“Christian Resolutions_2020, Part VI”
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 3:31 pm
“Christian Resolutions_2020, Part VI” by Romans
Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f4MUUMWMV4'
Youtube Audio of Tonight's Discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhWQABfeWI8
We are continuing in our Series, “Christian Resolutions_2020.” Tonight is Part VI. We will now pick up where we left off last week examining Love, the first Fruit of the Spirit as that Fruit is interwoven with Peter's list of those things we are urged to give all diligence to add to our Faith. I would like, however, to share with you a supplementary overview of all the Fruit of the Spirit that I found this week.
It is found in The Preacher's Homiletical: “Love is foremost of the group of Christian graces, and gives a nameless charm to all the rest, for there is an element of love in all true goodness. Love derives its power from being in the first place love to God. When the soul centers its affection in God through Christ all its outgoings are influenced and regulated accordingly.
Joy is the product of love. A philosophy or religion which has no room for the joy and pleasure of man is as little conversant with the wants of man as with the will of God. “Joy in the Lord quickens and elevates, while it cleanses all other emotions. It gives a new glow to life. It sheds a diviner meaning, a brighter aspect, over the common face of earth and sky. Joy is the beaming countenance, the elastic step, the singing voice, of Christian goodness.”
Peace is the holy calm breathed into the soul by a pardoning God. It is the gift of Christ, giving rest to the soul in the midst of external agitations. “It is a settled quiet of the heart, a deep, brooding mystery that ‘passeth all understanding,’ the stillness of eternity entering the spirit, the Sabbath of God. It is the calm, unruffled brow, the poised and even temper which Christian goodness wears.”
2. Virtues exercised in the Christian’s intercourse with his neighbour.—“Longsuffering, gentleness, goodness.” Charity suffereth long. The heart at peace with God has patience with men. Longsuffering is the patient magnanimity of Christian goodness, the broad shoulders on which it “beareth all things.”
Gentleness (or kindness, as the word is more frequently and better rendered) resembles longsuffering in finding its chief objects in the evil and unthankful. But while the latter is passive and self-contained, kindness is an active, busy virtue. It is the thoughtful insight, the delicate tact, the gentle ministering hand of charity.
Linked with kindness comes goodness, which is its other self, differing from it as only twin sisters may, each fairer for the beauty of the other. Goodness is perhaps more affluent, more broad-minded in its bounty; kindness more delicate and discriminating. Goodness is the honest, generous face, the open hand of charity (Findlay).
3. Virtues indicating the principles which regulate the Christian’s life.—“Faith [honesty, trustworthiness], meekness, temperance.” The faith that unites man to God in turn joins man to his fellows. Faith in the divine Fatherhood becomes trust in the human brotherhood. He who doubts every one is even more deceived than the man who blindly confides in every one. Trustfulness is the warm, firm clasp of friendship, the generous and loyal homage which goodness ever pays to goodness.
Meekness is the other side of faith. It is not tameness and want of spirit; it comports with the highest courage
and activity, and is a qualification for public leadership. It is the content and quiet mien, the willing self-effacement, that is the mark of Christ-like goodness.
Temperance, or self-control, is the third of Plato’s cardinal virtues. Temperance is a practised mastery of self. It covers the whole range of moral discipline, and concerns every sense and passion of our nature. It is the guarded step, the sober, measured walk in which Christian goodness keeps the way of life, and makes straight paths for stumbling and straying feet.” (Ibid.).”
When I read the above, even though we are past the introductory stage of the Fruit of the Spirit, I thought it was a good overview to have in our minds as we review all the Fruit. Regarding, then, the first Fruit, “Love,” we will continue now, and finish Alexander Maclaren's comments on Jesus' new Commandment to His followers that we love one another as He loved us, as recorded in John 13:35.
Mr. MacClaren writes, “II. The example of the new commandment, ‘As I have loved you.’ That solemn ‘as’ lifts itself up before us, shines far ahead of us, ought to draw us to itself in hope, and not to repel us from itself in despair. ‘As I have loved’ -what a tremendous thing for a man to stand up before his fellows, and say, ‘Take Me as the perfect example of perfect love;
and let My example-un-dimmed by the mists of gathering centuries, and un-weakened by the change of condition, and circumstance, fresh as ever after ages have passed, and closely-fitting as ever all varieties of human character and condition-stand before you; the ideal that I have realised, and you will be blessed in the proportion in which you seek, though you fail, to realise it!’
