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Grace Presbyterian Church Characteristics of the Christian by Pastor Bob Burridge ©2001 |
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Chapter 1
There are specific characteristics that should be seen in the life of every Christian.
Our interest isn't just to define them, but to learn to do two things:
what it means to love one another. Love is the first item in the list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22. Jesus, himself, said that love was the summary of all the law and prophets. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus was asked what was the foremost of all the commandments. His answer, quoting the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, was this ...
Love is so important in Scripture, it would require a whole series of studies to do it justice. This is exactly what we plan to do. Love is the one word that the Bible uses to summarize the way believers should live. And we need to look at what exercises will strengthen the love Christ put in us.
There is a divine command that God's children should learn to love.
So if all men know we are Christ's disciples by our love, then we need to know what it means to love and what love looks like when we do it.
Love has many meanings the way we use it generally.
Obeying God's desires toward him and toward others involves a lot! As this study continues, we need to know how to be loving at home, at school, at work, at play, in worship, socially, shopping, and while we are fixing things ... in every situation. It needs to become a part of what we are and what we do all the time. Love is described in some depth in 1 Corinthians 13 (we will use the NASB translation). The KJV uses charity. In 1611 AD charity meant love at its noblest. This chapter doesn't tell us everything about love all by itself. But: Its a good summary of what our lives should be like when we love. If love is a fruit produce by the Holy Spirit working in us, we should know how to grow this fruit. We need to know the seed that begins the growth of love in us, the labor needed to cultivate it to its fullest yield, and the good harvest our labor can reap from this important seed. Biblical love, as a disposition, is alien to our fallen human nature. Left to our inclination at birth, human love lacks an essential quality. It does good to others so that it can get for itself. The self-centeredness of fallen human love is obvious. It wants companionship, help, sex, opportunity: so it focuses on others to get it. So it loves other people as long as it gets what it wants. BUT - when hurt comes, or when the companionship is disrupted, what the world calls love produces: accusations, arguments, and fightings. Sometimes it leads to infidelity, gossip, divorces, law-suits, defamation. In extreme situations it even leads to perjury and murders. This kind of love isn't just artificial, its a cruel costume for selfish evil. Biblical love begins when the seed of spiritual life is implanted in regeneration. Only when the fallen creature is restored by grace through Christ can anyone begin to realize love as the Creator intended it to be. The Bible says, "we love because He first loved us." If God hadn't first sent his Son to redeem us, love, as God reveals it, would be completely unknown in our world. Love is an essential evidence of our belonging to Christ. That's why Jesus said, "by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (Jn 13:35) When you grow a plant, its life is in the seed. But to make it grow to its fullest, there are things you need to do: it needs water, soil nutrients, proper lighting, and protection from disease, insects and hungry animals. When God implants this love in us, there are things we need to do to ... The Bible speaks of love as an action. Its a command. God says Love your neighbor as yourself - husbands love your wives - love one another. So when people say "I just can't love that person", they imply that God's word is a lie! Love is first an obedience before it becomes a feeling. This is good news. It means there is something we can do when love doesn't seem to be there. God doesn't say, feel love for your neighbor, or husbands feel love for your wives. He doesn't say fall in love with others. He tells us to do it! - Its a direct command! Do you have trouble loving others? Then here is a message of hope! God's word tells us specific things to work on to encourage love to grow in us. God's law defines what we do toward God when we love him, and toward others when we love them. This seed requires these obediences as it grows. The same grace that implants love enables us to grow in our obedience to God's word. Therefore we need to do loving things while trusting in God's promises to succeed. Paul presents 16 qualities of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
These are among the qualities we will study in the next studies. And notice that this love isn't presented in some abstract, ideal environment. Its shown acting in the real world, a world where bad things happen. It responds to being provoked, wronged and generally attacked. We see how love bears up in the midst of adversity and selfishness. People who are loving in these ways, show that its seed has been planted in their heart. Love is directly defined in the Bible as doing what God has commanded toward others:
This is what we need to do about a lack of love. We learn God's law, and we determine, by Christ's enablement, to obey the Biblical commandments toward God and toward our fellow humans. When the seed of love is implanted in regeneration, and when it is cultivated by obeying God's instructions, then the loving person will enjoy the harvest of this fruit of the Holy Spirit. When we do what God commands, he blesses us with that feeling of love. The general form of his covenant promises is this: "Do and be blessed." Its this effect of love, the feeling, that the world craves. But fallen man wants the feeling without faith, without the obedience. So he becomes frustrated at the work of conjuring up a feeling. He runs from church to church, from job to job, from marriage to marriage, community to community, club to club ... looking for love and finding no reward. First: We need to make sure we are made alive by Christ, and that we are humbly thankful for that work of grace. By faith lay hold of the promises God makes and trust his enablement. If the seed is not planted, love cannot grow to what it ought to be. Second: We need to cultivate implanted love by obedience to God's word. We must learn to keep God's law toward one another, and toward God himself. Without the evidence of obedience, there is no reason to believe the seed has been planted. Of course all of us are imperfect in our obedience. So another part of our obedience is to help others to love, and we should forgive their failures. Third: We need to expect God's blessing when we obey him, and treat others as he says we should knowing that God will give the increase. When we are patient and kind, and are not jealous, braggardly, arrogant, unbecoming, or self-seeking, and are not easily provoked, or take wrongs into account, and we do not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rather we rejoice in truth, bear all things, believe all things and endure all things and do all this unfailingly, then God will bless us with all the rich feelings of love in our hearts. |