A Lost Love: Ephesus and The Church Today

A Lost Love: Ephesus and The Church Today                    Kelly Durant  2-25-24

 

Revelation 2

2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things said he that holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

2 I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.

4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.

7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

 

2. How many of you have heard the words, “I don’t love you anymore”? Those words really hurt! These words create broken hearts, and broken relationships! I am very sorry if you have had to deal with another person who has said this to you before! I know after several years married many couples may doubt, and ask the question inside, do I really love like I did in the beginning? To speak this is damaging! Never forget that real love, God’s love, is so much more than a feeling! God’s love keeps on loving no matter what! God’s love forgives, heals, sacrifices, and keeps on loving forever!

 

The current lack-of-love in people is a sign of the times, Matt 24 “the love of many will wax cold”. Anti-Christ like people of the cruel world only live for their selfish up and down feelings in reference to love. This is why a dedicated Christian should never be unequally yoked with an unbeliever because over time the unbeliever will feel entitled to satisfy their inordinate desire for love (lust) by whatever means possible instead of trying to invest their energy into the one they married and swore a lifetime commitment to. The best way to live is to choose to live “in love” everyday! In love with Jesus and those He has put in your life! Pray for love to fill you and it will! Pray, Lord, make me live “in love” with those close to me and all humanity! And to love the lost and needy as you did!

 

Today we will continue our study of the modern day church in reference to the sins exposed in the first 7 churches in Revelation. We covered the Church in Laodicea before, today we return to the first one mentioned in the context of the seven in Revelation, Ephesus. Sadly, isn’t it obvious compared to a generation ago, that the church of today has lost its passion to win souls to righteousness, lost its love for Jesus, and lost its mission? The church has allowed apathetic worldly people inside to subvert it with the corrupt culture of the current trends. It is urgent that each Christian must evaluate their own self and get back to their first love for God!

 

3. I love how Jesus is described with the seven spirits, the stars and the candlesticks. Jesus is ascribed to being the light which extends throughout the universe in the stars and also as the light in front of you as a candle in the room. Do you recall His words, Matthew 5:15 “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house”. Jesus is our light! His light is life itself! Many candles make the church shine if they are lit!

 

Go to Verse 2, “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:” Jesus is praising the true ones in Ephesus! They are working hard, have good works, and they have patience with others. We all fail and it is important to put up with each other with love and forgiveness, and here we learn that they are mature in several ways.

 

Jesus is also praising them for not tolerating in their fellowship those that are pretending to be apostles (which are ones who claim they follow Jesus) but instead they are false, hypocrites, and liars. This means they are praying, singing hymns, listening to the Word studied together but they are doing it with false pretenses having no intention of being a true Christ lover. Have we seen people like this in our churches? They seem to do what a Christian does, copying the actions, but when they are out in normal life, they are as crooked as a snake. Sadly, too many churches tolerate people who are false pretenders and hypocrites and these few bad apples causes others to get turned off and never what to come back! How damaging this is!

 

4. Vs3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Interesting, Jesus once again praises them a second time for working well serving in His name, for having patience, and he highlights they have not fainted or given up. This implies they have had problems and resistance. Have you ever felt like giving up? I have a few dozen times! But after I pray about it and give it to Jesus, Jesus seems to always encourage me somehow and I keep on going!  Ask yourself, have I ever fainted? Do I labor as expected?

 

Jesus expresses Himself as any good teacher, He first praises the good, and then He comes down with the bad news. 4 “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love”.

What was I mentioning a few minutes ago about not being in love? A life without love hurts! The first love refers to how it is when you are first starting out enthusiastic, optimistic, and hopeful as a couple “in love”. You do anything and everything the other person wants because your happiness is their happiness! One who is full of love serves, respects, and has full focus on the needs and desires of the other. Is there evidence of you having a passionate love for Jesus?

 

When you lose your love for someone you do not care to make them happy anymore: in essence you pass from a selfless phase to a selfish phase! Losing love is tragic! This is what happened to the Ephesians in Revelation 2. The whole point of Jesus coming to earth was to teach us to love! A church or Corps should be the most loving place in the city! John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Churches with loveless people are not representative of Jesus, think about that!

 

5. A Christian leader who has been around for a long time and loses their first love for Jesus also loses their love for their brothers and sisters in the church and for the lost outside the church. How is, or not, love? I Cor. 13: 3 “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”  Do you know of Christians who serve the poor but with a bad attitude? They do it just because they are required to by their peer group or their job description but their heart is not really into it! They are not loving those a lot less fortunate than them! It is painful to put up with someone without love! It is also painful to observe many churches in America have lost their first love for Jesus!

