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The Greatest Virtues 3 - Love
- David Brown
- Sep 27, 2009
- Series: The Greatest Virtues
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The Greatest Virtues 3
1 Corinthians 13:12-13 The Message
12 We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Faith…Hope…Love
And the greatest of these is Love!
Faith, Hope and Love take us through life into eternity!
Spiritual fads, movements, emphases and institutions come and go but these three virtues endure!
They are the principle godly characteristics that empower the effective and victorious Christian life!
The Victorious Christian doesn’t live…
By sight, by his feelings or in fear or doubt, but by faith.
In discouragement or despair, but in expectation and hope.
In bitterness, strife, hatred, nor in law or judgment, but in love.
Scripture commands us to…
Love God with all our beings
Love our neighbor as ourselves
Love our husbands and our wives
Even to love our enemies
Love is to be the identifying hallmark of the Believer!
(Not church attendance, Bible toting or quoting, but love)
John 13:34-35
Notice that Jesus is not talking about having love FOR one another…but having love TO one another!
He’s talking about the action of love!
Love is not a mere emotion. It’s a decision.
Love is more than a passion. It’s an action.
John 15:12-13
Christian love, God’s love… is not self seeking…but self-sacrificing!
1 John 4:7-11
John, the Apostle of Love encourages us to love.
We are born of God, therefore we are born of love.
Love is in us because God is in us!
Love being in us is a proof that we’re born of God.
Romans 5:5 The love of God is shed abroad (poured forth and gushing out of) in our hearts
However, it’s one thing to have love in your heart…and quite another to release that love in decision, action and sacrifice!
We’re called of God to love in action!
1 John 3:18
1 Corinthians 13:1-8 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.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!