The following sermon was delivered at the 2014 Pastors Conference held at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. The preacher is Pastor Robert Fisher from Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Mebane, North Carolina. My assignment is to address love in terms of the importance of love and the implications for the Christian ministry. Now if you look at the outline, you'll quickly realize that a great deal of what I was going to say has been said, and said very well. So what should I do? I prayed and considered whether I should change and actually bring something else, but I didn't feel competent to do that. So I'm going to proceed with this, but I want you to think of what I'm going to say as really an amen and an amen and an amen to what's been said already. Or you can think of it as me underscoring and underscoring and underscoring what's been said already. Or you can think of what's been said already as a lot of sentences, and I'm putting an exclamation point, an exclamation point at the end of those sentences, and perhaps with Perhaps with the overlap and the repetition, perhaps the Lord will use it for our good. You know that saying, I take refuge in this saying, that we don't grow in grace primarily by learning new things. We grow in grace primarily by learning the old things better and better. So we're gonna get the old things a third and fourth time in this conference now. And before we actually go to the outline, I would like to recommend this book, especially to any of you who are not able to remain for the second session. This is by D.A. Carson, Love in Hard Places. He is dealing with the commandment to love, of course. The hard places, the first hard place is in our heart. And then there are other hard places. It's hard to love people in the church who insult us and hurt us. It's hard to love what he refers to as big enemies who are outside of the church and are hurtful and persecuting. It's hard to love in lots of circumstances and he takes you through some of those circumstances. He writes about what forgiveness is, the connection between love and forgiveness. What forgiveness is not and what forgiveness is. What is love and forgiveness in the context of justice? And there are a host of things where I found him to be very helpful, and I commend that book to you very much. You'll forget these sermons, but that book you can underline and open it up again and again, and I hope that you will. Let's begin by this question, what is Christian love? And my point in even asking that question is simply to make us all remember that Christian love is very complex. It's not a simple thing to just talk about Christian love. You think of the commandments to love. We are commanded to love our enemy. We're commanded to love our neighbor. We're commanded to love our brethren. We're commanded to love God. And in those commandments, we quickly see there are different aspects to love. They're different objects of love, enemy, neighbor, Christian, God. They're different standards for love. We're supposed to love our enemy according to the standard of doing good for them and praying for them. We're supposed to love our neighbor according to the standard of loving them as we love ourselves, which is a very much higher standard. We're supposed to love one another as Christ has loved us, which now we're getting beyond reachable standards. And we're supposed to love God with everything. We're supposed to love God with all of our heart and all of our strength and all of our soul and all of our mind. There are different objects, different standards, and there are different levels of delight and different levels of affection. It's not a simple thing to talk about Christian love. If we were going to cobble together a definition of Christian love, it might be something like this, that Christian love involves principled self-giving for the good of another, coupled with appropriate affections wrought by the Holy Spirit for Christ's sake. But however you define love, let's be sure to remember it's a complex thing. And we're talking about one aspect of love we may not be It may not fit in all the other aspects of love. It's an exceedingly complex matter. It introduces us to tensions. Loving our enemy, loving some brothers, forgiving, it introduces us to tensions. And so whenever we think about this subject, we should repeat Paul's prayer where he prays that the Philippians' love would abound in knowledge and in discernment so they'd make good moral choices. And we need our love to be filled up, not with only emotion, but with knowledge and discernment so that we'd make good rational choices as to how to express our love. Now I'd like us to move to the main subject of the importance of love. And my concern is very simple. I'd like to overwhelm you with the importance of love in the New Testament. Because you are serious men, I have no doubt that if we more fully grasp the importance which the New Testament attaches to love, if we more fully grasp that, we will give ourselves with more ardor in the pursuit of love. Let me ask you a couple of assertions, make a couple of assertions and ask you if you think this is correct. There is nothing more that you, as an evangelical reformed pastor, there is nothing that you need more than love, an increase in love. Would it be accurate to say that your churches, evangelical reformed churches, that there's nothing that your churches need more than an increase in love. Would that be true? Would it be true to say that every sermon that you preach should aim to promote love. Is that an exaggeration or is that true? That every sermon you preach should aim