Walk In Love

Introduction

Good morning. If you will open in your New Testament with me to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. I appreciate Brother Lindy leading those songs. And as you might uh surmise, we are going to speak about love, the love of God, and the need to love because of God this morning. In Matthew chapter 6 and verse 43, Jesus says, You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends reign on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do you not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And thus Jesus sets the most lofty of standards in verse 48. Many people I’ve spoken to will say, well, perfect doesn’t mean flawless or perfect there. It means complete. And when you think about complete, it can be really difficult. And to be really frank for a moment this morning, it can leave us crying to think we have to be perfect like God. It’s a difficult subject. But when we think about perfection, we have to know that the perfection spoken of that Jesus says in verse 48, given whatever definition you want to give, says you are to be perfect as who?

Your heavenly Father is perfect. So whether it’s complete, whole, or sinless and flawless, we are to emulate ourselves after God. Authenticity in our culture today is valued above almost all else. You can be mean, you can be rude, you can be lovely, but you better feel or seem like you are authentic. It’s like the zoo that had a great problem. There was a world-renowned zoo known for all of its different animals, but it had a real problem. It was one day the last gorilla died. And they said, we can’t have a zoo without a gorilla. So they hired a man to put on a gorilla suit and to try to move around and be their gorilla before they could find another. And on his first day on the job, he was having a difficult time moving convincingly like a gorilla.

So he was working on it and practicing. And then he found himself on the edge of the lion’s den and he fell in. And he’s screaming, just knowing his life was going to be over, and this man in the grill suit is screaming out loud, knowing he’s going to die until the lion comes up to him and says, Shh, or you’re going to get us both fired. Sometimes aren’t what they seem. But when it comes to Christianity, when it comes to culture or otherwise, we have to be authentically true to our master. Whether true or not, Gandhi is attributed with the saying, I love your Christ, but I don’t love your Christians. Regardless of whether he said that, the fact of the matter is true that if we are to be Christians, we must be like Christ.

Christians are to be like Christ. I know that’s funny to have to think and hear and say that out loud. But when Jesus says in verse 48, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, that means that my walk can’t be inauthentic. It must be real. I must have this walk the way God would have me, and that is to walk in love. If you notice in verse 43, Jesus begins talking to the Jews in this great Sermon on the Mount. And he says, You have heard that it was said of old, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies. And even pray for those who persecute you. One thing we don’t often think about is that we have to pray for those who persecute us.

1. God Teaches Us What True Love Is

You notice Jesus says that there’s no loophole there. He is very clearly making this statement true that we are to love our enemies, but that doesn’t mean just don’t treat them poorly. And that doesn’t even mean just be nice to them. Notice he says very directly, pray for those who persecute you. And right off the bat, without even verse 48, I know the love standard that my God has set and my Christ demands is difficult and weighty. It’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna be difficult, but as we examine how to walk in love, the good news is we can learn from the God that we are to be in the image of. For example, God teaches us what true love is. And part of that is in verse 46.

Jesus realizes the same idea that Tim Duke brought out in our Lord’s Supper talk with the idea of a contrast. You want to know what every person can do. Jesus says in verse 46 and 47, even the Gentiles can love the people that they already like. Even Gentiles can love their own families. But Jesus’ command goes greater. You have to not just love those who are family or those who you already like. You are to love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. And then verse 48, therefore we must be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is. If we look in 1 John chapter 4, you’ll see God is love. 1 John chapter 4, here’s that weighty standard problem, though. When we read about how good God is, it’s not just something to go on the refrigerator at home or on a bumper sticker on our car.

It has to be a real authentic part of our journey to be with and like our God. In 1 John chapter 4 and verse 7, 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. And 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. In this love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. For no one has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. Do you want to notice that weighty standard again in verse 7? Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Conversely, verse 8, anyone who does not love does not know God. Now all of a sudden, this isn’t just something that you learn in a Bible study or that you go through and you know Jesus said somewhere in the Bible. It’s something we have to do to know God, to benefit from his only Son who is sent to die for our sins. We have to likewise show love like our God. And how did God show love? With extreme sacrifice.

2. Love Shows No Partiality

Jesus died on the cross for my and our sins. God teaches us what real love is, that it takes sacrifice. And also that love shows no partiality. There is no group of people, no group of persons of any background that God said, Jesus didn’t die for you. In Acts chapter 10, Peter had to learn this lesson. And this is a reminder to me as well that as basic as this is, if Peter can struggle with this concept, I might too. In Acts chapter 10, as we have the story of Peter and Cornelius, and Cornelius is about to become the first Gentile convert, the first Gentile to take advantage of the sacrifice of Jesus in the manifestation of God’s love. In Acts chapter 10 and verse 34, note what Peter realized.

