May 6, 2007

 

Cawson Street Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia

Mural Worthey

 

The Love of God

The Greatest Theme, #3

 

 

Story by Landon Saunders. Brother Saunders was once scheduled to speak on “The Love of God” in Nashville in 1989. He prepared his message and flew to Nashville. While in his motel, he was thinking about his material that he was going to present. Being unsatisfied, he walked outside and down some lonely streets in the city. He asked several people that he met what they thought about his subject. One man told brother Saunders that he must believe it yourself before you preach it to others. Others will not believe your message unless they see conviction in you first. A class is easy if we have convictions on the subject. He went on down the street and met an alcoholic who said that all he ever knew about love was when he was a boy at his grandmother’s home. She raised him, but after her death he said that he had never known love again. It all died with her. Finally, a young man did not appreciate his question and became angry with him. Brother Saunders remarked that something is terribly wrong when people become angry when asked about the love of God. Does the very thought of religion make some people angry? Does the idea of God make some angry? Why?

 

The greatest theme in the Bible is the love of God for lost mankind. No wonder that John 3:16 is known as the theme verse of the Bible. Alexander Campbell spoke from this text before the Congress of the United States. This passage sums up all that is said from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.  “So” is an adverb of degree; God loved us in this manner and to this extent. John likewise wrote, “Brethren, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” (1 John 4:11.)  Paul wrote to the Ephesians about the breadth, length, height and depth of the love of Christ. (Eph. 3:17-19.)

 

Learning to love as God loves is not easy. It is the most challenging thing taught in Scripture because it requires spiritual maturity. It is easy to love those who love you, but challenging to love those who hate you. (Matt. 5:46.) It is easy to love sometimes, but more difficult to love at all times. What most people think is love is not love at all. It is not a fuzzy, sentimental feeling. One does not fall out of love or in it. Love is first learned, then felt. If our love is not based upon the firm foundation of the love of God, then it is a misplaced love.

 

Love is always involved. There is another reason why Jesus said, By this shall men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Love is always involved no matter what the subject. Note the connections between love and discipline (Heb. 12:5-12), love and giving (John 3:16, 2 Cor. 8:8), love and obedience (John 14:15, 1 John 5:3), love and forgiveness (2 Cor. 2:8-10, Eph. 4:32), love and evangelism (John 21:15-17, Rom. 9:1-3; 10:1), love and unity (1 Cor. 1 & 13), love and the family (Eph. 5:25, 28; Titus 2:4.)

 

The Bible warns us about loving the wrong things: 1) The love of money is the root of all evil. (1 Tim. 6:10.)  2) Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world passes away and the lusts thereof, but he that does the will of the Father abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17.)  3) Paul ended the first Corinthian letter by saying, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” (1 Cor. 16:22.) In contrast, he ended the Ephesian letter with this positive note: “Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” (Eph. 6:24.) Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15.)

 

Love would solve most problems that we face. Love would solve the problem of divorce between husbands and wives. Love would solve the problem of hatred and wars. It is a lack of love that causes religious divisions and conflicts in churches. Love would solve the problems of world hunger, orphaned children, and forced labor. Love would cause all abortions to cease. The disobedient would obey God immediately. Love would solve most of the problems of heartache, rejection, loneliness, and depression. Love would remedy social, personal, national, and international problems. Love for God and man is the key to all spiritual problems.

 

Our approach to this greatest theme in Scripture has been to note some simple but powerful statements about love. We have named six so far; now for the seventh statement.

 

7—By this shall men know. Jesus said, “A new commandment that I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35.)

Great men in history have established empires and kingdoms. Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world. (John 18:36.) Alexander the Great build his Grecian Empire on military might and conquest, as most military and political leaders have done. But Jesus Christ built his kingdom on the most powerful motivation of all—love. Jesus wanted this trait to distinguish his followers above all other attributes. You will search all the systematic theologies in vain to find one based on love. You can easily find them based on first this peculiar doctrine and then another. In Campbell’s The Christian System, the table of contents list many topics for discussion, but love does not appear there! John and Charles Wesley championed sanctification; Luther championed faith. The identifying mark of the Sabbatarians is the seventh day of the week observance. The ID for Muslims is not love; far from it. It is hatred and murder. Religious people champion baptism, religious tolerance, religious days, certain religious buildings, certain translations, honoring certain leaders among them, etc. We (they) or known for nearly everything, except love. But who has promoted love as the foundation for the Christian System? The only one that I know is Jesus Christ.

