Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. What's Peter saying in verse 22? Love one another deeply. The command, and it is a command, is to love. Love is not an option, it's a command.
And this new commandment given by Jesus is that we love one another as Jesus loved us. Welcome to The Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. After exploring our redemption through Christ's sacrifice, The Apostle Peter moves from our vertical relationship with God to our horizontal relationship with fellow believers. Today we'll discover why love for one another isn't optional. It's the distinguishing mark of authentic Christian community.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with a message titled, Love One Another. Years ago, the Beatles sang, All You Need Is Love.
Well, whatever you think of the Beatles, all of us agree that loving and being loved are among the greatest joys we ever experience. Being made in the image of God, we have this desire to give and to receive love. And one of the greatest heartaches anyone experiences is to be betrayed in love or to feel that no one loves them. Today, in our ongoing study of 1 Peter, we are dealing with this subject of love. We want to understand more about love from a biblical perspective.
Remember. Peter is writing to first century Christians who have been scattered and are suffering for their faith. How these first century readers needed to know that their brothers and sisters in Christ. Truly love them. Let me ask you to open your Bibles.
To 1 Peter chapter 1. We're going consecutively through this letter written by the Apostle Peter. Uh in the first century. to Christians who were scattered because of their faith. And this is a fascinating letter he's given us.
Jesus said, In John chapter 13, by this people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love, One For another. That is, followers of Jesus Christ are to be known. for their love. for one another.
Peter, after dealing In the opening verses, with our so great salvation and our relationship with God, now turns to our relationships. with one another. We begin, of course, in the Christian faith with our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That's where it begins, with our relationship with God through Christ. But Peter now deals with our relationships with one another.
As a society, we value rugged individualism. Self-reliance, going it alone, and all of that. But Scripture emphasizes that followers of Christ are to be characterized by their love. That we are church are to be a loving community. of believers.
So this is our theme, not just for today, but throughout the year. Love one another. That is, our faith, while it is personal, is never to be private. When God saves us, he places us into a new community. We are members of the body of Christ.
And the verses we're looking at. There is an emphasis that we are in the family of God. And then in chapter two, Verses 4 through 8, Peter reminds us that we are the temple of God. And then in chapter 2, verses 10, Nine in ten. He reminds us that we are the people of God.
The family of God, the temple of God, the people. of God. New Testament Christianity knows nothing about a Christian living in isolation. I hear people saying that. Oh, I am spiritual, I don't go to the church.
That's not found in the New Testament. If you're going to grow in your faith, If you're going to be obedient to the Word of God, you're to be part of the word. Of a community of believers. And as Tim reminded us at the beginning of this worship service, Scripture is full of one another's. And here is the first, the foremost, the primary we are to love So, with our Bibles open, let's read from 1 Peter chapter.
Chapter one. Verses 22 through 25. Peter writes. Having purified Your souls. By your obedience to the truth, for a sincere brotherly love Love one another earnestly.
from a pure heart. Since you've been born again. Not of perishable seed, but of imperishable Through the living. and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass.
At all his glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers. And the flower falls. But the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is is the good news that was preached to you.
How brilliant. What's Peter saying? In verse 22, love one another. Deeply. The command, and it is a command, is to love.
He says, verse 22, love one another. Another. Love is not an option, it's a command. And this new commandment given by Jesus is that we love one another. As Jesus loved us.
John chapter 13, the Gospel of John. Chapter 13, verse 34. Jesus says to his disciples, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you. You are also to love one another.
By this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love, for one another. That is, the way that we love is modeled after the way Christ loves us. John chapter 15 verse 12. This is my commandment.
that you love one another. As I have loved You. This is the supernatural love of God. In the Christian gospel, we first receive the love of God through Jesus Christ. And now, with this love in our heart and our life, this love overflows to others.
You got your Bible open at 1 Peter 2. Turn over a few pages and you'll be in 1 John. 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and then 1 John. And look at 1 John 3, verse 11. This is the message.
that you've heard from the beginning. What's that message?
So you should love. One Another. 1 John 4, verse 11, Beloved, Notice how John addresses us. We are beloved. We are loved by God.
Beloved. If God so loved us, We also ought. to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us.
And his love is perfected in us. Verse 19, 1 John 4, verse 19. We love Because he first loved us. That's it. First, God loves us.
Does it stop there? No. If anyone says, I love God, Can anyone hear say I love God? Yes. We would say we love God.
Well, if if we say we love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Notice, it's a command, it's not an option. If you love God, You must love others.
First, you receive the love of God. You say, well, you don't know. The people I have to deal with? Possibly not. But I do know God's love.
And God gives us a supernatural love. By which we can love others even as Christ has loved us.
