Christian Love

Temple Baptist Church - 11-10-2019

1 John 4:7-21

Introduction:

A.  The Book of 1 John was written to “my little children.”  Those who are the “sons of God” as shown in chapter 3, verse 1-2.

B.  The greatest love ever known was when God gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sin.  John 15:13 says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  

C.  The greatest love ever shown is charity: a sign of true conversion.  I am not talking about love in a general sense because lost people can love. 

Romans 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

D.  In 1 John 2:8, we see that when the darkness of a lost soul comes to end through the light of God’s salvation, this love of God that caused Him to die for the sin of the world is manifested in the new believer.

E.  The love of God causes the child of God to love the things that the world does not love.  I am talking about love in a spiritual realm: 

1.  Love for God: the world has no love for God.  They only try to use God!

2.  Love for the word of God:  the world has no love for the bible.  They will not read it or come to hear it being preached.

3.  Love for the local church:  the world has no love for the local church or they would be in church tonight.  They only use it to either soothe their conscience or get something from it.

4.  Love for the children of God:  the world has no love for God’s people.  They may like and respect us but, if they loved us, they would want to be around us corporately.

5.  Love for the lost:  the world has no love for drunks, drug addicts, rapists, murderers, thieves, etc.  We go out into the highways and hedges inviting them to come and sit in church with us and our children!

F.  The greatest gift that remains is charity:  brotherly love.

1 Corinthians 13:13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.  (Faith and hope are inward and God-ward, Charity is OUTWARD.)

1.  It is a visible love - John 13:34-35  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  (35)  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

2.  It is a sacrificial love - John 15:12-14  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.  (13)  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  (14)  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

3.  It is an initiated love - 1 John 4:10-11  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  (11)  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

4.  It is a pure love - 1 Peter 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

5.  It is a fervent love - 1 Peter 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

6.  It is an abounding love - 1 Thessalonians 3:12  And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

7.  It is a serving love - Galatians 5:13  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

8.  It is an overlooking love - 1 Peter 3:8  Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: