Loving

Sunday Morning Sermon
June 11, 2017
John McKeel

Love is the Heart of Christianity

What is the “Greatest Thing in the World”—what philosophers call the summum bonum? If you only go around once in this life, what should you strive for? What makes life worth living?

Religious people might answer “Faith!” but they would be wrong. Faith is important, but it is not the most important object of life. Listen to the apostles:

Paul, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love,” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Peter, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart,” (1 Peter 1:22).

John, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love,” (1 John 4:8)

Why is this true? The Apostle Paul explains, “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law,” (Romans 13:10).

But What is Love?

“Love” may be the most abused word in the English language. I might say “I love my car,” “I make love to my wife,” and “I love my friends.” Hopefully we are talking about three different things!

The Greeks had four words, all translated “love” in English, that described four different aspects of love.

  • Eros – The Desire to Possess
  • Storge – Love of Family
  • Philia – Friendship
  • Agape – A Different Kind of Love

The Love Chapter

1 Corinthians 13

The Apostle Paul passes love through a prism and tells us:

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

The Spectrum of Love has ten ingredients:

Patient……………. “Long suffering”

Kind………………. The Mellow Virtue

Does not envy…. Envy is related to eros – the desire to possess

Does not boast…. Literally “love is not a windbag”

Is not arrogant…. Conceited pride

Is polite………….. Good manners

Unselfish…………

Good tempered… Love isn’t irritable

Is not resentful…. Literally “love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs.”

Sincerity …………  “It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”

Love in Action

Finally, in verse 7, we see love in action:

  • “Bears” can have two meanings and both are helpful.
    • “Keeps confidences” – “love that throws a cloak of silence over what is displeasing in another person,” Harnack
    • “Endures” – It stands against the storm.
  • “Believes” as in “I believe in Jan.”
  • “Hope”
  • “Endures” – where as “love is long-suffering” in verse 4, here “love endures.”

Learning to Love

  • Romans 13:8 – 10
  • “We love because he first loved us,” (1 John 4:19).

 

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