Overview
Faith-based love is love built on the accomplished work of Jesus Christ rather than on emotion, performance or how you feel about someone. God is love by nature, and Christ took that love to the furthest extent a human being could take it, so his finished work is both the reason we have to love and the example of how to love. Rev. Rico Magnelli opens the Love of Christ conference from Ephesians 3, Romans 5, Romans 8 and 1 John, showing Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, the love of God poured out through the holy spirit, and love as a free will decision with action attached, which is the Hebrew understanding of love rather than the Greek one.
Transcript
God Is Love, and the Love of Christ Is Faith-Based Love
Faith-based love. This is going to mean a lot more to you at the end of this weekend. It’s going to clarify and point your heart to what many people have been missing the last 2,000 years. I know that’s a big statement, but at the conclusion, you can decide for yourself. How about that? See, God and each other, loving God and each other, as Christ loved, is the pinnacle and the aim of all Christian activity. It’s not bingo. It’s not going to a location on a certain day. God is love, and Jesus Christ walked in that love. He set the example for all mankind of what love truly is and how we too can walk in this love.
It says in 1 John 4, 8 and 16, it says a statement that is simple, three words in the Greek, three words in the English. God is love. God is love, both in 1 John 4, 8 and verse 16 as well. God is love. His very nature is love. God needs no action to define His love because He is love. There’s no action that can define it. Now, it can describe and we can understand about His love by what He does, but He doesn’t need that because He was love from before Genesis 1, 1. Before there was creation of the heavens and the earth, He was still love. And then by free will, He decided to create the heavens and the earth and begin this journey of mankind.
Christ was defined by taking God’s love and giving of Himself. The love of Christ is faith-based love, and it encompasses His accomplished work. The love of Christ is different than the love of God because the love of Christ encompasses what Christ did with God’s love. That’s why the love of Christ is our capacity, the extent with which we can love. He took it to the extent a human being could take it, can’t take it any further. A sinless man giving his life for a sinful world, he’s also in the love of Christ. He’s our example of love, how to live it. Not only did He accomplish our salvation, but He also left us an example that God lovingly had written down in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, describing aspects of how He loved people and how He loved God, carrying it out. Look at Ephesians chapter 3, please.
Ephesians 3: Christ Dwelling in Your Hearts by Faith
This is a great truth. Many people are aware of Christ’s sacrifice, but they miss that His work, as described in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are actually examples for us on how to love like Him. Ephesians chapter 3, in verse 17, that Christ doesn’t say Jesus. Now, Christ embodies Jesus. It’s Jesus Christ. Christ is the title, the anointed one, the Messiah. Jesus was His name. It says that Christ, and the text is the Christ, there’s only one Messiah, the Christ, may dwell in your what? May dwell in your hearts, not in your head, in the inner part of your soul, in the vault of your mind, that Christ may dwell in your hearts. And how is that done? By faith.
It’s done by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. This is tremendous. See, Ephesians cannot be understood outside the context of the body of Christ. You can read Ephesians all day long, but if you just see it narrowly, and you just see yourself, you’re missing the book. Romans is written to the individual Christian, or the person that is prior to being a Christian, and then they become a Christian. That’s the emphasis of the book of Romans, but Ephesians takes us into the context of the whole of the body of Christ. That’s why when we read these verses, we have to understand that God is bringing us all along. Every single Christian, doesn’t matter what denomination they come from, what they look like, what their socioeconomic background is, it makes no difference. God brings us all along together.
Now for us, sometimes that’s difficult to understand, because we get into little squabbles, don’t we? But see, God doesn’t think that way. He brings us all together. And Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, that ye, plural, being rooted and grounded in love. We are rooted, which allows us to grow, and we are grounded, which allows for stability, to grow and to be stable in this whole process of walking in love. And growth requires some depth, like roots put themselves into the ground, don’t they? They need to search for water and minerals and nutrients. There needs to be some depth of earth there. That’s why it’s so important, as we work through this weekend, we avoid being surface thinkers, but we are deep thinkers, because that’s where you’ll find the gems of life, because it keeps us growing and stable in this love. You know, without faith, we have no reason to love, because faith, this faith here, is the faith of Jesus Christ. It’s another way of saying his accomplished work.