 

You and I know people who probably started out loving Jesus but then they lost their first love so how do they act? The opposite of this: 4 “Love suffers long and is kind (they are impatient and mean to  others); love does not envy (they are jealous of those who have a better situation than them); love does not parade itself, is not puffed up (they are arrogant and proud of their power position and accomplishments); 5 does not behave rudely (they are rude and humiliate you and others), does not seek its own  (their self-interests always come to light), is not provoked, thinks no evil (they get angry quickly and want to harm to those they don’t like); It is tragic how each of us suffer under those with no love!

 

Let’s continue to compare how people with love and those without love behave: 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth (they are happy when someone insulting and bad pulls a fast one); 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”(Loveless ones are not tolerant of others claiming they are tolerant but are hypocrites and unjust, they do not expect good outcomes and always bear bad news, they disillusion others and make them lose faith and hope, and they do not want to put up with anyone because only they know how to do everything) Sadly everyone else around them perceives them to be just ignorant, belligerent fools pretending to be good!  

 

6. Vs.5 “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; (of doing things with a passionate love!) or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Jesus is stating He will allow their fellowship to be removed and disbanded if they do not repent and get back to having the passion and love they once had.  Haven’t we already seen too many churches disbanded from a lack of love for God and others! The enemy today is attacking fiercely with apathy and dissention using divisive popularized controversial matters.

 

I can say in my lifetime I have seen several Christian ministries come and go! What happened? People may start off great, loving Jesus, and laboring for Him but then the light goes out if over time some problem gets in the way. It is usually these things that destroy Christian fellowships: false teachings, a lack of patient love gets replaced by a legalistic self-righteousness, or an apathetic laziness to keep up the good work loving and serving others. Also, the light goes out when a person or group of proud leaders in charge refuse to see their faults and their church’s faults! The leader should be bringing everyone closer to God loving Jesus more!

 

Vs. 6 “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.” Despite the warning, Jesus praises them again for rejecting a group of false infiltrators. Notice that Jesus says He hates these people, the Nicolaitians. So Jesus loves, but He also hates those who are hypocrites and false to profane the will and love of God! If one of these Nicolaitians were to repent, I am sure God would have received him, but the subversion of Jesus’ teachings is an abomination!

 

7. It is speculated by theologians that the Nicolaitians were a local gnostic group that rose to power and faded away after a few years. “Nike” (first part of word “Nic”), in Greek means to conquer, and “laitian” refers to people (as in the word laity), so their name has the connotation of meaning “those who conquer people”. So how did they conquer? By deceit, they were liars and false ones infiltrating the brethren to abandon absolute faith in Jesus and mix it with the world. 

 

From history we know that the early church had a battle with those who claimed there was no resurrection. What conquered thousands of early believers was the conviction with which the disciples retold the story of Jesus resurrection! For a person or group to counter that and say that it is a lie is a huge offense and insult to Jesus’ life, death, sacrifice, and resurrection!  Any resurrection denier is in effect a liar deceived by Satan! Today there are too many loudmouthed disrespecters of Jesus! Jesus’ life and doctrine was pure love, so anything not of that is of Satan!

 

Possible other offenses were that these people being Greeks, thought that since in their worldview no God is pure and holy or capable of saving someone from Hades, (their Greek gods were definitely not divine in their behavior!) then they could justifiably live as hypocrites claiming one could be loyal to Jesus for certain moments, and then participate with the other Greek pagan god’s filthy pleasures as well. This false doctrine meant that they did not have to live a holy life, but rather they could participate in Greek orgies doing abominable things, thinking its fine to please your flesh in unholy ways since the other gods were of this nature. Do you know of any hypocrite person who partakes in all the things of the world during the week yet they go to a Sunday worship thinking its ok with God? Today we see many world-pleasing hypocrites as were the Christians that were in Ephesus! The remedy is to repent, which means to leave it behind and never go back to it! It is all Jesus and nothing else! By observation we see that corruption and modern day Nicolaitian type behaviors have infiltrated every company, government, and church! It’s live mixing love with hate, and they cannot mix!

 

8. Vs. 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Basically Jesus is commanding us to be spiritually attentive! We must listen to what He says about the churches, and since He is alive in the Spirit, Jesus still speaks to those that listen concerning the state of affairs of the churches. Those who study understand and see clearly.

