Sincere Love, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.

Helping others to follow Jesus can't be done purely out of self-will. It requires love—the power to love beyond what man alone can produce. For this kind of love, we must look to our Savior, who has loved us, spending Himself so fully for us on the cross. Today's message, titled, Sincere Love, comes from 2 Corinthians 12, 11-19.

Let's listen in. This is part 2 of a message that was first preached on August 24, 2014 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. No, Paul says, I'm not going to show you love for what I get from you. That's not sincere love. He is going to pursue relationship with them. He says, I don't seek yours but you.

Do you hear the personal element in that? This is what God says to us. This is God's love.

This is agape love. I do not seek yours but you. Listen, Christians. God speaks to you this morning. I seek you. I don't want the stuff you can do for me. I want you.

Do you hear the difference there? That's God's sincere love. And so that's the pursuit of that relationship. A God-ward relationship, not for what you can get out of the others. Here's the third element of sincere love. It is personal investment.

Personal investment. He says in verse 15, I will gladly spend and be spent for your souls. I will gladly spend and be spent for your souls. That helps us arrive at what I believe to be a solid biblical definition of what love is when the Bible speaks of agape. Yes, there is an element of affection in that. Obviously, God desires us.

He wants us, but it's more the love is more than just an affection. Love is your personal investment for another's God-ward movement. Why do we say that? Because look what Jesus did for us.

Consider his personal investment for our God-ward movement. It's the very thing we're going to come together to remember and celebrate tonight. We're going to remember the Lord. John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Do you know the English does a little bit of a disservice there to that verse? Because some people think it means God loved the world so much that he gave his son. That's really not what the verse is saying. The verse is saying God loved the world in this way that he gave his son.

Spanish brings it out really well. God loved the world in this way that he gave. It is his personal investment for our God-ward movement. That's love. And Paul understood that.

And that's what he brought out here. Personal investment for the Corinthians God-ward movement. When you look at a brother or sister and you tell them, I love you in the Lord.

Can you say that meaning? I am willing to personally invest myself in you for your God-ward movement, because by virtue of the fact that God loves me and I love God, therefore I love you. That's what John says. He who loves God loves him who is begotten of God. And John also says that if you say love God and you love God and hate your brother, you're a nice kind word liar. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. The Lord said that as John recorded in John 15 13. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends.

You see, it's that personal investment. Robert Mansfield was the headmaster of a school in South Africa during the days of Apartheid, which was a cruel system of racial segregation. When Mansfield's school was barred from competing against a black school, he finally took a stand against Apartheid and resigned his post. A friend said to him, you know, you will be wounded. Do you know that? Mansfield replied, pointing to heaven. When I go up there, the judge will say to me, where are your wounds? If I say I haven't any, he will say, was there nothing to fight for? Are you willing to take the wounds of personal sacrifice, love, the kind of sacrifice that Christ made for us? Greater love has no one than this that a man lays down his life for his friends. Paul understood that, that personal sacrifice. Paul understood that, that personal sacrifice, that personal investment.

Here's the fourth element of sincere love. And it is the objective, the ambition to benefit another. He says at the end of verse 19, we do all things for your edification.

We do all things for your edification. It's not about us. It's not about our ministry. It's not about what we can do. It's not about building our kingdom. It's not about making us look good. We do all things for your edification.

To say that is to say it out of sincere love. We do all things for your edification. Well, the word edification means to build them up for their betterment, for their benefit. We work for your betterment. Paul says we work together for your joy. Their betterment can be said, other words, in other words, their God-ward movement. Their development of the mind of Christ, becoming followers of Christ. We're helping you become followers of Christ. His objective was their movement toward God and not anything else.

And that was very clear. And sometimes as you are ministering to another, as you are helping another person follow Jesus, sometimes that can be misunderstood because of human pride. And the minister can be criticized as unloving because you're helping someone follow Jesus. To help someone follow Jesus means you have to help them understand that selfishness is inconsistent with following Jesus. And a loving person is willing to do that and that person can be criticized.

And so this is something that Paul was facing here. So these four elements of sincere love, sincere love, grants authority in God's economy. In God's ministry, sincere love grants authority in ministry, not just if you're in a position of authority, but if you are an influencer and all Christians are, you're an influencer. And whether that is exercised corporately or individually, if your message, if your investment in another person's life is going to have any believability at all, any authority attached to it at all, it's got to be with sincere love.

And sincere love, even though there may be indifference, even though there may be indifference. Paul said in verse 11, I ought to have been commended by you. Speaking to the Corinthian church, there's implication here that as Paul was being viciously attacked, there should have been some people in the church that stood up and said, hey, this is not right. We recognize his authority, his apostleship. We recognize that the signs of an apostle are being done here.

But there seemed to be an indifference there, remaining silent as he was being viciously accused. Meaning what? That sometimes people can take ministry for granted. People can take faithful ministry for granted. If you are ministering to someone, you might feel like they're indifferent towards your relationship with them, towards the truth that you share with them. Stay with it.

Stay with it. Invest yourself, work for their betterment, stay with it. Exercise sincere love, even though you might feel there is indifference there. Sincere love grants authority in God's economy, even though there may be indifference, and even though there may be criticism. And there will be criticism. I believe Jesus warned us of that. Anyone who is ministering in any way, anyone who is influencing another or others, anyone who is influencing another or others in terms of the gospel, there will be criticism. And Paul faced quite a bit of it. Verse 13, for what is it in which you were inferior to other churches except that I myself was not burdensome to you?

Forgive me this wrong. What an interesting way to put it. He was accused of taking advantage of the Corinthians, even when he sacrificed for them more than for anyone else.

Try to figure that one out. Behold the power of human hubris. Verse 15, and I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. Paul said, it seems like the more I invest myself in you, the less you care about what I'm doing and the more you misunderstand what I'm doing.

Did I take advantage of you? He says what he says in verse 16. Did I take, verse 17, did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? They said, Titus, Paul, you sent Titus and his accusers are saying, Paul sent Titus. Paul's about doing his stuff and he sends Titus to take all this money from us. And we're accusing Paul of taking advantage. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.