Colossians 3 verse 14. So I want to mention to you, we are going to look at a number of its context and some things earlier in the letter to the Colossians. We're also going to turn to 1 Corinthians, excuse me, 1 Corinthians 13 and read it together. I mean, I'll read it on our behalf in total. So you might want to have that ready, or at least just a heads up, we'll also go to 1 Corinthians 13. Colossians chapter three verse 14 is the verse we're focusing on today. And again, just looking at a prayer that I get daily from Matthew Henry's A Way to Pray from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Looking at one email is where I got the idea for the scriptures that we did this morning and also this evening. They just kind of stuck out to me as something that would be something good to go take a look at together. And so we're doing that this evening, Colossians 3, 14. Hear now the word of the Lord. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Let me read that once more. And as you hear the word charity, hear it as it is translated elsewhere, the same Greek word agape, love. And I'll talk about that again, but just as we read it, I'll read what we see here together. But know it easily could have been translated to love, and it is elsewhere. again Colossians 3 14 and above all these things put on charity Which is the bond of perfectness? Amen I Want you to think about your elbow or your knee or maybe your knuckles and What are all these things? Unless I've made an error, I'm pretty sure they're all versions of joints, okay? These are joints. And there's a reason I wanna think about that for a moment with you, but basically joints are what are used to keep two different bones together. You can think of these parts of the arm with the elbow or the leg bones with the knee. the knuckle with the parts of the finger, they are where two bones meet together and frankly work together in that place. I wanna give you this description of what a joint is, such body parts from betterhealth.vic.gov.au. So I'm pretty sure it's from our Aussie friends where I got this from. They describe a literal joint of the body that I think is helpful for us as we continue along with where I'm going with this. Joints are held together and supported by tough bands of connective tissue called ligaments. Smooth cartilage prevents friction as the bones move against one another. In freely movable joints, the entire joint is enclosed inside a membrane filled with lubricating synovial fluid, which helps to provide extra cushioning against impact. It's occurring to me some of you have had knee replacements or other hips, I guess those are joint areas too, so you probably could Explain this better than me, but that are better than just that quote alone But that's the idea of a joint where two bones come together and are working together in that context of ligaments cartilage fluid other things So that while they meet there's ability to move and work together they provide connection joints, but they also provide movement they work together as one and This is what Christian love in Christ is. Translated here, charity. The Greek word, agape. It's called, in our text, a bond, the bond of perfection. Above all things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And it's the word bond that I want you to think about that word joint, as I've just described, because you could translate that Greek word for bond, joint, like an elbow, or a knee, or a knuckle. So it keeps things together like glue, but there's a different word sometimes for that idea of glue. It's not the same idea. While it keeps things together, in this case, it allows movement of the parts and body as a whole to work together in Christian unity. That's what love is. It's like a joint. It allows the parts of the body to be together as one, inseparable, and yet move together. Flexibility, movement, progress. Active love is the greatest key to bond Christians in Christ. Give that to you as the idea of our verse. Active love is the greatest key to bond Christians in Christ. I say active because we have that phrase, put on charity, put on love. But if you look at your translations, you'll see it's in italics, which means it's not actually there in the Greek. It reads kind of, I don't wanna say awkwardly, but often the wooden way of expressing it literally is something like love. It'd be something like, and above all these things, love. It's actually what it is. Why do we have put on? Because it is that idea of the activity of love. Love is ultimately seen in action based on what it is really, an attitude. In the Greek it's not there, but it is supplied and I want you to see where it's coming from. It's borrowing off of other verses that have come before. So to supply put on for love is getting at the sense of it. I want you to see that verse 10 to begin with. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. By the way, that's our memory verse for tonight for the Shorter Catechism memory work. So you see, put on, we've put on the new man. And I decided to edit it out for sake of time, but there is that aspect if you're seeing the new man in the first few verses, then the idea of putting off the old and putting on the new. So that's there. I'm not going to get into that as much tonight, but know that that's there. I want to just focus on this idea of putting on. Look at verse 12 as well. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. We'll come back to these verses in a moment as we drill down in the definition and description of love. But I want you to see where we're getting the put on that's supplied. And so this idea that love is an attitude and action, you might say, put it on. Perhaps they leave out put on, perhaps Paul leaves out put on in our verse for effect. It's almost left out to feel the implied crescendo as the most important thing to put on, because that is what he's saying. All these other things to put on, above all. Or you might say the way of putting on the rest, cap it, put on love. Without love, we'll remember as we go to 1 Corinthians 13, you don't have any of the rest, not really. put on love. And put on love, which is the bond of perfection or completeness, is the idea. Love is the fulfilling of the law, the scriptures say, the perfection of what it is. And so this is why in heaven we'll love perfectly. because love is the perfection of the law. But Galatians 5 verse 4 I give to you, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Similar phrases that also talk about loving God, but the focus tonight is when it says to put on love, the focus really is in how we, how we look at one another, how we countenance, how we esteem one another, and therefore how we treat one another. That is walk hand in hand the way it is made to follow Jesus, our head. Love is that walking hand in hand with the ability to move with Jesus as our head, as one body. So I'd like to give you the definition of love. The Greek lexicons don't really provide a whole lot. Sometimes people make distinctions of agape with I think it's Phileo, but it's where we get Philadelphia. And I would offer to you what I do think I observe in the texts and contexts, what my professor, Dr. Pruto, now with the Lord in heaven, I remember saying in a class, there's really not a difference, they're just synonyms for the most part. A lot of times they get emphasized as a distinction more than they really are. There's different ways of really saying the same thing, love. And maybe there's different nuances, but it's the same thing. And here we have it as agape, but I do want to give you a sense of a definition of love before we describe it sometimes the easiest thing to do is Describe it and we'll have a lot of that in the text in the first Corinthians 13 But let me make an effort at defining it a bit Jonathan Edwards in his book charity and its fruits Which is what we've been studying together for some time in our men's studies once a month Which is a book entirely about first Corinthians 13 just as another book is one of my favorites, my mom gave me years ago and I always go back to it. I'm gonna give you a little bit from that tonight as well on love, the greatest thing, both books looking at 1 Corinthians 13. And in his book, Charity and Its Fruits, Jonathan Edwards write this when we're trying to look at what is love exactly. He says, love is that disposition or affection whereby one is dear to another. that disposition or affection. By the way, he has this whole writings on the affections, and I think people misrepresent that too much as something like emotions. Notice he says disposition or affection. He's treating it as a synonym there, disposition. We don't usually say, I am disposed to you, right? Like I feel, to try to express, or at least I feel something. You know, it's a disposition or affection whereby one is dear to another. But I would say that has the idea of fondness. We have a, We're fond for someone, we have a development of a fondness. Love is a work of the Spirit, Colossians 1.18. We're gonna come back, but look at chapter 1.18, or excuse me, not 18, verse eight. Colossians 1, verse eight. who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. Your love in the Spirit. So this love for one another is a work of the Spirit. It's from the Spirit, and that love is also a fruit of the Spirit. You remember we went recently to Galatians 5.22. But the fruit of the Spirit is, and what's the first fruit listed? Love. So we wanna recognize, while there is an aspect of this word and this understanding that everyone can relate to as images of God, even broken unredeemed images of God, yet we're particularly talking about Christian love. That's the context, brotherly love, love for one another as redeemed in Christ and in his love. So in particular, that's what we're looking at. But love is a disposition. It is devotion. It is not a feeling. I know you've heard this many times, but it is so necessary to repeat. It's not a feeling. If it were, you and I are doomed. Let alone speaking of God and the fact that he does not change. But love is not a feeling. It's a decision. And it is what directs. This is why it can be commanded of us, and let us not forget that we are also, Jesus says, to love our enemies. Matthew 5, 44. I have to admit to you, when I was reviewing that, I'm like, whew, that's right. Do you feel love for your enemies? I mean, we struggle to feel good feelings of fondness or love, if we're gonna just think of love that way, with the best of us. One bad day, one bad situation, How quick are we ready to give up any dedication and devotion to one another? Love's not a feeling. If it were, we'd all be done for. And you can't command a feeling. Love is working through the feelings, which are often not feeling like what we might think of with love. Love is working through those feelings. Henry Drummond, he's one of my favorites on this, in his writing, The Greatest Thing in the World. I have a few copies in various volumes by him if you want to