to promote love. Would it be true to say that every pastoral visit or every pastoral counseling session in every situation, even in discipline, would it be correct to say that in every situation the pastoral concern is to promote love? every prayer meeting great concern is to ask the Lord to help us to are those assertions true and if they're not true then we can dispatch them but if they are true then they need to affect us I think in the light of what of these various headings about how important love is that they are true so let me ask you to look briefly at some of these headings The first is that the command to love is the greatest and most basic command of all God's commandments. You know the passages in Mark 12 and Matthew 22 where Jesus is asked, what is the greatest, what is the foremost commandment? And his answers, we all can quote them. The first commandment is that we're to love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our strength. And the second commandment is likened to that, that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. In Mark, Mark records that Jesus says, this is the greatest. In Matthew, Matthew records that Jesus says, all the law and the prophets hang on these two pillars. These great commandments to love God and to love neighbor, everything hangs, everything of the old covenant revelation hangs on these two commandments. Well, we could spend a long time talking about this very point, but it's obvious, is it not? If there's anything that's important in terms of commandments, it's love. And we who have a very high regard for the moral law, if we're going to have a high regard for the moral law and if we're going to preach that people should be concerned about the moral law, we need to know what its great point is. The great commandment is to love. And please appreciate also this is a very positive commandment. A lot of God's commandments are negative. Eight of the Ten Commandments are negative. Things we're not to do. We're not to take the name of God in vain. We're not to have idols. We're not to commit adultery. These are positive commands. We are to positively love God. And we haven't loved God when we abstain from things that He doesn't like. We're supposed to positively love Him. And we're supposed to positively love our neighbors. And we haven't loved our neighbors when we simply abstain from lying to them. We're to positively love them as we love ourselves. Secondly, very closely related point, the second point is that love obeys the commandments and thus delights God. If somebody doesn't commit adultery, they've obeyed the commandment, but if they haven't done it because of love, they haven't delighted God. Love obeys the law. Love obeys the details of the law. Love obeys the commandments. And it's that love that delights God. Love for God and love for men is the driving force that causes Christians to keep God's law. God's law in reference to God. God's law in reference to each other. It's because we love God and we love each other that we keep the law. That's why we don't lie to each other, because we love each other. You know these texts. 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. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John says in 1 John 5, by this we know that we love the children of God. You know this passage. By this we know that we love the children of God. How do you know? We know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments, for this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. 2 John verse 5 and 6, we are to love one another. This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. The passage in Romans 13 that says that we're to owe no man anything except to love, Paul goes on to say that love fulfills the law. And love means, that passage means more than what I'm going to say, but it doesn't mean less than what I'm going to say. That when somebody loves, they keep those commandments. That's why if somebody loves, you don't lie to that person you love. If you love, you don't commit adultery against that person. It's because it's love that keeps the details of those commandments. Love is the motive for our obedience. The commandments are the channels for our love. And a couple of these passages make a very big point of the fact that God is delighted with this love. When in love, we keep the commandments. These passages says that the Lord himself will come and abide with us. The Father and the Son will manifest themselves to us and live with us. God is delighted when there is love in the keeping of his commandments. It would be proper to say that love is the essence of law-keeping. And without this motive, there is no true law-keeping. Without this intention to show love, there is no true law-keeping. It is our love, it is our love in the channel of those commandments that delights God. And it's our love in the channel of those commandments that He responds to. So love is the greatest commandment. Secondly, love obeys the commandments and thus delights God. And in the third place, Jesus' new commandment is to love his disciples. Now even though you know this passage, please turn to the text in John chapter 13, where Jesus gives this new commandment. The new commandment is stated in John 13, verses 34 and 35, Then Jesus expands on the new covenant in John 15 verses 12 and following. And then the Apostle John repeats this new commandments at least four times in the epistles of 1st and 2nd John. And this new commandment that Jesus gives undergirds all the directives in the New Testament regarding church life. This is the great mark of obedience to Christ in the new covenant that we love one another. Now what is new about this? In the notes I said I wrote three things that are new. Really it would be appropriate to say there are four things that are new about this new covenant. The first, there it is, about this new commandment. The first is a new covenant. There's a new epoch here. There's a new situation here. What has just happened ahead of this passage in John 13? Jesus has called together the disciples to celebrate the last Passover under the old covenant. The old covenant which was inadequate, which was obsolete, was just about to vanish away. And on that night, Jesus established one of the sacraments of the New Covenant. The Lord's Supper. This cup is my blood of the New Covenant. And in the passages from John 13 through 17, John and Jesus emphasize the point that Christ at this moment is very much aware that His hour has come. The moment has come where He is going to give up His life, lay down His life. He's going to die on behalf of His people. He's going to rise. He's going to pour out the Spirit. in so doing the new age is going to begin and that spirit is going to enable those men to take the gospel and to convince the world and to enable those men and the gospel is going to be spread multitudes of people are going to be converted in this new age and so in this new age with this new dynamics of the spirit there's a new commandment The second part that is new, of course, is that there's a new focus. The old commandment was focused upon neighbor. This is a different focus. We're to focus upon our brethren. We're to focus upon one another. We're to focus upon the disciples of Jesus. Jesus requires a special affection for his own disciples. He thinks of his disciples as his friends. He thinks of them as the ones he has chosen. He thinks of them as ones that he opens his whole inner being to, not as a master to a slave, but as a friend to a friend. He has special affections for them, and we are to have special view of them, and we're to have special affections ourselves. We heard very well for the exposition of John 17 that this concern that Jesus has for love and unity is not only for these 11 men, that this concern extends to all those who are going to believe through their witness. That means all believers with all their differences, cultural, ethnic, theological, denominational, all believers are to love all believers without exception. We are to view one another in a very special way. We're not supposed to love each other. We're not supposed to view each other as we view our enemies. And we're not supposed to view each other as we view our neighbors. We're supposed to view each other as very special. We're supposed to see each other as those ones whom God has loved before the foundation of the world. We're supposed to see each other as those ones whom God went to because of his great love and kindness at different points in time, and in love, united us to life, united us to his Son. We're supposed to see each other as those people for whom Jesus died, and those people for whom Jesus intercedes. The Lord Jesus is committed to the welfare and to the perseverance of one another, and we're supposed to see each other like that. in the new heavens and the new earth, we are going to be together. We are supposed to see each other as so special in God's eyes. We're supposed to see each other as so special that we have the deepest sympathies with one another. We should sympathize with one another. We should sympathize with each other's faults. We should sympathize with each other's sins. We should sympathize with each other's struggles. We should sympathize with each other's aspirations. We should sympathize with the longing that each of us has to know more of Christ and to develop Christ-like virtues. That's true of all the people of God, and we should therefore have a great sympathy, a special affection for them. The third thing that is new is there's a new standard, and I've kind of crossed the borders here between these headings. The new standard is we're not to love one another as we love ourselves. Now the new standard is we're to love each other as Christ has loved us. And now we're into the realm of an unreachable standard. And one of the implications of being given an unreachable standard as a commandment It's one thing to be given an ideal and you just think about it, but if the unreachable standard is given to you as a commandment, that means we never stop trying to improve. We never stop trying to be more like the Lord because the commandment is not to love each other a little. The commandment is to love each other as I have loved you. And how has he loved us? You remember one of the expositions in the context of how we should develop affections toward the flock. Jim read from John 59, as the Father has loved me, I have loved you. How has the Lord loved us? As the Father has loved me, Jesus said. And I don't know how to explain that. I don't have any illustrations or any good adjectives to explain that. As the Father has loved me, Jesus says, I have loved you. And that's to be the standard. In that same text, Jesus goes on to say, This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you." And then he says, greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends. Now these are different statements, but neither one lowers the standard. The Lord loved us like his father loves him. The Lord loved us in laying down his life for us. And the Apostle John, of course, picks that up a few times, that that's how we're supposed to love one another. We're supposed to be laying down our lives for one another. Jesus loves us absolutely and continually. In