What's Love Got to do With It?

1 John chapter 4 and verse 7. I'm going to read

1 John 4 · chapter mention

from verse 7 to verse 11. I'll go ahead and begin.

It says, Beloved, let us love one another. For

love is of God. And everyone who loves is born

of God and knows God. He who does not love does

not know God. For God is love. In this, the love

of God was made manifested toward us, that God

sent his only begotten son into the world that

we might live through him. In this is love, not

that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent

his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to

love one another. Amen. Somebody say amen. I

have an interesting title for my message today.

Amen. I want to answer this question, what's

love got to do with it? Amen. No, we're not going

to sing that song. But I believe that this verse

today answers that question. Amen. You may be

seated in God's presence. You know, when I think

about that word love, it's such a broad term.

Think of all the ways that we use that word,

love, right? All the different settings, different

contexts that we use it in daily conversation,

love. Somebody say love. And that word in our

day and age has come to mean whatever you want

it to mean when we say love. We say we love a

lot of things, don't we? How many of you love

tacos? Come on, amen. I love tacos, amen. I love,

and I have said that many times, or even things

like pizza. I love any pizza lovers out there.

Now I'm getting you hungry. Okay, I know. I got

to be careful here. We love these things. And

on a day like today, we also realize that there

is a very, people are very passionate, and they

love their sports teams, right. They love their

favorite player. But there's all sorts of things

we love. I love that song. Those are my favorite

pair of shoes. I love those things. At the same

token, we also love people. We tell people, I

love you. You tell your spouse. You tell your

loved one or relative or a friend, I love you.

So all of these loves obviously are not the same.

Amen. They're not the same. You can't possibly,

as much as you love tacos, can't say I love tacos

in the same way that you maybe love your mother

or your father or a friend. They're just different

types of love. And I think what I read in our

text today is the Apostle John bringing us back

to the true meaning of what love is. In the New

Testament. We find two prominent words for love.

They are the word phileo and agape. And now both

of these appear in Scripture and they don't mean

the same thing. Now what I really like about

the language, the original language of Scripture

is its nuance, its complexity. There are different

words to describe different things that gets

lost in translation, gets lost in our modern

vernacular. We're going to look at these two

words just very briefly to set the tone. Filio

is a word that describes emotional love. It involves

feelings of warmth and affection towards someone.

It's brotherly love. This is where the city of

Philadelphia gets its original meaning, the city

of brotherly love, filio. Agape is the other

form of love. In the New Testament, and it means

sacrificial love. This is very different from

philio. This is an intentional, unconditional

love. It's more than a feeling, agape, but it's

an act of the will. Now, it's important to understand

that both of these terms are perfectly acceptable.

Nothing wrong with philio love. We're not here

to throw philio under the bus. We need some philio,

amen. In fact, I think we can use a little more

of that. Amen. Sometimes we don't feel enough

of the love. Amen. Both are good. Both are gifts

from God. And perfectly acceptable in human life.

And they serve their purpose. But the word that

we're focusing on today is agape. Because this

is the word that John uses when he writes love

one another. He does not say filial one another.

agape one another. So he is telling us, commanding,

instructing us not just to feel something. He's

not telling us how to feel. He's telling us how

to act. How to conduct ourselves. How to behave.

The manner in which we love. And this is important

to John because if you Look at the whole context,

which is always good, always important when you

read a verse to look at the surrounding text

in order to discover what the writer is essentially

trying to say. And in the time of John's writing,

there were false teachers that were troubling

the church, that were causing division and causing

chaos and stirring up strife and trouble. And

it was just a turbulent time in the new church,

in the early church. As John is writing, and

so under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

he attacks the problem, perhaps not in the way

that we might, not in argumentative form, not

in debate form, but it gets down to the heart

of the matter. Because his interest is not in

winning an argument. Amen. And that ought not

to be our interest either, is not to win an argument.

Because how many of you know that you could sometimes

win an argument and lose the relationship? You

could be right and wrong at the same time. I

was right, or I really proved my point, but then

you lost the person as a result. John's not interested

in doing that. He probably could have. He could

have laid out a very detailed and robust theological

argument for how the church can correct itself,

but he got down to what it's all about. And in

his estimation, under the inspiration of God,

He protects the church by telling the church

to examine their hearts and to see if they're

truly living as God intended them to live as

a community of faith, as brothers and sisters

in the body. John's not concerned with how much

scripture they know, how much verses they can

quote. He's not concerned with how loud their

worship is and how properly they are presenting

themselves. He wants to know. Where's the love?

He wants to know what's love got to do with it

in the church. And he is obviously picking up

where Jesus left off when he summarized all the

commandments into two. All of the laws into two

when he says, in response to which is the greatest

of the commandments, the Lord says that you should

love the Lord your God. With all of your heart,

your soul, your mind and strength. Can somebody

say amen for that? And the second was to love

your neighbor as yourself. And on all these,

all the commands, all the law hangs on these

two commands. I want to tell you that you can

do a lot of things right, dear friend. You can

do a lot of things right. You can get a lot of

it right. Doctrinally, theologically, biblically.

spiritually even. You can do a lot of things

right, but if you get these two commands wrong,

everything else is out of order. Everything else.

You say, well, I keep all of the other 900 laws,

or however many there are, and I do them perfectly

and to the T. But if you don't love God and if

you don't love your neighbor, your life is out

of order. And so John is trying to bring order

back by getting to the heart of the matter. And

he answers this question about love by giving

us three reasons. So I'm going to point these

out for us today very succinctly. The first reason

is that God is the source of love. I said he's

the source of love. He's the source. Verse 7,

beloved, let us love one another. For love is

of God. We need to know that love is not a product

of human invention. Love is not the product of

the world. It's not a product of culture. It's

not a product of what man says that it is. Love

originates with God. It flows from His nature.

It's who He is. So much so that John says in

verse 8, God is love. Someone say, He is love.

Now notice what he didn't say. He didn't say

that love is God. But God is love. You need to

know that there's a big difference between the

two. He didn't say love is God. He said God is

love. The world has a concept of love, even through

their own foggy lens of Scripture, that would

suggest that love is God. The world says that

love is God. But the Bible says that God is love.

I want you to see this contrast. The world says

love is God, which that sounds good to a certain

degree that, hey, love is everything is what

they're saying. But the Bible doesn't teach us

that God is love. Now, this is a clear distinction

that we... Christians, we believers, must make,

not only in our own mind, but as we go out into

this world, we must make that clear distinction

because we are living in a world, we're living

in a day and an age where love is constantly

being redefined and reshaped to fit people's

personal views and desires. Our society preaches

a message of love. In fact, you hear it everywhere

you go. Love. Can't we just love each other?

And on the surface, The Christian is presented

with somewhat of a dilemma because it's like,

well, of course we ought to love, right? I mean,

love is the answer in many ways, but beneath

that message oftentimes is another agenda, perhaps.

Sounds harmless, even noble, but it falsely makes

human desire the source and the standard of love.

And this can be a problem. And I don't have the

time today to get into and unpack all the ways

in which this mentality can actually become idolatrous

so that love becomes God instead of God himself.

There are many ways that we are seeing this,

not only in the world, but we can see this even

in our own lives, in our own relationships, where

human emotions are justified in the name of whatever

definition of love one has for themselves. We

live in a world, hear me today, friend, hear

me today, church, we live in a world where love

is their God, where they kneel at the altar of

love. It's their religion. It's their religion.

Love is their holy ground. Which is why, if you

ever dare question the validity or the substance

of that love, it's as though you're committing

blasphemy. And it's why you'll be hated and despised

if you ever contradict someone's version, someone's

form, someone's self -definition of love. Whew,

there's so many contexts for what I'm saying

here today. And you'll be hated for that. You'll

be despised for that on every level. If love

is God, then we'll define it by our own standard.

