|
WEEKLY
Volume 4 Number 5
28 June 2009
A Loving Heart
(Message delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the
Worship Service, 2:00 pm, June 28, 09)
Text:
1 Cor 13:13
The people in this world have
different views and values on the quality of life or the spiritual
gifts, which may influence and direct their lives, worship and ministry.
Many think that good health and longevity are the best, so they just
love to pursue it, obtain it, and maintain it. Many others are pursuing
knowledge, fame, wealth, power, and so forth while many charismatic
leaders and members are seeking the Holy Spirit’s power to perform
miracles. How about you? What is the greatest quality of life and
ministry according to God’s Mind and Word? That is Love! Why? Because it
is God’s attribute and nature, “Beloved, let us love (agapao)
one another: for love (agape) is of God; and every one that
loveth (agapao) is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth
(agapao) not knoweth not God; for God is love (agape)”
(1 John 4:7-8). Exactly, we can never deny the truth that all the
problems in this world are due to the lack of love for God and mankind.
If everyone loves God and loves one another according to God’s Word,
they can live together in peace and harmony without envy, hatred, lies,
prejudice, discrimination, theft, covetousness, fornication, adultery,
murder, wars, etc. If the husband and the wife love each other, they can
respect each other, take care of each other, endure each other and serve
each other. If the parents love their children, they can take care of
their children, teach them and discipline them to be good citizens. If
the children love their parents, they can honour and obey their parents.
Then, there will be happiness and peace at home and then in society! How
precious love is! God’s Word confirms, “And now abideth faith, hope,
charity (agape/love), these three; but the greatest of these is
charity (love)” (1 Cor 13:13).
However, many fail to discern human
love from God’s love, which is based on God’s attribute and His Truth.
They promote love to unite many from different faiths and beliefs with
their tolerance toward sins, idolatry, worldliness and wrong doctrines
while God’s holy love is against all such things! Their unity is
unbiblical and ungodly because it is based on human love and not on
God’s love. How dangerous it is! May God help you and me understand and
discern God’s love from human love.
God’s Love and Human Love
Human love:
Adam must have loved Eve so much because he acknowledged that she was
bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh (Gen 2:24) and that she must
have been so nice, so beautiful and so good because everything God had
made was “very good” (Gen 1:31). Adam even loved Eve so much that he
ignored God’s commandment and let her pick and eat the forbidden fruit,
and he also ate the fruit with her! However, when God appeared and asked
Adam about his sins, Adam did not love Eve enough to admit his sin but
blamed her, saying, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she
gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Gen 3:12). Human love is
limited and changeable! Adam failed to see his sin as he had failed to
help his wife keep God’s commandment. After Adam’s Fall, sin, curse, and
death entered into the world; and we can be sure by God’s Word that with
the totally depraved, corrupt and sinful nature of human beings, human
love is also corrupt, selfish, changeable and limited. Many can talk
about love, write about love, sing about love, or say, “I love you so
much,” but when their hearts and lives are examined in the light of
God’s Word, their love fails God’s test and standard. For example, a
young man may say to a girl, “I love you so much” with his hidden
reasons and motives (because she is beautiful, kind, gentle, or smart,
etc., or because he wants to flatter her, win her and take advantage of
her, or it is the worst if his love is only sexual love!). The Bible
tells about Amnon, one of King David’s sons. Amnon “loved” Tamar so much
that he “fell sick” for her and planned to have her, but after raping
her, he “hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated
her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her” (2 Sam
13:15). Because of His holy love, God commands His people not to be
unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor 6:14), but many ignore His
commandment and in the end they have to get all the sufferings as
consequences of their sins. Knowing that “the heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer
17:9), we should not be deceived by human love, even when many promote
human love for “Christian unity.”
God’s Love:
Many blame God for all the sufferings
and evils in their lives and in this world and conclude that God does
not love them or God is not a loving God. Many others are deceiving
themselves by thinking that God is love, so He cannot condemn all to
Hell. Then, there must not be Hell, and they just enjoy their lives in
sins and in worldliness! Dear friends, through God’s Word, we may know
the truth about God and His love, which is based on His attributes and
nature. God is not only gracious, kind, and merciful but also holy,
righteous, and just. Because of His holiness, righteousness, and
justice, He cannot ignore sin but condemn it. God is still righteous and
just when He condemns all human beings including you and me to Hell due
to our sins. However, because of His great love, grace and mercy He
satisfied His righteousness by giving mankind His only begotten Son, who
humbly came into this world, died for their sins and rose again for the
justification of those who believe in Him (Rom 4:25). Dear friends, we
must appreciate and thank God for His great love for us in Christ,
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8) and “Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10). Then, what is love
according to God’s Word and God’s Truth? Let us have a look at God’s
Word in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: (1) Charity/love (agape) suffers long,
forbears or endures patiently; (2) Love is kind and helpful to others;
(3) Love does not envy; (4) Love does not vaunt or boast itself; (5)
Love is not puffed up, proud or self-promoting; (6) Love does not
behave itself unseemly/ improperly, not contrary to morality; (7) Love
does not seek her own, love is not selfish or self-seeking; (8) Love is
not easily provoked or irritated to anger; (9) Love thinks no evil to
harm others; (10) Love does not rejoice in nor tolerate iniquity, sins,
unrighteousness, injustice, or wickedness; (11) Love rejoices in God’s
truth and God’s Word, and God’s love cannot be against His truth or His
Word; (12) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. Dear friends, we can see all the qualities of God’s
love in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was good and kind to all, who loved
all, endured all, and even sacrificed Himself for the salvation of
sinners, but who also strongly rebuked the ungodly leaders and
hypocrites whose hearts were against God’s Word and God’s truth (Matt
23). How you and I truly need God’s love so that we can live as our Lord
Jesus Christ lived!