He finished the work, like it says in John 19, 30. It is finished. It’s the very foundation of our love. It gives us the reason to love, because he did the work for us that God gave him to do. Does that make sense? In other words, it’s giving you and I a reason. Why should you love God? Why should you love your fellow believers? Because of faith. It gives you a reason to love. It gives me a reason to love. Not only that, it gives us an example of love. How to love? How can you be on the cross and be brutally and unjustly maligned and say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do? How does somebody do that? Love, love, and we’ll see that this weekend. Look at Romans 5, please. The heart is very significant, because God focuses on the heart when it comes to the life of each individual.
What the Bible Means by the Heart
We focus in on our faux pas. We focus in on our sins and everybody else’s sins. God doesn’t do that. He focuses in on the heart. The heart being that figurative womb for treasured thoughts to incubate and to develop. It’s the fallow ground to plant ideas and concepts to be watered. It’s the inner part of man’s mind where believing comes from, where the true life of God issues from. It’s where our ethical and moral compass is calibrated. It is the sanctified place of peace where we commune with our Heavenly Father and His light shines bright.
Why am I saying all this? Because people that live on the surface of life, their heart, they never develop their heart. And that’s probably the most important part. What does God focus on? So you think that’s important? He doesn’t say He’s the searcher of your toenails. Yeah, I know, for some that would be really bad. He’s the searcher of the heart, because that’s what He’s interested in. And this gets right to the issue. Christ is to be deep within your soul. And it’s to be in the vault of your mind. And you don’t let anything take away that understanding of Christ’s accomplished work, because the heart is where we trust God from.
The heart is where the shield of faith of Jesus Christ stands upright to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. It’s where the process of healing of our minds and bodies makes necessary turns. Gets a fresh start or is sped up by God’s power. Now this heart is not dry and brittle or hard and resistant to growth, but it’s alive. It’s fresh and supple and can be enlarged and stretched by God to reach beyond our current capacities and expectations. This is a good thing. Sometimes we get so narrow and we live life in such a tight space that unless everything is perfect for us, we’re like, you know, you start to blow a fuse. Or maybe you need a little stretching. Maybe you need to see a little bit beyond the boundaries upon which you have walked this life.
If you already know this stuff, then I guess what I’m saying doesn’t mean much to you. If you got it all figured out, good for you. I think that’s great. You can help the rest of us then. See, this heart that I’m talking about that has Christ dwelling in it by faith has a resiliency to it, despite disappointment, despite discouragement or hurt that results from living in this world. I mean, come on, you can’t live in this world too long and there’s not going to be some sort of disappointment, discouragement or hurt. You should all be nodding your heads. Now, you know it’s true. Sure it is.
Romans 5: Justified by Faith and at Peace with God
It’s the place where the accomplished work of Christ, the faith of Jesus Christ dwells, where the love of God is poured out. God pours his love into that heart. Here in Romans chapter 5, we’re looking at faith-based love, right? Romans 5 verse 1, therefore being justified by faith, meaning we are legally acquitted of guilt and sin by the work of Jesus Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Sure, we have rejoicing in our hearts because we know what our future is, the return of Christ, and not only so but we glory in tribulation, which is mental pressure. That doesn’t mean we’re happy when we have mental pressure. That’s not what it means. What it means is in the mental pressure, you still are buoyant, you float, you come to the top, right? Through that faith, also knowing that tribulation mental pressure worketh or achieves endurance. The word patience is endurance. Sure, you get a little bit of endurance in your life.
You stand for something other than your own preferences. You stand for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and patience or endurance, experience. That word experience means a positive proving of the word. You prove the word to yourself. You don’t have to prove it to your next door neighbor. I don’t have to prove anything to you. You know what I have to do? I have to prove it to myself, and once I prove it to myself, it will be evident to those around me, and what you want to prove to yourself is the love of Christ is worth it. It’s worth you being here. It’s worth you getting up every day.
It’s worth you extending a lending hand and helping other people. It’s worth it. You got to prove that to yourself. No one can do that for you. You got to prove that the love of Christ is worth your time, and then this endurance, that positive proving of the word, and the positive proving of the word leads to hope. It just ties it all together, and hope maketh not ashamed.