love, Jesus identified with us. We should dwell sometimes on what it was for Jesus to humiliate himself and for the eternal Son to humiliate himself and to become a human being. The purpose of the incarnation was not simply that he would have a body to take our sins to the cross. A huge part of the purpose of the incarnation was that the Son of God would understand us that the Son of God would become sympathetic with us, having entered into our circumstances, that he would then be able to be a faithful and merciful high priest and be able to make a propitiation for our sins. Jesus has loved us so much that he went to that depth to understand us and to sympathize with us. We have a hard time just going to someone and talking to them. Jesus became incarnate in love to understand us and to sympathize with us. In love, he intercedes for us. He patiently endures with us. He continually restores us. Jesus' love is completely undeserved and completely unearned. Jesus' love is self-generated and the foundation of all of our hopes. Jesus' love for his disciples is characterized by the greatest possible personal affection. His love is more than principled commitment to us. He loves us with all of his heart and with the deepest affections, and we are called to imitate those affections. We are to be like the Apostle Paul, who could honestly say how I long for you with the affections of Christ. And Paul would say to all of us that we must be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love. Like Jesus, we are to be tender-hearted, lowly, gentle, forgiving. We are to put on tender mercies and meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another in love. And because the standard is unattainably high, we are to give our lives to growing and growing and growing and trying to come closer to this standard which we are commanded to attain. There's a new age, there's a new focus, there's a new standard, and there's a new expectation. The expectation is that you love each other, then everyone's going to know that you are my disciples. If you love each other like I've loved you, then the world is going to know that you are my disciples. As was opened up to us before, John 17, 21, Jesus prays for unity and love, that the world may believe that you have sent me. Think of who these 11 men were to whom Jesus gave this initially. There was a zealot there who believed that the Jews should rise up and revolt against the Roman powers. There was a tax collector there who was a Jew turncoat who was making a living by cooperating with the Roman powers. You think they just came together and sat down and enjoyed a bagel? They would have been intensely filled with animosity toward each other. Well, these 11 men were very diverse and they're supposed to love each other. Jesus' disciples are diverse in the most profound ways. We come from every walk of life and from every culture. Some of his disciples have been morally upright and smug. Some of them have been fornicators and idolaters and adulterers and homosexuals and so forth. Some have been Jews and some have been Gentiles and some are white and black and brown and other shades. And all this diversity is to be the The focus of our love and people are to see that. Now it's a big deal when two people who have been enemies actually love each other. That's an immense thing. But when huge numbers of people do that, when huge numbers of people do that, really diverse people. I'm trying to say that love itself is incredible, but loving such diversity is really striking. It's really stunning. It's really observable. And it's with that breadth of types that are the focus of our love and loving as Jesus has loved, the world is to take notice. But what does the world see? It's discouraging what the world sees. And we who have any responsibility in ministering to the churches, we should be sure that we do not add to the embarrassment of our brethren. It is wonderfully true that in Christ all of his disciples have a true spiritual union. That's undeniable. Thank God we maintain it. We don't create it, as we've heard. But the world doesn't see spiritual union. The world sees love or its absence. And we who enjoy that spiritual union, we're to put a face on it for the world to recognize. We're to so love each other that the world is amazed. Those people who wouldn't ordinarily be friends, look at how they love each other. It's a very humbling commandment. I'd like to read a sentence from John Carson's commentary on the Gospel of John. He says, the new commandment is simple enough for a toddler to memorize, profound enough that the most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they comprehend it and at how poorly they put it into practice. I read that. But that's right, this is so simple. Who couldn't read this and understand it? but the most mature believer is embarrassed. I'm embarrassed, not that I'm the, but I'm embarrassed at how far short. That was part of what I meant at the beginning when I thanked God for some degree of being exposed by these sermons. We take this commandment seriously and we have to fall back and say we have not really begun to go very far on the road to this commandment. There are two anecdotes I'd like to sort of stick in here. There are anecdotes that I'm sure that each of you are familiar with. I think they're just so relevant to this point of how the world is supposed to see our love. One is a saying that's attributed to J.C. Ryle. You know who he was? He was an Anglican. He was a priest. He was a bishop. He was an Anglican. And if I have the story right, he was commenting about denominations. And, of course, he's very denominational. And