The Greatest of These Is Love

The topic for my sermon springs naturally from the last two sermons that I've given. And it's actually sort of, if you want to label it, a part three to the last two.

And as I gave the last two, neither you nor I realized it was part one and part two. But as I sat down this week and was considering what I wanted to speak on, I thought about my last two messages, and this actually just fits as the third portion. Last time I spoke, I spoke on the topic of faith. The sermon was titled, Step Out of the Boat. And in that message, we looked at the faith of Peter, as it was one stormy night, on the Sea of Galilee. And we considered lessons that we can learn from his experience and what the Bible shows will bolster our faith, even in the face of the storms of this life.

A sermon before that, I spoke on the topic of the guaranteed hope that God has set before us all. And that sermon was titled, An Anchor of Our Soul. And that is what God's hope is, especially in this day and time where hopes are quickly dashed, and it seems like the things that are maybe even a promise of hope often disappoint, but the guaranteed hopes are the things of God.

And so I've spoken recently on faith and hope, but there's one more essential element that's often linked very closely into a package with these two, faith, hope, and one addition. So let's begin today. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and we'll see the three of these linked together, and then we'll take off from that point. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and we'll pick it up at the very last verse in that chapter, verse 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 13, the Apostle Paul writing, and he says, And now abide faith, hope, and love.

He says these three, as in they're a package, packaged up together. Faith, hope, and love. These three, but the greatest of these is love. The greatest of these is love. So we have the package again. Faith, hope, and love. And they're all essential elements to our relationship with God and, frankly, one another. But it says that the greatest of these is love.

And that's the title for today's sermon. The greatest of these is love. So I want to delve into that topic, and honestly, I had all these great ideas of where I was going to go with it and what we were going to cover, and I barely got off the ground in a sermon. This could be a multiple-part sermon. I don't intend it to be at this point, but I do at least want to scratch the surface on the topic of love.

And specifically, as God's love, as it is displayed in us in action. So when we talk about love, we're talking about the love of God, how it's displayed in us in action. Now, one of the questions that we can ask and answer right off the bat is, why is love the greatest of these? Again, when you look at the package, faith, hope, and love, why is love the greatest? What elevates it above everything else?

Well, if we go back to the beginning of chapter 13 and verse 1, we begin to find the answer. In 1 Corinthians 13, verse 1, Paul says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, he says I've become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. So we're talking about spiritual gifts here as you enter into 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and in fact, an issue that was going on in that congregation where people were showing off their gifts and these flashy gifts, but what was the motivation behind it?

And Paul says, if your motivation behind these gifts of what God has given you isn't love, then it's just noise. He says it's a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, just this deafening, this annoying noise. Verse 2, he says, And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, he says I am nothing.

Verse 3, And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

In a nutshell, love is the greatest because everything else that we find is bound together by love. Love is the glue that holds everything else together, and it's not saying that the other elements aren't important because they are. Faith and hope are essential. The gifts that God gives to be used in the congregation for the benefit of all are essential. But what binds these things together into a successful package that fulfills God's purpose is love. It's love. The context of this chapter makes it clear that without love, we are nothing. Love is an essential characteristic to the life of a Christian, to their life, to their calling, and to their work. And apart from love, you and I cannot even be what we claim to be as the people of God.

Again, all these gifts, all these blessings that God gives. But if love isn't backing it, the gift is nothing and the person is nothing. Love is the greatest, as Paul tells us. Now, we're going to carry on further in this chapter, actually at the very end of the message, so we'll stop right there. But another question that does arise, then, in light of this, is what is love? Because if love is the greatest, we have to understand what love is, what it springs from, what its source is, and why it's so essential. What is love? First John chapter 4 and verse 8.

First John 4 and verse 8, we're going to spend quite a bit of time in the writings of John today, both the Gospel and the latter books. John is actually unique in the Bible, because what I'm trying to convey in the Bible study we just began on the book of Acts is you need to know the background, the history, who it is that's presenting it. And now we're coming in here, and when we look at the Gospel of John and his other writings, we have to understand the same thing.

