What says love more than a furry face like this?
Why do dogs represent love for us? There is something special about the unconditional, affectionate, persevering devotion of a family dog. We had a German Shepherd for 15 years – and she specialized in protection, not affection. So our new doodle puppy is a stark contrast because his whole life and language is either “let’s play,” or “let’s cuddle!”
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
Significantly, Jesus summarized the entire Bible under two commands: Love God and love your neighbor. If we get love right, we get everything right. If we fail to love, we have missed the whole point. Paul completely agreed:
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
So did James:
“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well… What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2:8,14-17
And our text for three Sundays as we focus on the core value of being RELATIONALLY CONNECTED is 1 John.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:7-9
Jesus, Paul, Peter, James and John. Our Lord and the prominent apostles who led the early church all agreed that love is the main thing. It is God’s main thing – as it is the essence of His Triune being. So if love is not our main thing, in what sense can we claim to know and serve the God of love?
This is wonderfully good news on so many levels! First of all, it means we can rest in the love of God for us. An affectionate puppy is a tiny glimpse of real love. A healthy friendship gets closer. A strong, caring father and a warm, present mother embody and express God’s love. A good marriage is probably the best human experience we can have of unifying, self-sacrificing, other-serving love.
Second, it means our job as followers of Christ is not at all hard to understand. We are simply called to love as we have been loved. The love of Christ for us, supremely on the cross, is the ultimate motivation for our love. As we experience His love (Eph. 3:15-19) the Holy Spirit fills us “with the fullness of God.” When our human relationships are strained, we have a limitless source of love in the Lord Jesus!
Finally, the Bible’s emphasis on love clarifies our mission. How do you reach your neighbor, co-worker or friend? You just love them. That’s the whole plan. And as we seek to love our neighbors, we have this tremendous resource in the church family! The greatest witness to the truth of Christianity, the greatest evidence for the power of the gospel to change lives is the love we have for one another.
So how can we reach our city? How can we change the world? Love. Just love.