Collected Writings On ... Exploring Biblical Love
By Hayes Press
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About this ebook
This book explores love in the Bible - God's love for us, how we should love each other, examples of love in the Bible ... and more!
CHAPTER ONE: CHRISTLIKE LOVE
CHAPTER TWO: GROWING IN LOVE
CHAPTER THREE: GOD IS LOVE
CHAPTER FOUR: SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE
CHAPTER FIVE: THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVE
CHAPTER SIX: FIRST LOVE
CHAPTER SEVEN: PERSEVERING LOVE
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE OBEDIENT LOVE OF FATHER AND SON
CHAPTER NINE: LOVE AND COMMUNION WITH CHRIST
CHAPTER TEN: UNSWERVING LOVE
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE POWER OF LOVE
CHAPTER TWELVE: THE LOVING ENTREATIES OF GOD
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: REDISCOVERING FIRST LOVE
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE PROVING OF LOVE
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE LOVES OF ISAAC
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: FRIEND OR LOVER?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: LOVE ONE ANOTHER
CHAPTER NINETEEN: FERVENT LOVE
CHAPTER TWENTY: YEARNING LOVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: PROVOKING TO LOVE AND GOOD WORKS
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE ROYAL LAW OF LOVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: LOVE TO THE UTTERMOST
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: THE RESPONSE OF LOVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: THE LOVE OF CHRIST
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: A POEM OF LOVE
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Collected Writings On ... Exploring Biblical Love - Hayes Press
CHAPTER ONE: CHRISTLIKE LOVE (PHIL CAPEWELL)
THERE ARE SEVERAL WORDS for love in Greek. The one in which we are particularly interested in this chapter does not refer to a quality which automatically arises in our hearts, otherwise it would not be necessary for Scripture to exhort us to nurture it or put it on. Some types of love spring up spontaneously. That kind of love is not an achievement or a virtue; it isn't something with which we have consciously anything to do, it just happens. But Christian love is ultimately the power to love the unlovable, to love people we do not like.
Vine explains, "Christian love, whether exercised toward the brethren, or toward men generally, is not an impulse of the feelings, it does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered. Love seeks the welfare of all, and works no ill to any; love seeks opportunity to do good to all men. In respect of this word as used of God, it expresses the deep and constant love and interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects (See Rom.5:8; Eph.2:4).
God hates sin but He loves sinners, and His love was perfectly displayed in His Son. The action of Jesus merely demonstrated that love, it did not change God's attitude to men. Love is always known by the action that it prompts. It is measured by what it gives. When we look at God's love in His Son, we realize that it is a love which holds nothing back. God made the supreme sacrifice when He sent His own Son. Beyond that He could not have gone. We see too that it is totally undeserved. There is a reason for our love, because we respond to God's love, but the wonder is that God loves such poor, undeserving creatures.
"How Thou canst think so well of us,
And be the God Thou art,
Is darkness to my intellect,
But sunshine to my heart."
Our responsibility is to respond to God's love by keeping His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments
(1 Jn. 5:3). The first and greatest commandment is to Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind
(Matt.22:37). Christianity is not a submission to the power of God but a surrendering to the love of God. Our love will also be evident in love for others; for our neighbours, fellow Christians, even our enemies.
We shall now consider the qualities of Christ-like love. Love is to be sincere. Let love be without hypocrisy
(Rom.12:9). The word hypocrisy comes from a root meaning a reply, and it came to mean the acting of stage-players, because such answered one another in dialogue. Hence it came to mean a pretence, acting a part. Then love is to be innocent. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour
(Rom.13:10). Delilah, under the guise of love, betrayed Samson. Judas, behind the veil of friendship and affection, betrayed the Lord Jesus. Yet the Lord, even in the Upper Room, gave him a final opportunity when He gave him the sop. We must understand that as an Eastern custom of the day it was a sign of friendship but it was rejected.
Again, love is to be generous. There are two types of love - the giving and demanding sorts. Christ's love was such that having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end
. To the end
means to completion; it has been translated to the uttermost
. Campbell-Morgan suggests another translation, Having loved His own which were in the world He saw it through
. He knew all things, John tells us, yet knowing it all He saw it through. No turning back. Love giving all! Paul appealed to the Corinthians to show the proof of their love by the way they received his fellow missionaries (2 Cor.8:24).
And love is to be practical. Like faith, love is to be demonstrated by what we do. Christ showed it by taking our infirmities (Matt.14:14) and His compassion on the multitudes (Matt.15:32). He did not just come to talk about God's love. He came to demonstrate it in a practical way. God's love in Christ was eminently practical. To have merely spoken of it would have been inadequate. In this, redemption differs from creation. In creation God said, Let there be light, and there was light
He spake and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast
. But salvation is by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God paid the ransom price in the death of His Son. Herein was the love of God manifested in our case, that God hath sent His only begotten Son ...
(1 Jn.4:9 RV margin). True love controls liberty (Gal.5:13; Rom.14:15). There are some matters on which there is no direct Scriptural guide but there may be differences of opinion in regard to them. In such cases we are not entirely free to follow our conscience regardless of others. There is a necessary restriction; love for others. We may see no harm in a particular course of action but it may offend others. We must never forget that Christian liberty is controlled by Christian love, and by Christian responsibility for others.
But love does not ignore wrong. Paul had some harsh things to say to the Corinthians but it would not have been loving to ignore their failings. The criticisms had to be made. Christian love does not shut its eyes to faults. Love is not blind as is sometimes claimed. It will rebuke and discipline when it is called for but it will not do it with any sense of pleasure but with a sense of pain. Paul wrote, For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you
(2 Cor.2:4).
How wonderful is Christ-like love!
CHAPTER TWO: GROWING IN LOVE (MARTIN ARCHIBALD)
'THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT is Love...'
What is the Christ-like quality that the disciple needs most? In Paul's description of the fruit of the Spirit of God, he places love first. Again he tells us that faith, hope and love have an essential, abiding place, but (he greatest of these is love. So we shall surely be well rewarded to give some thought to how that fruit can be nurtured in our lives. First we may need to be clear about exactly what it is.
What Love Is
Love is not kindness, though it certainly 'is kind' (1 Cor.13:4). Kindness by itself would not be able to withdraw when someone needs to suffer in order to grow in self-discipline, in grace and in understanding. Kindness might even allow someone to die rather than suffer pain. Love is wiser, because it is an active interest in what is best for another. Thus love strengthens a church of God to bear the pain of cutting someone off so as to allow the Spirit of God to bring about true repentance. It is not just having benevolent feelings. If we try to cultivate kindly feelings we become occupied with our own state of mind, obscuring our perception of the true situation of others and what they really need.
Rather, to love means directing my will towards bearing another's burdens (Gal. 6:2). Only thus will my desire to do