You Can Love Like Jesus

This is a picture of the 14^th hole at Salem Golf Club. I started going to the golf course with my dad when I was 12 because I was now old enough to caddie.  But since I couldn’t caddie all day, my dad started giving me jobs around the club.  I cleaned bathrooms, vacuumed the locker room, swept the floors and took out garbage.  But I was usually done with all that by noon, so I started learning how to play the game. Then one afternoon I noticed another kid my age was about to play a round with his mom.  So I asked my dad if I could play with them.  He told me to grab a set of lady’s rentals and ask if I could join them.  And that’s what I did.  So Jim and his mom became my playing companions for the next year.  And I’ve always remembered those days, not so much for the golf, but for their graciousness to me.  Because I was terrible.  For eight or nine months I topped every drive and shot in the hundreds.  I often wondered “why did they put up on me?”  But it wasn’t until I was little older and had improved that I figured it out.  They believed I had potential, and that over time I would gradually improve and become a decent golfer.

It’s great to have someone who believes in you. Because when someone believes in you, they don’t just see your potential, they have patience with you, encourage you, and help you any way they can.  That’s what Jim and his mom did with me.  And they helped me become a pretty decent golfer.  I learned as much or more about golf from them as I did from my dad.  Now, I believe most of you can think of someone like that who believed in you and helped you become a good athlete, or a stellar businessman, or an amazing parent.  And hopefully most of you can think of someone like that who believed in you and helped you learn how to follow Jesus.  That you’ve had someone to show you the ropes, be patient with you, encourage you, and yes, pray for you.

Well the Philippian Church had someone like that who believed in them.  He saw them as partners in the work of the gospel, and their partnership gave him joy.  He saw them as individuals in whom God was working, and that gave him great confidence that God wasn’t finished with them.  And we saw that they held a special place in his heart, and so he couldn’t help but share his affection for them.  He not only believed in them and encouraged them, but he was committed to helping them become more and more like Jesus. And the first way he was committed to helping them become more like Jesus, was by praying for them.  And his prayer for them is found in Philippians 1:9-11.

And it is this prayer that we’re going to unpack today.  For this prayer is the catalyst to unlocking our potential to love like Jesus. The greatest potential we have as a Church is to grow in our love for one another.  For as we grow in our love for one another we will show the world what Jesus is like and we will bring praise and glory to God.

So let me read this prayer for us: And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Now before I begin to unpack the potential for us from this prayer, I want to remind us, THIS IS A PRAYER.  And the reason I want to remind us that this is a prayer, is that we often put all our value on INSTRUCTION in God’s Word as what God uses to transform our lives.  And rightly so.  God uses His Word and the work of His Holy Spirit in us to transform us by the renewing of our minds.

However, if instruction alone could get us to love one another in such a way that God would be praised, then we wouldn’t need prayer.  So here’s the thing: If Paul thought information alone was sufficient to transform lives, then he would never pray in his letters.  But he did pray.  And the reason he did pray, is that prayer plays a key role in God’s transforming work.  Prayer invites God to do the work in us He wants to accomplish through us.  And what God wants to accomplish through us, is that we would love like Jesus.  So let’s not forget that this is a prayer. That I need you to pray this prayer for me.  That you need others to pray this prayer for you.  And we need to be praying this prayer for one another.

So now let’s unpack this prayer. Let me read the first part of this prayer again: And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.  Let me make two observations here:

First, God wants your love to become the defining characteristic in your life.  But this is not any old love.  His desire is that you will become someone who loves more and more like Jesus – so that those who are loved by you will know that Jesus is alive in you.  And when that happens God will get the credit for the love coming through you. That’s the first observation.

Second: God wants your love to increase in two ways: in knowledge and in depth of insight.  In other words, we need the knowledge of God’s love and we need wisdom to apply it in our relationships.

First, the knowledge of God’s love.  We need to KNOW what God’s love is.  Our love must be Biblically informed.  The Bible tells us that prior to God loving us, we did not KNOW what love is.  We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19  The Bible informs us of what God’s love is: This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10

So God loved us.  But how is this any different than the love we normally think of when we speak of love? Well it’s the kind of love that loves us when we were at our worst, when there was nothing in us that makes God want to love us.  The Bible describes His love for us this way:  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:6-8

Jesus died for us while we were in rebellion against God.  Jesus took our punishment on the cross while we were still enemies of God, when the only thing we deserved was eternal separation from God…  So God chose to love us when we were at our worst.  God chose to love us when there was nothing about us that was lovable.  This is the kind of love that must inform our ability to love one another.

This is the kind of love that overlooks sin.  This is the kind of love that forgives and then keeps no record of wrongs.  This is the kind of love that sticks with you when everyone else gives up on you.  This is the kind of love that does good to the one who annoys you.  This is the kind of love that treats the worst offender like a best friend.  For this is the extravagant, grace filled love of God that continually gives us beyond and above what we deserve. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.  And so we learn from Jesus what it means to love – to serve, to forgive our enemies, and to lay down our lives for our friends.

