THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
SPREADING THE SOUL-SAVING MESSAGE OF JESUs
“Love”
Introduction by narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Spreading the soul-saving message of Jesus. And now, Kevin Pendergrass.
Welcome to the Gospel of Christ. This is our first lesson on the fruit of the Spirit. In today’s lesson, we will be examining what it means to bear fruit for the Lord. And we will be looking at the fruit of the Spirit as we define what it means to have love one for another.
The New Testament has always taught that we must bear fruit unto the Lord. What does that mean? It means that our actions and lifestyles must be in accordance with the will of God. In Matthew 3:8 we see John preaching in the wilderness and preparing the way of the Lord. He was preaching to the Jews, telling them that they needed to bear fruit worthy of repentance. What does that mean? If you are going to live a life that is pleasing to God, you must change your actions and lifestyle. Jesus taught in Matthew 12:33 that a tree is known by its fruits. What does that mean? If I’m driving down the road and I see a tree that has apples on it, I’m not going to say, “Oh, that’s a nice-looking orange tree.” Why? I can tell by the fruit it bears that it is an apple tree. Jesus taught that in the same manner, people ought to be able to look at our lives and say, “That person is living a life for the Lord—a life that is pleasing to God.” How can they know that? By the fruits that we are bearing (that is, by our characteristics and our lifestyle). In John 15:6 the Bible teaches us that if we do not bear fruit for the Lord, then we will be cut down and thrown into the fire—which, of course, is a reference to being in Hell for eternity. This is a serious issue. It is a matter of eternal importance for us to be sure that we are bearing the right kind of fruit for the Lord.
What kind of fruit must we bear if we want to be pleasing to God? The Bible tells us. In Galatians 5:22-26 Paul tells us what kind of fruit we must bear in order to go to Heaven. In Galatians 5:22-23 we are told, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” The Bible tells us what kind of fruit we must bear. We must bear the fruit of the Spirit. Paul says that “against such there is no law.” Does that mean that we do not have to abide in any kind of law or worry about law? No, that is not what it means. It means that if we are living a lifestyle that includes these characteristics, we do not have to worry about the condemnation of the law. If I’m driving down the road, and the speed limit is seventy miles per hour, and I am driving sixty-five miles an hour and see a police officer, do I have to worry about slowing down or getting a ticket? No. Why? It is because I am abiding in the law. I’m living by the law, so I do not have to worry about its condemnation. In the same way, if we are living a life that is pleasing to God, we do not have to worry about condemnation because we are abiding in the law. In this first lesson, we will be studying the importance of bearing the fruit of love.
Love is one of those words that people use all the time, but often do not understand its meaning. You may have said, or heard someone else say, “I love pizza,” or “I love such-and-such restaurant.” Does that person love those things in a biblical way? Galatians 5: 22 teaches us that we must love. But what does it mean to love? In 1 Peter 4:11 Peter said, “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.” That is exactly what we plan to do in this series of lessons. We are going to go to the Bible and allow the Bible define for us what it means to love—not according to the world’s standards, but according to God’s standard.
Christians must love. But there are some things that we are not to love. In 1 John 2:15-17 John said that we are not to love the world or the things in the world. We are not to love worldly and fleshly things that are of a materialistic nature. We must love, but our love must be funneled and geared in the right direction. So let’s talk about some things that the Bible tells us we must love.