He says, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality. But notice verse 35. But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. That’s a heavy standard. God says, I love everybody, and my love, the sacrifice of my son, is available to every person in verse 34 and 35, every nation, as long as they do what is right and are pleasing to God. That’s a heavy burden. But it also shows me how do I love not just my enemies by praying for them, although that’s important. Not just my family, which is of course not only a scriptural idea, but a worldly one as well. But that when it comes to Acts chapter 10 and verse 34, I have to look around and say, God loves and gives the benefit of the doubt to everybody.

Not just the people he agrees with. Not just the people who look like him. Talk like him, act like him. And can I tell you that that is fantastic news for us? Because Romans chapter 5 says in verse 6, while we were weak and ungodly, Christ died for us. Verse 8 says, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And in verse 10, even while we were enemies, we needed to be reconciled to God. And God demonstrates his own love towards us, verse 8, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is not just, I need to go and be nicer to people. This is I have to look around and have a concern in my soul for everybody, not just who I work with, but the people I drive by on the street.

Look in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Our love has to be profound. It has to be ongoing. And it has to be, yes, authentic. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, notice the standard of God’s love. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, another passage that involves prayer of a group of people we may forget to or not want to pray for. But in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 3, this is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. I said before, our culture loves authenticity. One of the ways that we’re really changing as a culture, and some people like it and some don’t, you’ll figure out which camp I’m in shortly, is we like to even eat authentic, right?

The code word is organic, which I’m convinced is a code word for way too expensive. Everything we do, everything we experience has to be real, has to be authentic. How does God love us? In 1 Timothy chapter 4, he desires all people to be saved. Now, does that mean he just puts out the call and anybody just raises their hand and goes? Of course not. Even Peter said, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. And if you look back in verse 4, it’s those who come to the knowledge of the truth. But do I love others the way God does? Do I look at truly everybody and say, I want them to be saved so much so that I will do something about it.

And you see where that’s the dividing line between authenticity and insincerity. If God loved the way I love, which is to say, yeah, there’s this vague concept, I do wish that everybody would be saved. But I’m not going to do anything about it, where would that leave us? In our sins. Without the crucified Savior. But he loves everyone. He desires that all people to be saved, so he did something sacrificially about it. And so if I truly love all people and desire that all be saved like my God does, if I’m conforming myself to the image of God and being perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect, then my love won’t just be a concept, it will be a practice.

3. Always Offer Forgiveness

Another thing my God does, which is fantastic for me as an individual and a heavy burden for me to learn to practice in my life, is to always offer forgiveness. In 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9, John writes, if we confess our sins, he being God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That’s pretty amazing. Because not only did Jesus die for us while we were sinners, while we were ungodly and enemies of God’s. But even as Christians, as we sin, is there still hope? Yes. And there’s only hope why? If in repentance and confession we turn to our God, who 1 John 1 9 says is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let me ask a question this morning. Would I have any shot? And please ask this question of yourself. Would I have any shot of being forgiven by God? If He forgave me the way I forgive other people.

But am I willing to be forgiving of those who are described as Jesus and Matthew 6 as my enemies? Do I offer forgiveness that is everlasting or that’s waiting to bring it up yet again? Luckily, God is faithful and just and is beyond our pettiness as people. But to be like our God, to be conform to his image means surpassing the pettiness that says, I’m going to hold it over them, I’m going to hold it in the back of my mind. We forgive and move on. And we better, because Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 14 and 15, if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven. And as we are forgiven, is how we must be forgiving others. As we think about God, we learn that real love is true and authentic.

4. Never Give Up on Anybody

That authentic love shows no partiality, that inclines us to always offer forgiveness, whether it’s given or not, or sought or not. But something else, perhaps most importantly, that God teaches us is to never give up on anybody. To never give up, never to write off, never to say, these people, this type of person, this individual will never please God. This person will never make things right. This person will never do what God wants. Because again, if I look at the ugly reality in the mirror, God could have looked at me like that countless times. But praise be to God that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Praise be to God that he loves us. He desires that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, to the extent to which he showed true love by sending his only Son to die in our place.