borrow it and read it. I want it back though, even though I have more than one. The Greatest Thing in the World, which is on 1 Corinthians 13. I'll be sharing from him along with Edwards a bit. He writes this, still thinking of the definition of love. Love is not a thing of emotion and gush. It is a robust, strong, manly, vigorous expression of the whole character and nature in its fullest development. And these things are only to be acquired by daily and hourly practice. He goes on to say, the test of religion, by the way, this is actually, I'm bringing a few things together. This is actually how he pretty much closes his whole work. The test of religion, the final test of religion is not religiousness, but love. That's the test of everything. Oh, there's plenty of people out there who love their doctrine, and they love their reform doctrine, love to read the Puritans, but they don't like to love. Love is hard, right? I mean, it's hard. That's why a lot of people forsake even their own family when things get hard, which what can that be called, but a lack of love, because love shows up and love stays. Through the good and the bad. Come what may. Love is a commitment. Love is covenant. Well, that's an effort at defining love. I'd like to have another try sometime, and I'm sure there'll be other sermons to do that, but I'm gonna give you that as a working definition, or at least a working list of some definitions. But let's describe love, which is easier to do, especially from the scriptures. We're gonna look at what love looks like. We're gonna describe love. And that will implicitly, I think, help us get a sense of the definition. First of all, Let's not overlook John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, if you think about that with the topology of Abraham having to hold the knife over his own son Isaac, and Isaac's the type of Christ, Abraham's the type of the father. You can think about that, sacrificial. You see, love, at least as we describe it, is selfless. It's self-sacrificial. It's deliberate. And its intent is to deliver. especially as we think of it related, God sending his son in John 3, 16, to save us from God's own wrath and punishment due to us for sin, to save us from eternal death and give us eternal life through Jesus Christ to be our substitute on the cross if we look to him and trust in him. Further describing love, John 15 verse 13, greater love, and this is Jesus speaking, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And that's understood in John 3, 16, though I'm emphasizing there, God's love, as it is said to be God's love, Jesus is saying his love is to lay himself down for his friends, to die on the cross for his people to save them and let them be able to enjoy the love of the triune God forever in heaven. So love is, again, self-sacrifice. It is a laying down of yourself for others. And in particular for your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. You know, at the end of the day, what we wanna be able to say is, well, why were you willing to do that? Why were you willing to sacrifice that? And ultimately, if it's real and true, the answer is because I love them. And love, though ideally and truly in heaven and imperfectly here, is a reciprocal relational thing. It is not something waiting to be returned to happen. It is given. It has its impact, but it's not waiting to first be loved. It loves. Look at verses 12 to 13 in Colossians 3 as we continue to look at the description of love. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, If you allow me here, kindness and meekness are discussed by Henry Drummond. One thing I wanted to bring in, I'm just gonna fit it in here, because we had a sermon, Be Courteous, not long ago, and we also had a sermon put on kindness, but Drummond says in terms of social life, love is being courteous. I just want to drop that there as well. I like that. Going on, here's description of love, verse 13, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you. so also do ye. That last phrase, you might hearken back to this morning's sermon, also the protection of being snatched by the devil because we won't forgive. Unforgiveness not only not reflecting the love of Christ, also being one of the greatest dangers of how the devil will get us in unforgiveness. Now, we will come back to Colossians 3, but at this point, in terms of a further description of love, let's go back to what we know so well, but frankly, I think we really need to keep studying more on that in a moment of what Henry Drummond says, but turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Now, before we read it, which is, you know, this glorious chapter about love, and often we hear it read at marriage, weddings, and maybe it should be read more slowly, and maybe the pastor should ask husband and wife, okay, you understand what you're getting into here? Because we read it kind of quickly, we read it kind of gloss over it, it sounds really nice. but it's a serious commitment. It's a serious covenant. And we're gonna read that in a moment, but what I want to first do is if you remember how we looked at what a joint is, elbow, knuckle, knee, and how it keeps two other body parts together, the bones, together and yet able to move and work together and function as part of the movement of the whole body, keep that in mind because chapter 12 is about being the body of Christ. all different members of the one body, Christ the head. And how are we going to move together as a body? The bond, the