The Bible teaches that we must love our neighbors. In Matthew 5:43-44 and in Matthew 7: 12 Jesus taught that we must love our neighbors. That does not mean just those who live next to us, but instead refers to people around us with whom we come in contact. We must have a true love for our neighbors’ souls. According to Matthew 7:12, we are to do good to them, just as we would want them to do good unto us. Many people call this the “Golden Rule.” How do you want to be treated? However you want to be treated is how you need to treat other people. Of course, it is not enough just to love our neighbors. It is easy to love those who do good to us. If someone invites you over for a nice dinner, they treat you well, and you become good friends with them, it’s easy to love such people. But what about our enemies? Does the Bible say that we have to love our enemies? Someone might say, “I’m going to love only those people who do good to me.” But that is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that we must love our enemies. Jesus made this point in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:44-48 when He said,
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
As Jesus was teaching on this subject, He said that it is not enough just to love those who love us. We must love our enemies. Is this what the world teaches? No. The world teaches that if someone scratches your back, then you can scratch their back. But if someone stabs you in the back, they you need to stab them in their back. The world teaches that we should never love someone who does not love us. But Jesus said that is not the type of love that He was commanding us to have. He commanded us to have love even for people who persecute us. If someone hates us, we still must love them. Jesus made the point, “How are you different if you love only those who love you?” Everyone does that. Even the worst of the worst have people whom they love. So it is not enough just to love those who love us. We must love our enemies. We cannot have the mentality, “If someone does something bad to me, I’m going to pay them back. I’m going to take vengeance upon them.” We must not have such a mentality, but must leave vengeance to the Lord. What does it mean to leave vengeance to the Lord? Paul told us in Romans 12:19-21 when he wrote,
“Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
We must “give place to wrath.” What does that mean? It means that we have to allow the Lord to take care of such things. It is our obligation to do good and to continue to do the right thing, regardless of what our enemies do to us. If we truly love our enemies, then what will we do for them? A true love for neighbors and enemies means that we are going to tell them about the Gospel of Christ. We will tell them the truth so they can obey the Gospel and go to Heaven. In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 we are taught that those who do not know God and who do not obey the Gospel will be lost in Hell for eternity. It is our obligation—if we truly love our neighbors and even our enemies—to tell them what the Bible has to say about what they need to do to go to Heaven. In Ephesians 4:15 Paul said that we are to “preach the truth in love.” Why do we preach the truth? We do it because we love lost souls. Does this mean that we will always have a smile on our face and that everything will be pleasant? No, that is not what it means to speak the truth in love. It means that we must have the correct mentality and do it for the right reason. We are not to teach for the wrong reasons. We preach the truth because we love the souls of the people around you, and because you want them to go to Heaven. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14 that it was the love of Christ that compelled him. The love that Christ had for us should compel us to go out and tell others the good news of what Christ has to offer. What if you found out that there was a cure, and you had access to that cure? Wouldn’t you want to go out and tell people? Wouldn’t you want to tell people that you had the cure for cancer? Sure you would! There is a much worse disease known as “sin.” In Romans 6:23 we are told that “the wages of sin is death” (spiritually speaking). If we have the cure (the Gospel truth, John 8:32), why are we not out talking to people about it and sharing the Gospel with them? We should be, and we must be if we really do love people’s souls.
Paul exhibited this love in Romans 10:1 when he said that he wanted the Jews to be saved —so much so that he was willing to give up his own life so that they could be saved. It was his prayer and heart’s desire that they would come to a knowledge of the truth. But even Paul realized that in preaching the truth to people, we might make enemies. People do not want to accept the Gospel. In fact, Matthew 7:13-14 makes it clear that very few will enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Paul asked in Galatians 4:16, “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Paul realized that even though he had a great love for lost souls, those who would not repent might well become his enemies because he was trying to get them to change. The same is true today. You probably have made enemies when you tried to tell them about the Gospel. Someone might even accuse you of being unloving when you teach the truth. They might say, “If you love me, leave me alone.” According to the Bible, that is not love. If you love someone, you will do everything within your power to be sure that you have given them the right source for truth so that they can obey it. In Matthew 10:22 Jesus taught the disciples (under the Limited Commission) that they would be “hated by all for My name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.” Today we are living under the Great Commission, which means that there are many more people today to hate us because the Gospel is not just for the Jews, but is for everyone. When we go out and teach the truth, we may be “hated by all.” I once heard someone say at a funeral, “This man (or woman) never had any enemies and never made anyone mad. Everyone loved him (or her), and nobody disliked them.” When I hear that, I think, “the poor soul; that means that he never took a stand for truth, and thus that he was lost, since Jesus said that if we took a stand for truth and did the right thing, then we would make enemies.” It is not a compliment to say, “Everyone likes me. I’ve never made an enemy.” That is not a compliment. Jesus teaches us that we will make enemies if we teach and preach the truth.
