An Uncommon Love

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An Uncommon Love
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From beginning God has required us to Love

• In OT God commands this of the Jews
• Deuteronomy 1012 And now, Israel, what does the
  LORD your God require of you, but to fear the
  LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to
  love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all
  your heart and with all your soul,

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God also required the Jews to love their neighbor

• Leviticus 1918 You shall not take vengeance,
  nor bear any grudge against the children of your
  people, but you shall love your neighbor as
  yourself I am the LORD.
• It was understood that you had a love of self to
  base how you treat others, thus treat others as
  you would like to be treated.

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God also commanded the Israelites to love
strangers

• Leviticus 19 33 And if a stranger sojourns with
  you in your land, you shall not mistreat him.
  34. But the stranger who dwells among you shall
  be to you as one born among you, and you shall
  love him as yourself for you were strangers in
  the land of Egypt I am the LORD your God.
• A stranger could easily be also an enemy.

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And in NT we are told the same things

• Matthew 2237 Jesus said to him, You shall the
  love the LORD your God with all your heart, with
  all your soul and with all your mind. 38. This
  is the first and great commandment. 39. And the
  second is like it You shall love your neighbor
  as yourself.

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An uncommon love

• All of this is an uncommon love in the world
  today.
• World expresses love and thinks about in a
  different way from what the Bible teaches.
• It is often unevenly (or too closely) linked to
  emotions, feelings, or actions that bring a
  desired feeling.

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An uncommon love

• Bible often relates love to actions, and thoughts
  followed by emotions, or felt with reason.
• Understanding leads to action in many of the
  examples.
• Ephesians 115 For this cause I also, having
  heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is
  among you, and the love which ye show toward all
  the saints,

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How do you define love?

• Difficult to define love in exact terms.
• Draw our conclusions based upon what the Bible
  gives us to understand and to understand that
  love is a growth process that can get stronger
  over time.

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An uncommon love

• Look today at what Gods word says that we need
  to love
• 1. Our enemies
• 2. Our brothers and sisters

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1. Our enemies

• Luke 627-35
• Even in OT it was not commanded to hate enemies.
  Jews inferred wrongly that if they were to love
  their neighbor as themselves that they should
  hate their enemies.
• Deuteronomy 237 You shall not abhor an Edomite,
  for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an
  Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land.

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An uncommon love

• Luke 631 And just as you want men to do to you,
  you also do to them likewise. 32. But if you
  love those who love you, what credit is that to
  you? For even sinners love those who love them.
• Matthew 545 that you may be sons of your Father
  in heaven for He makes His sun rise on the evil
  and on the good, and sends rain on the just and
  on the unjust.

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An uncommon love

• Luke 633 And if you do good to those who do
  good to you, what credit is that to you? For even
  sinners do the same.
• As Christians do we compare with sinners? Do we
  love uncommonly?
• Do we give love only if we can get something out
  of it?
• Some people in this world that cannot give us
  anything, do they deserve love?

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Who is our enemy?

• How do we make enemies?
• How does someone become our enemy?
• Are they ours alone for shallow reasons?
• Or are they enemies because they spited us and we
  want vengeance?

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An uncommon love

• Even so, we are commanded to love those who
  spitefully use us.
• Acts 1618ff
• Paul is cast into prison
• Dealt with harshly
• Calls out to jailor
• Teaches jailor and baptizes him

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An uncommon love

• Do we have love for our enemies?
• Someone we call enemy, are they not our
  neighbors?
• Look at parable of good Samaritan
• Accounted only in Luke 10. After discourse of
  great command from lawyer found in Matthew, Mark,
  and Luke.

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An uncommon love

• Lawyer believed in these commands yet wanted to
  justify who was his neighbor.
• But Jesus showed him and us a more excellent love
  of neighbors, and to love our enemies.
• Do we do the same?
• John 1423 Jesus answered and said to him, If
  anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My
  Father will love him, and We will come to him and
  make Our home with him.

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2. Our brothers and sisters

• Also commanded by Jesus to love our brothers and
  sisters.
• Even though it may seem easier thing to do than
  loving our enemies, we sometimes fail in this
  respect.
• John 1512 This is My commandment, that you love
  one another as I have loved you.

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An uncommon love

• John 1335 By this all will know that you are My
  disciples, if you have love for one another.
• A mark or proof to others that we are disciples
  of Jesus, evidence.
• I John 317 But whoever has this worlds goods,
  and shuts up his heart from him, how does the
  love of God abide in him?

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An uncommon love

• I John 318 My little children, let us not love
  in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
• I John 410 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. 11. Beloved, if
  God so loved us, we also ought to love one
  another.

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An uncommon love

• I John 419 We love Him because He first loved
  us. 20. 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?
• Do we love our brothers and sisters as we should,
  proving that we do indeed love God?

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An uncommon love

• So let us strive to understand what the love of
  the brethren is.
• I John 316 By this we know love, because He laid
  down His life for us. And we also ought to lay
  down our lives for the brethren.
• Do we give what we have in our lives to the
  brethren? Do we appreciate those that do?

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An uncommon love

• Looked at love from what bible says how we should
  love
• 1. Our enemies
• 2. Our brothers and sisters
• Jesus showed us the way in his love for all.
• Romans 51-9

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An uncommon love

• Do you want to be at peace with God?
• Do you know that your sins separate you from God?
• Do you want to become a disciple of Jesus Christ?
• Come and confess and be baptized for the
  remission of your sins.