The Connection Between Love and the Law

The title of this afternoon's sermon is The Connection Between Love and the Law. Weird title, you might think, but hear me out. Here me out. There's a Jewish tradition, and I don't hold to very many Jewish traditions, but this one might be correct. There's a Jewish tradition that the law was given on the day of Pentecost because they believe the Ten Commandments were given on Pentecost during the book of Exodus. It says in Exodus that they went to Mount Sinai in the third month.

Now, that doesn't mean three months later. It means literally in the third month. Passover, when they left Egypt, was in the middle of the first month, the 14th. Passover is right in the middle of the first month. You have to count 50 days that would move you into the third month. They made it to Mount Sinai in the third month. The tradition is that God gave the Ten Commandments on the day of Pentecost. Can't prove it. It's not explicitly stated. But that means that the law of God was given on this day.

And it's interesting, in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah says eventually that law is going to be written on your hearts. And then, on the day of Pentecost in the New Testament in 31 A.D., the Holy Spirit wrote that law, first on the apostles' hearts, and then on about 3,000 people when Peter gave a sermon later that day, and they baptized them.

Can't imagine baptizing 3,000 people in one day. Mass dunkings. Okay, do you repent? Everybody together? Yes, we repent. Go! So, I got the wrong glasses on this one. I'm in trouble here. Let me put my eyeballs on. Here we go. Oh, they're much better. So God said in Jeremiah that he would write on the law on our hearts, and then on the day of Pentecost, that law began to be written on Christian's hearts, and it is still today when we are baptized.

The Bible shows, throughout the entire Bible, by the way, I was listening this morning to the sermonette and the sermon and then this afternoon sermonette, and it's woven throughout the entire Bible that love, friendship, things like closeness, kindness, and forgiveness aren't about feelings or nice words. They're actually meant to be lived out through real actions. Throughout Scripture, genuine relationships are proven not just by how someone feels but by what they do, especially in accordance in keeping God's law. Simply having warm feelings is not enough. This stands in contrast to today's common view that focuses mostly on emotions and personal expression. Well, it's how I feel, and you can't judge how I feel.

It's true. One person can't judge how another person feels, but the Creator can, and that's the point of the sermon today. I don't judge you, and you don't judge me. I love you, but I don't care what your opinion is. I care what God's opinion is. Right? And the same should go for you. Yeah, I'm not your judge. That's absolutely correct. But God is. While feelings and kind words do matter—I don't want to downplay them— the Bible consistently points out that godly action is the true measure of love and friendship.

You know, that challenges modern thinking, how we show and care, how we move beyond emotion and actually practice love. There is a common debate in the church. I've heard this debate all of my life, and it's like a pendulum swings in the church. In the 1960s, when I was born, I don't remember too much because it was 67, and I was a baby. But then, in the early 70s, I started to become cognitive and remember, and the pendulum had swung to the left, and everything was lovey-dovey, but the law was sort of forgotten.

And then the pendulum swung back over during the Reagan years to the law and conservatism, and we need to do the right thing. We need to get back on track, which was true. We did. The pendulum was really left in the 70s, and we swung possibly a bit too far to the right. And this is common debate in the church, and it has happened all my life.

I see it going on in the churches of God, not just united. I see it going on all the time. This pendulum swing. First, we have these rules for camp, and then we don't really... The pendulum swings the other direction. We don't. We still have the rules, but we don't enforce the rules. And then we get back and we enforce the rules.

And it's like culture shock. Like, well, what is it? Are there rules or aren't there rules? And it's this debate in the church, having too much law keeping and not enough love, not enough love, enough love. I can talk today, hopefully. Or too much lovey-dovey and emotion with no action whatsoever. It's just how everybody feels, and come as you are, and stay as you are, and In today's sermon, let's examine the connection between law and love, and discover that one without the other is meaningless.

Love and law together. One without the other is meaningless. Either way, the pendulum swings that goes too far to the right or to the left. You've gone off the road, the vehicle is crashed, and you're in the ditch. You need both love, which is what God is, and the law, which is from God. And there is no contradiction between the two.

