July 17, 2022 NOTES NOT EDITED
Summer Fruit: The Loquat of Love
1Corinthians 13
"You
must understand,
Though the touch of your hand // Makes my pulse react
That
it's only the thrill of boy meeting girl // Opposites attract
It's
physical // Only logical
You
must try to ignore that it means more than that"
Maybe you never thought of Tina Turner as a great philosopher. If you know of her at all, you probably know her as the raucous rock-star struttin' the stage singing "Proud Mary" But, like so many of us, we struggle to really understand the true meaning of love.
Now, that’s a very important word. Love is a very important virtue. Love is a big virtue that cannot be described in a small word. It requires a big word like, “preeminent.” Preeminent means, “surpassing all others.” Love surpasses all other virtues. We read:
(NLT) 1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
It is important to note here that Greek had at least 8 words corresponding to our word, love--Eros (romantic, passionate love), named after the Greek God of fertility; Philia (affectionate love); Agape (selfless, universal love); Storge (familiar love); Mania (obsessive love); Ludus (playful love); Pragma (enduring love); and, Philautia (self love).
The three most commonly used were eros, phileo, and agape (and there various forms). Eros was a favorite of classical Greek poets and writers. It describes sensual, sexual, or romantic love. Popular among the Greeks, it does not appear in the N.T. Phileo roughly conforms to our idea of brotherly love or deep friendship. It is used in the N.T. on several occasions. Agape was not favored among the Greeks. It was viewed as a cold, unemotional commitment to the welfare of another—not high on the classical ladder of virtue. Yet, it became the word of choice to describe the true form of love that derives from the character of God. If I had to describe agape in a few words I would say it is “sacrificial love.” Love that gives expecting nothing in return. In a few places I the N.T., philia and agape have very similar meanings.
It is that kind of love that has a place of preeminence in the economy of God. Agape love is more than a simple virtue. It represents the very character of God Himself. The Bible says succinctly, “God is love (agape)” (1Jn. 4:8). Biblical love, true love, is more than what God does. It is His very nature.
Love is the very foundation of the gospel of salvation. It is the very foundation of all creation. God created the world (and all that’s in it) out of a desire to “love it” (Ps. 145:9). He reclaimed the fallen world (and everything in it) driven by His love (Jn. 3:16). Love is the very summation of the entire Law of God (Mat. 22:38-39). Love isn’t something God does. It isn’t how He acts. Love is the very nature of God, Himself (1Jn. 4:8). The Bible is not understandable unless every verse is read and interpreted wearing the lenses of love. Even justice and wrath cannot be understood without understanding love. Love is to life what water is to a fish. A fish is in water and water flows through the fish. The fish cannot be separated from the water any more than God (and man) can be understood apart from love. Since love is eternal, even when one gains the fullest measure of understanding of it, his ignorance of it will be infinite. Love is listed first in the fruits of the Spirit because of its preeminence over all other virtues. Nothing is more important or more powerful than true love.
2. True love is PRACTICAL (4-7)
True love is not an idea. It is an action. For love to be love it must be applied. One must “do” something in order to demonstrate biblical love. The only kind of love the Bible knows as real love is “love in action.” Love begins with the character of God and ends in the actions of His people. Real love, “is love in action.” Look at Jn. 3:16
(CSB)“For
God loved the world in this way:
He gave His One and Only Son.
God’s love was reflected in His actions. God loved and He gave. True love is love in action. We express our love to God in large part by expressing God’s love to our neighbors. Look how Jesus connects these two aspects in what is called, The Great Commandment:
Mat. 22(CSB) 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. t 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Love is “practical,” not philosophical. I think far too many Christians miss the mark of the Great Commandment by a mile because their love is just an idea. Paul in this great passage gives us a “checklist” of sorts by which we can evaluate our “love level.” Let’s check our “love levels” as we scan verses 3-7.
Œ4a Love is patient. Am I patient? This aspect of love is not as easy as some might think. Literally you could expand this word to mean, “Love remains steady when someone pushes you to the boiling point.” The word translated, patient (HCSB), is actually coined from two words and literally means “long mind” or could mean “great suffering,” which is why the KJV translates this phrase, “Love suffereth long.” It expresses the foundational idea of “restraint.” When someone pushes you to the limit—you extend the limit.
4bLove is kind. Am I kind to others? Someone offered this formula to help us evaluate our kindness level: "If someone were to pay us ten cents for every kind word we’ve ever spoken about people, and then take back five cents for every unkind word we’ve ever spoken about people, would we be poor or rich?” I’m afraid that many would find themselves in the poorhouse of kindness. We can so easily recognize when others are unkind to us, but often we blind, deaf, and mute when it comes to be kind to others.
Ž4cLove does not envy. Jealousy will eat away at love like an acid. We cannot love others if we resent who they are or what they might have. Jealousy or envy is love turned wrong-side-out. There is nothing at all wrong with admiring somebody that has had some great fortune befall them or if the possess some great skill. Admiration is not envy. There are many people who have skills that I don’t possess and I admire them greatly.
I
think of a great juggler I read about this week. He had finished an early show in one city and
had a later show in a nearby city. The
schedule was tight so he was driving a little too fast on the highway. Sure enough, a Highway Patrolman pulled him over.
When the Deputy asked the driver why he was speeding, the driver answered that
he was a magician and a juggler and he was on his way to Branson to do a show
that night and didn't want to be late.
The
deputy told the driver he was fascinated by juggling, and if the driver would
do a little juggling for him that he wouldn't give him a ticket. The juggler
told the deputy that he had sent all of his equipment on ahead and didn't have
anything to juggle. The deputy told him that he had some flares in the trunk of
his squad car and asked if he could juggle them. The juggler stated that he could, so the
deputy got three flares, lit them and handed them to the juggler.
While the man was doing his juggling act, a car pulled in behind the squad car, a drunk got out and watched the performance briefly. He had been pulled over for drunk driving many times and failed many field sobriety tests. Oddly, he then went over to the squad car, opened the rear door and got in. The deputy observed this puzzling behavior. The patrolman went over to his squad car, opened the door and asked the drunk but polite man what he was doing. The obviously drunk driver replied politely, "Might as well haul me off to jail, there’s no way on earth I’m going to pass that sobriety test."
Love does not envy others, but admires the skills others might have and appreciates the good fortune that comes to others. Do you love enough not to envy others?
4d[Love] is not boastful. Do you measure people by your standards? Of course, many people do just that but they fool themselves into thinking they are really just applying God’s standards to others. Think about those that struggle with the sin of homosexuality. As someone that does not face this temptation, it would be easy for me to say like the religious Pharisee, “Thank you Lord that I am not like that horrible homosexual”. The problem with that is, according to Luke 18, you are not only as bad as that homosexual but your sin is compounded by your pride. Love does not grade other people who miss God’s standard. Love “speaks the truth” with humility in hopes of lifting others to the standards God has set—not some prideful standard we have set ourselves.
4e [Love] is not conceited. The great Roman orator, Cicero, once gave a grand speech in Pompey. After he stepped down from the speaker’s platform, he said to a contemporary named Atticus, “Good heavens how I showed myself off” (Pulpit Comm). Love isn’t a show off. Love doesn’t toot its own horn. Conceit focuses love inward and nothing is left for anybody else. It’s not about me—it’s about others.
5a [Love] does not act improperly. What could be a more practical way to demonstrate your love than to “show good manners.” Love is not vulgar or off-color. Literally, to act improperly means to act “without shape or proper form.” It refers to no standard of decency. Do I always act with a well-mannered, G-rated attitude toward others?
‘5b [Love] is not selfish. 1Cor. 10:24 reminds us, No one should seek his own good, but the good of the other person. Once again this reminds us that true love always sends blessing outward to others.
’5c[Love] is not provoked [CSB, irritable]. This closely aligns with the aspect of patience. Love rises above the natural tendency to lash out at others even if we feel justified in doing so. It uses different language from patience to once again remind us that our obligation to love can be sorely tested by difficult people. In ancient Greek times it referred to something getting inside of us and causing a fever.
“5d[Love] does not keep a record of wrongs. The ESV reads, “is not resentful.” You have heard that the Lord calls upon us to “forgive and forget.” This is the “forget” part. You will never truly love someone else if you keep a logbook of their failures. You will become “resentful” that leads to bitterness. Bitterness is to love like spraying Round-Up on weeds. The love will wither and die.
”6a Love finds no joy in unrighteousness. Have you been driving on the freeway and someone zooms past you twenty mph over the speed limit. As he blasts by you do you secretly hope to see him pulled over to the side of the road with a police car parked behind him? That’s “finding joy in someone else’s sin.” Sure, he deserved it. He’s the one who sinned. No. Seeing others—even our enemies—suffering because of the consequences of sin should break our hearts.
6bBut [Love] rejoices in the truth. We should never rejoice over the plight of a sinner, but we should acknowledge the power of truth and rejoice that ultimately God’s Truth, God’s Law, God’s purpose will prevail. We should long to see more and more people “embracing the truth of God’s Word.” True love must rest solidly on a foundation of God’s Truth. Anything less than that standard in a relationship is not love, but mere sentimentality. It has no eternal value.
Verse 7 really serves as a poetic summation of the practicality of Godly love: It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. True love is powerful, principled, and positive. Powerful in what it can bear. Principled in what it believes; and positive with the hope that the last chapter of God’s Book declares His people the winners!
Now verses 4 through 7 create a “love scorecard.” How are you doing? I have a lot of work to do on my “love game!” I need to work on the practical aspects of “love.”
True love is preeminent. True love is practical.
3. True love is PERMANENT (8-13)
8“Love never ends.”
. . . . . . . .
13Now these three remain:
faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
True love is under a great attack
in the world today. On June 26, 2015.
the SCOTUS dug deep into the Constitution (Article 14) and found a “natural” right for homosexuals to marry. Not
too many years ago, using the word, “natural” with a right for homosexual to
marry would have be a “great oxymoron.” Basically,
the majority on the Court argued that people have a right to marry whomever they love. This is a common phrase in support of
homosexual marriage I’ve seen or heard hundreds of times on newscasts and
social media—people should be able to marry whomever they choose to love—regardless of whether
it is “natural” or not.
But . . . that’s not really my point today? My concern today isn’t whether homosexuals should be allowed to marry. My concern today is in regard to what does it really mean to LOVE somebody.” When all the dust of human history settles, and all marriages have been dissolved by the course of natural life, what LOVE will remain? What love is PERMANENT? It doesn’t matter what man says, nor what the Supreme Court says. What really matters is WHAT DOES GOD SAY LOVE IS—BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY LOVE THAT WILL LAST FOREVER!
Yahweh, the very ground of All Being and the One who defines what love really is, has declared has declared what true love is. True love is not giving in to our base human passions—homosexual or heterosexual—but True Love is surrendering our “whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind to God.” We read earlier about this all-encompassing foundation for love: Matthew 22:37–38 (NLT)
37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
The only love that lasts for eternity is the love founded upon the Character of Almighty God and expressed through the inspired text of the Bible—that love lasts forever!
Any love that does not align with the Word of God, as we have explored here in this text, is a false love that will not last. It will whither and fade like grass beneath a scorching sun. Isaiah reminds us: Isaiah 40:8 (NLT) 8 The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Last week as I was studying for and reflecting upon this message from God the thought struck my mind like a clapper ringing a bell: “Church-goers seem to like the idea of love much more than the practice of it.”
Real love is diving deep into the waters of a transforming relationship with God through His Word and then emerging upon the shore of humanity to express God’s True Love to a hurting world. Our love, if it is to be a “love that lasts” must be a love rooted in the very character of Almighty God Himself. God’s Word tells us. 1Jn 4:19
(NLT) We love each other because he loved us first.
This is a “love that is permanent.” It cannot fade, it cannot sour, it cannot sink, it cannot be lost, and it cannot be diminished in anyway.
1Cor.13:13 (NLT) Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
TRUE LOVE SAVES! And salvation is forever. Faith and hope are not as great as love because they are mere shadows dissolved by the bright light of God’s Presence. All that will matter of faith, hope, and love in the Presence of Jesus the Nazarene will be, “love.” The old beloved Him talks of the PERMANENCE of True Love:
I
stand amazed in the presence Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And
wonder how He could love me, A sinner condemned, unclean.
How
marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be:
How marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior’s love for me!
The word, “love,” is tossed about frivolously like cheap beads from balconies during Mardi Gra but I don’t think the world really has a clue as to what “True Love Is.” True love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit—I call it the Loquat of Love.
Name first in the list of the Fruits of the Spirit, love is PREEMINENT over all other virtues. The Loquat of the Lord’s Love is PRACTICAL—it is expressed not as a lofty idea, but as meaningful actions. And most of all, Godly Love is PERMANENT. When all the passions and pursuits of mankind have been reduced to nothing by the coming judgement of God, only God’s enduring, saving love will remain. In the Day of Judgement there will be a test with only two questions: 1. Did you love God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength; and 2. Did you love sinners as God loved you.
As we think about how “loving” we really are, I want to leave us with the words of one of the most influential preachers in the history of the world, the Prince of Preachers he is called, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Spurgeon reminded us what real love is, and real love does:
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”—Charles Haddon Spurgeon
There is nothing more powerful than
love—especially love for sinners. Let’s
make sure that the “Loquat of Love” is one of the spiritual fruits in our
basket.
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