There is, I venture to believe, only one aspect of Jesus Christ in which such a setting forth of Himself as the perfect Incarnation of perfect love is warrantable; and that is found in the old belief that His very birth was the result of His love, and that His death was the climax of that love. And if so, we have to turn to Bethlehem, and the whole life, and the Cross at its end, as being the Christ-given example and model for our love to our brethren.
What do we see there? I have said that there is too much of mere sickly sentimentality about the ordinary treatment of this great commandment, and that I desired to lift it out of that region into a far nobler, more strenuous, and difficult one. This is what we see in that life and in that death:-First of all-the activity of love-’Let us not love in words, but in deed and in truth’; then we see the self-forgetfulness of love-’Even Christ pleased not Himself’;
then we see the self-sacrifice of love-’Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ And in these three points, on which I would fain enlarge if I might, active love, self-oblivious love, self-sacrificing love, you have the pattern set for us all. Christian love is no mere sickly maiden, full of sentimental emotions and honeyed words. She is a strenuous virgin, girt for service, a heroine ready for dangers, and prepared to be a martyr if it be needful.
Love’s language is sacrifice. ‘I give thee myself,’ is its motto. And that is the pattern that is set before us all-’as I have loved you.’ I have tried to show you how the commandment was new in many particulars, and it is for ever new in this particular, that it is for ever before us, unattained, and drawing faithful hearts to itself, and ever opening out into new heroisms and, therefore, blessedness, of self-sacrifice, and ever leading us to confess the differences, deep, tragic, sinful, between us and Him who-we sometimes think too presumptuously-we venture to say is our Lord and Master.
Did you ever see in some great picture gallery a copyist sitting in front of a Raffaelle, and comparing his poor feeble daub, all out of drawing, and with little of the divine beauty that the master had breathed over his canvas, even if it preserved the mere mechanical outline? That is what you and I should do with our lives:
take them and put them down side by side with the original. We shall have to do it some day. Had we better not do it now, and try to bring the copy a little nearer to the masterpiece; and let that ‘as I have loved you’ shine before us and draw us on to unattainable heights?
And now, lastly, we have here - III. The motive power for obedience to the commandment. That is as new as all
the rest. That ‘as’ expresses the manner of the love, but it also expresses the motive and the power. It might be translated into the equivalent ‘in the fashion in which,’ or it might be translated into the equivalent ‘since-’ ‘I have loved you.’ The original might bear the rendering, ‘that ye also may love one another.’
That is to say, what keeps men from obeying this commandment is the instinctive self-regard which is natural to us all. There are muscles in the body which are so constructed that they close tightly; and the heart is something like one of these sphincter muscles-it shuts by nature, especially if there has been anything put inside it over which it can shut and keep it all to itself.
But there is one thing that dethrones Self, and enthrones the angel Love in a heart, and that is, that into that heart there shall come surging the sense of the great love ‘wherewith I have loved you.’ That melts the iceberg; nothing else will. That love of Christ to us, received into our hearts, and there producing an answering love to Him, will make us, in the measure in which we live in it and let it rule us, love everything and every person that He loves.
That love of Jesus Christ, stealing into our hearts and there sweetening the ever-springing ‘issues of life,’ will make them flow out in glad obedience to any commandment of His. That love of Jesus Christ, received into our hearts, and responded to by our answering love, will work, as love always does, a magical transformation.
A great monastic teacher wrote his precious book about The Imitation of Christ. ‘Imitation’ is a great word, ‘Transformation’ is a greater. ‘We all,’ receiving on the mirror of our loving hearts the love of Jesus Christ, ‘are changed into the same likeness.’ Thus, then, the love, which is our pattern, is also our motive and our power for obedience, and the more we bring ourselves under its influences, the more we shall love all those who are beloved by, and lovers of, Jesus. That is the one foundation for a world knit together in the bonds of amity and concord. There have been attempts at brotherhood, and the guillotine has ended what was begun in the name of ‘fraternity.’
Men build towers, but there is no cement between the bricks, unless the love of Christ holds them together, and therefore Babel after Babel comes down about the ears of its builders. But notwithstanding all that is dark to-day, and though the war-clouds are lowering, and the hearts of men are inflamed with fierce passions, Christ’s commandment is Christ’s promise; and though the vision tarry, it will surely come.
So even to-day Christian men ought to stand for Christ’s peace, and for Christ’s love. The old commandment which we have had from the beginning, is the new commandment that fits to-day as it fits all the ages. It is a dream, say some. Yes, a dream; but a morning dream which comes true. Let us do the little we can to make it true, and to bring about the day when the flock of men will gather round the one Shepherd, who loved them to the death, and who has bid them and helped them to ‘love one another as’-and since-’He has loved them.’”