They fit together because they are the same. You need both. Two sides of the same exact coin. Heads or tails. Which one is it? It doesn't matter. It's a quarter. If it comes up love, if it comes up law, it's the same coin.

Here's our key scripture for the sermon this afternoon. 1 John chapter 5 verse 2. 1 John chapter 5 verse 2. By this we know that we love the children of God. Okay, he's talking about love. Love, love, love. By this we know we love the children of God. When we love God, there's more love. And obey his commandments. There's the law. You can't separate the two. The one is the other. And when you try to separate them, dissect them.

You fall into the ditch. We know we love each other when we show love to God and we keep his commandments. Love and keeping God's commandments are completely intertwined and connected to each other.

So let's go through a couple of points and then I'll give you some examples. Point number one is answering the question, how do we come to understand love? How do we know what love is? We're in 1 John. Let's go to chapter 3 and verse 16. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 16. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. He didn't say nice words. He did something. He took action and that action cost him dearly. And it goes on. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Oh, now it's getting personal. You bet. Christianity is in your face, personal. This is important because it shows that love isn't a nice idea. It's something real that Jesus showed by dying. And before he died for us, he taught them, he healed them, he even washed their feet. Then his sacrifice helped us truly understand what love looks like. That's what it looks like. And it doesn't stop there. Because of what Jesus did, we are also called to love others in real and sometimes costly ways. Sometimes it will cost you to take care of somebody else. This is what the Day of Pentecost is about. The writing of the law on your heart, not on your extremities that you do outside that has no feeling or meaning on the inside. Knowing love isn't about thinking or feeling. It's about seeing what Jesus did and letting that change how you live. Examine yourself, just like we did at Passover. How are you taking care of your family members around you? Do you ignore them and go about your daily tasks? How do you take about care of those people that you interact with every day? Whether they're in the church or not is irrelevant. Your love is for everybody. Examine yourself. Do you put the law into action?

Let it change how you live. How do you take care of your fellow members in the church? John's letter goes on to give simple, a very real life test. Verse 17. Very next verse. 1 John chapter 3, 17. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? You have extra, but instead of helping, you send him off to whatever, the church, the social services, or whatever, when you literally could have helped.

It shows that if we have the ability to help someone and choose not to, it raises serious questions about whether God's love is really in us. It clearly connects to having material things with the responsibility to show love through action.

This is part of John's message, and it ends with very clear instruction. Verse 18. Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. There is a clear difference between just talking about love and actually living it out.

And here we see the necessity of demonstrating love through deeds. The Greek word is ergon. It means work or deed. It's pretty clear. But the word for truth in the Greek is althea. And althea does mean truth, but it can also mean reality, which is the same as saying truth, or sincerity. And I suggest that's the meaning that John was using here. For althea, the phrase in truth is important because it emphasizes that our actions, our ergon, should be real and heartfelt, not just for show.

The idea of truth points to a sincerity that connects on what we do on the outside with what we truly believe on the inside. Stands in contrast to the shallow and insincere expression of love. In other words, it's not just about seeing somebody in need and taking care of them, but despising them on the inside. That's not love. That's legalism. Oh, you're keeping the law, but you hate doing it.

That's not love. That's not what God or your fellow man wants or needs. Real love comes from the heart and is shown by helping others, sharing what we have, forgiving when they offend, supporting people who are in need. It's not about looking righteous. It's about truly caring and doing something about that care. Now, that's what Jesus showed us when he died, when he washed our feet, when he healed the sick.

How do we come to understand love? That was the first question. By doing it, by showing it in action and sincerity from the heart. And it grows, as Jesus said, like a mustard seed. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It starts really small, but it grows to support others that they can make their home. Okay, the second thing we're going to look at in the sermon today, we know how we know love is when we put it into action and it's sincere. But let's add to that the guidance and the framework of love, because there's rules to love.

Love isn't just any old way you want to feel and put it into action. Point number two is obedience is necessity for the love of God. Obedience is a necessity for the love of God. Let's also look at that from the Bible. The pendulum can swing both directions, both directions, but we need to keep it in the middle. The gospel of John and John's epistles repeatedly link love for God to action and obedience of his commands.

