning they are outside the body of Christ). Following the flow, what this means is that they are of another family. They are of the unsaved family of the fallen first Adam. They are not of the saved family of the last Adam (Jesus Christ). In 1 Corinthians, we see Paul making the distinction,
"For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges." 1 Corinthians 5:12-13
The same is meant in Colossians,
"Conduct yourselves [meaning Christians] with wisdom toward outsiders [non-Christians], making the most of the opportunity." Colossians 4:5
Paul writes to Timothy about overseers,
"he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, ..." 1 Timothy 3:7
@5 People who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are called _________________ . (1 Corinthians 5:12-13)
What Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:7; about elders having a good reputation with those outside the church, is a similar point to what Paul is making here in Thessalonians. It has to do with the commendable way we are coming across to the world. Evidently, the Thessalonian problem that was getting back to Paul was a work ethic issue. It was apparently manifested in certain Christians being dependent upon outsiders in a burden that was a bad witness for the faith. Maybe they quit working because they expected the Lord to come back at any moment--who knows? We could theorize all day, but what matters is that the apostles commanded the Thessalonians to lead a quiet life; attend to their business, and work personally to do what they can for themselves. The general thrust of Paul's concern is our responsibility as Christians. Paul knows that the world grabs any opportunity to ridicule Christians. Whenever people, who are unsaved, sense that there is someone who is not carrying their own load, and is becoming a burden because of it, then they make judgments to bolster their ridicule of the faith. Because of this, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6 that he was giving no cause for offense in anything. Why? So that the ministry would not be discredited. Even though complete independence from others is a logical impossibility, and it is also a subjective area, the unsaved have a standard that makes sense to them; and certain aspects of it make sense to God too. God clearly says to behave properly toward outsiders. This means that God recognizes improper behavior, right? So, even though we may have buckets full of love for Christ and the body of Christ, the appearance of laziness, and being an undue social burden, can eclipse all of that in a moment. We need to listen to what God is telling us by His Spirit. Even though persecuted and strong in faith. Even though filled to the brim with love. Even though eager to be good students of Christ, some people in the Thessalonian church were not learning this part. But hearing this is one thing. Doing it is another thing. Even though we have the Holy Spirit and the word, we must understand that God does not make us act. He causes us to act in empowerment, and he urges us to act from His word, and conviction; but you are the one who must act. Evidently this one important area of the apostle's urging kept falling upon deaf ears. The problem is identified as getting worse in Paul's second epistle. In 2 Thessalonians 3, Paul finally resorts to strong rebuke because of the continued problem. He says to keep away from every brother who leads an unruly, and undisciplined life; who was a burden to others because he quit working. Paul calls such people, busybodies. Paul tells these Thessalonians that he already taught them this before; then he repeats it in his first letter. Then in his last letter, Paul says, again,
"12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread." 2 Thessalonians 3:12
God does not want us to be characterized by the world as busybody burdens who live undisciplined lives, and are not willing to work. The main emphasis of excelling still more is that we manifest the love of Christ, but we go further and we behave properly toward outsiders. This is the upward call to do good, and God urges us to not grow weary in doing good.
My urging to us all, is to recognize, and appropriate, the principles of love, where God urges you and me to express Christian love, even more than we already do. Recognize the important fact, that when someone is saved, they immediately have, in a sense, a love DNA from God. They have love for other Christians. Be very aware of the fact that this Christian love that God puts in us, is also love that is something that is practiced as a doing word. Just like faith without works is lifeless, and is merely a claimed kind of faith, the doing love without works is also meaningless, and is just a claimed doing love. I also urge all of us to continuously do our Christian love with the mindset that we are seeking to excel still more and more for the glory of God by not being satisfied with where we are right now. Look for ways to pour out love. Make yourself manifest love. The Spirit causes you to do so, and empowers you to do it. Make it your big ministry ambition to manifest Christian love to the members of your family in the body of Christ through giving; through being self sacrificial with your time, by lovingly speaking God's word into their lives, being forgiving, and long suffering, and all the various kinds of things where you really express love as something real, because you are really doing it. Be committed to a local Christian fellowship and start living out the full counsel of the word of God. There is no better testing ground for your inner man to pour out love, than being committed to a local church. Believe me, it will test your love like fire tests the purity of gold. Finally, I hope that you will practice the love that has been put in your heart by showing good behavior toward outsiders. In this way, we fulfill the royal law of the highest virtue in our salvation, which is love from a pure heart. Amen.
@1 God teaches me to _______________ others. (1 Thess. 4:9)
@2 God poured out love within my heart through the _______________ when I receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior. (Romans 5:5)
@3 The ___________ of the Spirit is love. (Galatians 5:22)
@4 Love never ___________ . (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
@5 People who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are called _________________ . (1 Corinthians 5:12-13)