In this culture, when we think of love, generally the first context that comes to mind is romantic love. Love, in a romantic context, is the dominant context of our culture. It is in our thoughts, our literature, our music, our movies. It is everywhere... But love, as a Fruit of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is not addressing love in that context. The first time “love” is used, in the context that I want to focus on this evening, God speaks it to Abraham in Genesis 22:2: “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
But what strikes me most is that the first time this “love” is referred to, it is used in the prophetic picture of God the Father giving up His Son Whom He loved to be offered as a sacrifice. On the evening before He laid down His life for us, notice what Jesus said to His Father in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: John 17:24 “... for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” The Father loved the Son in Eternity, before the foundation of the world.
Unlike the near-sacrifice of Isaac, there was no intervening angel of the Lord calling out to keep Jesus from being sacrificed. There was, however, someone who tried to intervene to save Jesus from the mob that came to arrest Him. In Matthew 26:51-54, we read that Peter drew a sword in an attempt to foil the arrest:
“And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”
Do you know how many angels that would be? A Roman Legion was made up of 6,000 soldiers. That means that Jesus could have asked for “more than” 72,000 angels to intervene and stop the arrest! But He didn't... He asked, instead, in verse 54: “But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Whenever I think of those twelve legions of angels that could have been called, I think of the one angel that God sent to rescue King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19.
Sennacherib, the King of the Assyrians, had surrounded the city of Jerusalem, taunting Judah's king and defenders and God. Sennacherib asked, “Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed...” (2 Kings 19:10-12).
In answer to King Hezekiah's prayer that God deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians, God sent a solitary angel; one was all He needed to send. And when King Hezekiah woke up that next morning, Jerusalem was surrounded by an army of 185,000 armed corpses. One angel did that; twelve legions of angels would have reduced the entire Roman Empire to a smoldering ash heap, and not even broke a sweat. But Jesus did not summon their intervention. He came to fulfill His Father's Will: to be the Lamb of God slain from the Foundation of the world, giving His Life, that we might have life.
In John 15:13, we read: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” But consider these two very important points: First, Jesus said “Greater love hath no man...” Yes, He was a man... but He was also God in the flesh. And, as God, His love is infinitely greater than man's, and was also expressed in an infinitely greater expression than we can express.
Did Jesus lay down His life for His friends? Consider Romans 5:10: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Jesus' love was manifest in His death when were His enemies, not His friends. Notice also: For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. So His love and sacrifice to us and for us was infinitely greater than a man laying down his life for his friends. It was the God-man laying down His life for his ungodly enemies, paying the death penalty their rebellion incurred.
The Apostle Paul writes of this kind of self-sacrifice that we might perform for a friend, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8).
I remember hearing a local minister (who has three children) many years ago make the general statement to the whole congregation, that if he had to give any of his daughters up to die so that any of us could live, he knew that it was beyond his ability to make such a sacrifice. But John 3:16 tells us what? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God's love for us was so great that He willingly sacrificed His Son, giving Him up to die in our place. It would unrealistic of me to even hope that I could find, or collect, or edit or present everything that needs to be said on this topic in a lifetime... ... let alone a single chat or installment of a Bible Study session. It is just too immense a topic. So I am going to focus on one main theme, here.
In “The Bible Almanac,” one of several reference books which I used in preparing tonight's discussion, I looked in its Index for all occasions of the topic, “Love.” It had a number of pages to turn to that touched on the topic. But then after listing the page numbers, there were four simple words that, I realize now, were as unexpected as they were appropriate. Those words were, “See also Jesus Christ.” I thought that was so powerful when I read that. I am going to use to close tonight's discussion.
Our focus is on Love, as the first of the The Fruit of the Spirit. And the Spirit is, of course, the Holy Spirit, is a Member of the Godhead. Collectively, we understand them as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are God. The Apostle John tells us in 1 John 4:17 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love...”
The kind of love which is the Fruit of the Holy Spirit of God, must be the kind of love that God both bestows on us, and would have us express to everyone we encounter, not merely our friends, or those we love, or those who love us, but everyone and without exception. If you think that, in the next breath, I can tell you how easy such loving like that is, I cannot and will not say that. That kind of love is not humanly possible; but it is possible as we are enlightened and guided and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is, after all, His Fruit that we are bearing when we do.
