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But The Greatest Of These Is Love

Lesson #1

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW

Intro

1. Consider this quote by C. Neil Strait...

“Love is the one ingredient of which our world never tires

and of which there is never an abundance.

The world will never outgrow its need for love.”

2. It’s an undeniable, universal truth:

“I want to be loved.”

a) If you will just get real still and quiet, you will see the reality of that statement.

You may have to look more closely at people than you usually do, but

I assure you that the truth is right in front of your eyes.

Go to work and see for yourself. Look closely at the people around you

in your workplace. They are looking and wanting to be loved.

Turn your television on and notice how the people respond to each other.

You will find the theme of love obvious most of the time, more subtle at

other times---but it’s still there...it’s always there.

Look around us at church---in this class even. Everyone of us want to

be loved and accepted. Some clamor for attention, maybe even in the

wrong way---but it’s still just a desire to be loved by others.

Now take a close look at your family. Your children may not say it very

obviously, but they do say it: “I need to be loved by you.” It’s true of

our mates. It’s true of our parents, our brothers, our sisters.

b) Illustration:

A man who was the service manager for a company was usually working

on Saturdays, the day his son was home from school. So, when is was

finally able to get a day off on Saturday, he was looking forward to a

quiet, undisturbed weekend.

While seated in his favorite chair on this particular Saturday morning, reading his paper, his son walked up to him.

He stood there for several moments, Dad trying to ignore him, putting on

his sternest face. But the son wasn’t going to go away, so he put down his

paper and said roughly, Now what do you want?”

His son smiled and held out a handful of crumpled dollar bills and assorted

change. “Here, Daddy,” he said and dropped them into his father’s hand.

“What’s this for?”

This is all I have in my piggy bank. It’s $8.54. Daddy, it’s all yours if you

will just stay home and play with me today.”

3. Truth:

We are shaped by those who love us

and those who don’t love us.

a) Keep in mind that we are created in the image of God.

That’s right, God created us to love and to be loved.

b) In fact, Jesus said that if we summed up the entire Hebrew law it is all fulfilled

in our love for God and our love for others.

c) It’s a medically established fact: People who are loved and who love as well,

are able to recover from illnesses and surgery more quickly.

d) Love is essential to our emotional, physical, mental, and social well-being.

e) According to one historian the strange German Emperor Fredrick II decided

to carry out an experiment where a number of infants were kept

alive by feeding, changing diapers, etc. but the nurses were instructed

not to touch them, not to show the infants any signs of physical or

verbal affection.

All of the infants died before they even grew to that age where they

could speak, because they had been deprived of human affection expressed

through the stroking and cooing of their nurses.

Deprive babies and children of love and, if they survive the experience, you will one day see a mentally and spiritually stunted adult.

*******

I. WAYS WE USE THE WORD “LOVE”

A. Consider:

1. “I just love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

2. “I love my new sweater.”

3. “I love 1968 Camaros---they are the best!”

4. “I love to watch the Braves play baseball.”

5. To a cooing baby: “Don’t you know I love you, sweet thing?”

6. The English language uses the same word to apply to sandwiches, sweaters, cars, a sports team, and a baby.

The word “love” means different things to different people.

B. The New Testament Greek Language

Four Different Kinds of Love:

#1. Stergo - Natural affection

This is the innate love we have for those in our families. “I love you because you are my sister.”

#2. Eros - Self-serving passion

This word is not used in the Bible, but the

concept is taught in the Song of Solomon.

We get our word “erotic” from this word and

it applies only to the purpose of sexual pleasure. It’s the idea: “If you no longer please me, I’ll no longer love you.”

#3. Phileo - Friendship

This is a social love, as we would use the

word “friend” today. This speaks of the

enjoyment we gain from the company of

others. This level of love in essence says,

“If you don’t love me in return or if there are

too many conflicts in the relationship, our

friendship will come to an end.

(see John 15:13-14.)

#4. Agapé - Giving of one’s self

This is a totally selfless love, a love which

comes from and is rooted in God. Agapé love

is the power that moves us to respond to someone’s needs with no expectation of reward. The foundation of agapé love is SACRIFICE. Phileo love is 50/50, but agapé love is 100/0; “I’m going to give 100% even if I never receive anything in return. I will even sacrifice myself for you. I just want what’s best for you.”

C. The Highest Form Of Love:

1. I John 4:11-13...

Beloved, if God so loved us,

we ought also to love one another.

No man hath seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God dwelleth in us,

and his love is perfected in us.

Hereby know we that we dwell in him,

and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

2. Agapé love comes from a God who is love. This level of love is a love

lavished upon others without a thought of whether or not they are

actually worthy to receive it.

This is the kind of love that is to characterize Christians.

3. At least 55 times we are commanded in the Bible to love---the mandate is inescapable.

4. Jesus even taught us to love on this level when it come to responding

to our enemies:

Matthew 5:43-44...

Ye have heard that it hath been said,

Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies,

bless them that curse you,

do good to them that hate you,

and pray for them which despitefully use you,

and persecute you;

a) Isn’t this a picture of how Jesus responded while He hung on

the cross?

b) He prayed for those abusing Him.

c) Romans 5:8-10 tells us that He loved us even when we were

yet His enemies.