Now we may sound very spiritual. Uh we may do very impressive things. But Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13: if we don't love, we have. nothing. It profits us nothing.
Scripture could not be clearer. Love is to be the constant. and outstanding characteristic of the people of God. We are to be known by the unbelieving community. and also by one another known that we love one another.
And this love Is not only a sign to others that we are true believers, it's a sign to ourselves. Again, 1 John. John writes a lot about love. 1 John 3. Verse 14.
We know all. That we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in the Death. If your love for your brothers and sisters at church is getting rather cold, rather formal, rather stale. It's a sure sign that your love for Christ is decreasing.
The more I love God, the more I love you. The less I love God, the less I'm going to be inclined to love you. Very convicting, isn't it? That we often see in one another as we interact, we often see the quirks. and the idiosyncrasies, the fibles, the failures.
and flaws in one another, don't we? Or is it just me? And these idiosyncrasies and quirks that we see in others, people see in us. We don't like to think it. We always think it's the other person, but We have to look in the mirror.
and realize that sometimes we're difficult people to deal with. We have a wonderful community of believers coming from all different backgrounds. Different personalities. different colors of skin. different likes and dislikes, different backgrounds.
But this, back to First Peter two, Peter describes this as a brotherly love. The word is Philadelphia. We have one of our major cities in Pennsylvania. It's called Philadelphia. It is the city of brotherly love.
This is the word that Peter is using. He's reminding us: you're part of the same family. And you have this brotherly Love. The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 13, verse 1, let brotherly love Continue. Favorite verse of my mother to her six sons.
Let brotherly love Continue.
Now I know this. Verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience for the truth, For a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. This command, love, is the word we know. Agape, agapao.
It is, this love is directed to the needs and the interests and the welfares of others. This love is not self-seeking. Not self-promoting. Not self-serving, rather, according to Paul in First Corinthians thirteen, this love is. Patient.
This love is Kind. And I meet with couples. preparing for marriage or perhaps they have been married. I ask them if they're kind. to one another.
Sometimes we're not very kind to each other are we? It's one of the characteristics of love. Love is patient, love is kind, it's not arrogant. It's not rude. Says Paul, it does not insist in its own way.
You're one of these individuals who Like things to be done your way. Oh yeah, I I I do. I mean of course we do. Would we rather do things our way or your way? But when we love someone, We don't insist On our own ways.
Saints Paul, this love is not irritable. It's not resentful. It doesn't rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. That love, says Paul, never fails. That love endures.
We are to love each other with this love.
Now this deep love of others, according to verse 22, flows from a spiritually cleansed life. Having purified your souls by your obedience for the truth, for a sincere brotherly love, love one another. We saw this last week, didn't we? and the miracle of salvation. that we are dirty people.
We're very selfish people. But through the precious blood of Christ We're spiritually cleansed, cleansed from our sin. And this cleansing Is personally, I emphasize personally, personally experienced without conversion. Not when we get baptized, baptized is a declaration that I have been cleansed. that I am a follower of Christ.
It's the I would sign of what is in my heart. Says Peter, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. That is the truth of the gospel. The gospel calls us to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we obey the truth, when the gospel is heard, the gospel is to be responded to by obedient faith.
And such obedience to the truth of the gospel is life-transforming. Our souls are purified. We are spiritually cleaned. As we saw last week, we're redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. No.
with purified hearts. With our sins forgiven, Through the precious blood of Christ, now we are enabled by the Spirit to love one another with this love. that we have re have experienced From Christ. And so Peter's argument, as our large argument is, it's unthinkable. That those whose sins have been forgiven.
that those who have experienced The love of Christ in their hearts that we would not love our brothers and sisters. in Christ. I read from John. How can you say you love God? who you haven't seen, and you don't love your brother who you have seen.
No, the gospel changes us. And you know, and I know. That when pollution comes into our lives, We become self-centered, don't we? We become very self-seeking. And what happens?
Our love for God. and our love for others wanes. Husbands, you know that. You're commanded to love your wife, as Christ loved the church. You know.
That the more you love Christ, the more you love your wife. And if your love for your wife is waning, Yes, you can point out our problems, I understand that. But the main problem is That your love for Christ. is waning. It's a spiritual problem.
Our love for God. Out of obedience to God. Our love for others are inseparably bound. The individual who loves God will obey God. The individual who loves God will love his brothers and sisters in Christ.
You say, well, as I serve the Lord here at Calvary, we've got some really oddballs at Calvary. Yes, we have. I admit I'm one of them. You didn't choose who's in the family of God. You didn't choose who's in your physical family.
I didn't choose my brothers. My return. My five brothers, I didn't choose them. You don't choose. Who is a child of God?
