Introduction: A song says “love is all around.” If true, it sounds
wonderful, right? Imagine a world in which every one showed a loving
attitude to you. Love is a top priority in the Kingdom of God. But,
what it means, and how we show love are difficult issues. Not
difficult because God is less than plain on the subject, but difficult
because of our selfish hearts. Let’s dive into our study of the Bible
and learn more about the connection between the power of the Holy
Spirit in us and love!
- Love For God
- Read Deuteronomy 6:4-6. Do you love God?
- Is this the same as loving your spouse? Your children?
Your dog? Ice cream? - Notice that the text says to love “with all your
heart” and “all your soul” and “all your strength.”
Are these different instructions? If so, what does
this say about the nature of love? (They are
different. Barnes’ Notes suggests that “heart” refers
to our understanding, “soul” refers to our will and
“strength” refers to our energy.) - Let’s break this down to better understand God’s
command. What do you think it means, as a
practical matter, to love God with your
understanding? (I know that God created me and
died for me and I have gratitude and affection
for Him because of that sacrifice.) - Do you have that kind of love towards God?
- What does it mean to love God with your energy?
(It means that I spend my time and effort
advancing God’s kingdom.) - Do you have that kind of love towards God?
- What does it mean, as a practical matter, to love
God with your will? (It means the natural desire
of my heart.) - Do you have that kind of love towards God?
- Is this the most difficult of these
three “do you have that kind of love”
questions? (Yes. You can
intellectually love, and you can put
in the time and effort, but desire is
not something you can control.)
- Love for Humans
- Read Matthew 22:37-40. Love for God is equated with love for
those we know (God says,”the second is like it”). How well
would you do on answering the series of questions I just
asked you about God, if they applied instead to your
neighbor? - Do you have an intellectual, physical (meaning
devoting time and effort) and emotional (meaning
natural desire) love towards those you know? - Now think about the person you know who irritates
you the most. How about applying these questions
to that person? - Read Matthew 7:12. If I do this, have I satisfied all three
levels of my love obligation to others? (If so, I feel a lot
better because I was struggling with the last question. I
don’t have to like someone to treat them fairly.) - Re-read Matthew 22:39. Is this different than Matthew 7:12?
- Do both of these texts use the standard “What would I
do for myself?” - Holy Spirit Time
- Let’s give this some practical application. Each week I send
the lesson to a list of over twenty people who agreed to
translate it into another language. I don’t pay any of them,
but I don’t get paid for writing this lesson. Can I say that
I love my translators, as opposed to stealing their time,
because none of us get paid? - I’ve had some of my translators mention that they
needed a new (or better) computer. I just bought a new
computer for my home. I have never bought (or even
helped to buy) a computer for a translator. Is that
not proof that I do not love them like I love myself?
And, the translators are more than just my neighbor,
they are co-laborers! (It would be hard, every time I
needed a new computer, to have to buy twenty
computers.) - Let’s use Bill Gates as a point of comparison. Could
Bill afford to buy me a new computer? Of course, he
could afford to buy me a new car, house or airplane.
Since I love myself, but do not expect Bill to buy me
anything that I might need, can I now say that I love
others as much as myself when I fail to buy others
things they need? - Does the fact that I do not expect anything from
Bill let me off the hook in terms of others
expecting things from me? - From the texts we have studied, we know that God
expects us to love Him as much as we love other
humans. If the love for God is supposed to be equal
to our self-love, why does God historically only
require ( Malachi 3:8-10)ten percent and we get to keep
ninety percent?
- Isn’t an equal split more representative of
loving God as much as we love ourselves? If we
throw our neighbors into this equation, would it
mean we all got a third of my stuff? - When I ask myself the series of questions we just discussed,
I realize that I have both an attitude problem about love
and a concern that I don’t even understand exactly what God
has in mind (even though the “as yourself” rule seems pretty
clear). Read Galatians 5:22-23. What is the cure for our
wrong attitudes and understandings about love? (Having the
Holy Spirit in our life. Love is the first fruit of the
Spirit.) - If love is a result of the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, does that clear up our concern about not
having a natural desire to love others, including a
concern about a natural love for God? (It shows us
where to go to obtain something that we cannot obtain
through hard work and determination.) - Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. Are Jesus and Paul in agreement
on the importance of love? (Jesus says everything hangs on
it and Paul says other good works and spiritual powers do
not matter without it.) - Read 1 Corinthians 13:4. Consider each of those character
traits and whether they exist in your life? - Do these exist when you drive your car?
- Read 1 Corinthians 13:5. Consider each of those character
traits and whether they exist in your life? (If you are
like me, you probably said “mostly no” to the traits in
verse 4, but did a little better with the traits mentioned
in verse 5.) - Read 1 Corinthians 13:6-7. I’m an optimist, and my family
teases me about my frequent use of the phrase “I hope not”
when someone says something negative. How about you? Are
you hopeful? (After admitting all of these bad things about
myself, I’ve got to mention something good!) - What about the issue of “delighting” in evil? There is
some evil that all of us hate, but is there some evil
that you like? An evil that takes advantage of
others? Or, harms others? - This is not “beat yourself up” week, but if you are honest,
from the very beginning of this study of love we can see
that when we use God’s definition of love, we fall far short
of the love standard that God has set for us. Indeed, we are
not completely clear (or do not want to be clear) on what He
requires. - Is the Holy Spirit a complete way out of this?
- Or, is this high standard simply the motivation to
declare “I’m saved by grace alone?” (Read 1
Corinthians 14:1. Being saved by grace does not give
us a pass on the obligation to love. Paul is the
strongest advocate of righteousness by faith alone,
yet he instructs every one of us to “follow the way of
love.”) - What does the use of the term “follow” suggest to us
about the work of the Holy Spirit in our life when it
comes to love? (That this is a progressive work.
Attaining the love goal that God has set before us, is
a process that results from the power of the Holy
Spirit working out “fruit” in our life.) - Friend, are you a quart low on love? Why not ask the Holy
Spirit to come into your heart today and give you a mind
that understand’s God’s love goal for us and a heart that
reaches towards that goal? - Next week: The Fruit of the Spirit is Joy.
