Summary of Love

1 Peter 1:22 "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart"

It has been several weeks since my last post, and I must confess that with the addition of seminary work this year it is not as easy to maintain a blog. Nevertheless I hope and aim to post two articles this week to follow up on recent sermons preached at Grace and Truth. First of all let me say that camping out in 1 Corinthians 13 has been extremely helpful to me on a personal level and I trust it was beneficial to all those who sat under the preaching. For anyone interested in further reading on 1 Cor. 13, I would recommend Jonathan Edwards timeless work- (which I referred to quite a bit)  Charity and Its Fruits. I am sure in your expanded reading you will be truly edified.

As for my summary, I want to bring the last few sermons regarding loves character and remind everyone that love is the most excellent way for Christians to live. We are commanded to pursue love and make it our lifestyle. After examining all the traits of love in 1 Corinthians 13 we find out that it is all contrary to human nature and very much contrary to our social standards of the day. By nature we are selfish, rude, inconsiderate, and proud. Furthermore we are taught by our society that such characteristics are actually virtues. But this love is not a love of this world but a love of divine origin. It is the love of God. And we as Christians are called to "to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires" Eph. 4:22  and instead "put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." Eph. 4:24. Part of putting on the new self means living as Christ lived, namely manifesting the love of the Father to a lost and degenerate world. As imitators of Christ we glorify him most when we live a life that reflects Christ's love. Sadly in many reformed circles we have moved away from any notion of love as a knee jerk reaction to the over-emphasis of love in many non-reformed circles. However such an approach can lead us to be sadly labeled "the frozen chosen" and in the worst case actually put us in disobedience to God's word and poorly reflecting the image of Christ. This means we must put love into action. It is not merely enough to talk about how we can be more loving to others, nor are we to wait to feel it, because we learned already...love is an action. Therefore, what are some practical ways we can demonstrate our love for others that will both reflect the image of Christ, and prove our obedience to the word?

1 John 4:18 "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

I am interested to hear from others how the sermon series on Christian love has personally convicted you and what new ways you have applied this to your life.