The film Moulin Rouge has an amazing soundtrack. The “Elephant Love Song Medley” sings the familiar phrases “Love is a many splendid thing, love lift us up where we belong, all you need is love, I was made for loving you baby you were made for loving me…”
Our culture is obsessed with love yet the love our culture teaches is one based on attraction to likeness- meaning, there’s something about you that is a bit like me, therefore, I love you. This is the greatest form of idolatry- love based on self needs. Christ Jesus teaches something quite different, defining true biblical love.
What is biblical love? How is it displayed? How must we then love?
What is love?
OT Hebrew: “aheb”- both human and divine love (as well as love of food), “ahaba” human love primarily (as song of songs) but also divine, “hesed” covenant loyal love.
NT Greek: “phileo” affectionate love (friendship), “agapao” unmerited, self-giving love.
1 John 4:7-10
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1. God in his very essence is love (1 John 4:8)
2. The Father loves the Son (John 3:35)
3. Jesus loves the Father (John 14:31)
4. God loves his people (the story of redemption throughout the Bible) and displays this love through his incarnation and mission to seek and save what was lost.
This is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement: Christ died in our place for the forgiveness of sin. Why must love be shown in this way?
2 Cor. 5:22, ““He made Him who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf that we could become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus isn’t just an innocent third party suffering, he’s the judge himself suffering. And John says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10).
Romans 3:21-26
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
In Him, by Him, and through Him we have forgiveness of sin, we have life, and we have restored relationship with God and each other.
How are we to love?
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
The standard of love is to be Christ. Jesus sets the standard for love, and so his disciples are to be. This is to be the defining characteristic of discipleship.
1 John 3:23-24
23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, [1] and God [2] in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
Tertullian, a Romanized North African around 200 AD, became a Christian and commented on the early church: “See how they love one another! How ready they are to die for one another!” Observing their intense, Christ-like devotion to God and to each other, Tertullian notices the impact of true love.
Biblical love is laying aside your own rights for the benefit of someone else.
1 Peter 1:22
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
1 Peter 4:8
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
1 John 3:11
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
In summary:
1. God is love (1 John 4:8)
2. God shows His love by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sin.
3. Because we are image-bearers, we are to:
Love God (Matt. 22:37-40)
Love neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40)
Love family (Eph. 5)
Love other believers (Gal. 6:10)
Love enemies (Matt. 5:43-48)
4.Abide in His love (1 John 3:23-24)