John was a disciple of Jesus Christ. He was of the first apostles. And he walked with Christ, he saw the miracles of Jesus Christ, heard his teachings, and yet he's this long-lived apostle who's outlived the other apostles, who's seen the church rise up in Jerusalem and seen the Gentiles now being brought in as part of the church of God. And now, as the window starts to close at the end of the first century, this is roughly 90 AD when John's writings, 90 to 95 AD in that spread, the window starting to close at the end of the first century, and our glimpse into what the church's condition was at the end of the first century.

And that's what John writes to. So when you go through his writings, there's some specific themes in his writings. He is addressing things that the church must get ahold of at the end of the first century. And it's basically, then the window closes. So John's themes are specific. One of his themes in the Bible is who was Jesus Christ, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and who he was, who God said he was, and who he was sent to be. Because, again, the end of the age, that was coming into question.

And that was beginning to crumble, frankly, in the church. It began to have teachings come in that said, well, he didn't even come in the flesh. He wasn't real. He was a vision. And, you know, God can't touch flesh. It's evil and corrupt. So all these things John addressed regarding who Jesus Christ was, the other element as well that the church was struggling with was love. And it's the other major theme, one of the other major themes, that run all through the writings of John.

So I want us to just kind of wrap our minds around that as we go forward. Our glimpse into the church is beginning. The window is about to close until it basically opens up in our time, at least from our perspective. But we see what it is that John is addressing that was so essential for the church to grab hold of as they move forward. So 1 John 4 and verse 8. John 4, verse 8. Very direct, very short verse, but it's profound.

It says, He who does not love does not know God. For God is love. So the question is, what is love? That's where we're starting with here. What is love? And a biblical definition for love starts with an understanding of who God is. John says, God is love. God Himself is love.

His character, His nature is love. And His character defines for us what love is. Everything else that we see in the Bible pertaining to God, His actions, His words, sending of a son, all these things come back to God who is love, and it stems from that love. If we don't understand love for ourselves, or we aren't practicing the love of God, then John tells us that we really don't know God. That's profound.

Again, He who does not love does not know God. For God is love. And so those who know Him will be practicing this greatest element of all. It's absolutely critical to our understanding. If we back up one verse to verse 7, John says, Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And so loving one another is God's love in action in us. And I actually wrestled with two titles for this message. One was, The Greatest of These is Love. That's what I kept. Another title I was considering was God's love in action in us. Because that's what loving one another is.

It's the result of being brought into a body of believers who, by God's calling, come to have a relationship with Him and know Him. And by benefit of knowing Him through that relationship, they become people who extend love. And that's what we've all been called into. It's a wonderful and a joyous thing, and a beautiful thing when it's working well. Love is of God, and He is the source. And it is God, then, who defines for us what love is. And if we ever feel like we're lacking in love, or we don't know how to love someone else, the answer actually isn't to go to your brother first.

That might sound a little odd, you know. The answer isn't go to your brother and say, it would really help if you could be more lovable. Because I'm having a hard time loving you, you know. That's not the answer. The answer, brethren, is actually we run to God first. Go to the source of love first. Because He who does not know God does not have love.

So we're to build up our relationship with God first, and come to understand His love more fully and then that reconciled relationship, and then that puts us into a position then to reach out ourselves and be loving. And seek to extend out that love in action. But I would just say, where there's a fault or where there's a disconnect in our ability to love one another, the problem stems from our ability, excuse me, our problem that extends from our relationship with God somewhere.

And if we're pointing and saying, well, it's their problem, maybe we need to turn the finger around and draw close to our God and more fully understand the love He has for us. Again, verse 8, He who does not love does not know God for God is love.

Over the years in the Church, you've probably heard the word for love. It's a Greek word, agape. And it's oftentimes been expressed as the godly kind of love or a higher form of the spiritual love of God. And there's a verb to that form as well.

It's agapeo. It's like love is a thing, agape. But agapeo is the expression of love, like you love someone. So you have the noun and the verb form, and again, it's often referred to as a godly kind of love. But what we need to understand is that agape is used to describe other forms of love that is not of God as well.

