“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 NIV
Essential #4: Love
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19 ESV
- We were all born with a desire to love and to be loved
Have a Full Life by Knowing God’s Love
The most essential calling in life is to receive God’s love and to love Him in return
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” Matthew 22:37-38 NIV
- Love covers a multitude of sin
- Love casts out fear
- Love binds everything together in perfect harmony
Have a Full Life by Showing God’s Love
The second most essential calling in life is to share God’s love with others
“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:39 NIV
- Sharing proves that we know God and that we are born again
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:7-9 NIV
- Sharing proves that God is real
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:10-12 NIV
- God is invisible unless His love is seen by others
- Sharing enriches our lives and the lives of those we love
How are We Supposed to Love?
- Phileo – Love with friendly warmth and affection
“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 and sisters.” 1 John 3:16 NIV
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” 2 Peter 1:5-9 ESV
- Agape – Love sacrificially with good will and grace
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV
- Storge – Love naturally and dearly like family with devoted affection
“They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.” Romans 1:31 NLT
“They will be… without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good” 2 Timothy 3:3 NIV