WHAT IS REAL LOVE?

Series: What’s Real and What’s Not

(1 John)

1 John 2:7-11

 7 “Dear friends, I am not writing you a

      new command but an old one, which

      you have had since the beginning.

      This old command is the message

       you have heard.

 8   Yet I am writing you a new 

      command; its truth is seen in him and

      you, because the darkness is passing

      and the true light is already shining.

 

•          

 

  9 Anyone who claims to be in the light 

     but hates his brother is still in the

    darkness.

10  Whoever loves his brother lives in the

      light, and there is nothing in him to

      make him stumble.

11  But whoever hates his brother is in the

     darkness and walks around in the

     darkness; he does not know where he

     is going, because the darkness has

     blinded him.”

 

 

 

•    We don’t see much Real Love in our society.

•     One of the distinctions that we should have as Christians …… is the love that we share!

I. THE IDEA OF REAL LOVE

(vs. 7,8)

   “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new  

     command but an old one, which you have

     had since the beginning. This old

     command is the message you have heard.

     Yet I am writing you a new command; its

     truth is seen in him and you, because the

     darkness is passing and the true light is 

     already shining.”

 

 

 

 

•     There are two Greek words for “new”

    1.(NEOS) … meaning new in TIME

                        …Recent

     2.(KAINOS)…meaning new in QUALITY

                        … Different

 

 

 

 

   When we talk about the commandment to  exercise REAL LOVE towards one another… it is nothing new

 

 

 

         The idea of real love began with  

        GOD….He took the initiative.

MATTHEW 22: 34 - 40

  34 “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the

        Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.

  35  One of them, an expert in the law,

        tested him with this question:

  36 "Teacher, which is the greatest

         commandment in the Law?”

 

   

 

 37   Jesus replied: " `Love the Lord your

       God with all your heart and with all 

       your soul and with all your mind.'

 38  This is the first and greatest

        commandment.

  39  And the second is like it: `Love your

        neighbor as yourself.'

  40  All the Law and the Prophets hang 

        on these two commandments."

 

 

                GOD IS LOVE IN HIS

                     VERY NATURE

       

        (1 John 4:8)

        “Whoever does not love does not           know God, because God is love.”

 

    THIS IS LOVE…REAL LOVE…THAT GOD LOVED US..GOD EXPRESSED HIS LOVE TO US!

 

          (1 John 4:10)

        “This is love: not that we loved God,             but that he loved us and sent his Son            as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

 

 

                   GOD LOVED US FIRST

                   BEFORE WE LOVED HIM

    ( 1 John 4:19,20)

    19 “We love because he first loved us.

    20   If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates  

           his brother, he is a liar. For anyone

           who does not love his brother, whom

           he has seen, cannot love God, whom

           he has not seen.”

 

    HERE IS THE “COMMANDMENT”– IF   YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED GOD’S LOVE… YOU WILL LOVE YOUR              BROTHERS AND SISTERS

       (1 John 4:21)

          21 “And he has given us this command:

             Whoever loves God must also love his 

              brother.”

 

   THIS LOVE FOR THE BRETHREN–IS TRULY  ONE OF THE BIRTHMARKS OF                                 THE CHRISTIAN.

(1 Peter 1:22-23)

22 “Now that you have purified yourselves by

       obeying the truth so that you have sincere

       love for your brothers, love one another

       deeply, from the heart.

23  For you have been born again, not of

      perishable seed, but of imperishable,   

      through the living and enduring word of       

      God.”

II.THE INTRODUCTION OF REAL LOVE

(vs. 7) “…I am  not writing you a new

                command…”

 

(vs. 8) “… Yet I am  writing you a new                command…”

 

 

Sounds like a contradiction

What’s New or Different?

-- Jesus had summarized the old law into one principle, “Love” with the commandment, (Matthew 22)

 

                1st    – Love God

                2nd – Love your neighbor

What’s New or Different?

   (John 13:34)

    “ A new commandment I give you, 

      that you love one another , as I have 

      loved you, that you also love one

      another.”

 

What’s New or Different? (Kainos)

   

… We are to love “as Jesus loved Us”!

 

 

 

•     This ‘Love ‘ is a matter of looking at Jesus and being transformed within to begin to Love, un-conditionally because of Who He is and who we are, “IN HIM.”

 

 

       While the Idea of Real Love…. 

       originated in the very nature of God,

       …Jesus came to express the love of

      God in a new way… when you

      experience it… the experience makes

      it New to you because what was “IN

      HIM” is now “In You.”

 

  

 

 

    The nature of the new covenant being 

     a “Heart Written” covenant is seen

     clearly in this “New” commandment

     and “New”  love.

(1 John 2:8)

   “ ….. the darkness is passing and the 

   true light is already shining.”

    Once the love of Jesus is in your Life, (Written On The Heart) … you are no longer living in darkness, but in the light.

 

•     We are to live the Love Jesus introduced into our hearts….we do what’s Right because We Love Jesus and Others.

 

•     Jesus said, “ whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who Loves me…” ( John 14: 21)