This purpose of this mini-series is to explain love as fruit of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, it is to contrast the false teaching of Glenda Green – a post about her ministry directly preceded part one of this series.
Pastor Ramsey’s sermon directly follows highlights.
Highlights [bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening are mine]:
- The question is, what kind of love is the apostle Paul discussing in Galatians?
- The context is about interpersonal relationships, thus, he is speaking about love for one another which also includes love for God (that is one way we love God)
- Paul issued a warning at the end of the passage under consideration
- Galatians 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another
- The Bible defines love by telling us what it does and feels; by providing concrete examples of love and telling us WHO is love
- God is love; love is from God
- Look to God, get to know Him in His word and you’ll know what love is
- 1 Corinthians 13 and Leviticus 19 provide many concrete examples of love [pasted in below the Mp4 sermon]
- Those two chapters provide many examples of how to DO LOVE
- When we look at scriptures about Christ, we experience what love is about, for example:
- John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends
- John is not saying we need to die for one another; Jesus loved us in that manner because we NEEDED that from Him
- He made the sacrifice that we benefitted from; we are to love other in that way; learning what they need and acting to benefit them, thereby giving sacrificially
- In other words, sacrificing ourselves for the good of others
- We NEEDED to be saved from the consequences of our sins
- Another word that adds to the definition of love is ‘give’ as in Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
- John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life
- LOVE IN THE BIBLE IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF SELFISHNESS: love sacrifices itself for others; selfishness sacrifices others for itself
- Lust is often confused for love; but lust is a prime example of selfishness, to satisfy its own desires
- Love is NOT agreeableness; not giving people what they want, but giving for their welfare
- Love, however, is not just action; it includes our entire nature including emotions [intellect and will]
- Biblical love is putting God first: Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth
- It is easy to put money, work, family, government… ahead of God
- [I have heard pastors say, and my own experience confirms it, that God the Holy Spirit shows us our idols that we are putting before Him; Pastor Paul Washer noted that the Holy Spirit crushes those. I think that He certainly undermines their authority in our lives, showing that they are useless in helping us. Addictions, for example are certainly idols. They never give what they promise but usually destroy us]
- A husband is to love everyone, including all women; but he is to love his wife more and in a special way – like we are to love God
- Loving God also includes hating the world, which is in rebellion against God
- Examples given
- We are also to love God by keeping His commands
- 2 John 1:6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it
- [See also: this is love: Joh_14:15, Joh_14:21, Joh_15:10, Joh_15:14; Rom_13:8-9; Gal_5:13-14; 1Jn_5:3, 1Jn_5:15]
- 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have 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.
- James 3:8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
- 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
- Part of loving God is wanting to be with Him: Psalm 27:4 One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple
- As in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) we are to love the poor, disabled, social outcasts and enemies
- Showing of partiality briefly discussed
- In loving our neighbors, we should not expect anything in return
- How could the following verse is true? 1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing
- If one’s motives were selfish. Biblical love gives to give, not to get something in return
- 2 Corinthians 12:15 I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
- Philippians 4:17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit
- What love does, per Leviticus 19 and 1 Cor. 13 [see texts below sermon]
- Love overlooks a multitude of sins; doesn’t bear grudges; does not rejoice when someone sins; is slow to expose the sins of others; helps those in need…
- The Bible cannot cover every situation or relationship problem in a world of changing circumstances
- So, the question for the one seeking to love another is always, “How can I love this person in this situation?”
- “What does sacrifice look like in this scenario?”
- We need wisdom to apply scripture
- The golden rule provides that: Matthew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets
- That is so because we are experts in knowing how we want to be loved; we do not have to study anything to know that
- We must use that knowledge we have about how it is that we desire to be loved and give that to others; that is loving our neighbor as we would love ourselves
- The fruit of the Spirit is love; if we walk by the Spirit, we will love
- Meditate upon the following verse: John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Link to Pastor Ramsey’s sermon series on Galatians and the fruit of the Spirit: https://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakeronly=true&currsection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Patrick_Ramsey
Leviticus 19:
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself [ESV]
Leviticus 19:9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. 10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 19:11 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. 12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. 13 “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
Lev 19:14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. 15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.
Lev 19:16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. 17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.
Lev 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
1 Corinthians 13:
1Corinthians 13: 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Featured Image: From the article: Beautiful Bible Verses About Love and Marriage by Jorie Nicole McDonald