he was making the point that there must be denominations and there must be walls that separate the denominations. And again, if I have the story right, his remark was that we should build those walls as low as possible, and we should step over them as often as possible, that these differences, which legitimately separate us, distinguish us from one another, that we should keep them small, and we should step over them all the time. It's like if a Christian is nurtured in love, he becomes a giant, and he can just step over those walls with no problem. But if he's not nurtured in love, he's like a pygmy that's always running up against those walls. And he can't get above those walls, and he's not showing love, and the world doesn't see it in him. And the other anecdote which has over the years been extremely important to me is from our brother Ted Donnelly. And many of you were present at a family conference a few years ago when he was speaking. And he had become such a friend to the Reformed Baptists that he was able to be somewhat fatherly toward us. And he reminded us, he was speaking to us as Reformed Baptists very distinctly, and he said that he wanted to tell us this, that we should not allow ourselves to be known by our distinctives. He said we should be careful to be known by that which is common to Christians. And then he used an illustration from his own denomination about how in a previous generation his denomination believes that we should be limited to singing only the inspired psalms and the worship. And he said that in a previous period that that became the focal point, that they became defensive about that. They were always talking about that. They were known for that and how bad that was. And he believed at the time that the denomination had been righted. But his point was to us that we shouldn't allow it. We shouldn't be concerned to be known for our distinctions. We have our distinctions. We don't need to be embarrassed about our distinctions. But we shouldn't be known for them. We should be known for what's common to Christians. And from this passage, we should be known for the way that we love. Because all the things that are distinct about us and that we hold as matters of convictions, they don't impress the world. And Jesus' concern here is to impress the world. We have this new age and this new focus and this new standard that we're supposed to love each other, that this new expectation is realized, that the world sees it. And they know that we are the disciples of Christ. Well, how important is love? In the next place, love is of the essence of godliness. Love is of the essence of godliness. Everyone who is born of God loves God, creates something of his own character in each one of us. What is it like for us to be godly? Well, to be godly for us is simply to be like God in all the ways that a redeemed sinner can be like God, or to be like him in attitude and to the degree that's legitimate, or to be like him in act. But the scriptures say we cannot, we may not, we must not be like him in anger. We are not to be like him in wrath, we are not to avenge, but we are to imitate him in love. And the time is going to go so fast, I would like us nonetheless to take a few minutes to turn to the first epistle of John. And I want us to see by tracking through 1 John the importance of love in that it is of the essence of what it is to be a Christian. It's of the essence of what godliness is. He begins by basically saying that we have seen the incarnate Christ and we preach him. And then in verse three he says, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you. And the goal that he identifies here is we declare to you that you may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Now having fellowship with the apostles, with those who are telling the truth as opposed to these cessationists, that has its own category. But just appreciate that their intention in preaching the gospel is to call these people into fellowship with them. Look how he writes this in verse 7, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, what? We have fellowship with one another. I'm embarrassed to say that a long time ago I thought I had memorized this and I literally, this is what came to my mind when I was reciting it, that if we walk in the light as he is in the light, that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all of our sin. And one time I was reviewing my memorization, I realized I'd forgotten the first thing. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all of our sins. When real Christians who could be close to each other are not in fellowship with each other, what is that? They're not walking in the light. But if we are walking in the light, we will have fellowship with one another. In chapter 2, John introduces again the concept of the new covenant, the new commandment. Please pass over that to chapter 2, verse 10. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. Verse seven, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Verse 10, he who loves his brother abides in the light. And John says that with this person, there's no cause of stumbling in him. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to be said about us? Brother so-and-so so fully walks in the light and so fully walks in love. He never causes anybody to be offended. He never causes anybody to sin. He never causes any strife. That brother walks in the light. That brother walks in love. Turn to chapter 3. Chapter 3, verse 10, in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Please move down to verse 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Verse 16, by this we know love because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Notice how he develops this, verse 18, my little children let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. By this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, our heart does not condemn us. We have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments. You see how he's gone from the narrow to the large. He's saying if we love, our conscience is not going to condemn us. Now he expands it to the larger commandments, but it's this commandment to love that gets the first place. It affects our prayers, is what he's saying, whether or not we walk in love. He says in verse 23, and this is the commandment, and it's interesting that he puts this as one commandment and two such great things almost on a par. This is his commandment, that we should believe. the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment in chapter 4 verse 7 he goes on about how we should love one another as God has as God has loved us as Christ has loved us verse 11 if God so loved us we also ought to love one another look at verse 12 no one has seen God at any time If we love one another, people can see that. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. It's that phrase, his love has been perfected in us. John is expressing the idea that if we love like we're supposed to love, it's because God's love has reached its goal. God's love in us has a goal. It's not just to make us rejoice in the fact that we are loved. God's love in us is not simply to stir thoughts of assurance and security. One of the goals of God's love working in us is that that love brings us to love one another. And when that's happened, when that's happened, it's because the intention of God in loving us has borne its fruit. Now that raises love to a pretty high standard. I'm not going to go with any more of the text. The point that I simply want to make is when John is giving the things to look for to give you assurance that you're actually a Christian, love is primary. You're supposed to look for faith. You're supposed to look for apostolic Christology. You're supposed to look for people who keep the commandments, especially the commandment to love. In the next place, love is the greatest virtue. And because of time and because this is so obvious, I'm just going to pass over that. You know the texts. Faith, hope, love, the greatest of these is love, therefore pursue love. Those texts in 1 Peter and Colossians, please look at them. I'm sure you know them. Let them pass over your eyes and appreciate the weight of this, that above everything else. we're supposed to put on love. Now in the sixth place, love is of the essence of church life. How important is love? The scriptures say that love is of the essence of church life. It's not the essence, but it's of the essence of church life. Local churches are composed of people who have a common love for God and are bound together by love for each other. If those two things don't exist, there is simply no local church. And therefore letters which are written to churches are full of directives and incentives to grow in love. If you take a concordance and look up all the references to love in the epistles, you just become kind of overwhelmed with how much attention the writers to the churches give to the subject of love. Well, I don't want us to even try to look at those passages, but I would like us to look at the book of Ephesians. And we have to be fast, but fast is enough. I would just like us to appreciate how much of church thought and church life in Paul's letter to the Ephesians is structured around the subject of love. And it would help if you would to just turn to the book of Ephesians. He begins in chapter 1 and verse 4 by saying to the Ephesians that they as individuals, that they had been loved by God before the foundation of the world. And then in chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, He says that at different points in time having been loved by God before the foundation of the world, at different points in time when they were walking in deadness and they were walking according to the prince of the power of this air, at various times God, verse 4, rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in sins He made us alive together. The Ephesians were supposed to see themselves as individuals who were loved by God before the foundation of the world. They were to look at each other's conversions and they were to remember that they were converted because of God's exceeding great love and kindness. Now Paul goes on to write about what's the purpose of God loving these people and God uniting these people to His Son. And you know the passage, the purpose is that God wants to take Jew and Gentile and reconcile them to each other and reconcile them to God in one body. And there's wonderful material in chapter 2 and on through chapter 3 about God's intention to do this. Paul says it was God's intention to do this from the foundation of the world. It's a mystery that he, Paul, has been given the privilege to unfold. And the purpose of all this, the purpose of this, of God bringing together all of these different people, he says in verse 10 of chapter 3, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. One of God's great designs in reconciling these very different peoples into one church is that the spiritual world would be impressed with the wisdom of God. Now this may sound bland and generic to you. It does to me as well, until you realize who the Ephesians are. You go to Acts chapter 19 and the first people that Paul baptized were 12 men who had been baptized by John, which probably