Genuine Love, pt. 8

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.

2 Peter 1:5-7 (ESV)

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Colossians 3:12-14 (ESV)

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8 (ESV)

At first glance, these verses seem out of place for this series. However, I would say (and hope to express) that these verses are at the heart of any application that we can take away from all of the other verses in this series.

These verses call us to supplement and put on love with all other Christian traits. However, we are not merely putting on love along with these traits. Love binds them all together. Without love, what is the motivation of godliness, forgiving each other, patience, etc.?

It is out of love that we:

-cherish for others the very same love that we bear toward ourselves.
-in our dealings with others we never show selfishness, irritability, peevishness, or indifference.
-take a genuine interest in their welfare and seek to promote their interests, honor, and well-being. (Read this point again: Do you seek to promote others?)
-never regard them with a feeling of prideful superiority, nor do we ever talk about their failings.
-never resent any wrongs they do to us, but instead are always ready to forgive.
-always treat others as we would have them treat us.
-are always patient and kind, never envious or boastful, never proud or rude, never self-seeking. We are not easily angered and we keep no record, even in our mind, of wrongs done to us.

(see: The Gospel for Real Life - Jerry Bridges, p. 27-28)

Finally, remember CARE. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are supposed to care for one another, to have genuine love for each other. What does care look like? Remember CARE.

Challenge
Admonish
Regard
Encourage

Challenge each other in areas in order to live lives worthy of the Gospel.
Admonish, to warn in a gentle or earnest manner, each other; correct one another.
Regard each other. Have brotherly or sisterly affection toward one another.
Encourage each other. Point out evidences of God's grace and work in each other's lives.


I am not capable of properly or adequately loving any of you reading this. If anything is shown to the contrary, then it is all by God's grace and to Him be all the glory. Please, keep me accountable to being a proper brother to you my brothers and sisters in Christ. I have thoroughly enjoyed this series, especially for my own sake. I have been convicted time and time again. God has shown me the sinful desires of my heart. The core selfishness and pride that make it up. Yet, I do not despair. God is gracious. He extends grace that I do not deserve, and He loves me with a holy love, a perfect love, and a love that is free of wrath because Jesus Christ paid for my sins with the greatest display of genuine love!

If you have any questions, feel free to talk to me in person or email me. Also, please listen to these following messages and seek to apply them:

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ - John Piper
Courtship, Shmourtship - Joshua Harris

Genuine love will be addressed again in a later series: Brother/Sister Relationships