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Sermon
Tonight’s sermon is in honor of Valentine’s Day. A holiday that is heavily commercialized; however, celebrating love in its various forms is important. It isn’t only for couples. It can be for friends, relatives, and many other non-intimate relationships. Love.
The English language is very limited in expressing all the levels of love. What do you think? What do you love? What intensity would you use to describe it? Love of food? Love of a partner? Love of a game or book? Are they all the same form of love?
The Bible also uses the word love. It describes various types as well.
- God’s love for humans
- Human’s love for God
- Partnered love
- Fondness
- Brotherly love
- Love of good
- Friendship
- Feeling good
- God’s love in Christ Jesus
- The lifestyle of love
- And much more
Love. It means so much. But, the Bible wasn’t written in English. Do you know what language it was originally in?
- Hebrew
- Aramaic
- The most common language spoken in the time of Jesus.
- Koine Greek
With the different languages used in the Scriptures, it gives us a plethora of words to describe the levels and intensities of love. I’m not going to go into each one in this sermon; however, I will attach them to the notes found below in the section titled “Further study.” Here’s the point: love is a very important theme within our Holy book and our faith.
I want us to look at our first reading of the night. These verses I use in weddings because of how profound they are.
3 If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
-1 Corinthians 13:3-7
If you do not have love, you gain nothing. The above verses define love. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love is so important to Jesus’ followers. It shows how our words and actions amount to something. These biblical words show that whatever qualities and skills you may have, they are nothing without love. Love is and does the greatest because God is love.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.
-1 John 4:7-12
God embodies love, true love. Those who love God must have love for our siblings in this faith and the wider world. Love doesn’t mean we agree; it means we find our common denominator: the Holy Spirit in each of us. You see, love is our evidence of salvation. We have Jesus’ nature within us, and we should be manifesting this love, imitating our Messiah. Showing our love and tolerance of others is impactful; it makes love real, visible, and tangible. It helps us too. These loving actions help to make God real and personal. We experience God’s love by sharing it with others, testifying, serving our community, and humbling ourselves. Because just reading about God isn’t enough. Love is action!
We can often be closed off, especially if we’ve been hurt by past relationships, abuse, loneliness, and baggage. Love can be painful; it can break us down if we put it in the wrong place or lose it. However, the level of love that God provides, AGAPE, transcends this. Agape represents “…the unique dimensions and overwhelming depth of God’s love…the impact of that love on human beings.” (see Encyclopedia Of Bible Words under Love).
Agape is God’s choice, his commitment to us. Throughout the Bible, even the prophets sensed God’s love in every event. Have you ever gone through something in your own life where you felt God in the midst of it? A trial? A victory? A blessing? Deliverance from the pit? Just like with the ancients, God’s mark of love in our world is alive and well.
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my sight
and honored and I love you,
I give people in return for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
5 Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
6 I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth—
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”-Isaiah 43:1-7
God created and formed us. He tells us to have no fear. He has paid the price for us, redeemed. He calls us by name! Our Savior. Love. Agape. Divine love. These words help us discover the role of love in human experience. They show that God is restoring us over and over. Because love casts out all fears. He sent His one and only Son to the cross to open the gates of love to all people, regardless of your station in life.
God’s love is fulfilled in us. We are made perfect in His love. And in turn, the Father calls us to love as a response to Him. Acts of love. God initiates. Humans respond. Love for God cannot be without love for others.
To close out tonight, let us read the words of Scripture that speak to us as a collective but also as individuals. Because for some, we often don’t feel God’s love. Love in general. Our hurts, habits, and hang-ups create barriers to love. Even if we don’t want the wall up.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 8:38-39
And so, in honor of a holiday meant for love, let us not forget or neglect the One who loved us first, the Holy One who calls us by name. Because nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen!
Further study
Pastor Alex’s notes of the word “love”
Pastor Alex