So it frames obedience not as mere rule keeping or an outward show that you would earn something. And you know, we get accused of that a lot. We get accused since we keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, oh, you're a bunch of legalists. Well, you actually could be if you don't apply love combined with the law.

But the opposite is also true, that you don't actually love if you don't keep the commandments. Obedience is a relationship-building response prompted by love, yes, a desire for closeness to God and your fellow man, but there's rules to love. Obedience is about getting closer to others, not earning forgiveness. You don't sin and then unsin by obeying the law. What pays for sin? Death. So you can't die and be forgiven, so Jesus Christ died for you. So then what's the purpose of keeping the law? Learning to love. I'll show you. We often cover this at Passover time.

John records that in Jesus' plain statement about love, the fact that you cannot separate law from love nor love from law. Jesus plainly states in John 14, verse 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. This is said so many times that I'm not even going to read all of the statements to you connecting love and law. I'm just going to read a few, and it just nails the coffin shut on this topic and puts it to rest.

Here, Jesus directly connects the internal reality of loving him, doing it sincerely from the heart to the external action of obeying his commandments. Every time you obey, you learn to love. Love has rules. Obedience becomes the primary expression and proof for your love for him. How could that be? Because it's hard to do. And you have to sacrifice a little bit of yourself that says, I don't want to do it that way in order to obey him.

But why do you obey him? Because you love him. And you benefit greatly when you do. Because his laws always benefit us. But it's just a little bit of a sacrifice of the old self. It's a little bit of putting away of the old you. Every time you willingly obey, you show your love. In other words, you don't just say you love him, and get all gushy and emotional about it with no action. He's saying, show me. You say you love me? Show me. He explains in verse 21, drop down a little bit, John 14 verse 21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it he it is who loves me.

It is he who loves me who will be loved by my father. Oh, so this builds. It gets even bigger. Love grows when you obey. And he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. So this verse reiterates the connection, possessing, critically keeping, or in other words, acting on Christ's commands, is what demonstrates love for him. This active love and obedience, in turn, leads to a deeper, reciprocal relationship with both the father and the son, which includes greater understanding of God and closeness to him.

In other words, he says, I will manifest myself. What does that mean? In other words, I will show myself to you. You will get me more and more the more you obey, which is another way of saying the more you love.

The more you love me by obeying me, the more you will see the way things really are. The way I am, he says, I will show myself to you. How close do we become when we obey God and Jesus commands with sincerity apart? Verse 23. Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, there's the law, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Remind you of what he said, I will never leave you, never forsake you. You will be like a child at home, King David said. I'm not a stranger, but like a child at home. That's how close you will be to God when you obey him from the heart. Love for Jesus naturally results in action of obeying his teachings, which builds a closer relationship, describing God as making his home with you. So earlier we read the key verse of 1 John chapter 5 and verse 2 that we're pivoting off of today in the entire sermon. Let's read the very next verse in context of this point, that obedience is our testament of love back to God. That was 1 John chapter 2. Let's go to verse 3. 1 John chapter 5. I think I said 2. It's chapter 5. My apologies. Verse 3.

For this is the love of God. Remember, God's going to make his home with you.

This is the love of God. That we keep his commandments. Okay, that's not saying that if you keep his commandments, you will learn love. That's saying it's God's love to you. His gift to you is his commandments. His commandments are a present, not burdensome, but light. He is gentle and lowly in heart, Jesus said, of himself. His commandments are a gift. I love this verse, 1 John 5 verse 3. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

So in this passage, Jesus, the one who we owe our lives to, defines the love of God as the very act of keeping his commandments, telling us that obedience is the essence of how God's love is expressed towards us and back to him. The assertion that commands are not burdensome for those who love God further reframes our obedience as not burdensome but joyful.

So we should actually look at being in the church and coming to services every day as a good thing. Like, wow! I'm going to come get a present.

It's a loving relationship. It's not your legalistic duty.

You can't earn forgiveness. You can't forgive yourself. The penalty is too high.

