The Love Dare

I dare you to take 1 Corinthians 13 seriously in your local church. If you don't, everything else will be meaningless (1 Cor. 13:1-3).

Start Here:
15 descriptions of what love does and does not do from 1 Cor. 13:4-7.
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love does not boast.
Love is not arrogant.
Love is not rude.
Love does not insist on its own way.
Love is not irritable.
Love is not resentful.
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing.
Love rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things.
Love believes all things.
Love hopes all things.
Love endures all things.

Unlove is Deadly

“Unlove is deadly. It is a cancer. It may kill slowly but it always kills in the end. Let us fear it, fear to give room to it as we should fear to nurse a cobra. It is deadlier than any cobra. And just as one minute drop of the almost invisible cobra venom spreads swiftly all over the body of one into whom it has been injected, so one drop of the gall of unlove in my heart or yours, however unseen, has a terrible power of spreading all through our Family, for we are one body—we are parts of one another…If unlove be discovered anywhere, stop everything and put it right, if possible at once.”

-Amy Carmichael

What's Love Got to Do With It?

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Body of Christ,

1 Corinthians 13 has a message we need to hear. Please listen to the sermon from Sunday morning (August 9).

Sincerely,
Justin Childers

Killing Selfishness by Seeing the Cross

Extremely challenged by this quote:

"No one who has been to the cross and seen God's immeasurable and unmerited love displayed there can go back to a life of selfishness."

-John Stott, 1 John commentary, p. 166.

Let Us Love One Another

1 John 4:7-12 is extremely helpful for those of us who struggle to love others like we should. John basically gives us the theological foundation for loving one another.

Here are the 3 points I meditated on in our Wed evening Bible Study:

1. We are to love one another because we know the One who is love (v. 7-8).
-God is love and He imparts Himself to us when we are born of Him.
-To not love is to fail to manifest the nature of the One who we claim to be our Father.

2. We are to love one another because God has loved us in Christ (v. 9-11).
-The Cross reveals God's love.
-The Cross propitiates God's wrath.
-The Cross fuels our love for one another.

3. We are to love one another because God is seen in our love for one another (v. 12).
-God’s love is revealed when we love one another.

Sinclair Ferguson on the Cross as the demonstration of God's love:
“When we think of Christ dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to himself. We would almost think that God loved us more than he loves his Son! We cannot measure such love by any other standard. He is saying to us: I love you this much. The cross is the heart of the gospel. It makes the gospel good news: Christ died for us. He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat. He has borne our sins. God has done something on the cross we could never do for ourselves. But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that he loves us.”

Beautified by love

“Every local church has its own personality, identity, distinctives, gifts, and atmosphere. The one quality, however, that should beautify every believer and every church, regardless of giftedness or personality, is love. Thus the thing that should be of utmost concern to every believer and every church is this: Does a Christlike spirit of love permeate the atmosphere of our church?”

Alexander Stauch, Love or Die, p. 11.

Productivity

"The man who knows the love of Christ in his heart can do more in one hour than the busy type of man can do in a century."

-Lloyd-Jones (quoted in Love or Die, p. 35)

Beware of Lovelessness

"An individual or church can teach sound doctrine, be faithful to the gospel, be morally upright, and work hard, yet be lacking love and therefore, be displeasing to Christ. Love can grow cold while outward religious performance still appears to be acceptable--or even praiseworthy."

Alexander Strauch, Love or Die, p. 19.

Jesus' Message to the Church: Love or Die.

This looks like a fantastic book: Love or Die: Christ's Wake-Up Call to the Church by Alexander Strauch. Part one of this book examines the alarming rebuke of Rev. 2:4 ("But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first"). Part two presents practical ways to cultivate love in the local church.

Here are the sections of part two:
Study love
Pray for love
Teach love
Model love
Guard love
Practice love

How Deep The Father's Love for Us

Bunyan has me pondering something I've never seen before (take the time to look up these texts):

The Father loved us by giving His Son for us (John 3:16, Romans 5:8).

And, He loved us by giving us to His Son (John 6:37, 39, John 10:28, John 17:6, 9, 24).

John 3:16

I had the privilege of preaching from the most famous verse of Scripture this morning. Martin Luther said John 3:16 is "the gospel in miniature." I was inspired by this quote and just tried to proclaim the gospel as clearly and faithfully as I knew how.