 

Where do we read about the tree of life? It is the tree that God prevented Adam and Eve from eating from so they would not live forever.  Genesis 3:24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. But after we die and become spirit, we will be enjoying this tree again in heaven! 

 

But we see a condition here to gaining this privilege, what is that? It is to overcome, “To him that overcometh”. In this case what is Jesus referring to? To overcome what? Within all the context it means to overcome the apathy and falseness He is exposing. What did they need to overcome? What do you personally need to overcome so God will be pleased with you?

 

9. The Christians in Ephesus, and all Christians today must overcome these obstacles:

A) To not lose one’s first love for Jesus

B) To not lose the ability to repent from their failures

C) To hate hypocrisy and evil workers as Jesus hates them.

 

Have you lost your first love? Some people come into our doors excited that they have discovered that Jesus is real, they have their eyes opened, and their hearts are on fire. But then due to their peers or family criticizing them, due to resistance from the world, they stop coming to worship and love Jesus, and they lose their “first love”. How tragic! Like the seed that was sewn and grew, but then died before it could flourish into a beautiful plant!

 

Jesus always offers us a chance to repent! Everyday, and not just on Sundays after the sermon, we should be examining our hearts to repent of any wrong behavior, of any behavior that was not done in love. It is a sin to live without a passionate love for God and Jesus! Pray to love passionately and eternally as God loved us!

 

 

Compassion: Without Love, One Is Guilty of Hate

Compassion: Without Love, One Is Guilty of Hate

Compassion: Without it you are Guilty of Hate        Kelly Durant 

I Jn 3:14-18 

1 John 3:14-18 New King James Version (NKJV)

14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

 

2.Compassion is sympathy for the suffering and a desire to help!

They say that giving a beggar a piece of bread is a civil duty, but to give him a bread with butter on it, now that is compassion! Compassion is a divine quality something that is in all cultures with a certain measure, but the damaging thing today is that it is something very much lacking in many cultures. 

 

The level of the spiritual, cultural, and moral development of any culture or people could be measured by how much compassion they have on others, especially on others different from their own selves! Reflect on history, I deduct that it has been mostly Christians throughout time that have proven over and over to be the ones to lead and to help when there is a dire need or severe crisis. 

 

Today I want you to ask yourself, how much compassion do I have? How much compassion does this community have? I think it still lacks all that is needed!

 

3. Are you the center of your universe, or is Jesu’s love at the center? 

In order to have compassion, you must have the ability to put yourself into the shoes of the other person. This takes not just a creative mind, but a willing heart! 

 

Think about what is inside of you. If you are only full of your own wants, your own needs, then you are self-focused. You have your-self as the center of your life, or at the center of the universe. This selfishness is what causes societies to come unglued and people start hating each other due to a lack of love. 

 

But if you have Jesus at the center of your life & heart, you will have the same heart of compassion and love that He has, and you will be willing to help anyone, anytime, of any race, just like in the story of the Good Samaritan.

4. Do you, to get what you want, throw a childlike temper tantrum, or do you intimidate and bully, or in hypocrisy spread hate on others who won’t treat you as a king or queen? Being self-focused is hate focused! Having no love means having no God of love in your life which means no salvation either! The verses today, 1 John 3:14,15 have within their context the relationship of how hate is connected to refusing to help someone in need and God equivocates this as murder. 

 

What is the difference between an adult and a child? A child only wants to get what he wants no matter the situation and they scream to get it. Some kids, even as big as teenagers will yell to their parents, “I hate you!” just to try and get what they want from them. We know, we lived through 5 of them!

 

Un-Christian indoctrinated by the world people do not care if you or the government doesn’t have the money or conditions to please them giving them all the power and money they want; they just want what they want and they therefore try to take it by aggressive force! Haters, and those who accuse others over their class or race are harboring death in their souls. They attract demon possessions and often become murders as stated in 1 John 3:15 Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

 

 

5. Hate=Murder: not giving to others in need! In the state of Alaska, where mostly whites and brown natives share the roads, if a person is on the street with a car motor stalled, by law you must stop and pick up that person. The reason for this is that person could actually freeze to death and die in some -30 below 0 temperatures within 10 minutes!

 

Not helping someone with a need is heartless and insensitive and it could cause their death.  But a real sacrifice to help someone with a need, that is a must, and sacrificial people will often receive honor and praise for being compassionate and saving someone’s life or situation!