You can't earn your way out of it. Jesus Christ had to die for that. So it's not rule keeping. Obedience is proving love.

Let me show you a parable that shows you exactly the balance of love and law. It shows you the balance. This is one of Jesus' parables, and it's perfect. Obviously, it's from our Messiah Jesus. It is such a balanced parable because it shows the difference between religion alone and true religion or true love. This is a hard-hitting parable.

The law in question is all the way back in the book of Leviticus. Leviticus 19, verse 18. Let's go there first and read what law is either being kept or being broken.

We will see that this law is the expression of love. Leviticus 19, verse 18, You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

This well-known parable arises from a lawyer's question about inheriting eternal life, and subsequently he asks the question, who is my neighbor? Let's go to Luke chapter 10, and verse 25. Please go through this with me, and let's remember how hard-hitting this is.

Let's get into the nitty-gritty. Luke 10, verse 25. And behold, a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Modern-day Christianity would say, well, there's nothing you do.

You don't do anything. Notice Jesus didn't say, there's nothing you do. He didn't say that at all. Oh, there's a lot of action involved in love. A lot.

He said in verse 26, he said to him, what is written in the law?

How do you read it? And he answered, so the lawyer says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, so he quotes Deuteronomy, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And he quotes Leviticus that I just read you. And he said, and Jesus, okay, in verse 28, and he said to him, you have answered correctly. He didn't say, oh, all you need is grace. That's a wrong answer. He said, oh, actually, you're correct.

That is correct.

But the lawyer didn't like his own answer, because the lawyer knew that is a tall order. Okay, so he didn't like the answer he gave to Jesus. He knew it was correct. And Jesus affirmed it was correct. But in verse 29, but he desiring to justify himself, he wanted to get out of this.

Said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

Yeah, but who do I have to love? And Jesus replied, a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho had fell among robbers and was stripped, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest who was going down the road, when he saw him, he passed on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, when he came to the place and saw him, passed to the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. And when he saw him, had compassion. He went to him and bound his wounds, pouring oil, pouring on oil and wine. And then he set him on his own animal and brought him into the inn and took care of him. The next day, he took about two denarii and gave it to the innkeeper, saying, take care of him and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.

Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

And he said, the one who showed mercy. Now, why was that a tough answer?

Think about that. Who passed by?

And who was asking the question, who's my neighbor? A lawyer. A Jewish lawyer.

What law would this Jewish lawyer know? The law of God.

That's who he would be a lawyer in. He was a religious lawyer. He knew the law. Who passed by but a priest and a Levite who knew the law?

Who took care of the man? Somebody who was ethnically offensive to the Jew and religiously offensive to the Jew. The replacement Jews, the Samaritans, who were put there by the Assyrians when the Israelites were taken away and given sort of God's religion, but they sort of combined paganism with it and the Jews despised the Samaritans. And the Samaritans despised the Jews.

Tough answer. So Jesus was really putting the screws to this guy and answering the question, who's my neighbor? Who do I need to show love to? Okay, here's your answer, pal.

And he said, the one who showed mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go do likewise.

The priests and the Levite were both religious figures, and they passed on the other side. Just having the right religion, no, this is a bold statement, but it is correct.

Just having the right religion doesn't make you right. But these are people who knew the law. They knew and kept the Sabbath. They didn't eat pork.

They met on the feast of Pentecost, and they didn't appear before the Lord empty-handed.

Sound familiar? But that wasn't enough, was it? This is a serious indictment of those people who think you can keep the law, and you are okay with God. The law does not produce love if it is not from the heart. If it doesn't produce love, we are nothing nothing in terms of being a Christian. If the law does not produce love, how did the Samaritan, a member of an ethnic group and a religious group that was despised by the Jews, come upon this man? Move by compassion, the Samaritan stops and actively cares for the man, and Jesus endorsed that. Why? Think it through. He's not saying any religion is okay.

He's not going outside the law. He's saying that's the one who actually kept the law.

The one who showed love, obeyed God. The people who had a form of religion weren't obeying God, didn't love God.