When we look at love, we must understand that it does not compromise truth. When it comes to matters of salvation, love will not compromise—and accept anything other than the truth. A good example of this is found in Mark 10:17-22 where we find the story of the rich young ruler. “Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’” The man asked a good question. Jesus said,
“Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
Jesus told him that if he wanted to go to Heaven, he had to keep God’s commandments and do the will of God (Mt. 7:21). The ruler responded, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Here we see a good, moral man. He is not out fornicating. He is not out disrespecting his parents. He is not murdering anyone. He is a good, moral man. This is the type of man whom we would want to be our neighbor because he is someone who is good and respectable. The text then says, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him….” Notice Jesus’ motivation. It goes back to Ephesians 4:15, which tells us that we are to “speak the truth in love.” Did Jesus say to him, “Well, you’re better than half the people who are following Me, so even thought you’ve got some issues, come with me anyway and I’ll overlook those.” No. Jesus said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” I can hear some people saying, “Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound like love. If Jesus loved him, He would have accepted him as he was. Jesus wouldn’t have made him change anything. Jesus would have just loved and accepted him anyway.” But that is not biblical love. Christ loves us, but wants us to change. It was Christ’s love that prompted Him to expose this man’s sin. Ephesians 5:11 teaches us that we are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead are to expose them. When we love someone and see his sin, we must expose that sin. Do we do that just to make the person feel bad? No. We do this so that the person can know what sin is and fix it so that they can turn to the Lord. In verse 22 we see a sad statement because the young ruler was not willing to follow the Lord by giving up his possessions: “But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” This man loved his possessions more than he loved God. This goes back to 1 John 2:15-17. The man had a great love—but it was geared in the wrong direction. If he had loved the Lord, he would have given up anything and everything in order to follow him so he could go to Heaven. Love does not compromise.
True love involves discipline. We must, at times, discipline someone because we love him. We understand this. Everything in life involves good discipline. In Revelation 3:19 Jesus was writing a letter to the church of Christ in Laodicea. He said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” Jesus said that if He was willing to rebuke someone, it means that He loved that person and wanted him to change. In Proverbs 23:13 the Bible says, “Do not withhold correction from a child. If you beat him with a rod, he will not die.” Growing up, I used to think that I had the meanest parents because they spanked me and disciplined me. I had friends whose parents never spanked them or disciplined them. In fact, half of the time their parents weren’t even home. I thought, “How neat it would be if I had parents like my friends!” Then, as I grew older, I had curfews. There were times that I got grounded for doing things that I should not have been doing. When I looked at my friends who had “the good parents,” I saw that their parents never grounded them. They never had curfews. And I said to myself, “I wish I had good parents because my parents don’t love me.” But eventually I figured out that my parents were the ones who loved me. I thank God every day that I had parents who loved me enough to discipline me. In fact, I probably needed a lot more discipline than what I received. I probably deserved a lot more. As I look to the friends I had in middle school and high school (whom I thought had the best parents), it is sad to see that their parents didn’t really love them. Love involves discipline. That does not mean it will be joyful. I never enjoyed receiving a spanking. Never once did that happen. I never enjoyed being grounded. But Hebrews 12:11 teaches us that no chastisement seems joyful at the present. But it is good for those who are willing to be trained by it. It will bring about peace if they allow themselves to be trained by it. True love disciplines.
I’ve been to various congregations whose members have mentioned to me certain problems occurring in their congregations. They have said to me, “I know I should say something. I know that I should stand up and do something about it. But I just love everyone too much to say anything, so I’m just going to keep my mouth shut.” That’s an incorrect understanding because love will speak up when there is an issue that needs to be addressed. Proverbs 27:5 says, “Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed.” But what about the idea that keeping our mouths shut is better than saying something? Sometimes that might be true. But it is not true when there is an issue that needs to be addressed, or when someone is in sin and needs to be rebuked. People need to remember that open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. When it comes to church discipline, and correcting those who have fallen away (Gal. 5:4), the Bible teaches that if they do not repent, then the church must withdraw from them (to the point of not even eating with the person; 1 Cor. 5). The Bible teaches in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-14 that we are not to keep company with such a person. Someone might say, “That seems awfully harsh.” It is harsh. And that is why Proverbs 15:10 tells us that harsh discipline is for those who forsake the way. For people who used to be Christians, but who have fallen away, harsh discipline is what is needed. If we truly love their souls, that is what we will give them. We must love not just our neighbors, but also our enemies. In loving them, we must give them the truth. We are going to do everything we can to make sure that we are teaching them the right way so that they can obey the Lord and go to Heaven.