I'll just give you a few examples. Luke 6, verse 32 says, For even sinners love those who love them. Agapeo. John 3, 19. Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Agapeo. They loved as darkness rather than light. John 12, verse 43. For they loved agapeo, the praise of men, rather than the praise of God. And so to say that the Greek word agape, translated love, means godly love only, actually is not correct.

We actually have an English word agape. And in the English, it actually does mean that godly kind of love. But if we're talking about, as it appears in the Bible, in the Greek, agape, it's more of a general term for love. And it is used to apply to the love of God, but we need to understand a couple of things about it. Just as love in the English is used in a variety of contexts, agape was used in a variety of contexts in the Bible as well.

And it quotes you from Mounts' complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament words under the heading of agape, in its Greek, or its verb form agapeo. And it says, quote, Insecular Greek, especially before the time of Christ, it was a colorless word without any great depth of meaning, used frequently as a synonym of eros, which is a sexual love, and philio, which is a general term for love. If it had any nuance, it was the idea of love for the sake of its object.

Perhaps because of its neutrality of meaning, and perhaps because of its slight nuance of meaning, the biblical writers picked agapeo, or agape, to describe many forms of human love, for example, the love between a husband and a wife, and most importantly, God's undeserved love for the unlovely. It goes on to say, in other words, its meaning comes not from the Greek, but from the biblical understanding of God's love.

End quote. So the point is, when we talk about agape, and what's often referred to as the love of God, we need to understand that God's love is most fully understood, not in the technical definition of the Greek word agape, but actually in the literal expression of God's love throughout the Scriptures. God's love is greater than the word agape, and it doesn't fully encompass the love of God. Again, in the Bible, as the Greek is used, it's more of a general term. As we've pulled it into the English, we have now attributed to it more of godly love.

But we understand who and what God is is exceedingly greater, even than this Greek word, and how it was used, even in the Bible. So the point of the sermon is that God's love is the greatest of these things, and we must put it into action. Carrying on here in verse 9, still 1 John chapter 4 verse 9, says, In this the love of God was manifest towards us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.

This is how the love of God was expressed, out from him towards us. He sent his only begotten Son into the world to be the sacrifice for our sins, to die for us so that we could live. And it's this love of God in action towards us that ought to then motivate a response. So what should our response be? If love is who and what God is, and it's what he's poured out to us, and frankly saved our life, by what ought our response to be?

In verse 11, John says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. We ought to take the love that God had for us and express to us personally and extend it out to others as well. We ought to love others as God has loved us. And it keeps coming back to, if we're going to understand how that love is expressed, we have to know God. And it requires a relationship, and a close and intimate relationship with him.

I don't want us to miss this point, brethren. I'm going to say it again. To the degree that we show love for one another is the degree by which we actually know God. Because that's what John is saying. And that's a big point. To the degree that we show love for one another is the degree by which we actually know God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

That's huge. That's a major element of our calling and our Christianity, and what God would have us to express as he's brought us together as a congregation. Verse 12 says, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. So this is another critical element to knowing God and to showing his love in action. It's the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us. And as we know the fruits of the Spirit, love is a fruit of God's Spirit. And it's who and what he is in us, and it's to be expressed out from us in our words and in our actions. Verse 14, we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. These are important verses just to spend time with, to reflect on, to contemplate the depth of this meaning.

Verse 17, love has been perfected among us in this. That we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. As he is, as God is, he is love. That is how we are to be in this world. Love. Love towards one another in the body and love towards the world as well. And I think sometimes we can almost draw back from that second point of love towards the world, but God has called us to be a light and an expression of this love to all. Verse 17, love has been perfected among us in this. That we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love. In order if you know God, then the love of God is going to be there. And fear won't. And it doesn't mean we don't look around and take wise precautions, right? The wise man foresees the evil and hides himself from the simple pass on in our punish. But the point is, if you abide in the love of God, that means you know God. And perfect love casts out fear. So if there's a problem with us living in a perpetual state of fear, it comes back to, again, do we know God? Is our relationship there? Are we expressing his love in our life? Perfect love casts out fear. Verse 19, we love him because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.