 

Can love distinguish his people? Yes, more than anything else. It will because we will love God and therefore keep his commandments. (John 14:15.)  And we will love one another, as he has loved us. (John 13:34.)

 

Distinctions between Christians and non-Christians. Historians of the early church have often directed attention to the fact that the love Christians exhibited was utterly without parallel in the heathen world. Tertullian’s famous statement well illustrates this: “The heathen are wont to exclaim with wonder, See how these Christians love one another. For they (the heathen) hate one another, and how they (the Christians) are ready to die for one another. The heathen are more ready to kill one another.” (Apology, 39.)

One writer noted: “Alas! How changed is the spirit of the Christian world since then! Perhaps, of all the commands of Jesus, the observance of this is that which is least apparent to a surrounding world. It is not so much that they are divided into different sects, for this may be consistent with love for each other; but is the want of deep-felt, genuine love toward Christians even of our own denomination; the absence of genuine self-denial; the pride of rank and wealth; and the fact that professed Christians are often known by anything else rather than by true attachment to those who bear the same Christian name and image. The true Christian loves religion wherever it is found. He overlooks the distinction of sect, color, nation; and wherever he finds a man who bears the Christian name and manifests the Christian spirit, he loves him.” (Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament: John, Albert Barnes, 324.)

 

Another writer expressed it: “Now strange as it may seem to some of you the Bible does not say that if you will be baptized, all men will know that you are my disciples. . . . Jesus did not say that if you eat the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day, then all men will know that you are my disciples. It is possible for an individual to eat the Lord’s Supper and not be sincere, and when he does so, he eats and drinks damnation to his soul. But there is no hypocrisy in true love. Therefore, Jesus Christ is saying that if you have this genuine true love for one another then all men will know that you are His disciples.” (V. P. Black, Back to Basics, “Let Brotherly Love Continue,” 178.)

 

Sects promote sectarian differences rather than championing love because they do not want to see their sects dissolve into the one Body of Christ. Their partisan supporters demand the differences to be emphasized. Our political system is dysfunctional for the same reason that our Christian system is broken. We keep inventing more reasons to divide than we do to be one in Christ. We are afraid that love will not distinguish us from others; but we have not tried it. Love will distinguish God’s people. We have played lip service to Jesus’ teaching on love, while we have promoted a divisive, bitter spirit of arrogance and pride.

 

Note some distinctions made. This is how love for one another and others will distinguish God’s people.

 

1)      “For if you love them that love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the publicans the same?” (Matt. 5:46.) Jesus did not teach a selfish, sectarian love. Just as God sends the rain on the just and unjust, so should we love everyone. In fact, if there are some people that we do not love, then there is a serious deficiency in our love. If bitterness exists between Jews and Arabs, then they will just as likely kill one another as Muslims are presently doing in the Middle East.

2)    Jesus explained to his followers why they would be persecuted if they followed him. Among the things that he said was: if they persecuted me, they will persecute you; because the world loves its own. If you were of the world, then the world would love you. But because you are not of the world, therefore, the world will hate you. (John 15:17-20.) We not only love one another, but we also love the world even when it opposes us. They do not know the Father, said Jesus.

3)    Christians have a greater motivation and example of love than anyone else in the world. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34.) There is no other world religious body or group that has this kind of motivation to love. Think about the American Atheists Society ran by Madelyn Murray O’Hair. They had a common goal of opposing religious freedom and expression of faith, but they did not love one another. In the end, they turned against one another and killed Madelyn O’Hair, Jon (her son) and Robyn (her granddaughter). They had embezzled 8 million dollars from the Atheists’ Society. Followers of Mohammed do not have a good example of love from him. He murdered people and took their possessions and wives as spoil for his armed men. His followers today continue this policy of hatred and murder.

4)    When Jesus was dying on the cross, he uttered these words: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.) These are not normally the kind of words you would hear from the lips of one dying on a cross. Peter pointed this out as an example of how his followers should follow his example in suffering. (1 Peter 2:20-22.)