A Loving Heart
According to God’s Mind and Word, love
is the best and the greatest, “the greatest of these is charity”
(1 Cor 13:13). Why? Because it is God’s attribute and it will remain
forever as He remains forever, “Charity/love never faileth: but
whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues,
they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away”
(1 Cor 13:8). If you and I can speak other languages, have faith and
knowledge, and even sacrifice ourselves for the poor, but do not have
God’s love, we are nothing and profit nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3).
Then, in order to have a loving heart,
you and I have to appreciate and highly value God’s love. Next, we must
acknowledge that with our corrupt and sinful heart, we can never produce
God’s love in our heart by ourselves. The first step for sinners to have
God’s love is to repent of their sins and sincerely receive the Lord
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour so that they may be saved, born
again and be partakers of God’s nature (2 Peter 1:4). Only God’s true
children can love God and others with God’s love, “Beloved, let us
love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God” (1 John 4:7). Faith is a gift from God, but
love is His best gift, “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet
shew I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Cor 12:31; Eph 2:8), and
love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in a born-again Christian’s heart,
“the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
is given unto us” (Rom 5:5; Gal 5:22). If our hearts are filled with
or controlled by the Holy Spirit and not by our sinful nature, the Holy
Spirit is able to fill our hearts with God’s love. Therefore, it is wise
for you and me to humbly depend on the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in Him,
and submit ourselves to Him and His Word so that the Holy Spirit may
produce His fruit of love in us.
The Fruit of a Loving Heart
How can you and I know that we and
others have a loving heart? We can know a loving heart by its fruit:
Love God and Keep His Word:
God still commands you
and me to love Him, “And thou shalt love (agapao) the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and
with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30). The Lord Jesus rebuked the
church in Ephesus because they had left their “first love (agape)”
(Rev 2:4). Actually, human nature is “enmity against God” (Rom
8:7), so only with God’s love in us can we love Him and keep His Word,
“If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23). If we
still doubt or criticize God’s Word, or fail to keep God’s Word, we have
first failed to love Him or we do not have a loving heart for Him.
Love One Another:
The Lord Jesus still commands you and me, “as I have loved (agapao)
you, that ye also love (agapao) one another” (John 13:34; 15:10,
12). Dear friends, we are commanded to love one another as Christ has
loved us with His holy love, which is based on His Word and His Truth
and not on warm feelings or affection. Many claim that they love one
another in unity, but ignore God’s Word and Truth and even compromise
and tolerate sins and wrong doctrines! Then how can the Lord be pleased
with them? God loves us so much that He has to chastise us and bring us
back to His Word (Heb 12:10). If we love one another with God’s holy
love, we also pray for one another and help one other to keep God’s Word
even with rebuke and discipline when it is necessary.
Serve the Lord:
Our Lord Jesus asked Peter personally three times, “Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou me?” and this made Peter “grieved” (John
21:15-19). It is serious because without love for Him no one can serve
Him and follow Him faithfully until the end. Jesus’ disciples followed
Him for more than three years, directly received His teaching,
witnessed His holy life and powerful ministry, and were even given power
to heal the sick and cast out demons, etc., but when Jesus was arrested,
Peter denied Him three times and the other disciples ran away for their
life. Their love for their Master failed the test. However, after the
Holy Spirit fully dwelled in them, they were able to love their Lord and
serve Him faithfully unto death. Dear friends, do you and I gladly
worship the Lord and serve Him in whatever area we can because we love
Him and are constrained by His love?
Do Everything with Love:
“Let all your things be done with charity/love” (1 Cor 16:14).
God commands you and me to say or do everything because we love Him and
others. Then, you and I should make sure that what we say to others,
write to others or do to others is from our love for God and for them so
that it may please God and remain forever. May Christ’s love constrain
us to love Him, live for Him, and do everything with love (2 Cor 5:14).
Conclusion
Dear friends, it is not a burden to
labour for whom we really love as Jacob did to Rachel (Gen 29:20). A
loving heart is precious in the sight of God. You and I must be born
again with a new heart and always need God’s love in us, constraining us
to love Him and keep His Word, to serve Him and live for Him, to love
others and to do all things with love so that our labour of love will
not be in vain but will remain for ever. Amen.
Top
/ Back
|