So this is a very direct commandment. It comes from God the Father himself to us, that he who loves God must love his brother also. So there's no getting around this point. There's no excusing it away. We're finding some excuse why, well, that person's just unlovable. Sorry, I can't do that today. The point is, God has called us to love. It's the only option he's given us. So again, it comes back to, what if your brother or sister in the faith seems to be unloving in return? I tried to love them. I tried to extend, but it's not coming back to me. Do I just kind of now withdraw within myself, because I'm not receiving it in return? What would God have us to do if our brother and sister aren't loving of us in return? Well, again, if you love, you know God, because God is love. What was God's response then to that exact same circumstance? Of those who would not love him in return. What was God's response? Again, back up in verse 10 of 1 John 4. In this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Before we even committed ourselves to loving God, he loved us first.

He loved us by simply creating us, and mankind went their own way. But before we loved God, he loved us first, and he extended what was needed to heal that relationship, to reconcile, to redeem it, to reference back to the sermon that God redeemed us from death, brought us into his love.

Before we ever committed ourselves to God, he loved us first. Romans 5, verse 5 follows this thread. It's important for us to, again, understand the love of God if we're going to express it out to one another as he intends. Romans 5, verse 5, Paul says, Now hope does not disappoint. Again, it's one of the three in this package, right? Faith, hope, love. It says, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So, again, you have faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.

That's why hope doesn't disappoint. Verse 6, it says, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were in a state of refusing to acknowledge God and to turn that love back towards him, when we were enemies of God, he extended out in love his son in order to, again, bring us into a relationship with him. It says he demonstrated his love in that way.

And that's huge. Verse 9, continuing on, it says, Not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we now receive the reconciliation. The term reconciliation, again, has to do with our relationship with God. Do we know him? Are we interacting with him on the level in which he has called us? He sent Jesus Christ for us, and that is the love of God in action. And it was at a time that we were unlovable. I want to use that phrase, or certainly not returning that love.

God responded in that way, and brethren, it's what we've been called to do in response to one another as well. Even if somebody doesn't seem loving in return, that doesn't mean we withdraw our love, nor we continue to extend it. 1 Peter 4, verse 8 tells us, And that's an interesting concept. We were deserving of death. God's love covered our sins by sending his son. Proverbs 10, verse 12 states that hatred stirs up strife. Hatred stirs up strife. You know, we're just contentions and strife, and those things get stirred up from it. It's anger. It's hatred. It's bitterness. It's contention. It says, But love covers all sins. Just kind of cover it over.

Let it go. This is what you and I must be willing to do for others if we're going to be demonstrating the very same love of God in action in us. We must be willing to do it for others. The very same love of God in action in us.

We must be forgiving. We must be turning the other cheek. We need to be willing, maybe even at times, to suffer wrong for the sake of keeping the peace, letting it go, whatever it is. The blessing is that if we're all living according to this principle, then we can't miss. Right? It's a win-win.

If you're reaching out in love, and your brother's reaching out in love, and that love is covering, let's say, a multitude of offenses, love covers sin, you wronged me, let's not keep score on that. If we're reaching out in those ways, then again, the blessing is it's a win-win. Challenges arise when we aren't willing to do these things, and to the degree that we're not willing brings us back around to the fact that we really don't know God. We can talk about God. We can preach about God. We can express factual knowledge about God.

But do we really know God? That's brought out in the fact of whether we love one another or not. And it's not my words, it's John's words, but it's something we must all take to heart. When Jesus Christ walked the earth in the flesh, he was Emmanuel. He was God with us. And as such, he demonstrated the love of God in action. Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit.

He was connected with his Father continually, and he said, I came to do my Father's will, to speak his words and to fulfill his purpose. He was demonstrating these things in action, and he walked according to love. So let's notice Christ's words to his own disciples regarding this very same love of God. John 13, verse 33.

John 13, verse 33. And again, it's amazing how it all boils down to whether or not we're going to love our brethren, boils down to whether or not we really love God and really know God. And actually, our relationship with God is where it starts if this is going to work among us. John 13, verse 33. In the words of Jesus Christ, he says, So now I say to you, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this, I will know that you are my disciples, my followers, my imitators, if you have love, one for another. The very same love of God that was in Jesus Christ must be in us as well. If we're going to be identified as true followers, as truly the church of God, we must be demonstrating the love of God in action in us by the way that we interact with one another and care for one another.

And frankly, by the way, we interact with the world around us as well. That love of God in Jesus Christ was to the whole world. And we can't just somehow bottle it up and close it in on ourselves. We must love the world as well. Matthew 5, verse 43. Matthew 5, verse 43. You know, we might say, some people are just a little more lovable than others, so I'll stick to that corner of the room.

Is that what we're given to do? Matthew 5, verse 43. Again, the words of Jesus Christ, he says, You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. You know, loving your enemies is not an easy thing. Sometimes loving your friends is not an easy thing.

Sometimes loving the brethren is not an easy thing either, but yet it's what we've been called to do because of the reflection of the love of God in us. Verse 45, he says, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Love is an identifier of who and what we are. Are we sons of God, daughters of God, or not? Well, your love is going to determine and identify that because if you don't love, you really don't know God.

And how could you be children of God and imitators of Jesus Christ? Again, verse 45, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his Son to rise on the evil and the good.

He sends a reign on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? For even the tax collectors do the same. And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. And I might just ask at this point, what's perfect about God? Where does his perfection stem from? What's his love? And we're to be perfect in that love as our Father in heaven is perfect as well.

We're called to take on that very same nature for ourselves if we want to be sons of our Father in heaven. And that takes work. It takes effort. Sometimes it takes putting ourselves out there in a way that, you know, we might get our toes stepped on. And, you know, it happens. Don't we agree? It happens. But we have to be willing to continue in this. And you know what?

At times it even requires sacrifice on our part. The life and example of Jesus Christ shows us that the love of God in action is a sacrificial love. We won't turn there. John 3, 16 tells us, though, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

The Father sent the sacrifice willingly out of love. The Son came and laid his life down willingly. He says, no one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own accord. It was a sacrifice of love. And for you and I, that's the love we're to express as well.

A sacrifice of love. First John chapter 3 verse 1. Again, this is the point John, at the very end of his life, as the window of what we can see into the church is beginning to close, as persecution has come into the church, as things are actually threatening to rip the church of God apart at the end of the first century, the sacrifice of love was a big part of John's message. First John chapter 3 and verse 1. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God?

Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him. I've kind of always wondered about this verse a little bit. They don't know us because they didn't know him. It comes back again. If you love, you know God. And if you don't know God, you're not going to identify with that love. And they're not going to know us because they did not know him. The love of this world is different than the love of God. Jumping down to verse 10, this chapter essentially goes through showing what makes you children of God. And verse 10 it says, in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. That's big. We know those who don't practice righteousness. Of course, they're not of God. But it says, nor is he who does not love his brother. Verse 11, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who is of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not marvel, my brother, and if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Hope we're grabbing the magnitude of just how important the attitude of the love of God in us is. Again, it's a matter of life and death. He who does not love his brother abides in death. And the Bible is providing a very clear distinction as to who are the children of God and who are not. And the factor it boils down to is love. It's love.

I've actually heard over the years certain ministers in the Church of God criticize because they teach too much love. You know, another sermon on love. Maybe you've heard that, love again. But, brethren, we have to be so careful with that because that's what it comes back to. Love is the glue that holds everything together. If you truly understand the love of God, it encompasses everything leading to eternal life. The greatest of these is love.

Verse 16, 1 John 3 verse 16, it says, It says, It takes so much more than just saying it. You know, I love you. Don't you know I love you? I've told you I love you. Fine. Do you show it? Do you display it? Love, again, in the verb form, agapeo, is love in action. And it's what we've been called to do. It's a sacrificial love, such as God and Christ sacrificed for us. That same love we must have for one another. And it's a willingness to give of ourselves for the benefit of others, even when it's not convenient.