This kind of love, however, is not one that you would find defined in your average dictionary. This kind of love would have to be defined in a Holy Spirit-inspired definition found within the pages of Scripture itself. Where might we find such a definition? It occurs to me that we can find it defined in two lists, both penned by the Apostle Paul.
The first is found in I Corinthians 13, often referred to as, “the Love Chapter.” The King James translators correctly understood that the word the Greek word “agape`” they translated as “charity,” here, was the kind of love that is only possible with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is the same “Love” that John wrote about when he said, “God is Love.”
Beginning in 1 Corinthians 13:4, and continuing through verse 8, using the God's Word Translation: Love is patient, Love is kind, Love isn't jealous, It doesn't sing its own praises, It isn't arrogant, It isn't rude, It doesn't think about itself, It isn't irritable, It doesn't keep track of wrongs, It isn't happy when injustice is done, it is happy with the truth. Love never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, never gives up. Love never comes to an end.”
But there is another list of definitions found in a somewhat unexpected place: it is the rest of the list of the Fruit of the Spirit that follows the word, “love.” And, as the Bible Almanac recommended, to “See also Jesus Christ” as I was looking up the word, “love,” this whole list not only defines love, it is the very picture of Jesus, Himself: Think of these words with Jesus in mind as you read the Fruit of the Spirit that follow Love on Paul's list:
Joy: Jesus said in John 15:11 “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
Peace: Jesus said in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Longsuffering: Of Jesus, Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Gentleness: Of Jesus, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:1 “Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ...”
Goodness: Jesus said in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
Faith: In John's vision on Patmos, he wrote the following in Revelation 19:11 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” That rider is identified in verse 13: “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.”
Meekness: Jesus said in Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
and Temperance: While not using the word “temperance,” itself, Paul writes in Romans 13:14 'But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” We are to “put on” Jesus Christ. Paul also admonishes us to “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus...” (Philippians 2:5).
John writes in his first epistle: 1 John 4:20 “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” These days, people who call themselves “Christians” seem to never have read that question. John goes on to say in verse 21 “And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”
Jesus' words in Matthew 15:7-8, fully apply to those who name the Name of Jesus, but whose behavior is alien to their being the light of the world and the salt of the earth: “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
Matthew Henry has this to say in his Commentary: “Love in the heart of man is the offspring of the love of God. Only the regenerated heart can truly love as God loves; to this higher form of love the unregenerate can lay no claim. The regenerate man is able to see his fellow-man as God sees him, value him as God values him, not so much because of what he is by reason of his sin and unloveliness, but because of what, through Christ, he may become; he sees man's intrinsic worth and possibility in Christ. This love is also created in the heart of man by the Holy Ghost, and is a fruit of the Spirit...”
We, as Christians, have been blessed with not only Salvation, forgiveness, and bold access to the very Throne of God, we have been given the Gift of the Holy Spirit indwelling within us. Immediately following the enumeration of the Fruit of the Spirit, Paul wrote these words: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit,” (Galatians 5:25).
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit; that is, “If we profess to have received the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the spirit of our minds, and endued with a principle of spiritual life, let us make it appear by the proper fruits of the Spirit in our lives.” He had before told us that the Spirit of Christ is a privilege bestowed on all the children of God.
“Now,” says he, “if we profess to be of this number, and as such to have obtained this privilege, let us show it by a temper and behaviour agreeable hereunto; let us evidence our good principles by good practices. Our conversation will always be answerable to the principle which we are under the guidance and government of: as those that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, so those that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit.
If therefore we would have it appear that we are Christ's, and that we are partakers of his Spirit, it must be by our walking not after the flesh, but after the spirit. We must set ourselves in good earnest both to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life.”
That is our calling. To walk in the Spirit, and to bear fruit to the Glory and Honor of Our God and Saviour.
Tonight we merely review the definition of “agape`” love as presented by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. Next week we are going to re-visit that list of definitions, examining it to maximize both our understanding and application of it. I hope as many of you who are hearing or reading these words can join, God willing, me for that examination.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Christian Resolutions, Part VI.”
This Discussion was presented “live” on February 12th, 2020.
I have designed a website to serve as an Online Book Store for the things I have written and published on Amazon. These are in the form of both Kindle eBooks, and paperback books. Some of you may recall a Series I presented on "The Lord's Prayer" several years ago. My original notes for this and other Bible Studies have been greatly revised and expanded for these publications. For further details on the books that are available, and for ordering information, click the following:
https://arvkbook.wixsite.com/romansbooks
If you purchase and read any of my books, Thank you! I would also greatly appreciate a review on Amazon!
Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f4MUUMWMV4'
Youtube Audio of Tonight's Discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhWQABfeWI8
We are continuing in our Series, “Christian Resolutions_2020.” Tonight is Part VI. We will now pick up where we left off last week examining Love, the first Fruit of the Spirit as that Fruit is interwoven with Peter's list of those things we are urged to give all diligence to add to our Faith. I would like, however, to share with you a supplementary overview of all the Fruit of the Spirit that I found this week.
It is found in The Preacher's Homiletical: “Love is foremost of the group of Christian graces, and gives a nameless charm to all the rest, for there is an element of love in all true goodness. Love derives its power from being in the first place love to God. When the soul centers its affection in God through Christ all its outgoings are influenced and regulated accordingly.
Joy is the product of love. A philosophy or religion which has no room for the joy and pleasure of man is as little conversant with the wants of man as with the will of God. “Joy in the Lord quickens and elevates, while it cleanses all other emotions. It gives a new glow to life. It sheds a diviner meaning, a brighter aspect, over the common face of earth and sky. Joy is the beaming countenance, the elastic step, the singing voice, of Christian goodness.”
Peace is the holy calm breathed into the soul by a pardoning God. It is the gift of Christ, giving rest to the soul in the midst of external agitations. “It is a settled quiet of the heart, a deep, brooding mystery that ‘passeth all understanding,’ the stillness of eternity entering the spirit, the Sabbath of God. It is the calm, unruffled brow, the poised and even temper which Christian goodness wears.”
2. Virtues exercised in the Christian’s intercourse with his neighbour.—“Longsuffering, gentleness, goodness.” Charity suffereth long. The heart at peace with God has patience with men. Longsuffering is the patient magnanimity of Christian goodness, the broad shoulders on which it “beareth all things.”
Gentleness (or kindness, as the word is more frequently and better rendered) resembles longsuffering in finding its chief objects in the evil and unthankful. But while the latter is passive and self-contained, kindness is an active, busy virtue. It is the thoughtful insight, the delicate tact, the gentle ministering hand of charity.
Linked with kindness comes goodness, which is its other self, differing from it as only twin sisters may, each fairer for the beauty of the other. Goodness is perhaps more affluent, more broad-minded in its bounty; kindness more delicate and discriminating. Goodness is the honest, generous face, the open hand of charity (Findlay).
3. Virtues indicating the principles which regulate the Christian’s life.—“Faith [honesty, trustworthiness], meekness, temperance.” The faith that unites man to God in turn joins man to his fellows. Faith in the divine Fatherhood becomes trust in the human brotherhood. He who doubts every one is even more deceived than the man who blindly confides in every one. Trustfulness is the warm, firm clasp of friendship, the generous and loyal homage which goodness ever pays to goodness.
Meekness is the other side of faith. It is not tameness and want of spirit; it comports with the highest courage
and activity, and is a qualification for public leadership. It is the content and quiet mien, the willing self-effacement, that is the mark of Christ-like goodness.
Temperance, or self-control, is the third of Plato’s cardinal virtues. Temperance is a practised mastery of self. It covers the whole range of moral discipline, and concerns every sense and passion of our nature. It is the guarded step, the sober, measured walk in which Christian goodness keeps the way of life, and makes straight paths for stumbling and straying feet.” (Ibid.).”
When I read the above, even though we are past the introductory stage of the Fruit of the Spirit, I thought it was a good overview to have in our minds as we review all the Fruit. Regarding, then, the first Fruit, “Love,” we will continue now, and finish Alexander Maclaren's comments on Jesus' new Commandment to His followers that we love one another as He loved us, as recorded in John 13:35.
Mr. MacClaren writes, “II. The example of the new commandment, ‘As I have loved you.’ That solemn ‘as’ lifts itself up before us, shines far ahead of us, ought to draw us to itself in hope, and not to repel us from itself in despair. ‘As I have loved’ -what a tremendous thing for a man to stand up before his fellows, and say, ‘Take Me as the perfect example of perfect love;
and let My example-un-dimmed by the mists of gathering centuries, and un-weakened by the change of condition, and circumstance, fresh as ever after ages have passed, and closely-fitting as ever all varieties of human character and condition-stand before you; the ideal that I have realised, and you will be blessed in the proportion in which you seek, though you fail, to realise it!’
There is, I venture to believe, only one aspect of Jesus Christ in which such a setting forth of Himself as the perfect Incarnation of perfect love is warrantable; and that is found in the old belief that His very birth was the result of His love, and that His death was the climax of that love. And if so, we have to turn to Bethlehem, and the whole life, and the Cross at its end, as being the Christ-given example and model for our love to our brethren.