The Love of God Poured Into the Heart, Not the Head
Now look at this, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us. That love of God that comes via the Spirit comes through your heart, not your head. What’s the difference? Well, a lot of things go up here in the head, but I’m very selective on what I put in my heart. You are too, because the great aspects of life don’t happen in rooms, and in halls, and in cathedrals, and in institutions. They happen in the heart of man. That’s where the great things happen. That’s right. That’s why God doesn’t focus in on cathedrals, and institutions, and stadiums, and buildings, and all that other stuff. He’s aware of it, but He doesn’t focus on it.
What’s He interested in? You, the heart. That’s what He’s interested in. Amazing, because the love of God from that Holy Spirit within you pours into your heart. It’s amazing that love of Christ is in that Spirit within you. That’s why you can love like Christ, because you have His accomplished work within you. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure. For a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we are legally set free from all legal entanglements. We shall be saved from what? I’m telling you, you can live a life free of fear, totally, completely unafraid of the future. That’s very different than this world. I’ll tell you what. See, faith links the past and the present together, but both faith and hope will end at the return of Christ. That’s right.
1 Corinthians 13: Love Is the One Thing That Never Ends
1 Corinthians 13, 13 tells us, and now abideth faith, hope, and charity. Charity is love. These three, but the greatest of these is charity, love. But in the same chapter, it tells us that these things will cease. Tongues will cease, prophecy will cease, knowledge will cease. When? When we see Him face to face. But the one thing that will continue is love. Amazing. I like this translation of 1 Corinthians 13, verses 4 through 8 from the J.B. Phillips.
Just read this to you. Many of you have heard this, but it just is so beautiful. This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience. It looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive. It is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep a count of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people.
On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope. It can outlast anything. That’s why you’re here. Someone loved you. Someone loved you along the line. Whatever line you have, someone loved you and modeled what Christ’s love was like. Somebody did it for you. Somebody did it for me.
It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen. You know, this pouring, it’s poured in our hearts via the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t say trickle. If you look at the word behind this word in Romans 5 that says, he shed abroad, it’s the word for pour. It doesn’t mean trickle. It means pour. That love is poured into your heart via the Spirit. Fantastic. Doesn’t violate free will, but that’s where it comes from because we have the love of Christ within us.
Romans 8: Love Based on the Work of Another Man
Look at Romans chapter 8, please. We’re looking at faith-based love. Faith-based love is based on the work of another person. You know how sometimes you don’t feel good enough? Has anyone ever in this room ever felt unworthy? Yeah, we know you. Come on. This love isn’t based on whether you do good or don’t do good, whether you take out the garbage or you don’t, whether you mow the lawn or you don’t. It’s based on the work of another man. This is difficult for people because they want to do it themselves, but you can’t do this yourself. It’s already been done for you.
You have to accept it. That’s why you put the faith in your heart, the accomplished work of Christ. Christ dwells in your heart through faith, to his accomplished work. Romans chapter 8, verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. If he justifies, you’re justified, meaning you’re legally set free. No more condemnation. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh the intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? It’s talking about persons here, by the way.
Who is a person? These aren’t chickens and squirrels that are going to separate you from the love of Christ, you know. The dirty dishes are not going to separate you from the love of Christ, I don’t think. No, they’re not. It’s talking about the work that Jesus Christ accomplished through love cannot be taken away from you. That’s what it’s talking about. It cannot be taken away from you. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, all these things are brought through people, because it says who shall separate us? It doesn’t say what. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. No, we’re not.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors. Through what? Him that loved us. Love is extremely powerful. It brought you here. It brought me here. For I am persuaded, Paul writes, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature or creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God. God’s love, watch this, which is in who? That’s the love of Christ. God’s love is overall, and then Jesus Christ took the love of God and fulfilled the will of God, to the nth degree. Extremely powerful stuff.
1 John 5: Loving God and Keeping His Commandments
Look at 1 John, please. 1 John. 1 John chapter 5, please. There has to be a foundation to why you and I are loving each other. It’s not because you like my shoes. You may like my shoes. I like my shoes. What’s wrong with my shoes? No. It has nothing to do with anything earthly that people do.