You see, we live in a day when people want to separate the knowledge of God’s Word from love.  Love today is more associated with tolerance and feelings than with truth and righteousness.  Many operate by “If it feels right, then it’s acceptable.”  If you try to correct someone, then you are labeled as intolerant and therefore unloving.  But love must be tied to the truth of how God loved us for it to be distinctly Christian love. That’s why we need this prayer: so we can grow in our knowledge of God’s way of loving.  Our love must be Biblically informed.

Now, here’s the next thing he prays for: The discernment of how to apply God’s love   That’s what this term “depth of insight” means.  Whereas “knowledge” answers the question, “What is love? discernment answers the question, “What is the best way for me to love?” Am I to be patient with him?  Am I to overlook her criticism and not defend myself?  Am I to help him out even though he’s not going to appreciate it?  Am I willing to sacrifice my time by going out of my way for her? Am I going to stick with him even though I know he’s wrong?

Relationships are complex.  God didn’t just upload a program into our brains for us to love people perfectly. We need to pray for wisdom, and God promises to generously give us wisdom.  You see, we don’t always know why a person is so messed up.  But we can be relatively sure that they probably haven’t experienced God’s kind of love.  So we need discernment.  We need to ask for “depth of insight” so we may be able to discern the best way to love each person.  After all, love always seeks what is best for another, regardless of the cost or consequences to ourselves.

That’s why it’s often good to stop and pray when you are having difficulty loving someone.  When left to our own wisdom, we often say or do something that we regret.  But when we stop and ask for knowledge and wisdom, God will help us.  After all, He loved us so we can love others.  And sometimes that means waiting on God to show you how He would have you love.

Remember what Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:43-45  Remember, sometimes when you don’t know how to love someone, you can simply pray for them. Ask God, “What is the best way to love this difficult person?  Help me to love her like Jesus would.”  And then let God show you how to love those who are hard to love.

Why is this so important for us to get?  Because God wants our love for others to be distinctly different from the way the world loves.  And that’s what the remainder of this prayer describes:  that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

So then, in the conclusion of this prayer, Paul points out three ways that can help our love be distinctly different.  First, he prays that our love be pure: That our love might always be genuine  That’s what Paul means when he uses this word “pure”  What God wants is our love to come from pure motives.  That as we seek what is best for people, our motives will be pure in how we treat them.  That we will actually be seeking what is best for them, and not acting in a kind way as to somehow get something from them.  You see, that’s how the world loves.  “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” “I’ll do this for you, so you can return the favor.”  That’s not God’s love.  That’s worldly love.  No, God loves with a no strings attached love.   That’s what is so rare in our world today.  That’s a pure love, a genuine love:  loving someone and truly expecting nothing in return.

Next, he prays that our love to be blameless: That our love might never be offensive That’s what Paul means when he uses the word “blameless”  That there would be nothing in our love that would cause others to stumble – that there would be nothing in our relationships that people could point to and say, “See, these Christian’s are hypocrites.  They talk a good game, but they don’t really love one another.  See how they talk behind their backs.  See how they gossip.  See how they complain about their leadership.  See how they argue with one another.” This is one of the reasons Paul wrote this letter.  There were some sins in this church that were crippling the witness of Christ: sins like gossiping, complaining and arguing.

There’s nothing more offensive to unbelievers then to see people who are to be marked by the love of Jesus, who then argue with one another, spread gossip behind their backs or who are just mean-spirited grumblers.  Nothing ruins the testimony of Christ quicker than small-minded pettiness that arises from selfish ambition or vain conceit.  That’s why Paul will address these behaviors in this letter.  For these sins stain the name of Jesus and are stumbling blocks to those who do not yet believe.  This is why our love is to be blameless.

And this is why he prays that our love would continually grow in knowledge and depth of insight  – because when we stop growing in love, we can fall back into old ungodly habits.  And if that happens, we can cause others to stumble. But Paul prays this will not happen, but rather our love will never cause anyone to stumble, and we will continually bear the fruit of Christ’s love in all our relationships.

And that’s the last characteristic that sets our love apart from the world: That our love might bring glory to God   That’s the goal of this prayer, that as we learn to love others with the love of Christ, we will be: filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ— to the glory and praise of God.   In other words, the reason Paul prays that our love for one another would continually increase is – that we might be so filled with the love of Christ, that when others see how we love one another they would see Jesus loving through us and give praise and glory to God.

Ultimately, Paul is praying that we would love more and more like Jesus.  And when we love like Jesus, we will bring praise and glory to God.  People will see Jesus in us and give God praise!

I began this message today by talking about people who believed in us enough to encourage us, teach us, and help us become something more than we were. And what we’ve seen here today is that everyone has the potential to become something more than a pew filler.  Every one of us has the potential to love like Jesus and bring praise and glory to God.  But for that to happen we need to believe in one another and make this our prayer for one another.  This was Paul’s prayer for the Philippians.  May this become your prayer for your brothers and sisters who call Rock Springs Family! I know it’s going to be my prayer for you.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.  Amen.