What do we see there? I have said that there is too much of mere sickly sentimentality about the ordinary treatment of this great commandment, and that I desired to lift it out of that region into a far nobler, more strenuous, and difficult one. This is what we see in that life and in that death:-First of all-the activity of love-’Let us not love in words, but in deed and in truth’; then we see the self-forgetfulness of love-’Even Christ pleased not Himself’;
then we see the self-sacrifice of love-’Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ And in these three points, on which I would fain enlarge if I might, active love, self-oblivious love, self-sacrificing love, you have the pattern set for us all. Christian love is no mere sickly maiden, full of sentimental emotions and honeyed words. She is a strenuous virgin, girt for service, a heroine ready for dangers, and prepared to be a martyr if it be needful.
Love’s language is sacrifice. ‘I give thee myself,’ is its motto. And that is the pattern that is set before us all-’as I have loved you.’ I have tried to show you how the commandment was new in many particulars, and it is for ever new in this particular, that it is for ever before us, unattained, and drawing faithful hearts to itself, and ever opening out into new heroisms and, therefore, blessedness, of self-sacrifice, and ever leading us to confess the differences, deep, tragic, sinful, between us and Him who-we sometimes think too presumptuously-we venture to say is our Lord and Master.
Did you ever see in some great picture gallery a copyist sitting in front of a Raffaelle, and comparing his poor feeble daub, all out of drawing, and with little of the divine beauty that the master had breathed over his canvas, even if it preserved the mere mechanical outline? That is what you and I should do with our lives:
take them and put them down side by side with the original. We shall have to do it some day. Had we better not do it now, and try to bring the copy a little nearer to the masterpiece; and let that ‘as I have loved you’ shine before us and draw us on to unattainable heights?
And now, lastly, we have here - III. The motive power for obedience to the commandment. That is as new as all
the rest. That ‘as’ expresses the manner of the love, but it also expresses the motive and the power. It might be translated into the equivalent ‘in the fashion in which,’ or it might be translated into the equivalent ‘since-’ ‘I have loved you.’ The original might bear the rendering, ‘that ye also may love one another.’
That is to say, what keeps men from obeying this commandment is the instinctive self-regard which is natural to us all. There are muscles in the body which are so constructed that they close tightly; and the heart is something like one of these sphincter muscles-it shuts by nature, especially if there has been anything put inside it over which it can shut and keep it all to itself.
But there is one thing that dethrones Self, and enthrones the angel Love in a heart, and that is, that into that heart there shall come surging the sense of the great love ‘wherewith I have loved you.’ That melts the iceberg; nothing else will. That love of Christ to us, received into our hearts, and there producing an answering love to Him, will make us, in the measure in which we live in it and let it rule us, love everything and every person that He loves.
That love of Jesus Christ, stealing into our hearts and there sweetening the ever-springing ‘issues of life,’ will make them flow out in glad obedience to any commandment of His. That love of Jesus Christ, received into our hearts, and responded to by our answering love, will work, as love always does, a magical transformation.
A great monastic teacher wrote his precious book about The Imitation of Christ. ‘Imitation’ is a great word, ‘Transformation’ is a greater. ‘We all,’ receiving on the mirror of our loving hearts the love of Jesus Christ, ‘are changed into the same likeness.’ Thus, then, the love, which is our pattern, is also our motive and our power for obedience, and the more we bring ourselves under its influences, the more we shall love all those who are beloved by, and lovers of, Jesus. That is the one foundation for a world knit together in the bonds of amity and concord. There have been attempts at brotherhood, and the guillotine has ended what was begun in the name of ‘fraternity.’
Men build towers, but there is no cement between the bricks, unless the love of Christ holds them together, and therefore Babel after Babel comes down about the ears of its builders. But notwithstanding all that is dark to-day, and though the war-clouds are lowering, and the hearts of men are inflamed with fierce passions, Christ’s commandment is Christ’s promise; and though the vision tarry, it will surely come.
So even to-day Christian men ought to stand for Christ’s peace, and for Christ’s love. The old commandment which we have had from the beginning, is the new commandment that fits to-day as it fits all the ages. It is a dream, say some. Yes, a dream; but a morning dream which comes true. Let us do the little we can to make it true, and to bring about the day when the flock of men will gather round the one Shepherd, who loved them to the death, and who has bid them and helped them to ‘love one another as’-and since-’He has loved them.’”