And even when it's painful and it hurts, or we have to give up something that's important to me in order to benefit somebody else spiritually. That's the sacrificial love God has called us to. Just as Jesus Christ did for us by laying down His life, we must lay down our lives for the brethren.

Love one another as He loved us. That's the commandment God the Father gave, that's the commandment Jesus Christ gave as well. So I'd say that's pretty important. John chapter 15, back to the words of Jesus Christ. John chapter 15 and verse 9. Jesus says, As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. I want to bring you back to the concept of be careful and don't mock love.

And here's why. Again, Jesus said, if you're going to keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. There's a whole Bible study you can do on the topic of love is keeping God's commandments. And if you're taking notes, I'd encourage you to jot that down and take some time this week, do a Bible study on love equals keeping the commandments. And, you know, that old law that was done away, right? Why would that be love? Once we come to understand the two great commandments, love towards God, love towards our fellow man, they're all encompassed in the laws and the commandments of God.

And when we keep those things, we're demonstrating the love of God and Jesus Christ in action. So love is not just a shallow term. Love encompasses, again, everything leading unto salvation and the character of God. Verse 11, still in John chapter 15, verse 11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love is no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. So again, we come back to that self-sacrifice for others is God's love in action in us. Sacrificing our time, it can be sacrificing our resources, our finances, whatever it is that God has blessed us with that we can offer to someone else, it's laying it out there in love.

What can I extend to help you for your spiritual gain? Romans chapter 12 tells us that this attitude is actually expected, and it's the expected response of those who have received the love of God and come under the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 12, in verse 1, again, what ought our response to these things be? Romans chapter 12, in verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

In light of everything that God and Christ did for us out of their love, our reasonable service in response is to lay down our life in sacrifice and to be living sacrifices, one for another. Verse 2, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. Good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Mr. Nelson talked about the time that we actually take to sit down and quiet our minds and focus on the will of God.

That's essential. We're not going to know that will apart from the love of God. I appreciated that message very much. But there has to be a transformation that takes place because the carnal mind is enmity against God and it's not looking to lay itself down for the benefit of somebody else. It's looking at what can I gain for me? So there's the transformation by the renewing of your mind.

In Colossians 12, let's go there as well.

Excuse me, I jumped ahead just a moment, but the renewing of your mind, Paul wrote this, and he also wrote Ephesians 4.23, very similar. Ephesians 4.23, Paul said, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So it's a complete spiritual change, isn't it? That allows us to do these things and process love in this way. Remind you earlier what we read in 1 John 4.13, where he said, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit, his Holy Spirit. That's where the transformation comes from. That's the source that allows us to transform into even reflecting this love in our life, is the indwelling of God's Spirit. Galatians 5 describes the fruit of God's Holy Spirit in action in our minds.

Galatians 5, we know it very well. Let's put our eyes on it. Galatians 5, verse 22 says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. It starts out with love. Have you ever wondered why love is listed first? This is my speculation, so you can mark it down as a pole-moody speculation, but my opinion is, love is listed first because everything else we see listed along with it stems from love. Love is the greatest, and everything else requires love in order to be a fruit. So we have love, Galatians 5, 22. We have joy, which is what? A product of God's love in action. When you're living according to this, and we all are, what's the result? It's joy that's expressed in our life. It's the Spirit of God. It's peace that comes because this love is here. It's long-suffering and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. These are all parts of God's nature dwelling in us through the Spirit. The greatest is love, and these things flow out of the love of God in us by His Spirit. And it's what He's given us to live by. Love is the glue that binds everything else together. Now in Colossians 3, verse 12.

Colossians 3, verse 12 is not just John that writes on love. It's Paul's focus as well. Colossians 3 and verse 12, Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, Just put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, Bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, You know what they did last week? Last month? Last year? Ten years ago? That's... I don't hold grudges, but, you know. Having a hard time with that one, right? If anyone has a complaint against one another, Even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Verse 14, But above all these things, put on love.