The Samaritan stopped, actively cared for the man, bandaged his wounds, poured oil and wine on him, put him on his own animal, takes him to the inn, pays for his continued care, promises to cover further expenses. Love in action. That's love. That is obeying the law. The Samaritan's actions were prompted by the heart, compassion. And that's what it means to be a true neighbor. And that's how you keep the law. Jesus concludes the parable by asking the lawyer which of the three was a neighbor to the victim, and the lawyer replied correctly. And Jesus said, go and do likewise. And that parable radically redefines neighbor, not as someone who is in proximity to you, someone who is of the same ethnicity to you, someone with the shared religious identity to you, but by action. Love is defined not by ethnicity, class, religion, by your actions.

It's like I told somebody else, it's not what they do that matters. That's irrelevant. It's what you do that determines whether or not you love God and you follow His commandments.

Look at Jesus. They murdered Him. And as He was being murdered, He said, forgive them, because He knew it's not what they're doing, it's what I'm doing that counts.

Love for one's neighbor is thus defined by active, practical help transcends social and religious barriers. It's irrelevant. But the contrast between inaction of the religious figures and the compassion of the Samaritan just underscores what genuine love is.

Love is demonstrated through deeds, not social standing, not religious affiliation.

I'm a member of... fill in the blank. That doesn't mean you love. Love. That just means you attend somewhere.

And we know that's not enough. We know that. So who actually fulfilled the law? Who obeyed God? Who loved God? The ethnically, religiously, offensive one, the Samaritan. The one who took action, showed compassion. So this is actually a perfect story to show that love and the law are the same. It's not your affiliation. It's not who you're a member of. It's what you do.

The law is a law of love. And if you don't get that, you don't understand the Word of God, not yet. Conversely, if you do understand that the law of God moves you to compassion, to mercy, to forgiveness, to kindness, to generosity, your eyes are open to the power of God's law, God's beautiful, perfect, unchangeable law. Who fulfilled the law? A priest? Nope. Levite? Nope. Should have been the teacher of the law. No, why not? Why do you think, well, we weren't there, we can't judge, but we can see that outward compliance of the law, without inward concern, according to Jesus Christ, is useless. So in the balance of the sermon today, let's look at two ditches that we can easily fall into in our path towards the kingdom of God. These ditches represent running off the path of our Christian wah into error, into contradiction to God. And if you go either direction, you are wrong. These two ditches concern law and the love. Ditch number one, to the right, is keeping the law on the outside with no love on the inside. No inward concern for others in the heart. Keeping the law is useless. Is that Rod Foster's opinion? Nope.

I mean, I agree with it. That's God's opinion. Keeping his law on the outside that doesn't convert your heart on the inside does not interest God in the least.

The Bible makes it clear. Love is the most important reason behind everything we do and the true way to live God's commands. It shows that following rules or doing religious things without real love doesn't mean anything. And here's the point, can actually displease God. What really matters is having a heart that's changed by love and showing love through our actions, and that's what a real relationship with God looks like in 1 Corinthians 13. If you didn't know I was going there, I would be surprised.

1 Corinthians 13, verses 1 through 3.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, you can't get more eloquent than the angels' language. That's what the commentators point out. I read many commentators on this, and they point out the eloquence. I could speak with all languages, even the eloquence of the angels, but have not love. I become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. I read that that means no tone or no inflection whatsoever. A cymbal can only do one thing, and it doesn't take a lot of skill to bang on a cymbal.

Right? There's no eloquence to a cymbal at all. So I could speak with the tongues of angels. I could speak their language and make everybody go, and didn't have love in those words. Might as well be banging a gong.

Verse 2. And though I have the gift of prophecy, I'm up here preaching a storm, aren't I? Am I?

And understand all mysteries. I can explain everything. You can explain everything. You know all the prophecies. You can explain whether conspiracy theory is true or false. And all knowledge—actually, the word ergon, I said today, means effort.

Though—and understand all mysteries, all knowledge, and though I have all faith, belief, trust, loyalty, so that I could remove mountains. Jesus said that's possible.

