Are You Saved? # 12

Ephesians 4: 1 ‘I encourage you to live the kind of life which proves that God has called you’

Last time we were saying that following our salvation, we have a continuing responsibility to provide evidence that our salvation is real

In this Series we are learning about the 5 evidences that prove that our salvation is real

So far:

1/ Our Salvation Testimony

2/ An Obedient Life

3/ Real Worship

4/ Generous Giving

This time:

5/ Love For Others

John 13: 34-35

Jesus said that our love for one another proves that we are His disciples – that our salvation is real

Do you have a love for one another?

One of His disciples, John, who was later known as the ‘Apostle of Love’ repeated this theme several times in his letters to the Churches

1 John 2: 10a ‘Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light’

1 John 3: 14 ‘If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead’

Obeying Jesus commandment to ‘love each other’ is actually quite easy isn’t it when our brothers and sisters in Christ are loving towards us - right!?

But, it’s definitely not easy to love those brothers and sisters in Christ who are unloving towards us – those ‘difficult’ people who hurt us, hurt our family and even hurt the Church

Here are 5 suggestions to help us love those ‘difficult’ people that sometimes God allows into our lives

1/ We need God’s love to love ‘difficult’ people

We need God’s love to love ‘difficult’ people because human love is inadequate/incapable of loving ‘difficult’ people

“Pastor David, what do you mean by human love?”

The Word of God (N.T Greek) indicates 3 types of love that we are capable of:

Philia - love between friends

Storge – love between family

Eros – love between husband and wife

In Church life different kinds of people come into the Church who are not our friends, our family or our husband and wife – they are strangers and some of them may be ‘difficult’ to love

We need God’s love that alone is adequate/capable of loving them

That love that comes from God is called agape love, as it is referred to in Romans 5: 5b ‘we know how dearly God loves (agape) us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love (agape)’.

2/ We need to forgive those ‘difficult’ people who hurt us, hurt our family and even hurt the Church

Colossians 3: 13b ‘forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others’.

As the Scripture says, we need to forgive others because the Lord has forgiven us; we also need to forgive others because the act of forgiveness frees us from feelings of resentment towards that person, and allows us to love again

For sure, forgiveness does change us but it might not change the person you forgive – however, if their behavior towards you does change then cautiously let that person back into your life again

C.F Romans 12: 8; Matthew 6: 12, 14-15; Matthew 18: 21-25

Testimony:

In 1997 I was asked to Pastor a Church here in down-town Nelson which had been losing members for 14 years

The Church was full of ‘difficult’ people – they were hurting each other, hurting the Church and eventually they hurt us too

After 5 years I resigned from the Church and looking back, I can honestly say that many in that Church were ‘Christian’ in name only and others in the Church weren’t acting like Christians at all – they showed no love towards others in the Church

It was difficult to forgive them but in doing so it allowed us to love people again

3/ We need to think lovingly towards ‘difficult’ people

Philippians 2: 3b-4a ‘thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too’.

If you think lovingly towards ‘difficult’ people it will change how you feel about them, and that will change how you act towards them

The Apostle Paul continues

Philippians 2:5-8 ‘You must have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had. Though He was God, He did not think that His being equal with God was something to use for his own benefit. ERV Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross’.

It was Jesus' attitude/His thinking about us that led Him to the Cross where He died for the forgiveness of our sins so that we could be saved

4/ We need to act lovingly towards ‘difficult’ people

Most Christians I know are very loving in their actions towards others and even towards ‘difficult’ people

1 John 3: 18 ‘Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions’

And some Christians I know excel in loving action towards others and even towards ‘difficult’ people

1 Thessalonians 4: 10 ‘Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more’.

Up to this point this Message is quite nice isn’t it – but now it’s going to get very challenging; Jesus took the matter of loving others even further – so far in fact that we may have trouble accepting it

Luke 6: 27a ‘But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies!’

Luke 6: 27a – 36 Jesus lists 7 practical actions we can take to show love even to our enemies including: doing good to them, blessing them, praying for them

Luke 6: 35b ‘Then your reward from Heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High,’

5/ We need to model our love for one another upon the same love that Jesus has for us

John 13: 34b ‘Just as I have loved you, you should love each other’.

I really like how the Apostle Paul put it

Ephesians 4: 18 ‘May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is’.

Let’s love others with the same love of God that is wide, long, high and deep!

Amen