And we'll seek it in places and from people rather

than Christ. And so part of my message today

for somebody who's been... With competing, there's

a conflict in your heart today between love is

God and God is love. And you see those elements

or those competing emotions, those competing

ideas within yourself. And you're struggling

to want to do the will of God, want to do what

the sayeth the Lord, want to do what his word

commands us to do and how he commands us to live

versus what you feel in our heart. And we live

in a world where people say, well, if it feels

right. Just go with it. We live in a world that

says listen to your heart. But the Bible teaches

that the heart is deceitful and wicked above

all things. Who can try? I didn't come today

preaching a message of listen to your heart and

what your heart tells you is true. No, the devil

is a liar. Your heart can lie to you and tell

you something that is not God's will. I came

to say that God is love. And so if you're in

conflict today with what love you ought to give

yourself to, let's get back to biblical, true,

genuine, pure, godly love that he has placed

in our hearts. Amen, somebody. That's a conflict

for many people and it's why they struggle and

why they're at odds even to serve the Lord in

which they want to or come back to church or

somebody's going to watch this message, going

to hear this message that's conflicted between

what your heart is telling you to do and what

this preacher is saying you ought to do or what

you hear the word saying you ought to do. But

if you will simply put your definition, your

feelings aside and say, what does God have for

me? Because God is the source and the standard

of love. and you can't go wrong when you do it

God's way. Since God is love, he alone is a source

and standard that we must follow. Reason number

two as to why we ought to love and love one another,

which is, I'll tell you in preview over the next

few weeks, we'll get into more of how it is we

can love when there are different scenarios that

Scripture navigates us through. But the second

reason is... Why to love is new life ought to

look like love. In verse 7, he continues, everyone

who loves is born of God and knows God. Someone

say new life. Say it looks like love. If you

want to test the authenticity, the validity of

someone's claimed new life look no further than

the way they love. Born of God, he says. Born

of God. Anyone who is born of God, what does

that mean? Well, the New Testament teaches what

being born of God is. It's a new birth experience.

It's a spiritual regeneration. It's a... becoming

a new creation through being baptized in Jesus'

name in water, being filled with the gift of

the Holy Spirit, right, where we become citizens

of his kingdom. We are born again into the family

of God. This is talking about being born of God.

Anyone who loves is born of God, and they know

God. Amen. They know God. Now, as apostolics,

we, as... Apostolic, one God, Pentecostal people,

we rightly emphasize that speaking in tongues

is the initial sign of receiving the Holy Ghost.

Amen, somebody. We rightly emphasize that. But

the ongoing sign, after one has spoken with new

tongues, the ongoing sign of the Spirit is love.

Not tongues. That's the initial. That's the first

evidence, the first sign, I should say. But ongoing

from that point on, what is the sign that the

Spirit of God, that His Word is building me,

developing me, growing me into that person that

He wants me to be? It's love. Someone say love.

It's not the gifts that you have. You can grow

in gifts. You can grow in spiritual activity.

You can grow in your knowledge. You can become

so knowledgeable of not just the Word of God,

but knowledgeable of all sorts of studies and

disciplines in this life. You can become a walking

encyclopedia, a walking, talking Bible. Amen.

And still fall short of where God calls us. If

you fail to grow in love. So the test for us

today as believers is that as I'm growing in

my gifts, as I'm growing in activity, growing

in knowledge of the kingdom, growing in my understanding

of biblical things, growing in my spiritual vocabulary.

Man, I know more words than I did yesterday.

That's wonderful. I'm growing. And all these

are growing in my talents, growing in my abilities.

But are we growing in love? Hear me today. You

can be spiritually active. And not be spirit

-led. I'm going to say it again. You can be spiritually

active and not be spirit -led. In other words,

you can pray and not love. I've known some people

that are just, you know, they pray more than

Jesus, I guess, and they don't love. You know,

you can serve and not love. You can serve out

of your giftedness. You can serve out of just

religious obligation. You can serve out of duty,

sacred duty, and not love. You can serve somebody

and not love the person you're serving. You can

do a lot of things, that's my point today, and

not love. And the danger is, for us, is equating,

which I think perhaps... Maybe not so, but in

my estimation, perhaps in the apostolic or in

the spirit -filled church, I should say, that

there's a tendency to equate spiritual activity

with spiritual maturity. Don't mistake spiritual

activity for spiritual maturity because the two

are not the same. We can speak in the tongues

of angels. We can prophesy. We can quote scripture.

