Today, we are talking about Love. This is the last in a series of talks studying 2 Peter 1:3-9. The last characteristic Peter tells us to add to our faith is love. Love is like water. It brings life. It flows to you and you must decide whether you want to keep it for yourself or share it with others. If you don’t share it with others then you act like a dam and you create a pond that will have life but will eventually become stagnant and dirty. If you allow God’s love to flow through you into the lives of others then the water will be like a river flowing from God to you and then through you to give refreshing life to others.
What is this word LOVE all about? What does it mean? We hear this word all the time don’t we? I love going to the movies, I love chocolate, I love my girlfriend, I love my XBox, I love God.
Do all of those words mean the same thing?
Let’s see what this word in this passage (2 Peter 1:3-9) means in the original Greek. The Greek word for love here agape-love, affection, benevolence, social or moral love, a love feast!
So, obviously we are overusing or misusing the word love. We ENJOY chocolate, we ENJOY going to the movies, we ENJOY our Xbox. For these things, ENJOY is a more accurate term than LOVE.
So, from where does love come? Our heart? Our emotions?
1 John 4:7-21 tells us much about love. Love comes from God. We love Him because He first loved us.
Romans 5:8 says that whiile we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Just like water flowing to us in a river, God’s love is not something we earned or deserved.
So, how much does God love us?
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
This is not just big talk. Jesus is foreshadowing his own death on the cross. He loves us and takes on the penalty for our sins, death.
John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
This is the Word of God, which we can hold as truth. So if we take this idea and reverse it then it means that if we are not keeping the commandments of God, then we do not love Him.
God has already proven His love. It is like a river running from the heart of God straight TO US and you must decide what you are going to do with it. I hope you will choose to let God’s love run THROUGH YOU to bless the people around you. To bring life and not to become dirty and stagnant like a dammed pond. And, just because God is good, He promises you will be blessed in the process. Don’t take my word for it. Jesus says in Luke 6:38 “…give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Don’t you LOVE that!?!