I drew attention to 3 ways the love of God is evident in John 3:16:

1. The Love of God is evident in the Priceless Treasure He Gave: His Only Son.
2. The Love of God is evident in the Wretched Object of His Love: The World.
3. The Love of God is evident in the Precious Promise of The Gospel: Whoever Believes Has Eternal Life.

Sinclair Ferguson wrote, “When we think of Christ dying on the cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to himself. We would almost think that God loved us more than he loves his Son! We cannot measure such love by any other standard. He is saying to us: I love you this much. The cross is the heart of the gospel. It makes the gospel good news: Christ died for us. He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat. He has borne our sins. God has done something on the cross we could never do for ourselves. But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross. He persuades us that he loves us.”

Loving The Local Church

Christ died for His church and promises to build it for His glory. If Christ loves the church, so should we. Our love for Christ will express itself practically in our love for His church.

So, in what ways can we grow in our love for the local church? What have you done this week that could be labeled as love for the church?

Serve One Another

Galatians 5:13: "Through love serve one another."

Some reflections on the command to serve one another:

1. It seems as if every other "one another" command fits under this one. In other words, every other way we are to relate to each other is to be a means of serving one another. If how we are relating is not an expression of serving one another, we are not relating to one another properly.

2. Martin Luther said to serve one another means, “performing unimportant works such as the following: teaching the erring; comforting the afflicted; encouraging the weak; helping the neighbor in whatever way we can; bearing with his rude manners and impoliteness; putting up with annoyances, labors, and the ingratitude and contempt of men in both church and state; obeying the magistrates; treating one’s parents with respect; being patient in the home with a cranky wife and an unmanageable family, and the like.”

3. There are thousands of practical ways in which we can serve each other. However, the most important way we need to serve each other is by reminding each other of the gospel. We need to serve each other by preaching the gospel to each other every day. Friends, we do not love merely by caring for someone’s physical needs to the neglect of their spiritual needs. Every person on the face of this globe needs one thing: A Savior. I need people to serve me by reminding me of my great need for Christ.

4. Ways in which we can practically serve one another in love:
-Pray for one another.
-Encourage one another by identifying evidences of grace in each other.
-Volunteer for various responsibilities in the church (Nursery, Set-up, etc.).
-Giving someone a book that has helped you grow in Christ.
-Offering to cook or buy a meal for a busy mother and her family.
-Offering to baby-sit so that a couple with children can go on a date.
-Use a skill or resource to save someone else time and money.
-Write a note of encouragement.
-Show hospitality to visitors at church.
-Invite someone to lunch who you have known for a long time but never shared the gospel with.

5. Other texts that command us to serve one another and build one another up:

John 13:14; Romans 14:19; Phil. 2:3; 1 Thess. 5:11; 1 Peter 4:10

In what other ways can we serve others in the body of Christ? How have people served you for the glory of God?

Galatians 5:13-15

John Piper helped me see the logic of Galatians 5:13-15:

Paul's main statement is, "For you were called to freedom, brothers."
God has called us to freedom (5:13) and Christ has purchased our freedom (5:1).

Then, Paul gives 2 commands based on the reality of our freedom:
Negative command: Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
Positive command: Through love serve one another.

Then, Paul gives 2 incentives (supports) for the commands:
Positive incentive: The whole Law is fulfilled in loving each other as we love ourselves (5:14).
Negative incentive: If we don't love, we will destroy each other (5:15).

Prayers of Paul: Philippians 1:3-11

Prayer of Thanksgiving (1:3-8)
Why Paul thanks God for the Philippians:
(1) His own feelings for them.
-He offers prayer with joy (1:4)
-He has them in his heart (1:7)
-He longs for them with the affection of Christ Jesus (1:8)
(2) Their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
-They are “fellow partakers/partners.” (1:5, 7)
(3) God’s good work in them. (1:6)
-Past: “He who began a good work in you.” (God’s sovereign initiative)
-Present: “Will complete it” (God’s sovereign faithfulness)
-Future: “Until the day of Christ.” (God’s sovereign completion)

Prayer of Intercession (1:9-11)
What Paul prays for the Philippians:
-Their love may abound and grow more and more.
(1) that they might make the best decisions possible
-in real knowledge and all discernment.
-They may approve (discern) the things that are excellent.
(2) that they might be the best people possible
-Sincerity (purity) and blamelessness.
-filled with the fruit of righteousness to the glory & praise of God.