joint of perfection, love. And then we go in to 1 Corinthians 13, which is about love. And again, it's translated here as charity, but in other parts of our translation, it's the same word as translated love. So as you hear charity, as we have it in our text tonight in Colossians 3.14, hear love, the word we're more familiar with, okay? 1 Corinthians 13, here is a further description of love and you might say the description extraordinaire. Like if you really wanna say I gotta get better at loving, I gotta come back to loving my neighbor, here's what it looks like. Here's how to test you, here's how to motivate and guide you and keep you accountable. And of course not just husband and wife, but with your brothers and sisters and then the broader world of your neighbors. Here's what love looks like, here's the description of love from Paul. I'm gonna read the whole chapter. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity or love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long. So here's where we really get into the description of love. By the word charity, here's where we particularly get in. But notice what Paul's saying first, if I don't have what I'm about to describe, I literally don't have anything, I have nothing. Charity, love suffereth long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. charity, love never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come. Now notice that, love is the bond of perfection in our text. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth Faith, hope, charity. These three, but the greatest of these is charity. So notice there's three things that are said to abide. You might consider that when we had our sermon last week on John 15, abide in Christ, abide, abide, abide. But maybe you could say, how do you abide in Christ? Faith, hope, and love. These things are all great, but the greatest, even over faith, Even over hope is love. After all, what is the point of faith but to be justified? But what's the point of justification? To be reconciled to God in a loving, eternal relationship. Can you imagine, I believe in you, Jesus, to be saved, but I don't love you, and I don't need your love, I just wanna not go to hell. It doesn't work, right? It's not real. It doesn't make any sense. Love is the greatest of these things. Now there is a description of love for you. But I wanna highlight verse 13. Faith, hope, charity, these three things abide, but the greatest of these all is love. And that's just like our text, if you go back to Colossians 3 verse 14. It's the greatest of these things is love, right? He says, and above all these things put on charity. All those things he lists in the verses before that we'll look at, all these things are great. We did look at them actually as the description of love. but they're nothing without love. They're not important. They don't really do anything without love. Jonathan Edwards says this, this charity we find is abundantly insisted on in the New Testament by Christ and his apostles, more insisted on indeed than any other virtue. the life and soul of all religion, a comprehension of all virtues. And this is why Jesus said the first greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. And the second is like unto it, love thy neighbor as thyself. Love, it's the greatest thing. It's the greatest commandments. Without it, it's nothing. It's the greatest virtue. Henry Drummond, again, on 1 Corinthians 13, speaking of love, he says, Paul passes this thing, love, through the magnificent prism of his intellect, and it comes out on the other side, broken up into its elements. And in these words, we have the spectrum of love, the analysis of love. What is he saying there? Have you ever seen, I don't know if you would say a crystal, I'm not particularly knowledgeable or experienced with these things, but have you ever seen, even I can think of a certain band, the image of their logo, light shines into some kind of a prism, and then from the other side, you see all the colors of the rainbow, right? White light is the pure, encompassing light, and when it goes through a prism, you see all the different colors that make up that really one thing that is light. that we see as white light. He's saying that's what love is. Paul is taking what love is and he's putting it through the prism and showing you all the different colors that make it up. So all these other things we're talking about are love. They make up love. But as we think about love, we look at it through the prism and see the different things he's talking about. Another thing that I'll pass on to you near the end of his letter, The Greatest Thing in the World on 1 Corinthians 13, about love, he says this, I want to invite you to join me in reading this chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, once a week for the next three months. And after that, I wanna encourage you to then read it once a month for the following three months. I'm just mentioning that to consider, I'm not giving you homework like I might sometimes, but I think it's something to consider. Even if you don't pull that off, the regular reading of 1 Corinthians 13, if it is about love, if it is the greatest virtue, greater than faith and hope, what do we hear about mostly in the Reformation? And not wrongly, it's dealing with a situation at the time. Faith, right? Faith, faith, faith, faith, faith. It's not as great as love. Maybe a lot more of our conferences that we go to should be about love. It's the greatest