means that they were Palestinian Jews or at least they had visited Palestine. They had heard the preaching of John, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, baptism of repentance. They had heard They repented and they were baptized. And perhaps it's not wrong to assume that these became pretty conservative Jews looking for the kingdom, trying to walk in the ways that would be appropriate to repentance. Also in that church, you have a record of some of the Gentiles who are converted practice the magical arts. The NIV interprets that as they were sorcerers. And then you have another group of people who are converted in Ephesus who are idol worshipers. And there are so many idol worshipers who are converted that the people who made the idols for the worship of Diana, they were anxious they were going to lose their profit. So you have probably conservative Jews, you have magicians, you have idol worshipers, you have slaves, free men and you have rich people according to Paul's directives to Timothy and all these people are together. Now imagine that you were in those groups or you imagine you're observing those social groups and everything is running along with its ordinary animosity and hatred and discrimination and within the course of just over two years lots of people from those groups are together now in the church. And Paul is writing to them, you're supposed to think of yourself as loved by God before the foundations of the world. You're supposed to think that your conversion was because of the love of God. And the purpose for this is that so you'd all be united in one church to the glory of God. And to show that, what would you do then? Paul prays. Paul records a prayer. And it does seem to me that it's especially in light of these diverse peoples being brought together, the intention of God to unite them, to show His glory, the next thing is to pray. And so Paul records this great prayer. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. One Father, you Jews, you Gentiles all across the earth in heaven, there's one family of God, there's one Father, you're together. And then he prays. This is not a prayer for a pastor's conference or a missionary. This is a prayer for these former idolaters, these former magicians, and these former self-righteous Jews, and these former slaves, and these former slave owners. He prays for them that God would grant, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit, that Christ would dwell in your heart through faith. That you being rooted and grounded in love. He assumes that. They're rooted and grounded in love. You being rooted and grounded in love. may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passes understanding. And he goes on in that prayer that we might be filled to all the fullness of God and the purposes that God would be glorified in the church through Christ Jesus. And what's next? He prays for them and then he pleads with them for unity. And they should do everything that they can to be humble and gentle and lowly and do everything that they can to maintain this unity in the bonds of love. And then what does he do? He goes next to write about how the pastors and teachers are to help the saints, and the saints are supposed to speak to each other in love, and the whole body is to be built up in love. And it won't be built up with just the speaking of truth. It will be built up as if truth is spoken in the context of love. And then later, at the end of chapter four and into chapter five, he tells us we must not be bitter, we must not be angry with one another, we must be gentle, we must be lowly, we must forgive, we must walk in, you see the word love is in that church? And we need to appreciate the centrality of love in the life of the church. There's a concentration in the book of Ephesians, but it's really all throughout the letters. We heard an excellent exposition of Ephesians chapter 4 yesterday. We're not going to look there now. I would encourage you to also look at Colossians chapter 2 verses 14 through 15. Paul says there that love is the bond of unity. John Owen says that Christians are like crooked sticks. You put them together in a pile and they'll bounce apart. We must appreciate, especially from that Colossians passage, which I trust you know, we must appreciate that it is the dynamics of love are more basic to unity than doctrinal sameness. I didn't say than truth, but I did say that the dynamics of love are more basic to unity than doctrinal sameness. I have been in places where there are men who everyone would subscribe to our confession of faith, doctrinal sameness, animosity, hard words, suspicious thoughts. They were not united. There was not an outflowing of love there. Love, the dynamics of love, is more basic to unity than doctrinal sameness. We're going to skip the next point that love is essential to evangelism, and I would like us to finish by The last point that love is essential for Christ's blessing. And if I take five minutes later here, I'll cut five minutes in the next one. Is that acceptable? Okay. Love is essential for Christ's blessing. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul makes these extraordinary statements about doing wonderful things in the absence of love. First Corinthians 13, you can read the passage. In verse one, he says that we have the greatest gift of tongues, and we don't have love, that we become an irritating noise. Verse two, if we have the greatest gifts for edification, prophecy, understanding all, if we have that without love, he says I'm nothing. In verse three, the greatest acts of benevolence, the greatest acts of self-denial, if I engage in them, it profits me nothing. I'd like to read to you a statement by Morris Roberts in his book, The Thought of God, this wonderful chapter entitled, The Supreme Grace of Christ's Love. And commenting on this passage, he says this, no religious act is of any value in God's sight if it does not accompany and flow from Christian love. No religious act is of any value in God's sight if it does not accompany and flow from Christian love. The apostles' meaning can only be that the quality of religious actions is derived principally from the motive by which they are done. That the quality of religious actions is derived primarily from the motive with which they are done. Calvin says a similar thing. He says, for there is nothing, think of this, there is nothing, no matter how wonderful or extraordinary it may be, that is not ruined from God's point of view by the absence of love. It is not therefore to be wondered at that all our actions are to be judged by the standard of whether they show signs of springing from love. Love is essential if we are to hope for the smile of Christ upon us, no matter what we do. If I speak to you and it's not motivated by love and flowing from love and showing love, it's nothing in God's sight. Even if God would use a sermon in God's sight, it's nothing if it's not the product of love. Now, think of that. And of course, Paul doesn't allow us to think of love in the abstract. He goes on to list all these characteristics of love. If we're not living and showing those characteristics which He details and we do things, let us not think that it pleases God for a second. But this is not only true of individuals, that love is essential for Christ's approval. It's also true for churches. And you know these passages. And because we're so short of time, I'm just going to ask you to remember them. I want you to think about the two churches in Revelation chapter two, the church in Ephesus and the church in Thyatira. The church in Ephesus was heartily commended by the Lord Jesus. The church was commended. He says, I know your works, your labor, your patience. He says, I know you cannot bear those who are evil. You have tested those who say they're apostles and they're not, and you've found them liars. You've persevered. You have patience. You've labored for my namesake. You've not become weary. If I were to preach a sermon on this church, it would be entitled, The Inadequacies of Correctness. the inadequacy of correctness. This church was correct in all the ways that we might notice. Then Jesus gives the criticism, nevertheless I have this against you that you left your first love. And I think we would all understand that doesn't mean they left Christ, it doesn't mean they don't love God or Christ anymore, but they left their initial love. There was something about the initial love, it's ardor, it's completeness, it's openness, it's vigor, how demonstrative it was. That something about initial love, they've left it. And then Jesus makes a threat to them, that if they are to remember from where they've fallen, and they are to repent, and if they don't repent, he's gonna take the lamp stand away from him. And I think most commentators understand the lampstand to be the franchise. In the previous verses, the lampstands are the churches. And here's a threat that Jesus makes. If you don't get this right about love, I'm going to take your franchise away. You're not going to be a church anymore. You might continue with the machinery, but if you don't get love right, I'm going to take the lampstand away. Now look at the church in Thyatira, verse 18 and following. There were good things about the church in Thyatira. Jesus said, I know your works, your love, your service, your faith, and your patience. And for your works, the last are more than the first. They were full of zeal and full of good works. But the fault that Jesus had against them was about this woman Jezebel. There's this woman Jezebel in the church who claims to be a prophetess and she's not. And she's teaching false doctrines. She's leading people into immorality. And the threat there is that Jesus will take that woman and her disciples and destroy them. Now step back and think of that. Compare these two churches. Here is, compare, they're commended for good works and perseverance and energy. But notice the differences. The Ephesian church is commended for doctrinal carefulness. The Thyatiran church is not careful. They're a mess. They've got this woman Jezebel that they let teach there. The Ephesian church is criticized for its failure to love. But the church in Thyatira is commended for love. Now which is the better church? Here's this very correct church. Here's this church where there's love and works and they're not careful. This woman is there. Which is the better church? Well, maybe that's an unanswerable question, but notice what Jesus, in the one case, Jesus will take, it will not be a church. In the other case, the heretics are going to be destroyed, but the church is not threatened. And there's a lesson in that. This is nothing to diminish truth, but the Lord Jesus is talking about love here. We don't want to be like either one of these churches. We don't have to make the choice that we'll be correct and loveless or we'll be a mess and loving. We don't have to make that choice. But surely the message is love is important. It's important for all these things that are on the outline. It's important. therefore we should give our highest energies as men and as pastors to pursue love and to the degree that we have influence in the churches our highest efforts should be given in the in the corporate pursuit of love amen