It has to do with something that has been done by another man. That man is Jesus Christ. 1 John chapter 5, verse 1. Whosoever believeth, chapter 5, verse 1, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and everyone that loveth Him, that begot, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him. Sure, makes perfect sense. We love God. We love Jesus Christ. We love one another. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. See, there’s a direct correlation with loving God, or let me put it this way, there’s a direct correlation with expressing the love of God or the love of Christ when you go this way.
You give it to your brother or sister. That’s what God wants. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. Well, let me stop here. Commandments. Let’s get clear on this. Commandments are authoritative warnings, orders, charges, or commissions. It’s a simple way of looking at it. That’s what they’re at.
That’s what they are. Commandments. During the time of Moses, or we’d call it the Mosaic law, these commandments were legally binding. That means you had to do them. Something different. After the coming of Christ, He fulfilled the law. There’s no more legally binding anything. Now under grace, you still have authoritative warnings, you still have orders, you still have charges, you still have commissionings, but you’re lovingly encouraged to carry them out. There’s no legal consequence for not doing it. Does that make sense? That’s exactly what it is. Christ fulfilled the law and all legal requirements. So God wants us to carry out His commandments.
Ahab and Agapao: Hebrew Will and Action Versus Greek Emotion
See, love. The concept of love has gotten a real bad rap. The Hebrew word ahab. Ahab. The Hebrews, the way they thought of love, described with this word ahab, had two components to it. Will and action. In other words, there had to be a free will to do something, and then there was action involved. That’s the way the Hebrews understood love. Now the Greeks are different.
The Greeks, and they used the word agapao. Both of these are verbs, by the way. They thought of it differently. They thought of love as an impulse that led to intoxication, and I don’t mean drunk. I mean out of control. That’s the way the Greeks thought of it, and it got into a lot of eroticism and all this kind of nonsense. What ended up happening is the influence that survived about love is the emotion, and then it takes you over. You fall in love uncontrollably. Now there’s nothing wrong with emotions.
That’s not what I’m saying, right? What I’m saying is that the Hebrews had it right. Love really is a free will decision that has accompanying action to it. The Greeks thought it was an emotion and an impulse that led you to be out of control. Yeah. What do you think survived into the Western world? The Greek part. See, they don’t understand this. There’s nothing wrong with emotion. You know, you love your honey and you’re walking down the beach and having a great time with your babe and all this kind of stuff. Nothing wrong with that.
It’s great, but at the root of it is your free will decision and the action that’s appropriate. You see the distinction? And then what people have pawned off as love is not that. It’s just an emotion. That’s why they can love somebody one day, and then the next day they’re like, who are you? Can’t be. Can’t be. That’s shallow thinking.
1 John 3: Believe on the Name and Love One Another
That’s surface thinking. We got to get that out of our head. Look at 1 John 3. 1 John chapter 3. Look at verse 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. I like that. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemneth not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his what? Again, what commandments are we talking about? We’re going to get into that very specifically, but he’s lovingly encouraging us to keep them. And do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
And this is his commandment. Whoa. You better look at this one. This is his commandment. That we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. This is fantastic. If you want to summarize in a way of speaking, so much of the New Testament, right there, there’s one beautiful, fantastic verse. His commandment, singular, is to believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. And the word, when we see the word name, we don’t think of it as, you know, spot and Bruno or, no.
Name biblically carries the authority, the dignity, and the honor of what that name represents. It’s to believe on the name of his son, basically, is to believe on what he did. Not to say, Jesus Christ, Christ, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and then we’re believing on his name. That’s not what it means. It means to believe on the honor, the dignity, of what the name Jesus Christ represents. It’s his accomplished work. And then the second thing is to what? Love one another, which is mutually and reciprocally, as he, Jesus Christ, gave us commandment. That is what God is saying. You can’t do the second one until you do the first one. It ain’t happening. You got to believe on the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. That’s the faith of Jesus Christ.
John 13: A New Commandment to Love as Christ Loved
Right. Look at John 13. See, Jesus Christ took love and elevated it to the highest level he could elevate it. His own life. John 13, on the very night that he is betrayed, he gives this direction. John 13, verse 34, a new commandment, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, not as you love yourself, but what? As I have loved you, that you also love one another. That means you and I can love one another as Christ loved. I didn’t write it. That’s what he said.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you love one to another, if you have love one to another. Not if you wear bling or, you know, you wear a hat that says Jesus. I don’t care if you wear a hat that wears Jesus. That’s great. Whatever. Or if you have bling, crosses and all that kind. Fine. But that’s not how you are known. You’re known by your love.
I am known by my love. Then people will know. It’s a new commandment. He took it to a higher level. He set the bar at his own life. You have the love of Christ in you. You can love like that. Now, right now, you may be thinking in your mind, you’ve got to be kidding me. I cannot do that.
That’s a lie. Get that out of your head. It’s a lie. It’s not true. You can love like Christ because the work’s already been done. You can.
John 15: Abide in My Love and Your Joy Shall Be Full
Amazing. Look at John 15. Again, the same day, Jesus in John 15, verse 9, as the Father has loved me. Look at this verse. So I have loved you. Continue with my love. He took the example from the Father. Who better to take it than a sinless man? He took the example of God’s love for him and that’s how he loved. That’s what we’re supposed to do.
We’re supposed to walk that same way. Look, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. You know how you know that you are walking in that love? You’re going to have joy. It’s not this, oh you, you know, I got to love her, love him. You’re going to have joy and joy has nothing to do with the circumstances. It comes from the inside. It’s a spiritual fruit. That’s right. Greater love. This is my commandment, verse 12, that you love one another as I have loved you. He repeats it again.
Laying Down His Life as a Free Will Decision
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life or his soul for his friends. Now let me clarify this. It’s not saying that you have to give your life for somebody because you’re a living sacrifice. He was speaking in the context of certainly his life was going to be given for mankind. He is not asking you to go give your life for mankind. We are to be living sacrifices according to Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Let me show you this. What it’s really talking about is a free will decision. Look at John chapter 10. John chapter 10, please.
In his own words, he tells us. John chapter 10, verse 17. Therefore doth my father love me, Jesus said, because I lay down my life, my soul, that I might take it again. Now he’s not talking about specifically his resurrection. He’s talking about that God gave him the choice. Now you got to stop for a second. All history rests on you. You are sinless and God says you have a choice. I’ll show it to you.
Keep reading. No man, verse 18, takes it from me, but I lay it down of what? That’s the free will. I have power, authority to lay it down and I have power to take it again. In other words, I can say I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this, Father. Watch this. This commandment have I received of my father. You have been given free will if you want to love. I have to.
Stop Letting the World Define You and Start Living
Amazing. Look at first John, please. Dying the way he did was not his preference. He asked the father three times if this cup could pass from him. Not that he didn’t want to sacrifice. That was not a pleasant experience that he was facing, but he still did the father’s will. See, sometimes if we really want to love like Christ, you’ve got to put your preferences aside. And again, let me be clear. He’s not asking you to die on the cross, okay? He’s actually asking you to just to live.
Start living. Start living. Stop being in condemnation every other day. Stop accusing other people of this and that. Stop getting the world into your head. Stop regurgitating negative after negative after negative after negative. Start living. Be a living sacrifice. Shine the love of Christ.
Stop the nonsense of the world. Stop having the world direct your life. Stop having the world define who you are. Stop having the world define your relationships through magazines, movies, and periodicals, and the internet. They try to define you and pigeonhole you. Stop. Why not live the love of Christ? Why not? What do you got to lose? You’ve invested a lot in the world at times, and you got back nothing. Well, maybe that’s a clue. And I mean spiritual fruit. I don’t mean investments. I mean spiritual fruit. You get nothing back, but you invest yourself in the love of Christ, man, and you’re going to have a great life, and you’re going to teach your children how to have a great life, and people will want to be around you because you’re investing what God plans throughout the ages.
1 John 2: Love Perfected When We Take Action
1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2, verse 5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected or matured. The love of Christ is perfected when we start taking action on it. Remember, it’s free will and action that really defines the concept of love. That’s right. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him himself also to walk even as he walked. We’re to walk like Christ. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which ye had from the beginning. That’s a reference to John 13.
That old commandment is what Jesus Christ told him. Love one another as I have loved you. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you. Why is it new? Because the love of Christ is fresh every time you engage it. Every time we put on the love of Christ, every time we walk in free will giving of ourselves, it’s fresh. It’s brand new. It’s like there’s no staleness at all. That means Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday can be a brand new day.
Whether you’re at work or whatever, it has nothing to do with it because it comes from the inside out. I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness has passed. The true light now shineth. That’s right. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, the word hateth means to love less or slight, is in darkness even until now. Absolutely. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother or slights him, loves less, his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knowing not whether he goeth because the darkness has blinded his eyes. It says walk and when the Hebrews meant by walk means a lifestyle.
It doesn’t mean once in a while you get into a tiff with somebody. It means as a lifestyle you despise or you love less your brother. Look, I know you and I are not going to agree with every Christian. That’s not probably going to happen. But it doesn’t mean that you assign them a lesser designation in heaven. God put them there. How can you lower them? Either they’re a son of God or they’re not. I don’t care what they look like. Whatever nationality, whatever race, whatever man, a woman, it makes no difference. That’s the love of Christ. And I know that’s a bold statement. I know that.
Love Not the World
But our Lord was bold and we could use a little bold. How about it? Look at verse 15. Love not the world. That’s the corrupted portion of humanity. Don’t crave the corrupted portion of humanity. Don’t take your moral cues from the corrupted portion of humanity. Don’t let them define the way you think. Don’t let them frame what you say. Love not the world.
Neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Meaning in their practical walk. In their practical walk. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away. All the stuff you see, it’s gonna go. And the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth for what? Let’s close in Ephesians 5. Faith-based love is love that’s built on the accomplished work of Christ.
Therefore, there is no judgment for my brothers and my sisters. There is no disrespect for what God did in them. I may not respect what they do with what God did with them. I may not. You may not either. You may not respect my walk. That’s okay. But let’s not degrade what the Heavenly Father has done. There is no denominational lines with God.
Ephesians 5: Walk in Love as Christ Loved Us
That’s all people. It’s all men. Ephesians 5 verse 1. Be ye therefore, be ye therefore followers of who? Isn’t that what Jesus Christ did? He said the Father loved me and I loved you as dear children. And walk in what? Walk means a lifestyle. Walk in love. Not just once in a while on Tuesdays at fellowship or on Sundays at church. You put on that face. Walk in love all the time. Walk in love as Christ also had loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
See, the love of Christ is just not what he accomplished, but how he accomplished it. The Gospels demonstrate the work of Christ and the love of Christ. And the epistles explain the love and the work of Christ. We have salvation, but we have an example on how to live as saved men and women. And that example is Jesus Christ. He is the moral agent for humanity. No one comes close, I’m sorry. See, Jesus Christ took God’s love to the greatest capacity a human being could love and then set the example for us to follow. Can you for a second just think? He went to the cross, beaten, rejected, spit upon, hated, maligned, and he carried no bitterness with him, no resentment, no anger, no frustration, not wishing ill on his captors and tormentors, his detractors, his haters, the ignorant and the fearful that were just there to gaze on a spectacle.
He just loved them. Why can we not see that we can do this? You’ve got to put aside the worldly nonsense that we have in our heads and start walking with the love of Christ. Stop assigning people to categories that people make up. This might be one of the most amazing aspects of his sacrifice, that he could do that. He could not accomplish God’s will in his heart if he allowed himself to resent on that cross. He may have been tempted, says he was tempted in all things like we are, he may have been tempted to say, I can’t do this, I’m done, I’ve reached my limit. He didn’t. So when you’re unjustly treated, think about Christ and stop campaigning on other stuff. Win Christ in your heart. It says in Psalm 119 verse 165, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. The love of Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith is what allows us to be rooted and grounded in love and experience the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God, which is where we’re going. This is where the gospel records are going to come in and our wonderful teachers are going to expound on aspects of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and how he loved.
