Rooted In Love

Love is the Christian’s highest virtue.

Love, though, is a hard thing to do well, yet Paul tells us we were loved with the highest love. And therefore, we can walk in love because Christ loved us first.

Let’s read Ephesians 5:1-2

If a person simple states they are doing something in the name of love, they wear the crusader’s armor that cannot be questioned, to question a person’s motives when they simple state they are doing something in the name of love is it assault their very character.

But we must discern the qualities of love to know the nature of the Bible’s stance on it.

To do that, we will turn today to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.

This is what love is. Paul here lists the qualities of love for us to give the word some hearty definition. I’ve heard it many times that to measure ourselves against this Paul be describes for us to substitue our own name instead of love. I believe this is a healthy practice of self-examination, but today, let us use Christ’s name instead to see the depth of his love.

Consider Christ at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. After Christ taught in the synagogue, exercised a demon, and healed Peter’s Mother-in-Law from a fever. It is evening. The sun goes down and brings another close of the day.

This is when most people are gearing up for the next day. For my Grace and I, we have time to reconnect and talk about the days we’ve head. Sometimes we will sit in front of the couch and watch something together. It is a time to recharge and ease the mind.

But when all of Galilee a heard about Christ exercise the demon, they began to bring their sick and demon-possessed, Christ’s door was full of people who wanted to see him.

See what he does in Mark’s Gospel. MARK 1:32-34:

After a long day, when many of us want to block out the world and have a few hours of chill time, Christ was called to work. No doubt many pushed their way to the front to be first in line. The demon-possessed may have made the crowd even more agitated. The stir of the crowd would’ve made it hard to manage, but Christ’s love stirred more.

He healed many who were will with various diseases and drove out many demons.

It takes a certain kind of love to do this. It is the love we should have for others.

Christ didn’t stop there either, he went from town to town teaching and healing.

Why did he do this? Matthew tells us in Matthew 9:35-38; he had COMPASSION. Look at Matthew 9:35-38

What did that cost Jesus? We can be frank about this; He dealt with a hard people.

• They misunderstood Him.
• They were desperate.
• They were sick and diseased.
• Jesus came to them.

After traveling for sometime these past few weeks it is nice to come home to your own house. Enjoy sitting in your own well worn places around the house and to find the rhythms once again.

Christ gave that up. Why? Because he had COMPASSION. He saw them harrased and helpless. They were to Christ as sheep without a shepherd. One of the great blessings but also one of the great burdens of live is to help people.

It is a blessing because helping others is a good thing. It make feel important. Makes us feel like we are useful. But after a while of helping others, our batteries are drained, our help may be critized in some way.

I was listening to a Biblical Professor define love and I believe he provided a simple, helpful definition for Love. He said:

At first I didn’t like the definition. At some point you run out of ways to disavantaging so you have nothing left, don’t you?

Does love, according to this definition means you are always last? That you get nothing in return? That you are always walked on by everybody else?

But then I consider Christ. And everything He did for us, especially what we see in the Gospels was just that.

• He gave of His time
• He gave of His reputation, when he associated with the lowly
• He gave is His pride, when he forgave those who betrayed, mocked, and killed him
• He gave of all of Himself so all could know the way of the truth and eternal, abundant life.

Christ was last in His life, so all would be first.

And we are shaped by that.

Consider how our parent’s love shapes us.

How our parent’s loved us as children shapes how we love our children.

There are many things I do as a parent to love my children because I know that’s how I was loved as a child.

One I do this is rough them up playfully. I’ll throw them into the couch or a bed, though the older two are getting too big for some of the things I did when they were smaller.

Playing With My Dad – I do this because that’s what my dad did with me when I was younger. He would take his glasses off, get on all fours and growl and snarl as he came after us.

We wanted him to do this all the time when we were little.

Shaped by Being Loved – Now as a parent I know how much I loved doing this with my dad, I did this with my children. Even Ruth will give me the biggest smile when I toss her into the couch.

The Cost – And while I do this, and I love to do it, it has a cost.

• Sometimes I’m tired.
• Sometimes I have things to do.
• Sometimes I am not in the mood

But when I remember when I was little and I wrestled with my dad, it makes it easier to love them in this way.

When you and I consider the sacrifices of Christ, it makes it easier for us.

So it is good for us as we read Christ’s life to consider the sacrifices.

When you are tired, spent, and want nothing more to do to just relax and have time to yourself, yet you are called upon to show love, remember the many sacrifices Christ made for others.

Remember how he opened up his home so the sick and demon-possessed.

Remember the love of Christ, even the small details.

There are two places to consider Christ’s willingness to get along with others.

The first is when Jesus when to the temple and had to pay the temple tax.

• Counselors dealing with really young kids all week
• Counselors dealing with kids from tough backgrounds

• Know you will carry others burdens.
• You will deal with tough people.
• Do be loyal because Christ is loyal