 

Only love, not hate makes you pass from death to life! What we do in this life brings us either praise or scorn from God and from those around us. The people who let their selves be touched by Jesus’ love to the point that they want to be like Him, reveals they have entered into life with Him. However, hate, which is a violent rejection, is a carnal, natural occurring human quality, but no one admires this horrible quality unless they are brainwashed by Satan’s people. Terrorists, racists, and warmongerers, are those that bring death and suffering to others and themselves. Everyone is on one path or the other, life, or death! 

 

6. Ask yourself, who do you hate secretly? Have you ever really tried to look deep into your heart as to why you do not like someone or somebody or a certain people? You may have an undiscovered bitterness; everyone does, and you need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what that is so you can be free from it or it will condemn your soul to hell!

 

Hate manifests itself in bitterness, violence, and a non-stop stream of words that criticize, demean, and divide. Sadly, we see an increase of this of late!

 

These things separate you from the God of love. We hear in the media the hate of races but I have discovered many people secretly hate pastors, or sincere Christian leaders because they are envious of their power and influence over people. 

 

They are jealous over the love they receive because they cannot get love because they do not sew love to reap it! So, they want to destroy anyone loving not being willing to love and sacrifice themselves as Jesus did. Jesus warned that if they hated Him, they will hate you and me as well.

 

7. To get love and compassion you and I must give our lives in service to Jesus! There is no noble society where selfishness is worshipped as virtue, all cultures value the sacrifice of others. But sacrifice to be honored by God should be done in the way as Jesus defined it in Matthew 25, caring for the hungry, thirsty, and poor; caring for the imprisoned and the destitute. 

 

Compare what Jesus taught to this bad example of sacrifice: In India, with the Hindu religion, the tradition has been that wives will allow their selves to be burned alive with their husbands’ dead bodies when they are at their funerals! 

 

That is a type of sacrifice our God of love does not desire! Laying down your life for Jesus means doing as he did, and that was in loving serving sacrifice. But these poor ladies do this because their idea of God is sadly totally distorted from the truth of God. Terrorists operate in the same way praising sacrifice when it involves murder. Do you see how important it is to follow how Jesus defines what compassion and sacrifice really should be?

 

8. By their fruits you will know them! (Matt 7:20) The people that do good things for others and claim they do it for the love of our Lord Jesus, and it is obvious are not seeking glory, compensation, or recognition, should be honored as true and good. Those that do real deeds of compassion must be motivated out of their love for God. In the Salvation Army this ‘love for God’ is even in our mission statement.

 

Notice how in the community every now and then some persons may comment terrible things about someone doing good, and why? These critics obviously have an evil heart and do not understand how people can be sincere in doing good works, that people do good because of pure love. Bad people always falsely accuse, and often these same ones got helped by the ones they criticize! 

 

I have experienced at times hateful words that came from nowhere! For example, there might be a volunteer helping us many days and then later in comes to light that some others would be secretly accusing that they were getting their rent paid by us to help them. Do you see how evil minds fabricate lies? Usually, people who accuse falsely have never been ones to do good works and help with a sincere heart, have you ever noticed that? 

 

9. The compassion of the world?! Satan is compassionate, in his own way, have you ever thought about that? He wants to show you and me he is more just and loving than God. However, in his ‘social justice scheme of things, the sharing of the goods from the rich to give to the poor, or from one people group to another, he murders millions! 

 

Satan works hard with his demons to run this world’s government systems, usurping God’s authority, and how does he do it? He establishes political systems of abusive that with murderous power give some crumbs to the poor to show how he will take care of the people better than what God’s people can.

 

Communism, the forced sharing of wealth offends God (it is imitating and mocking Acts 2:44.45) and enslaves everyone since it puts a gun in the face of those who worked to get what they have in order to give it to those who did not work or do anything to deserve it. What makes these traitors and terrorist feel worthy of these stolen goods is their faithfulness to worship their horrible socialist (or religious) leaders as gods for being so compassionate. Abhorrent, don’t you think? 

 

10. Excuses or compassion? In the end Satan convinces people to follow corrupt systems of false hopes when God’s people are doing too little to help. With all the churches in the United States, you would think there should not be a need that the government give a check to the unemployed or sick. Christians are supposed to be taking care of each other and of others outside of the church who are suffering. 

 

In the New Testament recall God’s sharing system: Acts 2:44-45⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. If we’re not helping each other, then we are failing God, and he will accept no excuses.

 

Love implies action! Compassion! Think a minute, what evidence is there for you to prove you have showed compassion to someone? Could you tell me about something you have done recently, and do you have a habit of helping those in need? If you are not in action, if there are not deeds to back up your words of good wishes for others, then compassion to you is just an esoteric term, not a tangible reality manifested in this world. It is not too late to get busy for the Lord!

 

11. Start with us: The SA is known for its compassion. I probably have told you many times that I love the Salvation’s Army way of serving others. Imagine you are not just being a part of a church but a part of a massive social work with over 3 million Soldiers and volunteers, with thousands of shelters, rehab centers, schools, and assistance happening world-wide! For me it is the most compassionate church that exists, that is why I choose to belong to it. But our compassion is limited to each person’s willingness to express it and what you do does affects a piece of the whole picture. It makes you proud to have a good name, right? But how sad when people may report that a certain work is doing nothing to help anyone in need!

 

People with compassion are full of love and compassion is a fruit of that love. Choose today how you are going to live, showing mercy as God shows mercy, or being hard hearted? Consider this: Proverbs 21:13 ¹³Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. God will deal with each person by how they have dealt with those he has created, your fellow man. Jesus said Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 

 

12. People without love & compassion have never had a repentance! I am convinced by the verses of today, that those who do not love and help others in need are still full of hate and this makes them guilty before God as being a murderer. 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

 

Those who selfishly only take care of themselves and never show compassion will discover God is angry with them and they will have no part in heaven! If you have the doubt that you are not full of compassion, that you are cold hearted, and you really do not care if your brother or sister’s suffering, then come and pray and ask God to break and remake you. 

 

In heaven there will only be those who have shown compassion which was motivated by their love for Jesus. The ones who have been rich and shared their riches will have rewards in heaven too if they have believed as Zacchaeus did. All the disciples had it, and every true authentic Christian will have testimonies of helping others too as a proof of their love for God, Jesus, and their neighbor! Now is our prayer time to ask the Lord for forgiveness if he is reminding you of sometime that you failed someone with a need. Or if the Lord has not converted your heart, then come and ask for Him to change it today!

LOVE! God Created All kinds!

 LOVE! God Created All kinds!                              By Kelly Durant   Re 2-11-24

 

Scripture Verses: I John 4:7-22

 

2.There is a story about a little child about 10 years old who wanted to get something special for his mother for Valentines. He asked his friends at school what their Mommies usually got for Valentines and the other kids at school said, well, they usually saw them get clothing. Well, the boy had saved $10 dollars, and he went to the store with his Aunt and sneaked off to the clothing department. He told the store clerk he wanted something for $10 for his Mommy and she asked him what size. 

 

The boy said, gee, I don’t know that, but he explained he that she is the most best and prettiest woman on earth! The lady in the store thinking she must be about the size of an average person by his description gave him a medium size hat, thinking it was a good guess for that amount of money. Well, a few days later the clerk saw the boy again and he asked the lady to change the hat. He found out after Valentine’s Day what her size was and what she needed an X-large! Well, when you love someone, you don’t see their size, or any distinctions as you see them as beautiful! Right?

 

3.What we read makes it very clear that if you do not have love for your bother then you do not know God! I thought today we would speak reflect on the different kinds of love since we are close toValentines Day and some people stop and reflect a little more on what love is. You may be familiar that the Greeks had different types of love, the love for God, pure spiritual love is Agape. Eros was the love between a man and a woman; and Philos is the love between brothers and family. Storge is the love between parents and children, and Xenia, the love for friends which is shown by hospitality.

 

Let’s examine each of these from the Bible. Even though the Greeks define it this way, love is something that includes everyone, all, but in a special way of showing it!

 

What is the first and greatest commandment as defined by God’s Son, Jesus? Let’s look it up.    Matt 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

 

4.To show our love towards God, we should be at all times loving Him by wanting to spend time Him with all of our heart and soul! We can show our love by reading and reflect on His Word daily, and by ‘praying without ceasing’. If we spend time with God then we will be full of His spirit and full of His Love! 

 

The worst thing a Christian can do is to be out of touch with God, not praying, not reading his Word, and simply not loving Him! When you see another Christian being critical of others, complainy and rude, prejudice, and unloving then take note that they are not just letting their brothers down but they are actually offending God!

 

5. We must pray for them!  Your brothers & sisters here are made in the semblance of God and no one ever has a right to think they are better than, or of more importance than another person, because we show our love for God in the way we serve and treat one another! Jesus made it clear when He said that ‘if you have done it unto his servants, you have done it to God’. Matt 25:40

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Love begets love!

 

Those Christians who truly love God are those that love the most and they are the most humble and happy and willing to do anything at anytime for anybody! So when we talk about loving God, which is the same as loving your neighbor, we also are talking about setting aside a special time for Him, a time to pray and a time to learn from His Word because how can we know Him without learning about Him?

 

6. It would be like comparing say, Kevin, or any single person here, who may have said I have a new girlfriend now and her name, is say, Sally. So, one day a few months years later I ask Sally, How is it going with Kevin? And she says, well, he rarely talks to me excepts when he needs something, I wrote him a whole bunch of love letters so he would know all about me, but he obviously hasn’t read them because he doesn’t answer me.

 

He does come to see me on Sundays though, but even then, He only visits an hour!?

Do you see how God must feel when we are not close to Him & love Him back?

 

We love God by honoring His presence in our lives in every minute in everyday and in every decision we make, amen?

When we talk about Agape love, we are talking about an emotional happiness like having a feast with one another, now that is loving God and one another with God’s love. Let’s look up John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

 

7.Philios is the love for brothers and sisters. I know it is impossible to be friends with everyone here in the Corps but if we really have a Divine love of God for one another, we will do our best to connect with, and have love for everyone the same. 

Here in the US, there is a city with the name Philadelphia and that means it is the city of brotherly love. The Philios part means the love towards our brothers. Thank God that our Christian forefathers of this country tried to set up a good standard to live by, but the reality today is that it is just another big crime filled city like so many in the world.

 

Many of us here wear the same uniform, and uniform or not as Christians we are in the same heavy battle together against the evil and sin in the world! Love, which is more than just a handshake, is giving a helping hand to someone in need. 

 

How many of you have helped your brothers here with a ride, food money, or a job? Those that do that are practicing the love we preach and believe in and living as Christ! If we know about a person here without a job, or a place to live we should be as concerned for them as we would be for our selves! God’s love for another always has them in mind to help them obtain what they need. 

I will confess several times I have suffered and even cried because I did not have the means to help another person with what they needed. A few years ago, I remember a case when I was asked to help a young woman who is now paralyzed for life in a wheelchair due to the drunk coyotes who were bringing her across the dessert from Mexico crashed the vehicle and she got crushed inside. 

 

She can’t get federal aid and she is stayed with an unemployed friend with no means to help her! What I can only do at times is pray for others of the church or in the world and many many times I have seen God answer and supply for them when I could not do anything personal! 

 

8. Love should cause us to love one another, pray for one another, and to be caring friends with one another, knowing each other’s spiritual needs and faults, and we must help one another to grow and live a higher standard in God’s Love! Amen?

 

And what about the Eros love which is exalted on Valentine’s Day? It is the intimate love God intended for a man and a woman to have for one another. God made us to be attracted to the opposite sex and the Bible even praises human relations as a gift from God. Let’s look up Song of Solomon 1:2 (Read this on Valentine’s Day)

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. (We will stop there because that is enough, right? Ha Ha!) 

               

Relations inside a marriage covenant was made to be pleasureful! Those that do not have God’s love have a serious problem though because they want intimate relations without including the One who created it! God commanded rules concerning man and woman relationships that protect us from harm and diseases, and all relationships include responsibilities with privileges, right?

 

The intimacy that two human beings have is not just physical, but mental, and spiritual! And it is an example or reflection of the deep love Christ wants us to have for Him because we are compared to be His bride. Rev. 21:9. But those that violate God’s standard miss the blessing of obtaining a true Love and a true relationship, and they reap the consequences of a low self esteem, a heavy conscience, and a burned bitter and cold heart towards the opposite sex and humanity!

 

Romantic love can be very beautiful and make your heart pound with great joy! And for those who are married, I pray you are being Romantic and ‘being special’ with your mate having a close communication and relationship! It is nice we set aside a Valentine’s Day to help us to remember to be nice and special to our mates or girlfriends but what must hurt God is to see so many couples together with a love that is dead, without communication, beauty, or passion. 

 

9. The wrong way is when the man works all week and then parties with his buddies on the weekend, and his poor wife gets stuck alone with the kids and the dirty laundry! If that is your case God’s knows your suffering, and we should talk about it to see how to make things better! 

 

However, we do see a lot of families out together on Sundays and that makes me very happy to see especially those who come to our church Corps!

 

Storge is the love between parents and children, and it is sad that today many people suffer due to a loss of love between their family members. This is happening due to sin, selfishness, jealousy, and unthankfulness playing a big role in this society of dog eat dog. As Christians we must fight to exalt the families we know and support them! Parents need to love their kids and not push them off just to be on the phone or TV.

 

Xenia is the love for friends which are quests, and this is shown by hospitality. I am sure we all have had quests in our homes, and it is a love that is done by serving another.  There are some people who almost never practice this type of love, but you should try it.

In the end love is what we reap if it is what we sew. When I open my doors, others will open their doors for me, right?  

 

We conclude that God has a great plan for us, using love as a tool, and that plan is to transform humanity with His Love! 

 

If we as Christians would just obey and love God and our neighbor in the radical way He intended then there would be no more selfishness and more wars, no more hunger because we would all share equally, no more prejudice and crime since we would all “do unto others as we would like to have done unto ourselves” and this earth could be a paradise with all of us living by the standard of God’s love! 

 

10. How beautiful that would be!  And how is the love of God? God manifested His love to us through Jesus, and His way of communicating love was to sacrifice His life in order to give each of us eternal life!

 

Don’t get it wrong, so many people think that love is a feeling, a passion, a bunch of chemicals at work in our body, or an ideal that is an illusion, but we as Christians all know love is that and more than that:It is a sacrifice, a total giving of oneself to serve God and others. An expression that is wonderful, uplifting, and invigorating!

 

God created all the different kinds of love but in reality, they are all the same, they involve deep emotions, passion, sacrifice, suffering, and the total giving of yourself!

 

How much do you love? It will be apparent by the things you do and the way you live! How much you love will determine how much you are loved back! Have you accepted Jesus, God’s gift of Love to you?  Do you want true love in your life? Jesus is pure love!  Let’s pray….

Love = Life A Study of Love in I John 3

 Love = Life   A Study of Love in I John 3    Kelly Durant  Re 2-4-24 

 

20. Money can buy a dog, but only love can make his tail wag! You can give a beggar bread, but if you put butter on in, then that is love!

 

When I was in college years ago and I was studying all the religions of the world, I was hoping to find one that could meet my spiritual needs and my desire to be loved. Even though my mother was nice, I actually was disappointed in the lack of love that existed in most everyone I knew in her church and with her friends. God made us to hunger for love and I was hungry for it! In our small worlds, love is hard to find in others! Only God’s love can satisfy you and me!

 

In the early 70’s a Hindu teacher, Baba Ram Das, was popular, transcendental meditation was popular, and I tried this for a while, but they did not fill the spiritual emptiness of love that I longed for. It was only when I was invited in the home of some non-judgmental Christians (I say this because my hair was long then), who were loving Christian missionaries that I experienced a hug and love as I had not experienced before! It was their love and sincere interest in me that touched my heart and made me want to hear what they had to say and made me want serve Jesus and be an on-fire Christian as they were. Love=time: we must show it in some way to prove it!

 

Today we are in the month of love and will do a study on love as the Bible describes it in I John. I want to tell you, when the news gets back to me that one of us does something loving for another person my heart jumps for gladness and I praise God for you! 

 

In the same manner, when someone reports on someone doing something unloving mine and Regina’s heart gets sad, angry, and disappointed. God has no other mouth or hands to serve others with but ours and they do nothing good if they are not motivated by love!

 

21. Remember John the disciple was called the beloved because he got that good name from understanding and practicing his master’s love. John is my favorite disciple!

 

1 John 3

3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are, children of God or of love! This must be our main characteristic, love!

 

No Christian should ever say that they are unloved or do not know or have love, because only the lovers and followers of Jesus get to be the sons of a God of love! You are very special! If the entire world treats you like you are trash, if all your family rejects you, if your life gets complicated, you can still sleep in peace to know that you are special and that you could die in peace because you are loved by God!... and that love is enough to make you cry and sing and praise Him for all the days of your life!

 

22.  2. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 

The greatest love of all is that Jesus will not let us die just as He did not die! One day we will get to resurrect and have a supernatural body as He has. That is what the verse is stating; that we will be like Him one day! Love is sharing with another the same gifts you have, and Jesus’ love includes giving us in the future a supernatural body as His is!  

 

23.3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Here is an important detail, just as Jesus is pure, we must be pure in order to feel and experience being in His beautiful love!

 

Pure people, or holy people, wake up in the morning and purify themselves, and they use God’s word and prayer like bleach and they clean their minds and hearts. Those who are not pure wake up and start throwing dirt on others and in the process get their own selves dirty! How pure are you? Love means making your thoughts, your heart, and your spirit clean by prayers, obedience, and the Word.

 

24. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 

I want you to see the shift in the context in which John explains it. It implies you either have God’s love and live in it, or without it you will have sin and with sin you will be separated from God!

 

Thesis statement for the day: You either have love, or you have sin! 

 

When you, or people, do wrong things, they are breaking the law and are guilty of punishment. Do not worry though, all of us have broken the law in our days of ignorance and Jesus forgave us, but Jesus tells us to go and sin no more! In other words, you will not be able to feel nor enjoy God’s love in your life if you keep on sinning and doing wrong, unloving things. These words in this chapter are of love but they are strong; they say that you do not even know Jesus if you keep on sinning and hurting God and others which means you will not have eternal life to go to heaven if you do not stop doing your sins and start loving God, Jesus, and everyone!

 

25. 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Isn’t that clear, it is as simple as this, if a person does good and loves and stops sinning, then they are in God’s righteousness. People can distinguish between a rose and a weed right away! Unjust people are unjust in everything! Good and righteous people are good and righteous in everything!

 

 26. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

It does not matter what addiction, what sin, what problem you have, Jesus came to free everyone from them; and if we are letting His love work, all the chains of the flesh will be cut off and Jesus will be the victorious One governing in your life and mine!

 

Often, we forget to remind people that Satan is real. He comes into our minds and even in our lives in this world through evil people to temp us to be participating in a sin, to be cold hearted, selfish, and proud, and to destroy others that are of God that expose unrighteousness preventing you from getting your wants. 

 

 27.9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 

 

In the end you will be judged to be a child of God or a child of the devil according your actions, whether you loved your brother or not! And you are either of God or of the devil according to who you love. Did you choose to do what is right or did you not care and sin against God knowing it causes everyone to stumble by seeing your horrible example?

 

28. 11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

Soldiers, brothers and sisters, up until now we are getting this message over and over to love one another! 

 

29. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 

 

Now we are seeing a new element that destroys the love between us…jealousy! Cain killed his brother because Able was loved or accepted by God more than Him over the sacrifice. Able was simple, he just loved and obeyed God doing as God asked him to; whereas Cain did not want to love and obey God as God wanted and his sin caused him to hate and attack his brother. He hated God too!

 

Everyone sees this sin of attacking and killing others verbally every day in the news media and in families. This hate and jealousy is even within the churches and everywhere, and this is a product of having no love, God, or forgiveness at all; It is sin as the jealousy leads to hate, and then it leads to murder!

 

30. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 

 

Here we are getting a repeat of how not having love makes a person a murderer whether there is a dead body or not! He wants us to understand, if you hate your brother, you will not have eternal life! In the world the non-Christians hate us because we proclaim Jesus, and anyone hating will have to pay with eternal death for their charge of being a murderer. And as stated here only being in God’s love brings us into life eternal!

 

31.16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Here is the ultimate test of love, have you laid down your life as Jesus for did for us? Many people will not give up $10, or even one hour for someone in need! True Christians, however, do whatever they need to for Jesus and for their brothers, and for the needy! Ask your self, how much do I lay down my life for the brothers and sisters? What have I done lately that is proof of a real sacrifice for others? How much LOVE do you have?

 

 32.17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 

 

In other words, God’s love is not just talk, “I love you” (words only)? No, love makes sacrifices to help and shows compassion. That is what the Salvation Army, and every Christian should be about, that we should be doing actions to prove we are loving and showing God’s love by doing actions from our hearts. Many times I have given away my furniture, clothes, and things. 

 

33. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 

 

Only you know how you are in your heart, if you feel condemned or not. When you go to bed at night, do you feel restless like there was something you needed to do that God brings into your mind? It says it here clearly that God knows everything! If something is not right, then fix it as soon as possible! If you were unloving, go back and doing something loving!

 

34. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God

 

So when a person feels guilty for not being loving due to sinning and not helping someone as we are clearly taught to do; it is righteous judgment and consequences that they will have. They will have a disturbed, sad, and restless heart, not just now on earth, but forever in hell as there is nor rest for the wicked! 

 

35. 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 

The implication here is God will answer prayer if we are in Him, loving and obeying Him, but if not, God does not answer our prayers! That is only fair right? You do not reward a child with an ice cream who has been disobeying you all week! But those who love by doing deeds of love, these are the ones who have a good relationship with God, and a confidence that He is close and they get their prayers answered in the way God sees fit.

 

36. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

 

Does your spirit sense God near you? You know or not if you really believe in Jesus love: you measure your love by how much you believe, obey, and live in Him! Let’s love and obey all the way! Amen? Ask God for more love!