What is love? Love is the center of everything because God is at the center of everything. “But God shows his love for us in this…in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It’s all about love! 

Love is from God (1 John 4:7-10) 

God is the source of love. We must receive love. “Every good and perfect gift comes down from above.” (James 1:17) God is the giver of everything, including love. 

The Bible says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) We don’t generate love in our hearts. We receive the love of God, and then we love others. Truly, “God is love” and that love was made manifest when God sent his only Son into the world (1 Jn. 4:8-9)

AW Tozer once said, “The Christian witness through the centuries has been that “God so loved the world…”; it remains for us to see that love in the light of God’s infinitude. His love is measureless. It is more: it is boundless. It has no bounds because it is not a thing but a facet of the essential nature of God. His love is something He is.”

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law (Galatians 5:14)

The Protestant Reformers sometimes spoke of the 3-fold use of the law. 

The first use of the law was to be a mirror. The law of God reflects the perfect righteousness of God. The law exposes human sinfulness. We are naked in our sin before the law of God. The second is the restraint of evil. The law can serve to protect the righteous from the unjust through the dread of punishment. The third use is to reveal what is pleasing in the sight of God. That is why the Christian delights in the law of God, because we want to please our Father. 

We need the law. Our understanding of the law exposes us in our sin, and drives us to Christ. Love is the fulfillment of the law. (Rom. 13:8-10)

The essence of the Great Commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). How many of us could say we love God with all of our heart, mind and strength for even an hour? While we despair of ourselves, Jesus fulfilled the law of God. He loved God the Father in this way. That is why we look away from ourselves, and to Jesus, in faith. 

Love is “One-Another” Oriented 

God has not called us to isolate ourselves. There are no lone ranger Christians. We do life together. The Bible says: “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10). In another place, it says, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Rom. 15:7). What a high and holy calling! The church is the people of God, the Body of Christ, and we live out our calling in the context of “one another”. 

Love is Central to Our Witness (John 13:34-35)

We often think we need to be skilled in apologetics for a good witness. This past week, a friend handed me a link to an apologetics website. I’m thankful for ministries like that. But the thrust of those ministries is giving biblical answers to the major questions of our day, not demonstrating love. It is true that the world desperately needs answers, but it also needs to witness love in action.  

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). As God loved us (He laid down His life for us), we are called to love one another. The world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples through our love and attractive nature of our lives.

For example, we forgive one another as Christ forgave us (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 4:12-14). I assure you that people will take notice of that. The Christian home should be characterized by love (Ephesians 5:25, Colossians 3:18-21). Husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. We are even commanded to “Love our enemies” and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-45). When this radical love is present, the world will take notice. They will realize we are Jesus’ disciples. 

Jesus is the Supreme Example of Love (Philippians 2:1-11)

If we want to see love personified, we look to Jesus and his life. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). At this point the disciples didn’t realize that Jesus would actually lay down his life for them and his death would be the atoning sacrifice for their sins. But it was! There is no greater love than the love shown at Calvary. 

1 John 3:16: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Christ modelled true love for us when He laid down his life for us.

Early in Paul’s letter to the Romans, he said, “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (Romans 1:7). These Roman believers were loved by God, simply because God, in his grace, bestowed love upon them. It wasn’t because they fixed up their lives enough that God was obligated to love them. In reality, all our righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6). Apart from the grace of God, even our best works are tainted by sin and impure motives.

The church is a community where we can love one another, be loved, and find a real sense of belonging. Truly, we all long to belong. People desire to be part of something bigger than themselves. People want to find that place where they experience true community, acceptance, and love.

Let us strive to have churches where people are happy in God, truly loving and serving one another and following the example of Jesus. That’s how the world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples.