Tag Archives: love

Jesus Fulfilled the Law

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When I taught my message again on “What is Love,” I added a short section at the end to discuss how it is not the goal of the Christian to fulfill the Old Testament Law. I decided to emphasize this fact because of how often I’ve heard it said, and how often I’ve said myself, that Jesus explained that the first and greatest commandment along with the second commandment (to love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself) are what the Law and the Prophets hang on. In saying this, he conveys the idea that if any individual had been able to do those two things perfectly–loving God and loving man–then they would have been able to fulfill all the Law and the Prophets.

My concern is that those hearing this may walk away with the misconception that we must love God and love man so that we can fulfill the Law. Jesus made it clear that he came to fulfill the Law. So, we don’t have to. In this short clip (just over ten minutes), I walk through the scriptures to explain how it is not the goal of the Christian to fulfill the Law of Moses. I believe that it is worth your time to take a listen.

I’ve also attached my notes to this post for “What is Love” because my notes on this “law fulfilled” topic were added as “APPENDIX: The Law Fulfilled—Righteousness Imputed” to the end of that document.

What Is Love, again?

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In 2014 I posted a message that I taught at my church called “What is Love?” This message has remained in my heart. Now, a decade later, I taught it again with some updated notes.

If God is Love, then what does 1 Corinthians 13 tell us about the character of God? It shows us 16 distinct characteristics of God as it describes what true love is: Patient, Kind, etc.

In this lesson I do a “mini-deep-dive” into each of these ideas from scripture. I hope you enjoy listening to what has become a favorite lesson at my local church and download the notes to guide you to dig in deeper into your own Bible study time.

What is Love?

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The Bible explains what it is in beautiful, yet easy to understand language. whatIsLove This is one of the most important things that God wants us to get. What is Love?

Is it a feeling? A commitment? A choice? No.

Well, not in the context of what we are talking about here anyway. The truth is that Love is God. The Bible makes this very clear.

So, that begs the question, “If God is love, then how does love act?” I believe the scripture gives us a concise picture of the nature of God in the description about love in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV) 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

The degree to which we love like the scripture says is the degree to which we are like God.

This teaching breaks down all 16 attributes of love given in the passage above, and seeks to bring better clarity to what love should look like in God’s people. When I taught it at my church, there was such a sweet spirit of unity that arose from it that is hard for me to explain. God is truly amazing.

I hope you enjoy this teaching. We can discuss it in the comments section below if you’d like.

Love and Kindness

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photo credit: Darinka Maja via photopin cc

God is not nice.

You can’t find a scripture that ever says that he is, and you can’t find him displaying the attribute of “being nice” in the scriptures. What He is, though, is so much better…

God is kind.

In this lesson I talk about what the debt was that Jesus really paid, and what the most natural reaction from us should be to the grace he showed us: walking in love and kindness.

I then talk for some time on the differences between being nice and being kind, why it is important to understand the difference, and why being kind should be our goal–not being nice.

Here is a chart from the attached notes that gives you an idea of some of the things that I talk about:

Kindness	Niceness
Gentle, Mild, Sympathetic, Forbearing, Affectionate	Pleasant, Agreeable, Polite
Kindness has to do with one’s nature. Inward condition.	Nice has to do with how we appear to others. Outward action or appearance. It is so much related to outward appearance that it is commonly used to say things like:That’s a nice car. That’s a nice house. He has a nice smile.
Is always rooted in the Truth (based on scriptures about Kindness).	Can be rooted in DECEPTION. “I was just being nice.”
The Bible tells us to be Kind.	The Bible NEVER tells us to be nice.

Finally, I present some warnings from scripture to those who do not walk in love.