How to Keep From Growing Old

Jesus said, they will know you are my disciples by this distinguishing mark, agape, love. If you love someone, you're not going to bear false witness against them. If you love someone, you're not going to cheat on them. If you love someone, you're not going to kill them.

If you love someone, you're not going to covet what they've got and wish you had instead of them. See how love becomes the absolute foundation for obeying the will of God. Can love really be commanded? Can you make yourself love someone?

Isn't it more like a feeling that's out of your control? Well, according to the Scriptures, Christians are, in fact, commanded to love one another with a divine love. That means that there's a biblical form of love that's a choice and that overcomes feelings.

This is wisdom for the heart. As Stephen Davy continues through 2 John, he comes to a section where the Apostle John defines love as obedience to God's will. Stephen will expound on this passage today. He'll describe how walking in love keeps your heart from growing cold toward others and toward God.

Open your Bible to 2 John verses 5 and 6 and then settle in for this message, Stephen's calling, how to keep from growing cold. One of the highly acclaimed novels of the last century is entitled 100 Years of Solitude. In it, the author describes a mythical village suffering from a plague that results in slow but certain amnesia. He describes how the effects of this plague slowly took over the minds and ultimately the lives of these villagers that gradually brought about this complete loss of memory. To try to retain as much meaning as possible, one of the villagers came up with the idea of labeling everything. So he took a brush and some paint and began marking everything with its name, table, chair, door, clock, bed, and so on. He even went outdoors and began marking on the animals with his paint brush, goat, pig, chicken, cow, and so on. But as their memories continued to fade away, he realized he needed to be even more specific and explicit.

So he began writing out descriptions. He wrote a note on that cow that read, this cow must be milked every morning so that she will continue producing milk. Eventually as memories of what everyone knew to be true continued to fade away, the villagers came together out of concern that they were forgetting the most important thing and they put a placard up at the entrance of their village that simply read, God exists. Because that was beginning to fade as well. I couldn't help but think that one of the most obvious and pervasive results of the fall of mankind and the sin which began with Adam and Eve is this ever present plague that produces spiritual amnesia. We tend to forget what things mean and why they matter. We tend to forget the realities behind words like God, truth, love.

Unlike those villagers, our generation insists on taking down the placard that declares God exists and every generation faces that threat. Is it any wonder then in the absence of a moral standard and law giver that today love is one of the most misused and misapplied words in the English language and truth, whatever that is, can be whatever you want it to be. You just look around at your world today, you can experience love without any resemblance to moral truth. In fact, you could flip that coin over and say it's possible for people to have a conviction for moral truth without any resemblance to a spirit of love.

Both are a danger to the believer and to the church and to the gospel. For we are to speak, declare the truth in what? Love, Ephesians 4.15.

The true meaning of words was slipping away from these villagers and so it goes with ours. An old man certain of the danger to forget core realities behind the meanings of words knew that we needed to be reminded. If you're old enough in the faith to have encountered the inspired writings of that older man, you'll pick up on the fact that he's continually using words like God and truth and love and he's constantly defining them and illustrating them. He's continually driving us back to this divine dictionary.

It's one thing for the world to be affected by this plague of amnesia, it's another thing entirely for the church and the believer. So take your preserved copy of this old apostles inspired letter. It's marked 2 John.

John is writing to a lady. He's now going to invite her back to the divine dictionary of meaning. Verse 5 opens with a gracious invitation. It's to her and to others and certainly to us. Now I ask you lady, now you can render, I entreat you, now I graciously request of you lady.

Lady, that word Korea appears again which you could translate in today's vernacular madam or ma'am. He's essentially writing now I kindly ask you ma'am, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, from the outset, you could translate it. We've had this from the outset that we love one another. John reminds her of the Lord's commandment first given to the disciples in the upper room. By the way, John was in that room when Jesus delivered that decades earlier. The commandment now isn't new in the sense of new revelation.

It had already been delivered to the Old Testament Jews who were commanded to love their neighbors, Leviticus 19, 18, even to love the strangers among them, Deuteronomy 10 verse 19. But Jesus is delivering it with a new emphasis and with himself as a new example. As I have loved you, he said in that upper room, just like I have loved you, you now love each other, John 13, 34. So this is an old commandment with a new application for a new dispensation of the soon-to-appear church age for a new redeemed race where the descending indwelling Holy Spirit will produce in the believer the fruit of the Spirit first and foremost among them is love, Galatians 5-22. Before we go too much further notice that John uses discretion in his personal note to this faithful woman. He doesn't write, this is the commandment which we had from the beginning that you love me and that I love you. The pronouns change in this postcard from singular to plural and from plural back to singular and from singular back again to plural.

This is one of them and wisely so. John is including her children just as he did in verse 1. You remember he tells this woman that he loves her and her children in truth, uses great discretion, wisely so. Now in verse 5, he's using that discretion by including not only her and her children but he's broadening this invitation to love her church no doubt as well. They're going to without any doubt hear the contents of his letter.

It's going to be preserved and then given for the benefit of us all. See John knows by now he's about 95 years of age that whatever he writes to anybody is more than likely going to be read by everybody. John discreetly includes her family and more than likely her church family in this command so that they all and we all to this day as a body of believers obey the command to love one another.