Above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, To which you are also called in one body, and be thankful. Love is the bond of perfection. Again, it's the glue that binds all these things together. It's the glue that binds together the forgiveness towards one another, And the bearing long towards one another. It's the glue that gives the mercy and the kindness and the humility and the meekness and the long suffering. It binds it all together. It's what it stems from. The love of God in us. But the background to all of this is, there's going to be plenty of opportunity to practice it.

Because we're human beings, and sometimes we rub up against one another in a less than ideal way, God allows us the opportunity to grow in these things. Love must be the bond of perfection among the people of God. It must be the glue that holds the people of God together, because we are exercising the kindness and the humility and the long suffering. That stems from the love of God. Again, the greatest of these is love. Let's conclude back in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This is where we started the message. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, known as the love chapter. Let's see some of the specific qualities of God's love that are listed out. As we read through it, just consider in your mind, am I practicing these things? And what is the benefit to practicing these things? 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 1, let's see it through the eyes of having heard what we just heard. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 1, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could move mountains, but I have not love, I am nothing. Verse 3 says, And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. You know, I'm saying there's no real value in these actions apart from love. And yet they're valuable actions. We shouldn't have one without the other, but they have to go hand in hand. Or it is just noise. Background static. It's not accomplishing what God has given us to accomplish. Verse 4, love suffers long. Or as maybe you've heard it before, love suffers long. Doesn't love suffer at times? Isn't it? We suffer because we love. You think God and Christ suffered?

Suffered because they saw the sin, suffered because He died in a horrendous way, you know, love suffers. But it suffers long. It's not destroyed. It is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Love is not puffed up. It's not proud. Love does not behave rudely. Love does not seek its own. It is not provoked. It thinks no evil. That's the New Testament translation, thinks no evil in the New King James. Excuse me. If you have a marginal reference, again, the Greek is highlighted a little more clearly. It says, It keeps no accounts of evil. As in, love doesn't keep score. Love covers a multitude of sins. Verse 6, It does not rejoice in iniquity, but it rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails, because God never fails. And God is love. And if we express love, love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail, because you see, one day prophecy is going to become history. You might could say, you know, I knew it all. I got it. Did you hear me? Did you hear me? But, you can look at it in hindsight now as history, but if you didn't have love, where's the value? Okay. Where there are tongues, they will cease. Wherever there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, or that which is complete has come, then that which is in part will be done away. You're saying, you know what? We see through a glass dimly, and God has given us the ability to have a glimpse into what yet lies ahead. We see in part, and we prophesy in part, but you know what? When it is here in its complete fullness, God's kingdom is here. We will see clearly. So don't destroy yourself for the lack of love over what you see in part, but dimly.

For then, but then, that which is perfect has come, or complete has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. When I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall be known just also, then I shall know just also as I am known. Again, the full completeness, not just a reflection in the mirror. Verse 13, And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three as a package, but the greatest of these is love. Brethren, the biblical definition of love starts with God. It is the nature of God that defines for us what love is because God Himself is love. That perfect love that has been poured out in our lives through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ now allows us to see and understand what the perfect love of God looks like. And we see it in His actions, in His example. You and I have come to understand this love even more fully again as we build an intimate relationship with our Father in Heaven. He who does not know God, does not have love, does not know God. So run to God. If you're struggling with love between you and someone else and there's challenge, run to God. Immerse yourself in more full understanding of His love than go to that person, to you and your brother alone. There's all, brethren, is that we too are called to be beings of love, expressing the perfect love of God first towards one another, then also to all of our fellow man. First it is to God. Then it's to one another. Then it's to all of our fellow man. For these are the two great commandments. He who does not love God, does not know God, for God is love. So I hope you've enjoyed kind of this package together of these three parts. Faith, hope, and love. They all bear the fruit of God in our lives. They're all important. They're all essential. But, brethren, never forget that above all things, the greatest of these is love.