You can hover around this place on a cloud of

anointing. And all those things doesn't mean

that we're growing in the most essential parts

of our life and our spirit, which is love. And

we have to be careful that we're not equating

spiritual activity or gifts with growth. Following

rules with following peace with all men. Paul

had to correct this issue in Corinth. Are you

hearing me today? Amen. Just give me a couple

more minutes. Amen. I know some of you are looking

at your clocks. Don't worry. God's got something

to say today. Can I preach this for her? Can

I preach this? Amen. Paul had to correct this

issue in Corinth because they had tongues, prophecy,

and knowledge. They had all that working. Man,

Corinth was like a well -oiled machine spiritually

with the gifts, with prophecy. Huh? And biblical.

but they also had pride and strife and division.

So this is what Paul writes. He says, in 1 Corinthians

13, if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels

but do not have love, I am only a resounding

gong or a clanging cymbal. He said, if I do all

these things, if I talk in tongues all day long,

you know, just... Talking in tongues, right?

And I speak in angelic tones. But if I don't

have love, you know all I am? All I am is a crashing

cymbal. Like one of these cymbals here on this

drum set. That's what I am. I am just making

a bunch of noise. I'm making a bunch of racket.

I'm making a bunch of, I'm just, you know, I'm

loud and I'm proud. But that doesn't mean that

I actually love. And the Spirit of God, when

it's truly moving, growing, nourishing, developing

within you, that relationship with the Lord,

when love is really moving in your life, you

do more than just produce a lot of noise. Are

you hearing what I'm saying? The Spirit does

produce more than just noise. It produces brotherly

love. It produces character. It produces righteousness.

Hallelujah. It produces love. for each other

and so today church as we think about what love

means and how it matters for us as a church last

Sunday we prayed a special prayer today I believe

prophetically a culture we spoke into this church

a culture of love and acceptance and care and

mercy and forgiveness with one another and if

this is going to become an ongoing reality for

us then we have got to let the spirit lead us

us not just be spiritually active but to be spiritually

led of God and let love rule and reign in our

hearts. Amen somebody. Why don't we give God

a hand praise today. The clearest sign that the

Spirit is leading you is not so much how you

worship, not even how you dress and all those

things. I'm not downplaying those things but

it's how you love. Because you can have all those

other things right. You know, your picture could

be the picture that you find in the dictionary

when you look up apostolic. Oh, wow, that's an

apostolic right there. Some people think they

are the definition of it. Praise God. God have

mercy. You can have all the externals right.

But how many of you know God looks at the heart?

Isn't that what? Isn't that what the Lord said

to Samuel when he was getting ready to anoint

the next king over Israel? He said, don't look

on the outside. Man looks on the outward, but

God looks at the heart. And that's what God is

looking at. Jesus said this, by this all will

know that you are my disciples if you have love

for one another. That's how they're going to

know. They're not going to know that we are his

disciples. They're not going to measure. The

world is not going to measure our discipleship

by our doctrinal points. All 19 of them or 20.

Maybe grown a little bit. But they're not going

to know. The world is not going to measure our

discipleship by our doctrinal points. They're

going to measure it by our love. The way that

we love one another. Because people are smart.

People are smart. They will see. what is being

presented, what is the image that's being presented

to them as one thing. And then when they see

the behavior and the way that the people of God,

quote unquote, treat one another, they'll say

that's false advertisement. Come on. You're saying

one thing. You're saying one thing, but you're

treating people another thing. You're doing another

thing. I don't want to be a church known just

for talking big about how we love and how we

treat each other. Anybody can talk, but how many

of you know talk is cheap? Come on, I said talk

is cheap. I don't want to just say love. Oh yeah,

we all love each other. We're going to sing kumbaya

and hold hands together and just love each other.

And then start talking about each other the moment

that we leave. Woo, somebody say woo. Say, I

love you, brother. I love you. And then behind

closed doors, we're not praying for them. We're

not looking them up. We're mistreating. We're

gossiping. Amen. That's not love. That's not

what the church is supposed to look like. And

so how many of you know we have a witness that

we have to, we got to be a witness to the world.