thing. It's everything. How much do we think about it? How much do we want to do it? It's easy to talk about faith. It's easy to talk about justification. It's easy to talk about sanctification, at least theoretically, right? But love, like let's just get down bare bones, rubber meets the road where what it's all about, love. And we're not, again, talking about the kind of thing the world sings about and puts in its movies. That's all selfish and not self-sacrificing, and often sacrificing others. We're talking about real Christian love with Christ as our prime example and our only way of doing it. I also realize or I'm remembering when we think about the light through the prism to see all the colors, a similar idea to share with you. Early on in the ministry, Elder Ron Renner preached on this text and the message was connect the dots of love. I think I got that right, yeah? That was a long time ago, I got it. You screwed it in there, like Dr. Pruto said, I didn't have to look it up. And you can think of that as well, like if you connect all the dots, there's the picture, right? When we connect all the dots, there is the whole picture. Connect the dots of all the descriptions of love, including what it is not, so therefore it's opposite, by emphasis, there's love. So let that description be one that you study and work at connecting those dots in your life so that whatever you do for the Lord is not in vain and of no benefit to you and of no, nothing that he approves of because if it's without love, it's nothing, it's nothing. You know, we have this phrase, sometimes you ever heard someone say, if you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything, I mean, it kind of makes sense, right? That can really affect us when we're sick. If you're love sick, you got nothing, you don't have anything. If you haven't got love, you haven't got anything, even if you have your health. Henry Drummond also says this, love is Christianity at its source and the language understood by all and eloquent to everyone. He also says, contemplate the love of Christ and you will love. I almost wanted it to end that later, but I gave it to you here. Contemplate the love of Christ and you will love. Now, as we think of the description of love, we wanna think about its opposite. We did see its opposite significantly in 1 Corinthians 13, because it says, love is not this, love doesn't do this. So even there, it describes love a lot of, maybe the majority actually by its opposite, although it does speak positively. But in our Colossians 3 here, we also have the opposite of love to look at and contrast. So another way of testing and growing ourself, that's not love. Less of that, so that I love more. More of the opposite of that. So the opposite of love by description of what love is not, verse five, and again, this is when we were our old man and we're now put on the new man, which ultimately, above all things, is to put on love, he says. Verse five, here's what love isn't. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, that's not love. You know, that really pretty much needs to be on every billboard around the city and in every grocery store aisle. Fornication is not love. Uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Now look at verses eight and nine. But now ye also put off All these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not to one another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. So there's a bit of a description of love to help us along the way. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 8, what to do with this? But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love. and foreign helmet, the hope of salvation. Very similar language to Ephesians 6, to prepare yourself against the fiery darts of the adversary, the devil, so that you can stand against the devil in his attacks, keeping in mind 2 Corinthians 2, 10 to 11, the need of forgiveness to be protected from that. And what's gonna motivate all that? Love. Putting on the breastplate of faith and love. The motivation for others is the same as God's towards us in Christ. Love, forgiveness comes from love. A disposition towards someone who is at enmity with me and I will go sacrifice myself to deliver them to be with me and live in love with me. But at the moment, they don't love me, and they're not giving me any love. So love is active. Love is proactive. Consider Ephesians 5 verse 2 with Ephesians 4 verse 3. Ephesians 5 verse 2, and walk in love. Recently we heard a sermon, walk in the spirit and we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Walk in love would be another way of saying that. Remember love is of the spirit and a fruit of the spirit. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Ephesians 4 verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Ah, what does our verse say tonight? And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfect perfectness. the bond of peace. Peace is shalom from the Hebrew. It is that sense of a lack of any harm or trouble. It is a lack of war. It's a sense of perfect peace, which we know we have in Christ when we pray. And also we have the God of peace with us, Paul says, also in Philippians 4, when we focus on the good of one another. Endeavoring to keep the bond of peace. Now that word bond is the same in our text tonight, a joint. So the body parts can work together, move together under Christ our one head. How is that again? Love. Another way to say put on love, you could say follow after love. And Paul does say that elsewhere. You'll remember our series last year, the follow after series, 2 Corinthians 2 verse 22 is where we started. Then we went to 1 Timothy verse 16, 2 Timothy 2.22, 1 Timothy 6.11. There's some overlap, but also some different things said in both places where they say, flee youthful lusts. and then follow after this. But in both texts they say follow after love. One place says follow after charity, the other says follow after love. But they're both saying it, so in a sense it's doubled up and it's both, both is the Greek agape, follow love. When I preached on that follow after love or follow after charity on 2 Timothy 2.22, I wanna share with you a few highlights from that sermon to review. First of all, I made the point was this, those who follow Jesus will be found following him in love, loving one another in brotherly love. I gave you Galatians 5 verse 6, faith worketh by love. Not only is love greater than faith, faith only works by love. Faith works itself out by love. Love is not only the motivation It is the means. Charity, again, the Greek agape. One Greek lexicon gives these words as ideas of what it means. Love, the kiss of peace, alms, charity, or a gift. That word charity, again, in our King James Version, translated love elsewhere, is what we're looking at. And the middle, late, old English behind that word charity, it has the idea of Christian love of one's fellows. It's actually a real, it's really a Christian idea, charity. It's Christian love is the idea, for one's fellow Christians. And id, that word charity in the King James from the Older English, Middle English, comes from the Old French, charité, from Latin, caritas, from caris, which means dear. Dear, oh my dear. How we often, well, when people used to write letters, sometimes once in an email, once in a while, you might still use dear, dear so-and-so. But it was more than just kind of a empty introduction. It was really a term of endearment. Dear so-and-so, my beloved, thus dearly beloved, follow charity. I remind you of 1 John 4, verses 8, 16, and 19 through 20. He that loveth not. knoweth not God, for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Remember, love is not always easy to give, and it's not always easy to receive. See, love isn't always something that feels good, even in the receiving of it, and it isn't always easy in the giving of it, because We know that faithful are the wounds of a friend, the Proverbs say. Those who will flatter you about yourself are your enemies, because they won't tell you the truth. They won't help you to try to improve yourself. Because doing that puts your own self in the risk of harm and retaliation. But real love is just willing to do that. It's willing to do the hard things, which is why good parents actually love and give discipline. In fact, the Proverbs say, if you're not willing to discipline your child, you don't love them. So let's recognize love isn't always easy to give or receive, but you do it because you actually do love, regardless of the response, which is sometimes very often, not just said by children to their parents, But to the congregation, to their elders, you don't love me. Which hurts. And you wanna make it easy and give them what they want, but that wouldn't actually be love. So Jesus says in Revelation 3, 19, and I know I've mentioned it many times before, but we forget what love also looks like if it's really love. Because people who don't love will not bother. Jesus has just gotten done speaking to the seven churches of Asia, and for most of them, he has a lot of really harsh words. You've heard me said, and I'll say it again, I don't think Jesus would ever be hired by any church to be their pastor, if you consider his pastoral work in the letters to the churches of Asia. But at the end of it all, he says this, as many as I love, I rebuke. and chasing. You might recall that R.C. Sproul has said the greatest child abuse is a lack of discipline. But parents who want to pretend they love but don't discipline and give everything the child wants, that's actually not good for them. That's just not love. It's going to lead to their own destruction. Love is willing to love even though it's often accused of being the opposite of love. Because love knows what it really is and what is best for the one being loved. Regardless of how often it hurts to love. Here's when you know it isn't love. When it hurts, They tell you exactly what you wanna hear to get rid of you as soon as possible. Or, they don't even stay around to tell you a thing. They're gone. 1 Peter 4, verse 8. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves. Isn't that something? Again, above all things. start it in there, and it has to be in everything in between. Above all things have fervent charity, really serious, dedicated devotion among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Now isn't that often what we see? A lack of love, how quick we are to abandon one another. Although Christ says I'll never abandon my sheep, I'll never forsake them, how quick we are to book on each other. The first time it's hard to love. That's why we need a fervent charity. Now just stop and think, that fervent charity, what it will look like to the world when they see people duking it out and staying devoted. Now I don't mean just fighting for no person's purpose, but the truth is we're going to have our problems. And love is devoted to work through them. And it's devoted to a disposition and discourse and