D. Naming The Ways Of Love:

#1. Do everything in love I Corinthians 16:14

#2. To serve one another in love Ephesians 4:2

#3. To live a life of love Ephesians 5:2

#4. To speak the truth in love Ephesians 4:15

#5. To put on love Colossians 3:12-14

#6. To pursue love I Timothy 2:22

#7. To spur one another on to love Hebrews 10:24

#8. To love in more than words alone I John 3:18

#9. To be controlled by Spirit-love Galatians 5:22

#10. To grow in love various epistles

E. Love: Fact or Feeling?

1. While phileo is a feeling, agapé love is not a feeling.

2. God would not command a feeling, but God would command an action.

If this is correct, and it is, then agapé love is a skill one can develop

by doing in the strength of God’s Spirit.

Summed up...

Agapé love is doing something.

a) There is no way I can sit back and psyche myself up to feeling

good about people who hate me or are my enemies.

b) Feelings for my enemies change when I do something for them.

3. Two Points:

#1. Feelings follow action.

#2. Feelings are the fruit, not the root, of love.

If I give my enemy something to drink when he is thirsty, I am doing something for him. And in so doing I begin to feel differently towards him.

Application: Can you determine the quality of your love right now

for your spouse? Do you love her/him with an agapé

love or a phileo love?

“Oh, I’d lay down my life for her right this moment

if need be.” But is that because she loves you in return? Is it a love built on what you have received from her in the relationship already?

Sometimes in relationships we love 50/50, but what

happens when one person loves us less than 50?

If they only love us 40, should the numbers resemble this: 60/40; in other words, are we to make up the difference of the other person’s love for us by adding to our love so that the fraction still adds up to 100 (complete love)?

That would be true in the best phileo love, because

even in friendships usually one person loves the other person a little more; rarely is it an even 50/50.

But in agapé love your number is to be 100 regardless of what the denominator is. It could be 100/40 or it could be 100/0 (an enemy).

The marriage relationship is built upon a commitment, not feelings for the other person. What happens when the feelings of the other person lessen? Do you quit on the marriage? You do if you built a marriage on compatibility instead of Biblical commitment.

Tom Williams wife is like a 6-year-old child. Does

he have grounds to divorce her? Not if he loves her

with agapé love.

F. Love In Action

The following illustration comes from Dr. S. I. McMillen in his book,

None of These Diseases:

When I quote the Bible to people who are suffering physically or mentally from a lack of love, some of them retort that it is very difficult to change one’s feelings, to change hate to love. That is true. Psychologists support this view, claiming that the will does not have complete control over the emotions [a secular humanist’s view]. However, these same psychologists state that the will has good control over the actions. Our wills largely do have the power to decide what we do and what we don’t do. This is fortunate because actions, over which we do have power, can change our feelings. That’s what Matthew 5:43-44 is all about. The action plan will work like Aladdin’s lamp.

“Do good to them that hate you?” Impossible? Not if you follow some easy directions. The first step in the performance of the impossible is to walk out into your kitchen. Now you can do that. You have done it many times and you can walk there again. Step #2: Make up a lemon meringue pie as delicious as one on the magazine cover...you have made your pie. So far so good! By that time you will feel a little better.

Step #3: Give your feet the sternest look they ever got and inform in a tone of authority, “Feet, you are going to carry me and this pie to Mrs. Quirks. Yes, I know you haven’t been there in many a year, but you are going today.”

Off you go. As you begin your adventure to seek the golden fleece of love, you feel strangely different. You feel warm, behind and a little to the left of your wishbone. you sense something wonderful is happening inside. Across the railroad tracks you go and down the dingy alley called Depot Street. You begin to understand Mrs. Quirks’ attitude a little better as a heavy-noise freight train passes, shaking houses and sidewalks, as the black soot soils your immaculate white gloves, and as dirty, boisterous children send shivers up your spine with shrieks and cursing. “Yes,” you say, “if I had to live here, I think I would be irritable too.”

As you go up the stairs, you cannot help smiling at the new role you are playing. You rap on the door and wait. To Mrs. Quirks’ truly surprised look, you present your peace offering with a nice smile you decide to throw in for good measure.

A little chat in the living room, a cordial invitation for her to visit you, then on leaving, a mutual hug and kiss--- the fervor and spontaneity of it surprises both of you. You sense that a divine miracle has happened inside you because the love of God is truly coursing through your whole being. The impossible has happened!

On the way home you feel like skipping along the street, as you did when you were a carefree girl. Inside is the spirit of singing and summer, absent for many a year. You feel so good you decide not to stop at the doctor’s to take that “shot” for frayed nerves. They aren’t frayed anymore. You never felt better in your life. Even the pain in your back is gone.

He drew a circle and shut me out!

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win,

We drew a circle that took him in.

*******

CONCLUSION:

1. What the world longs to see is love in action... in our homes, in our churches, and

even in the places we work.

...the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts

by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Romans 5:5

2. Will you strive to remember the two cries of the world this week?

I want to be loved...

and

I want to love.

Love this world through me, Lord.

This world of broken men,

Thou didst love through death, Lord

Oh, love in me again!

Souls are in despair, Lord,

Oh, make me know and care

When my life they see,

May they behold Thee.

Oh, love the world through me.