I want to spend the remainder of this lesson talking about loving God. If we love God, we will love our neighbors. Part of loving God means loving our enemies. But now I want to talk about what it means to directly and specifically love God. We are told in 1 John 4:8 that one of the characteristics of God is love. But how do we love God? Some people today say, “I feel like I love God, and it feels so good. I’ve got my WWJD bracelet on, and everything just feels so good. I really love God.” When we ask, “How do you know that you love God?,” we are told, “I just feel like I do.” But that is not what the Bible teaches. Proverbs 16:25 tells us, “There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end is the way of death.” We must be able to go to the Bible to prove that we love God (1 Thess. 5:21). The only way we can know if we are doing the will of God is by going to the Bible and proving that we are doing the will of God (Eph. 5:10). How, then, do we love God?
In John 14:15 Jesus told us when He said, “If you love Me, keep my commandments.” What is the implication of that? If we are not keeping the Lord’s commandments, then we are telling God, “I do not love You.” In John 15:14 Jesus said, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” There is a conditional clause, as indicated by the word “if.” Jesus did not say, “You are My friends unconditionally.” Instead, He said, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
In defining love, I want to look at two specific passages where the Bible defines for us what it means to love. I’m not going to go to Webster’s Dictionary or the most popular view in the religious world regarding what love means. Instead, I’m simply going to open up my Bible and turn to God’s Word to find the definition of love.
In 1 John 5:3 we are told, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” Not only must we keep God’s commandments, but we should want to do so. It should be a desire and privilege. We should not say, “I’m going to do what God tells me to, but I don’t really want to.” We should say, “I want to do anything and everything God has told me to do. I can’t wait to do it because I want to do God’s will.” In 2 John 6 we see a similar verse—“This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.” How do we know that we are loving God. We know it if we are walking according to His commandments. I once heard someone tell a preacher, “You’re preaching way too many commandments, but not enough love.” That’s an impossibility because the way we preach love is by preaching God’s commandments. The way we know that we are loving God is if we are following His commandments. The more commandments we know and understand, and the more commandments in which we abide, we know are loving God.
Another passage I want us to examine is found in John 14:21. Earlier we looked at John 14:15 where Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Later in that same chapter, Jesus said in verse 21, “John He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” A person must know what God’s commandments are. And that involves study (Acts 17:11). It involves making sure that we are rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). And it means that we will be spending time in God’s Word. First, we must know God’s commandments. Second, we must keep His commandments if we intend to love Him.
What commandments must we keep when it comes to salvation? What must a person do to be saved? Are you a Christian? Do you know that you love God because you can go to the Bible and say, “Here is how I know I love God; I have done what He has told me to do”? The Bible teaches us that if we are going to be Christians, we have to go to the right source (Rom. 10:17). We have to go to the Bible. We have to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We must repent of our sins (Acts 17:31). We must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Rom. 10:10). And we must be baptized in water for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38; 22: 16). If you have yet to obey the truth, we pray today that you will obey the Gospel of Christ.
Narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
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“Love”
1. What important principle did Jesus teach in Matthew 12:33?
2. What important principle did Jesus teach in John 15:6?
3. What, according to Galatians 5:22-23, are the fruits of the Spirit?
4. According to Jesus’ statement in John 14:15, what is one way that we show our love of God?
5. According to 1 John 2:15-17, what are some things that we are not to love?
6. What Old Testament precept was carried over (from Leviticus 19:18) into the New Testament (in Matthew 5:43)?
7. What does Matthew 7:12 teach us?
8. What important question did Jesus ask in Matthew 5:46?
9. In Romans 12:19, what did Paul prohibit?
10. According to 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9, what will happen to those who do not know God and who do not obey the Gospel?
11. According to 2 Corinthians 5:14, what should “compel us” to tell people about the soul-saving Gospel of Jesus Christ?
12. According to the principle found in Matthew 10:22, what might happen to us if try to tell people the truth about their souls’ condition?
13. According to Ephesians 5:11, with what are we to have no fellowship?
14. According to Revelation 3:19, if God rebukes (or chastens) us, what does that tell us?
15. What does Hebrews 12:11 tell us about the Lord’s chastening?
16. When it comes to “loving God,” of what importance to us is the message contained in Proverbs 16:25?
17. Ephesians 5:19 tells us one way that we can know we are loving God correctly. What is it?
18. According to 1 John 5:3, how should Christians look at obeying God’s commandments?
19. John 15:14 points out a time in our lives when we are Jesus’ friends. What is that time?
20. According to John 14:2, what blessing is ours as a result of loving God correctly?
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