Amen. We've got to be a witness to them. Now,

the witness is not just in the words that we

speak. It's in the conduct of our life. It's

in our mannerism. It's in the content of our

character, how we treat one another. And that's

why Jesus says that they're going to know you're

my disciples by the way you love. one another.

So, hear me today, church, friends, City Light,

that as we march forward into the things of God,

into a blessed hope, into a greater year, into

harvest and revival, which God is going to do,

the greatest test that we must pass among us,

the greatest test that we must achieve is whether

we will love each other through the thick and

thin. We're going to love each other in the good

and the bad. God is going to The Holy Ghost is

going to test our love for one another. Do you

really love that person? Amen. And my love, just

a couple more minutes, but as I talk about love,

I don't just mean just, you know, well, you know,

love. We can't say anything offensive, you know,

because we're just like loving. No, sometimes

you have to speak the truth. Love is not a pushover.

Amen. Amen. Love is not weak. Love is strong.

Someone say it's strong. There is a way to be

firm, to be strong, to preach the truth unapologetically

and stand firm on the word of God and be loving

and accepting and gracious and welcoming and

forgiving and merciful and gracious at the same

time. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

It can be both. Turn to somebody and say, both

can be true. Both can be true. This is what God

is asking us. He said, I want you to be firm

in this hour. No one's telling you to become

a wishy -washy Christian and say, oh, we love

it. We just, you know, we accept everything.

Everything flies. Everything goes. That's not

what we preach. Amen, somebody. That's not what

we're about. No, no wishy -washy dog. We're not

watering down the message. But I think some of

our attitudes need to water down a little bit.

Oh, man, Lord, hallelujah. We're not watering

down the message, but I think some of our, I

think we need to have a softer, a soft answer.

Isn't this what Scripture teaches us? To turn

the other cheek? Just go on social media. There's

not a lot of turning the other cheek happening

on there right now. Everybody's got an opinion.

Everybody's got something to say. And you know,

yes. It's not easy. It's not easy when you're

persecuted. It's not easy when you stand for

God. But this is how you are to love. Reason

number three, because God's love already paid

the price. Woo, Jesus. His love paid the price.

The word of God tells us, if God so loved us,

we also ought to love one another. What is my

source and my standard for loving one another,

for loving you, brother and sister? Though you

might do me wrong at some point, I still got

to love you. I still got to love you. Brother,

you're probably going to do me wrong at some

point, but I still got to love you. He's all

shaking his head. Not me, pastor. Okay, I might

do you wrong at some point, but you still got

to love me. Brother David, you still got to love

me. Brother Rinko, I still got to love you, brother.

Huh? Still got to love you. We can't just walk

away when things get tough. Someone stepped on

my shoe, okay, buy a new pair of shoes or shine

them up. How can we do this? We can only do this

and do it correctly when we remember how God

loved us in our most unlovable state. God didn't

say, I'm going to wait for you to be lovable

for me to love you. God didn't say, I'm going

to wait for you to get your act together. I'm

going to wait for you to get it right. I'm going

to wait. No. While we were yet sinners, Christ

died. Oh, I wish I had a witness today. Wow,

we were yet sinners. Christ, he died for the

ungodly. He died for the unrighteous. He died

for us. Would you stand up on your feet today

and give God some praise? I didn't do anything

to deserve it. I didn't do anything to earn it.

I didn't do anything to make money. Everlasting

love. He loved me for God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son. And whosoever,

somebody say whosoever, whosoever would believe

in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

If God is our source of love, then the life of

Jesus is our standard for how to love each other.

And I can love people and disagree with their

lifestyle. And I can love people. and disagree

with their choices, and I can love people and

tell them if there's an area that is wrong, I

can tell them that's wrong, and I can still love

them. Let us dispel this false gospel that is

being perpetuated in our world that we can't

call those things or speak truth because it's

unloving. No, we both can be true. We can love

people and still say, but you got to get right.

Hallelujah. I love you, but you still got to

get to church. I love you, but you still got

to forgive. I love you, but you still got to

submit to God. I love you. God loved us so much,

and he sent his son to be a propitiation for

our sins. How many of you are thankful for agape

love? Jesus loved us with agape love.