You don't choose who's a member of church. No, God in His grace. saves people and brings them in his sovereign purposes to us. They're chosen by God. They're loved by God.
They have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and now our Savior is saying to them. Here they are. I'm entrusting them to you at church. Will you love that brother or love that sister? You know that out there in the world.
People are desperate for love. And they often look for it in all kinds of wrong places here in the Church of Jesus Christ. We are to love one another.
Now you say, What does this love look like? What are the characteristics of this love? Peter helps us. He says, First of all, for a sincere brotherly love. Your love is to be sincere.
This word in Greek is the word hypocrite with alpha in front of it, which means When you love, don't be a hypocrite. The word hypocrite was originally used of a person who put on a mask. played a role in a drama. was play acting. It was a facade.
Now he says, Peter Your love. is to be void of hypocrisy. It's not to be a facade, it's not to be phony. Not hiding behind a mask. Your love is to be genuine.
We would say this to be authentic. It is to be sincere. This love is not like the kiss of Judas. Quite the opposite.
Now the sincerity of this love Is not so much on how it is communicated, but the fact. Of how it's communicated. For example, Paul says in Romans 16, verse 16: greet one another with a holy kiss.
Now I was brought up That when you got to know somebody, you shook her hand. And in the church When you met a brother or sister, you gave them a handshake. I traveled to Kazakhstan among my Our dear Russian brothers, And they show their love. to my great consternation, Uh bye. kissing you right on the lips with a big smacker.
Uh You know, we we I don't come from that culture. I come from the opposite culture. It's like the Scotsman who loved his wife so much, he almost kissed her.
So Mm. No, not for me, brother. I mean, you may love me. And so I tried as they come to give them the stiff arm, you know. But they come behind.
Some people I'm told rub noses. Not my way either. Uh but different ways of communicating. Love. Here's the point.
However you do it. Don't be a phony. Don't play act. We've all experienced that, haven't we? The false love.
the pseudo-spiritual dripping sentimentality The hug, the kiss. And individual is slandering us by their bank, gossiping about us, criticising us. Says Peter no. In the Christian community, I want your love. to be sincere.
I want it to be authentic. Secondly, he says Love one another earnestly.
Some translations say vervently or deep this word Uh comes from a word which means to stretch out. Chapter 4, verse 8, Peter says, Above all, keep loving one another earnestly. The same words. You are to love earnestly. Sincerely.
But this is a love. which stretches out. It extends itself. Do you ever Extend yourself to someone. Not shallow, not superficial.
No, there's an intensity here. There's a stretching out, a giving of ourselves to help a person in need. That is earnest love. When you love someone, you give of yourself. It's not a matter of just helping them a little bit and getting away as quickly as possible and taking off a box.
Oh, I did such and such. No, we extend ourselves. Sincere, earnest, And then he says, Love one another earnestly from a pure heart. I like that. The love of Jesus is pure, isn't it?
It says in John 13: having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. The love of a pure Heart. A purity of love, isn't that a beautiful thing? The pure love of a mother for her child. The pure love of a bride for her groom.
But this is to be evidenced in the family of God. Not a love which is just cultural, not just a natural friendliness that you find among unbelievers, but from a pure, redeemed heart. It is a love. with no hidden agenda. You're listening to The Verdict with Pastor Jean Monroe and the first part of a message titled, Love One Another.
The message we've heard today is both challenging and essential. That we as Christians must love one another sincerely, earnestly, with pure hearts. And as we seek to understand God's commands for relationships within his church, we should also want to grasp his larger plan for humanity. To help with this, we're offering John's insightful booklet, For the Time is Near: Lessons from Revelation. This resource will deepen your understanding of how our present love for one another connects to God's ultimate purposes for His people.
God calls us to have a different perspective, to strive for a higher standard. and to live with eternity in mind in all areas of life.
So, request for the time is near by mail or download it today when you visit our website at theverdict.org. Your involvement makes a tremendous difference in sharing biblical truth with listeners around the world. Each contribution to this ministry, whether large or small, helps bring solid scripture teaching to those hungry for God's Word. Would you consider becoming a ministry partner by sending a gift today? It's simple to contribute online at the verdict.org.
We'd love to have you join the fellowship at Calvary Church, where John serves as senior pastor. We're located in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road. For more details about our church services and ministries, visit our website at theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with closing remarks for today's message.
Well, what's your verdict? What has been your experience of love? Would people describe you as a loving person? All of us want to be loved, but sometimes we're slow to love others. One of the outstanding characteristics of authentic followers of Jesus Christ is to love others.
Our love for God makes possible this love for others. For our brothers and sisters in Christ, the lost, those in need, and even our enemies. Join me next time as we continue to think of this all-important subject of loving one another. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies.
Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