When we consider the idea that we should never give up on others, consider how God does that in 2 Peter chapter 3. Perhaps your Bible’s still open there in 2 Peter chapter 3, right next to 1 John 1. In 2 Peter chapter 3, we read in verse 9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but he is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Verse 9, I think we read too quickly. In the context of God coming again when Jesus is sent and the world being consumed by fire and the day of judgment appearing and being before us. God says he is waiting for all to come to repentance. Isn’t that amazing?

God is waiting for us. I want to ask a question of everyone this morning. Are you looking forward to that day? And if you’re not, can you consider for a moment? Are you one of the people that God is waiting for? Take advantage of the moment. God never gives up on anybody. And the good news is that means with this moment, with this opportunity, you can be forgiven by our faithful and just God, by our loving God that sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. This is how God loves. He teaches us authentic true love shows no partiality. It always offers forgiveness, realizing that we need forgiveness as well. And it never gives up on anybody. And you look at the Old Testament, you look at the New Testament, and you’ll find some of the most vile actions and vile people, and God not only forgives them, they are useful in His service.

5. Imitate God With Love

And that means that we can be too. So if I’m going to really learn from God, if I’m going to walk in love, then that means that in my walk I must, like God, walk with love. If you look at Ephesians chapter 5, you’ll have this concept of imitating God directly in the text. In Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Now, on the one hand, this again seems really weighty and difficult. And by the way, Paul in chapter 4 gives us some specifics. If you read in verse 25, therefore, having put away all falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anybody in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Verse 32, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

You notice in this walk, notice the language that Paul uses primarily to focus on others. In verse 32, he says, Yes, be kind to one another. Be forgiving one another because, or on the basis of God forgiving you. But when you come to verse 25, why should you not speak falsely? Why should you only speak the truth? Yes, to please God. But also in verse 25, because we are members of one another. That’s a different mindset. We talk about our mindset of being like God. God says, they are all my creation. There’s no reason for partiality. But people tend to act tribal. We tend to find the people we like and stay with them and not expand. We kind of find our little niche and we stay there.

As you think about what it means when they imitate God with love, Paul starts illustrating it. Not only put off these rude actions, don’t steal, don’t let anger or corruptness or bitterness overwhelm you, but recognize we are members of one another. You know, if we realize that we are members of one another, that makes it a lot easier to love others, because you know who we’re experts at loving? Ourselves. If we considered everyone truly as ourselves, do you realize how much easier it would be to love them? Perhaps that’s why in Ephesians chapter 5, husbands are loved their wives as themselves. As we consider then imitating God with love, and we see in verse 1 when he says, be imitators of God, then verse 2 says we need to walk in love as Christ loved us.

So when it’s not easy, when we’re making the adjustment that is difficult and hard, how do we walk in love? How do we realize we’re members of one another? Because we remember without God and without the sacrifice of Jesus, I am nothing. I am nobody. And I’m a sinner, an enemy of God. But because of our great God, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, I can sing to the rooftops, I am redeemed. I am forgiven. And so I should show that love, mercy, and forgiveness to others. And that, of course, is what Jesus’ message is time and again. Not only in Matthew chapter 6, but consider Matthew chapter 18. Jesus not only speaks to Peter again directly for us here, but he also gives a parable.

But in Matthew chapter 18, notice what the parable begins with. Peter says in verse 21, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times. Modern day translation of what Peter says, Lord, how many times does someone keep bugging me that I have to forgive them? How many times do I have to let it go and be forgiving? Seven times. Of course, as we consider what the Jewish law would be, that Peter’s being pretty generous. Seven times, that’s a really annoying person. Of course, we’re not talking about true simple annoyances, this is sin. But verse 22, Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy seven or seventy times seven times. That’s a whole lot of forgiveness.

Can you imagine somebody? We’ll even take the smaller of the numbers here and say 77 times. If somebody wronged you, sinned against you 76 times, and you had to keep forgiving them. Do you think it’d get a little bit harder by number 12? 24? 35, just to ruin the pattern? 42? 51. It’s probably annoying that I’m just keeping this count going. All the way up to 77 times, Lord? Really? Truly? When we consider the parable of the unforgiving servant, and we know the enemy is not the king who forgives the servant of the unpayable debt. It’s the servant who was forgiven by the king in the parable Jesus tells in chapter 18, who goes out and finds his servant who owes him a hundred and area, a repayable debt.