But have not love. I'm nothing. Zero.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, hey, that was in the law. That's keeping the law.

God said to do that. But what if it's just outward compliance? What if there's nothing in my heart? I'm just giving food to people. I'm just taking it from one place, putting it in another place. And I don't really care.

I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. And I give my body to be burned. There are some religious people so dedicated they literally set themselves on fire. Weirdest thing I've ever seen, I think. But have not love.

It profits me nothing. And that was part of the law.

Giving to the poor is keeping the law of God. And the Apostle Paul just said, if you do that but you don't care, zero.

Let's look at another scripture that shows that lawkeeping without love doesn't accomplish what you want. This one gets confusing because people use this against the law. The Apostle Paul is not talking about law here. He's talking about justification in the book of Galatians, which is another way of saying forgiveness. So in context of earning forgiveness, notice Galatians 5 and verse 6.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. Now that's a maxim. That is a cornerstone statement of the book of Galatians. Faith working through love. But people misunderstand this circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything because it looks like Paul is taking the law, crumpling up in his hand and throwing it in the trash can. He means it doesn't avail anything towards justification because the whole book is about justification.

So if you take this statement out of context, it looks like circumcision doesn't avail anything for anything. And that's not what Paul is saying. He's saying circumcision doesn't avail you for forgiveness. You can cut off anything you want. It's not going to forgive you what you did.

That's his point. You can't be justified, which is the theme of the letter of Galatians, by the law that you're guilty of breaking. You can't unbreak the law by keeping it. You can't go speeding down I-35 today, get a speeding ticket, and then between now and the time you get to the judge, go the entire speed limit and go, yeah, judge, I did go over the speed limit, but now I'm keeping it. He's like, great, we won't give you another ticket. Hey, you're fine. Same thing here. Romans 4 and verse 3. Romans 4 and verse 3. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt.

If you try to earn your way out of forgiveness, he's saying, you're not paying off your debt.

But God wipes the slate clean because somebody else paid it. Relating to the topic of the sermon today, you can't be justified by keeping the law on the outside and all the while hating your brother on the inside. Paul said in Galatians 5 verse 6, faith working through love. That's the point of the sermon today. Faith working through love. It's the maxim of the argument in chapter 5. Faith, which is trusting God, working, which is keeping the law, leads to loving actions. Faith in action equals love. That's what that statement means. Faith requires actions, and the actions produce love. Here's a companion scripture that says exactly the same thing. James, Jesus' little brother, verse 15. James 2 verse 15. And I think one of the sermonette speakers or sermon read this today. James 2 verse 15. If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, and do not give them the things which they need for the body. Well, go ask the church and they'll help you. Have you tried food stamps? What does it profit? Who is James talking to? You! What does it profit you?

You haven't made an investment in your Christianity today. So there's no payoff.

There's no growth. There's no love being built.

Depart in peace and be filled. But you do not give them the things which are needed for the body. What does it profit? Thus, faith, belief, trust, and loyalty, by itself, if it doesn't have works, keeping the law is dead.

Law and faith are shown when you take care of the needs of others. So don't fall into the ditch of outward compliance, complying with the law, but I couldn't care less about who I'm serving.

It doesn't matter. You're in the ditch and that wrecks your journey.

Now that's the ditch on the right side.

Keeping the law with no love wrecks your journey. But there's another ditch on the road. And it's way over on the left side. And it's a deep chasm of a ditch as well.

Oh, it's a much warmer ditch. The sun shines on that ditch over there.

While the entire Bible tells us that love is the most important virtue in the universe, it also tells us that love is not merely an unguided emotion, but it's a principle that finds its real expression and validity only when aligned with God's will, his truth, and his commandments, which Jesus and the apostles called the law of God. Love without law is the other ditch. Love without law.

