Exploring the Reality of True Love

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March 12, 2006  A.D.

Exploring the Reality of True Love

What is the proper biblical understanding of love? Should it be equated with the world’s view of love? Or is it radically different? Is there any connection between love and truth? Listen in as Pastor Landis digs in to these as well as a few other pertinent issues in this installment as we pick things up from our last week’s study in the epistle of First John.

Old Testament Scripture Reading: Psalms 119:169 – 176  (KJV)
Psa 119:169  TAU. Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word.

Psa 119:170  Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.

Psa 119:171  My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.

Psa 119:172  My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.

Psa 119:173  Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.

Psa 119:174  I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight.

Psa 119:175  Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

Psa 119:176  I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
New Testament Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:4 – 12  (NASB)
1 John 4:4  You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

1 John 4:5  They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.

1 John 4:6  We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

1 John 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:8  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:9  By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

1 John 4:10  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:12  No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
Transforming Power Statements:

#1) There is no real love apart from truth, because whatever profession of love that exists in denial of the truth, can only at best be temporary and will terminate in eternal destruction which is separation from Jesus Who is truth.

#2) Propitiation {the required sacrifice for appeasement of God’s just judgment against sin which is due to each sinner} for all sinners was designed and executed by God so that it could be made available to every sinner who of their own free will would see their deep need for righteousness acceptable to God and request it from God at the sole expense of Jesus, who alone has paid the full cost.  

#3) The highest goal of being a Christian is learning to love as God loves and administering that love in the world, and especially to others within the household of faith.