one another in love.” Now listen to these words, “The entire law is summarized by a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Now think with me; if you had just written down, “The entire law is summarized by a single command,” a single word, what would you have written next? I would’ve written, “Love God above all else.” That seems like it makes sense, but shockingly, that’s not what Paul writes. He says the entire law is summarized by a single command, and then he says, surprisingly, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” How does that command, ‘to love my neighbor,’ summarize all that God has called me to? Well, here it is; this is one of the most important conversations that we’re going to have. It’s only people who love God above all else who will ever love their neighbor as themselves. It’s only when God is in His rightful place that you will be in the appropriate place in my heart, because, stay with me, if God is not in His rightful place, guess who I insert in His place? Say it, “Self! Me!” And I make it all about me. Now, here’s what this means; I’ll make the confession. It’s sad to have to make this, but I will make it. My problem has never been first that I don’t love Luella enough. My problem is that I don’t love God enough. And because I don’t love God as I should, I don’t love Luella in the way that I should because I’m always inserting myself into God’s position, and I’m always making it about me--understand? Now that’s a profound thought. Now here’s what this means. It means that you don’t first fix marriages horizontally; you fix them first vertically. You don’t first fix marriages horizontally; you don’t fix marriages by negotiating a horizontal thing; you fix marriages first vertically. Here’s what this means. There are men in this room who need to get home as fast you can after this conference is over; you need to find a quiet place; you need to get down on your knees; (Yes, I’m serious because the posture is important.) and you need to confess that you have been an irritable, impatient, demanding husband--not because you first don’t love your wife, but because you don’t love God the way that you should. And because you don’t, you insert yourself in God’s position, and you make it all about you. Men, I challenge you to go home and make that confession. There are women in this room--you need to do the same. You need to go home; you need to find a quiet place; you need to get down on your knees; you need to confess that you’ve been a bitter, demanding wife. Not because you have first failed to love your husband, but because you don’t love God as you should. He’s not in His appropriate place; and because He is not, you insert yourself in His place. You make it all about you; and because you do, you haven’t loved your husband in the way that you should. You always fix marriages vertically before you fix them horizontally. It’s only when God is in His rightful place that you will be in the appropriate place in my heart and life. What an eloquent piece of wisdom that is! Now, that leaves us with this question--What is this thing called ‘love?’ What is love? I think there are an awful lot of things that we would name as love that aren’t love. Being nice is a good thing; it sort of makes relationships comfortable, but you can be nice to a person without loving them. You can be nice to a person that you hate. Being respectful is probably a good thing, but you can act respectfully toward someone you don’t respect. And so we’ve got to find a definition to this love that God has called us to. And there are two passages in the New Testament that are extensive discussions of love: I Corinthians 13 and I John 4. And we’re going to look at I John 4 together. I want to give you what I call a cruciform definition of love. Cruci--c-r-u-c-i /form--f-o-r-m-- cruciform definition of love. Cruci means ‘cross;’ form means ‘in the shape of.’ A cross-shaped definition of love because the cross not only is the demonstration of God’s love that leads to our redemption, but it’s the ultimate example in all of history of what love is and what love does. Let me read: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and has sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us this way, we also ought to love one another.
Transcript: Session 7
WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
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