self-discipline to work through it and make the best of it. Charity shall cover multitude of sins. Imagine where we find fervent love and what that place will look like. If it covers a multitude of sins, you're not going to see the devil being very successful there to snatch us up, as we heard this morning, when there's a lack of forgiveness of sins. So what's the antidote to have Satan not be able to get us and divide us? Forgiveness. And where does that come from? Love. John 13, verses 34 to 35. A new commandment I give unto you, says Jesus, that ye love one another. as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. What does Jesus say elsewhere? If you're not willing to obey my commands, you're not worthy to be called my disciple. But if he were to summarize that, all my commands, it's all summed up in this. If you are not willing to love as I command you, if you're not willing to love your brothers and sisters in Christ, no one will know that you're a disciple of Christ and you probably will prove not to be. After all, what's one thing we often say to one another? Well, you just ought to get used to dealing with one another now, because if you really do love Jesus and you really love one other, you're gonna have to live with one another forever. Of course, that'll be a lot easier when we love perfectly and we don't sin, but we can keep practicing now. We can't just say, I'm gonna abandon, I don't want anything to do with that person anymore, and then how's that gonna be like when we see each other in heaven? I mean, I know there'll be no shame. I'll know there'll be no sin, but I can't help but wonder if it's kind of like, I'm sorry. For those who truly love and are truly Christ's, right? And praise the Lord, let that be what you have your eyes set upon heaven, because we don't love perfectly in this life. That's why we're going through this, that the Lord would help us to love truly and to love better, truly. Here's the thing. Here's reality, and we all really particularly, maybe a few not so much, but we pretty much all need to hear this about ourselves. After all, what does Paul appeal to with husbands loving their wives in Ephesians 5, as Christ did the church, which is self-sacrifice, right? To wash her by the word of God, whether or not they want to be, right? What does he say? You have your own self-preservation in it. I mean, your motivation is, this is your body. You don't do harm to your own body. Your wife is your own body husband. So similarly, we are mutual body parts. And the way we are joined together and working well is by love as the bond of perfection. Keep that in mind though, because here's the truth of it all. None of us are lovable. Put another way, we are all unlovable. As much as we love our children, as much as we love our spouses, there are plenty of times in our lives, in the best of marriages and families, where we all bear that out, and we all, if we were to be honest, observe that. And Christ loved us. And in Christ, we are to love one another. To keep things moving together as one in the right direction, following after Christ. How lovely that we will love perfectly in heaven. But in the meantime, Jonathan Edwards asks you this. If you call yourself a Christian, Where are your works of love? Do you love God? What have you done for him? Do you love your fellow men? This is the question to allow to pause and resonate on a minute related to the text. Do you love your fellow men? What have you done for them? The labor of love, he says, is the main business of the Christian life. It isn't studying books, as important as that is. It isn't knowing doctrine, as important as that is. It isn't singing psalms, a cappella, as important as that is. It's love. The labor of love, he says, is the main business of the Christian life. What is your main business? Thinking of yourself as a Christian and being a Christian, what is your main business? And if someone were to do an audit of your love, what would you bring to the meeting to demonstrate your love? in particular for your brethren? We can all point to our devotions. We can all, hopefully we can point to our Bible readings, our Psalm singings, our prayer, though any of us would sadly maybe be embarrassed actually to show our lack of love for the Lord as it should be, but we probably would be more likely to show that, but what would you show to prove your love to the brethren? What are you doing for them? What are you being careful not to do to them? Dearly beloved, for the mutually beneficial and Jesus-honoring body, life, unity of Christ's church to build the perfect bond of Christian peace, love, That is the message for you this evening from the text, to build the perfect bond of Christian peace, love. Let us pray. Thank you, Lord God, for first loving us and sending your son to die for us. Oh, Lord Jesus, we do indeed hear your words and think of your acts. Greater love hath no one than this, than a man would lay down his life for his friends. And you have called us your friends. You laid your life down for us, and you have taught us, as you said to the disciples, you've revealed things to us, showing us we are friends with God through Christ. Lord, as we have been forgiven much, let us love much. And love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is the keeping of your commandments. And the greatest of them is love. Help us to love. Joined together as members of your body. Connected and moving with you as our head. In Jesus' name we beseech thee, amen.