Many scriptures tell us that the feeling of love, if it operates outside or in opposition to God's law, can actually misdirect you or be detrimental to your lives. Yes, I just said that. Love can be detrimental to your life. Want me to prove that? I'll prove it to you. Love can actually separate you from God if it's the wrong kind of love. It's not raw emotion, brethren. It's not determined by our personal opinion. Philippians 1, verses 9 and 10. I'm going to read this from the NIV. It makes it super clear. Philippians 1, verse 9. Paul says, and this is my prayer. Now, he just got through saying Jesus Christ is going to take care of you. And he said, but this is my prayer for you. And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight Oh, knowledge! You mean feelings. No. He doesn't mean feelings. He means you need to educate your love. The more you learn from God, the more you love. The less you know, the less you truly love.

The less insight you have into God's way, the less you love. Verse 10. So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless, it is possible to love your way into sin, to love your way into condemnation, pure and blameless for the day of Christ. What is the day of Christ? It's the day of judgment. And you want to be on the pure, on the best side of that day. It's not just a bunch of emotion, but you have to educate love. Love is not just raw. It has to be cultivated with knowledge and discernment to align what is what Paul said best and pure, according to God's standards. In other words, you need God's law to educate your heart so that you know what love really is. Love is not defined by your feelings. Love is cultivated when you learn knowledge and deep insight into God's law. So you've got to educate your love. How do you do that? Well, we covered that at the beginning of the sermon. That was the very first thing we covered by doing it.

That means that true, godly love doesn't come natural to us. We have to learn it.

And if you let your love just go wild, and you let whatever happens naturally happen to you, you're going to go into a ditch you don't want to be in. The next scripture uses the word instead of love. But it's synonymous with love because it's in the same category, speaking of our emotions, our feelings of fondness. And notice how our feelings can actually get us into some serious trouble if they're not guided by God's law. James chapter 4 verse 4. James 4 and verse 4. I just love everybody. Well, good. Well, good for you. I hope that love has rules. Because if that love doesn't have rules and you start participating with everybody, here's what God says to you. James 4 verse 4. You adulterous people. You do not know, or do you not know, that friendship with the world is enmity with God.

Not every love is godly love. If you love the world, you hate God.

Because the world takes you away from God. There are rules to love.

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend—that's fondness, that's love—of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So it's not love in any old way you want. True love is guided by God's Holy Spirit that conforms you to God's perfect law. So these scriptures we've gone through this afternoon tell us that while the feelings of love are part of human experience, biblical love is more profound. It's an active principle that must be educated by truth and expressed in obedience.

I hope we understand that. It's educated by God's law, and it's taught to us when we actually do it.

It's an active principle. It's an active principle.

Mere feeling, no matter how strong it is, if it's detached from the framework of God's law and truth, does not constitute complete or genuine love.

And it may actually separate you from God, and it may actually make you his enemy.

So here's the whole point of the message this afternoon.

You cannot separate law and love.

Law by itself is useless.

Love by itself is aimless and can separate us from God. We show God that we love Him by keeping His commands, by taking care of our fellow man sincerely from the heart.

It's really quite simple and quite profound.

So I have a question for you.

Who are you?

Who are you? Who are you?

Are you a member of the church?

Membership.

That's a vague and squiggly line.

This is not a country club where you have rights and privileges, where your membership earns you something, like we heard in the very first message this morning from Mr. Powell.

Power is work over time.

And it's not any work, just any old work you want to do.

It's the work of love, which is the law of God.

It's not a country club.

What do you need more of?

Do you need more socials?

Do you need better snacks at the snack table? By the way, those were awesome today.

Do you need different special music?

Do we need a little bit more upbeat special music?

Do you need a better pastor? Well, we might need a better pastor.

Better speakers?

No.

You don't need any of that.

It's not a country club.

That's not what we're doing here.

You are a son and a daughter of God. That's who you are.

You are not a member of the church, so to speak.

Remember the commitment you were called to love.

Remember your baptism. Remember who you are. Don't get pulled into either ditch.

Stay in the middle of the road, on the path towards the kingdom of God. Love the law of God. It cannot be separated from each other. Love God with all your heart, all your soul. Keep His commandments and take care of everybody around you, because it's who you are. It's not what you do.

Final words, not mine, but the words of Jesus. Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew 22, verse 37.

Matthew 22, verses 37 through 40.

Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

How do you do that?

By keeping His law.

This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.