What Is Coming in the Love of Christ Conference
We’ll see how the love of Christ was in his boldness to speak truth about who he was and what God sent him to do. There’s boldness in love. We’re going to see when he addresses the needs of the rich young ruler who would be perfect but hindered himself because of what he put ahead of God. He loved this man and he lovingly helped him redirect his life if he wanted to, but at that time the young man didn’t want to. We’re going to see the love of Christ as he interacts with a Samaritan woman at a well. Contrary to cultural norms and biases, he loved her and ministered truth to her and it wasn’t a script. He just came to the well because he was thirsty and tired and there he was. We’re going to see the love of Christ when he would not be pushed to condemn a woman caught in adultery. He loved her in a public situation under intense pressure.
He stood firm and he stood in the gap for her who was vulnerable. That’s love. We’re going to see the love of Christ even when he focused on his mission to reach the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He changed his mind and recognized the need of a gentile woman who sought deliverance for her daughter. That’s love. The love of Christ. We’re going to see the love of Christ when he was raising Lazarus from the dead. Despite his love for Lazarus’s family, Mary and Martha, he was so moved in this situation and possibly could have been emotionally compromised. He moved forward with God’s heart in the situation.
That’s love. We’ll see the love of Christ when he asked some of his followers to be with him for support at a very pivotal and vulnerable time in the garden. When he prayed, yet did not reject them despite their failure to support him. They just fell asleep. He couldn’t handle it. That’s love. When he showed forgiveness and compassion at Calvary for so many who unjustly maligned him and persecuted him, as well as compassion for one man who sought mercy at the very end of his life. This was the last chance this guy had. And he asked for help.
And the Lord did not turn his back on him, even though his back was pinned to a post. That’s love. We’ll see the love of Christ when in his resurrected body, he challenges and encourages Peter to pursue God’s calling and demonstrate his love. Sometimes that’s exactly what love needs to do. The four Gospels demonstrate the love and the work of Christ. The Church Epistles explain the love and the work of Christ, and Acts shows the transition of the first Christians to this newfound life in Christ. We’re going to get into these Gospel records, and we’re going to be deeply, deeply enriched. We’re going to read these records until the return of Christ, and they’re still going to flabbergast us. They’re still going to awe us and still going to inspire us. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s faith-based love. And this is where we’re headed in the Love of Christ conference. Thank you.
Key Takeaways
- Faith-based love rests on what another man accomplished, not on your own performance, so it cannot be earned or lost.
- God is love by nature and needed no action to define it; the love of Christ is what Christ did with God’s love.
- Ephesians 3:17 puts Christ in the heart by faith, which is what roots us for growth and grounds us for stability.
- The love of God is poured, not trickled, into the heart by the holy spirit, which is why we can love as Christ loved.
- The Hebrew ahab made love a free will decision with action attached; the Greek agapao made it an impulse, and the Greek idea is the one the West inherited.
- John 13:34 raises the standard from loving your neighbor as yourself to loving one another as Christ loved us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is faith-based love?
Faith-based love is love built on the work of another man, Jesus Christ, rather than on your own performance. It is not based on whether you do good or don’t do good, whether you take out the garbage or you don’t. Christ finished the work, and that accomplished work is both the reason we have to love and the example of how to love.
What is the difference between the love of God and the love of Christ?
God is love by nature and needs no action to define it, because He was love before Genesis 1:1. The love of Christ encompasses what Christ did with God’s love: a sinless man giving his life for a sinful world. That is why the love of Christ is our capacity, the extent with which we can love, because he took it as far as a human being could take it.
Is love an emotion or a decision?
The Hebrew word ahab had two components, will and action, so love was a free will decision with accompanying action. The Greeks used agapao and thought of love as an impulse that led to being out of control, and it is the Greek idea that survived into the Western world. There is nothing wrong with emotion, but at the root of love is a free will decision and the action that is appropriate.
Scripture References
1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16; Genesis 1:1; Ephesians 3:17; John 19:30; Romans 5:1-9; 1 Corinthians 13:13; 1 Corinthians 13:4-8; Romans 8:33-39; 1 John 5:1-3; 1 John 3:19-23; John 13:34-35; John 15:9-13; Romans 12:1; John 10:17-18; 1 John 2:5-8; 1 John 2:15-17; Ephesians 5:1-2; Psalm 119:165
This text was prepared from the teaching audio and notes. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
