Love, Reward, and Perfection

The Righteousness of the Law Murder: Treatment of others Adultery: Mental Attitude Sin = Sin Marriage: Life-long covenant Vows: Every statement represents the Lord Retaliation forbidden: Vengeance is Mine... Love your enemies: Sons of your Father

LOVE

Mt 5:43-44 You have heard That it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now I am saying to you, Love your enemies and Pray for those who persecute you

Love Gods Way I am not righteous before the Lord if I do not love my enemies. Gods character vs. human limitations – God is at once absolute Love and absolute Good – Man is neither – Yet man can exhibit Gods character of righteousness and love. – For this God must be the SOURCE. Counterfeit Love

The Mechanics of Love Motivation: The Reason Why Volition: Your Responsibility Means: Gods Enablement

MOTIVATION TO LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY

The Dynamics of Motivation in Love 1.Definition of Motivation: The reason you do something 2.An act may or may not be loving depending on the motivation that produces the act. 3.Motivation is in the realm of thought, whereas love is not yet complete until there has been an action. 4.Just as all action begins with a thinking, love comes from a motivation. 5.Principles have been given to us in the Word of God to drive our thought life and so motivate our love. 6.The love described in Rom 5:8 and Matt 5:45 is not motivated by the object of the love (enemy).

7.The love required by Jesus Christ in Matt 5:45 is dependent on the lover and applied to all people. 8.Therefore what people normally think of as motivation for love is not a motivation at all. 9.While there are different categories of love depending on the attractiveness of the object, in every case love is a desire for and action toward the good of the object.

Dynamic Motivational Truth#1: The Command to Love 1.The verb to love (ajgapavw) is given 9 times in the NT as an imperative. Mt 5:44, Lk 6:27, 35, Eph 5:25, 33, Col 3:19, 1 Pet 1:22, 2:17, 1 Jn 2:15 2.Jesus Christ explicitly commands love by issuing a new commandment in Jn 13:34.

Jn 13:34-35 A new commandment I am giving you: that you love one another, in the same way I loved you, that also you love one another By this all will know that you are my disciples, if love you have for one another.

The Command and the Result of Obedience This command refers to love within the Body of Christ. It specifies the manner in which we are to love one another. The fruit of the Spirit, which includes love for one another, is conditional, not guaranteed. If the church will fulfill this love for one another, it will be identifiable to all.

Dynamic Motivational Truth #1: The Command to Love 1.The verb to love (ajgapavw) is given 9 times in the NT as an imperative. Mt 5:44, Lk 6:27, 35, Eph 5:25, 33, Col 3:19, 1 Pet 1:22, 2:17, 1 Jn 2:15 2.Jesus Christ explicitly commands love by issuing a new commandment in Jn 13:34 and 15:12. 3.Your obedience to a command indicates the quality of relationship between you and the Commander. This is Motivational Dynamic #2

Dynamic Motivational Truth #2: The Believers Rapport with God 1.Definition of rapport: – relation marked by harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity (Websters Collegiate 11 th ed) – good relationship based on mutual appreciation 2.A believer who obeys the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ is a believer who loves Him. Jn 14:21 3.The Lords command to love others motivates the love of others. 4.But the obedience of the command to love others demonstrates the disciples love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

5.What motivates loving others, then, is our love of the Lord Jesus Christ. 6. A focus on the failings of the other person or an inordinate fixation with their better qualities is actually a distraction to this kind of love. 7.We simply cannot look to the human objects of our love for motivation to love them. 8.Our love for others must be motivated by our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. 9.Those who want to love as the Lord Jesus requires must first know Him and have that motivational rapport. 10.This motivating factor of our love for other people is the difference between being a hypocrite and a mature believer.

What Motivates Your Love For God?

Dynamic Motivational Truth #3: The Plan of God for Your Character 1.We are everywhere in the Word told to be like God. 2.This is what the Image of God is about in mans creation, Gen 1:26, 27 3.What is God like? Hes the King, sovereign over all that exists, which He created from nothing. 4.So man is placed in delegated authority over the earth in Genesis 2. 5.Taking our image-hood as form-following-function, we look to the character of God to see what our character should be like for us to represent Him.

6.1 Jn 4:7 suggests that we are responsible to love one another because we belong to God and love is from God. 7.1 Jn 4:19 says that God is love. 8.If we as Gods Image are supposed to represent Him to earthly and angelic creation, then our character should exhibit love. 9.Paul in Eph 5:1-2 commands us to imitate God in this particular sense.

3 Dynamic Motivational Truths for Loving Others Unconditionally

Motivation 1.Jn 14:21: Love is a command – Therefore the Commander becomes the motivation – Your relationship to the Lord will 2.Jn 15:9-13: Love is our response to Love we have received from Christ 3.Rom 5:5: Love is the basis for hope 4.1 Jn 4:7, 19: Love is the character of God, which is our goal

The Mechanics of Love Motivation: The Reason Why Volition: Your Responsibility Means: Gods Enablement

The Volitional Aspect of Unconditional Love

Volition 1.Definition of volition: the power of choosing or determining (Webster 11 th Collegiate Dictionary) 2. Every command guarantees a volitional response from the person who receives the command. – Yes – No 3.This mechanic is why you fail to love others unconditionally: every failure of love involves a choice not to love. 4.Why do believers choose not to love others unconditionally?

Why do believers choose not to love others unconditionally? Rebellious arrogance: choosing to disobey the Lord Jesus Christ for any reason Ignorance of the commands of Scripture: many have no idea of their responsibilities or how to carry them out because they are not focused on the Word. Misplaced values: Holding to ones sense of pride of place or self-righteousness. Wrong focus: Getting hung up on the other persons failings or qualities.

Philippians 4:2-3 2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to think the same thingin the Lord. 3 Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

The Means of Loving Others Unconditionally

Means

Mt 5:45 In order that you become sons of your Father Who is in Heaven Because His sun He causes to rise upon the evil and the good and Rain upon righteous and unrighteous

Rewards

Perfection