In this culture, when we think of love, generally the first context that comes to mind is romantic love. Love, in a romantic context, is the dominant context of our culture. It is in our thoughts, our literature, our music, our movies. It is everywhere... But love, as a Fruit of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is not addressing love in that context. The first time “love” is used, in the context that I want to focus on this evening, God speaks it to Abraham in Genesis 22:2: “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
But what strikes me most is that the first time this “love” is referred to, it is used in the prophetic picture of God the Father giving up His Son Whom He loved to be offered as a sacrifice. On the evening before He laid down His life for us, notice what Jesus said to His Father in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: John 17:24 “... for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” The Father loved the Son in Eternity, before the foundation of the world.
Unlike the near-sacrifice of Isaac, there was no intervening angel of the Lord calling out to keep Jesus from being sacrificed. There was, however, someone who tried to intervene to save Jesus from the mob that came to arrest Him. In Matthew 26:51-54, we read that Peter drew a sword in an attempt to foil the arrest:
“And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”
Do you know how many angels that would be? A Roman Legion was made up of 6,000 soldiers. That means that Jesus could have asked for “more than” 72,000 angels to intervene and stop the arrest! But He didn't... He asked, instead, in verse 54: “But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Whenever I think of those twelve legions of angels that could have been called, I think of the one angel that God sent to rescue King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19.
Sennacherib, the King of the Assyrians, had surrounded the city of Jerusalem, taunting Judah's king and defenders and God. Sennacherib asked, “Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed...” (2 Kings 19:10-12).
In answer to King Hezekiah's prayer that God deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians, God sent a solitary angel; one was all He needed to send. And when King Hezekiah woke up that next morning, Jerusalem was surrounded by an army of 185,000 armed corpses. One angel did that; twelve legions of angels would have reduced the entire Roman Empire to a smoldering ash heap, and not even broke a sweat. But Jesus did not summon their intervention. He came to fulfill His Father's Will: to be the Lamb of God slain from the Foundation of the world, giving His Life, that we might have life.
In John 15:13, we read: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” But consider these two very important points: First, Jesus said “Greater love hath no man...” Yes, He was a man... but He was also God in the flesh. And, as God, His love is infinitely greater than man's, and was also expressed in an infinitely greater expression than we can express.
Did Jesus lay down His life for His friends? Consider Romans 5:10: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Jesus' love was manifest in His death when were His enemies, not His friends. Notice also: For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. So His love and sacrifice to us and for us was infinitely greater than a man laying down his life for his friends. It was the God-man laying down His life for his ungodly enemies, paying the death penalty their rebellion incurred.
The Apostle Paul writes of this kind of self-sacrifice that we might perform for a friend, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8).
I remember hearing a local minister (who has three children) many years ago make the general statement to the whole congregation, that if he had to give any of his daughters up to die so that any of us could live, he knew that it was beyond his ability to make such a sacrifice. But John 3:16 tells us what? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God's love for us was so great that He willingly sacrificed His Son, giving Him up to die in our place. It would unrealistic of me to even hope that I could find, or collect, or edit or present everything that needs to be said on this topic in a lifetime... ... let alone a single chat or installment of a Bible Study session. It is just too immense a topic. So I am going to focus on one main theme, here.
In “The Bible Almanac,” one of several reference books which I used in preparing tonight's discussion, I looked in its Index for all occasions of the topic, “Love.” It had a number of pages to turn to that touched on the topic. But then after listing the page numbers, there were four simple words that, I realize now, were as unexpected as they were appropriate. Those words were, “See also Jesus Christ.” I thought that was so powerful when I read that. I am going to use to close tonight's discussion.
Our focus is on Love, as the first of the The Fruit of the Spirit. And the Spirit is, of course, the Holy Spirit, is a Member of the Godhead. Collectively, we understand them as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are God. The Apostle John tells us in 1 John 4:17 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love...”
The kind of love which is the Fruit of the Holy Spirit of God, must be the kind of love that God both bestows on us, and would have us express to everyone we encounter, not merely our friends, or those we love, or those who love us, but everyone and without exception. If you think that, in the next breath, I can tell you how easy such loving like that is, I cannot and will not say that. That kind of love is not humanly possible; but it is possible as we are enlightened and guided and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is, after all, His Fruit that we are bearing when we do.
This kind of love, however, is not one that you would find defined in your average dictionary. This kind of love would have to be defined in a Holy Spirit-inspired definition found within the pages of Scripture itself. Where might we find such a definition? It occurs to me that we can find it defined in two lists, both penned by the Apostle Paul.
The first is found in I Corinthians 13, often referred to as, “the Love Chapter.” The King James translators correctly understood that the word the Greek word “agape`” they translated as “charity,” here, was the kind of love that is only possible with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is the same “Love” that John wrote about when he said, “God is Love.”
Beginning in 1 Corinthians 13:4, and continuing through verse 8, using the God's Word Translation: Love is patient, Love is kind, Love isn't jealous, It doesn't sing its own praises, It isn't arrogant, It isn't rude, It doesn't think about itself, It isn't irritable, It doesn't keep track of wrongs, It isn't happy when injustice is done, it is happy with the truth. Love never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, never gives up. Love never comes to an end.”
But there is another list of definitions found in a somewhat unexpected place: it is the rest of the list of the Fruit of the Spirit that follows the word, “love.” And, as the Bible Almanac recommended, to “See also Jesus Christ” as I was looking up the word, “love,” this whole list not only defines love, it is the very picture of Jesus, Himself: Think of these words with Jesus in mind as you read the Fruit of the Spirit that follow Love on Paul's list:
Joy: Jesus said in John 15:11 “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
Peace: Jesus said in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Longsuffering: Of Jesus, Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Gentleness: Of Jesus, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:1 “Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ...”
Goodness: Jesus said in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
Faith: In John's vision on Patmos, he wrote the following in Revelation 19:11 “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” That rider is identified in verse 13: “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.”
Meekness: Jesus said in Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
and Temperance: While not using the word “temperance,” itself, Paul writes in Romans 13:14 'But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” We are to “put on” Jesus Christ. Paul also admonishes us to “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus...” (Philippians 2:5).
John writes in his first epistle: 1 John 4:20 “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” These days, people who call themselves “Christians” seem to never have read that question. John goes on to say in verse 21 “And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”
Jesus' words in Matthew 15:7-8, fully apply to those who name the Name of Jesus, but whose behavior is alien to their being the light of the world and the salt of the earth: “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
Matthew Henry has this to say in his Commentary: “Love in the heart of man is the offspring of the love of God. Only the regenerated heart can truly love as God loves; to this higher form of love the unregenerate can lay no claim. The regenerate man is able to see his fellow-man as God sees him, value him as God values him, not so much because of what he is by reason of his sin and unloveliness, but because of what, through Christ, he may become; he sees man's intrinsic worth and possibility in Christ. This love is also created in the heart of man by the Holy Ghost, and is a fruit of the Spirit...”
We, as Christians, have been blessed with not only Salvation, forgiveness, and bold access to the very Throne of God, we have been given the Gift of the Holy Spirit indwelling within us. Immediately following the enumeration of the Fruit of the Spirit, Paul wrote these words: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit,” (Galatians 5:25).
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit; that is, “If we profess to have received the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the Spirit of Christ, or that we are renewed in the spirit of our minds, and endued with a principle of spiritual life, let us make it appear by the proper fruits of the Spirit in our lives.” He had before told us that the Spirit of Christ is a privilege bestowed on all the children of God.
“Now,” says he, “if we profess to be of this number, and as such to have obtained this privilege, let us show it by a temper and behaviour agreeable hereunto; let us evidence our good principles by good practices. Our conversation will always be answerable to the principle which we are under the guidance and government of: as those that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, so those that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit.
If therefore we would have it appear that we are Christ's, and that we are partakers of his Spirit, it must be by our walking not after the flesh, but after the spirit. We must set ourselves in good earnest both to mortify the deeds of the body, and to walk in newness of life.”
That is our calling. To walk in the Spirit, and to bear fruit to the Glory and Honor of Our God and Saviour.
Tonight we merely review the definition of “agape`” love as presented by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. Next week we are going to re-visit that list of definitions, examining it to maximize both our understanding and application of it. I hope as many of you who are hearing or reading these words can join, God willing, me for that examination.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Christian Resolutions, Part VI.”
This Discussion was presented “live” on February 12th, 2020.
I have designed a website to serve as an Online Book Store for the things I have written and published on Amazon. These are in the form of both Kindle eBooks, and paperback books. Some of you may recall a Series I presented on "The Lord's Prayer" several years ago. My original notes for this and other Bible Studies have been greatly revised and expanded for these publications. For further details on the books that are available, and for ordering information, click the following:
https://arvkbook.wixsite.com/romansbooks
If you purchase and read any of my books, Thank you! I would also greatly appreciate a review on Amazon!