And he begins to choke him and he says, Pay what you owe, I will not forgive you of the debt. Not only is that servant tortured, but we learn from Jesus in verse 35, so also will my heavenly father do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Perhaps it might be fair to say, so our Heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not truly or authentically forgive your brother. It’s one thing to say, I forgive you. It’s another to have a heart that says, We are members of one another. I won’t hold it against you because we’re on the same team. I won’t hold it against you because I have been forgiven. And by the way, you want to talk about numbers?

You want to talk about 77 or 490 times? How many times have we sinned against God?

6. Treat All People With Love

And desperately needed his forgiveness every single time. When we think about God in our walk, we must not only imitate God with love, we need to not always always offer forgiveness. We need to be willing to treat all people with love. The New Testament, frankly, has a lot to say about this. James chapter 2 is one of those instances. Turn with me to James chapter 2. In James chapter 2, consider the word that’s found that Peter recognized from God in Acts 10 is found in James chapter 2. My brother, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in.

And if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit down at my feet. Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has God not chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? James says, from the English Standard Version, we cannot show partiality.

That, of course, is exactly what Peter realized about God in Acts chapter 10. For God shows no partiality. You notice what people do, though, in a way that God doesn’t? We make judgments based on outward appearance. That’s really all that’s called to the attention in James chapter 2. One person comes and how do they look? Rich and nice. And the other person comes and how do they look? Poor and let’s say less nice. That’s all that we’re given attention for here. If we show partiality, we are not loving like God. And so if I show partiality in my mind towards others, and I start to say, well, it’s because they deserve it, then I have to go back to the previous point. That I have to always be willing to offer forgiveness.

And if I say, well, okay, but I gotta forgive them, but do I really have to be with them fully and truly and always, and you go back to imitating God with love, that we are members of one another, and we always need God’s love, grace, and mercy. There’s no escape from the idea of what Jesus says in Matthew 6 and 48. We therefore are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. As Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1, we are to be imitators of God as his beloved children. And that means treating all people with love. Whether they disagree with us in an internet chat room or whether they disagree with us in person in a real room. We have to treat all people with love.

That may mean expanding horizons. It may mean being uncomfortable. But God has done it first. God is love. If I’m going to follow after him, I have to show love as well. Of course, in Ephesians chapter 5, if we’re going to walk in love, if we’re going to exist as God wants us to, if we’re going to shape our mindsets, our hearts, our entire being to like God, it not only changes how we look at others, not only changes how we look and are thankful to God for the forgiveness that he offers us. It means that I’ll look at the time he’s given and view it as his and not mine. In Ephesians chapter 5, the same chapter in which it begins by being imitators of God.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15, Paul says, Look carefully, then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time or redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. This morning we all have a choice, and it is still morning. Will I redeem God’s time or will I spend it the way I want to? Because to walk in love means to show sacrifice for everybody but me. And that means when I think about my day, I think about my week, I think about my month, I think about my year. I need to say, what does God want with me? Who can I show love to that God shows love to?

Conclusion

Who needs the gospel message of salvation that I first needed and was blessed by God to come across and respond to. This is going to change the way we not only evangelize, it’s going to change the way we look out and act in a benevolent manner. It’s going to change everything if we love the way God loves. And the truth of the matter is, as you go back to Matthew chapter 6, that is the only option of love we’re given. We either strive to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, or we fall short of the goal. Consider this morning our great, wonderful, and merciful God. He is waiting. He desires that none should perish, and that all, every last soul should come to repentance.

That’s an amazing God. That’s a God who wants you to seek Him today. Take advantage of His love. And wrap yourself in His mercy and seek His forgiveness. If you’ve never become a Christian, recognize you can do that by believing in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God. Confessing Him as Lord and the risen Savior. And putting your life in submission to His will. It means repenting of your sins, admitting that I have done wrong. And without God’s way, without His love, I’m not walking in accordance with the Spirit. Rather, my own selfish desires. But you say, I’m going to change from that. I do believe, I will confess, I am going to repent of my wrong, and I’ll be baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of our crucified Savior.

We can have our sins forgiven because of the blood of Jesus and the love of God. Maybe you’re a Christian and you’ve lost your way. You’ve been distracted and not shown love. Recognize that God is love. And to be like God, to show love, might mean confessing our sin to our loving and forgiving God and pressing on evermore, arm in arm together, recognizing we’re members one of another, and we’re all trying to be with our loving God. If we can help you in any way, come forward now as we stand and sing the invitation song.