By the way, the context of that is the local assembly. Now isn't that though a strange command? How do you command somebody to love anybody? I command you to love.

So this is odd. Is it possible to command love? Love each other. Well, if we go to the divine dictionary for the definition of love, the answer actually happens to be yes. The word used is agape love for love. The word used isn't a feeling though it can include feelings. Agape isn't an emotion even though it can involve wonderful emotions, but feelings and emotions ebb and flow, rise and fall. But this love commanded by God, in fact if you go through the New Testament you'll discover this is the word used to describe the relationship between husbands and wives, between brothers and sisters in Christ, between God and the redeemed. It happens to be a choice to love. Agape is an act of the will according to the divine dictionary which is why John even uses the present tense here to love one another not intermittently but daily.

Not if the weather's nice, but when the storms come. Not because we feel like it or we think we want to today, but because we decided to. Which is why I've shared with you in the past I like to remind couples in weddings I preside over that they are standing before God and these witnesses not because they've fallen in love, though they obviously have, but there's something deeper taking place. They are standing here not because they have fallen in love, they are standing here today because they have chosen to love, to bring the totality of their will to that marriage alter, so to speak, to sacrifice themselves for the sake of another. So in the mind of God as he uses this word, one author wrote that biblical love is a lifestyle of selfless living. It's a good definition.

It's a lifestyle of selfless living. It's a meaning which is fading with the plague of amnesia. Just look up the word love, which I did this past week, but the primary meaning that shows up and I quote, love is an intense feeling of deep affection. And don't get me wrong, love can involve intense feelings of deep affection and there's nothing quite so thrilling as those feelings, but the question comes what happens when the feelings aren't so deep and the affection is not so intense?

What happens when it's really nothing but dirty dishes and overpaid bills and overflowing diaper pails? I mean there's an intense aroma. I'm not sure about intense feelings in that. Are you going to serve in that ministry to your brothers and sisters here in the body because you have such intense feelings of deep affection for them? Are you going to demonstrate love toward your wife or your husband or children or extended family or brothers and sisters in the body and even an enemy or two out there because you're simply swept away by deep affection?

Probably not. The agape when we go back to the divine dictionary is something that actually overpowers feelings. It anchors emotions. It chooses to act upon the will to demonstrate selflessness and obedience to God's definition so it can be commanded.

Let me define agape this way. Love is the decision of the will to demonstrate the will of God. And just in case we're not convinced that's the true definition of love, John invites us to the divine dictionary where he writes, notice verse six, and this is love. This is what we've had from the beginning that we love one another and in case there's any confusion, this is love.

You could translate this. Here is what I mean by love. Here's what love is.

This is how love acts. Notice that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment just as you've heard from the beginning from the outset that you should walk in it. Now John in this verse writes in circular reasoning, love is obedience to God's command. God's command is love. Obedience to God's definition is the meaning of love. And when you follow this divine definition, one Greek scholar wrote in my study, this kind of love becomes the governing reality for victorious Christian living. I thought that was a big statement. Is he overstating it?

No. You follow this command, singular, to love one another. And by virtue of following that command, you can then victoriously follow the other commands. Notice he slips into plural.

Here's how it works. If you love someone, you're not going to lie to them. And if you do lie to them, it's going to so bother you, you're going to confess it. If you love someone, you're not going to bear false witness against them. If you love someone, you're not going to cheat on them. If you love someone, you're not going to hate them. If you love someone, you're not going to kill them.

If you love someone, you're not going to covet what they've got and wish you had instead of them. You see You see how love becomes the absolute foundation for obeying the will of God. John says here, this is the way you walk. This is the sphere in which you walk, undergirded by love. This then overflows into your conduct.

This is your pattern for life. Do you fail? Yes. Do we falter?

Yes. But in which direction are our toes pointing? Let's ask another question. What happens to a culture that doesn't wanna walk with God? What happens to any generation that decides, you know, we're gonna go take that placard down that says God exists, we don't like that. Well, they virtually condemn themselves to this plague of amnesia where they end up losing the true meaning of love. They lose their grip on the true meaning of truth. They no longer know who God is. By the way, this isn't a novel.

In this case, it is not a mythical village. The plague happens to be real. It started a long, long time ago, and you and I are fighting our own version of the battle to this day, aren't we? Here's a New Testament description of what happens when you refuse to walk with God. Because lawlessness is increased, the love of many will grow cold. That's true not only in the immediate context of this chapter, the tribulation period of defiance, which Jesus is describing, but it's true of anyone at any time in any generation in any culture in any country who abandons the commands of God, who takes the placard down, who says to that plague, come on in, I've been waiting for you.

Lawlessness increases and love grows cold. And there's a warning in here for every believer, by the way, not that you will lose your salvation. You can certainly lose your joy, your testimony, your love for others. You can so quickly grow self-centered and proud and cold and ultimately lose a full reward. John's gonna bring that up in this postcard, that's another sermon, but he's gonna warn her and us, watch out, verse eight, you don't wanna forfeit your full reward. We'll look at that later.

Let me wrap this up for today by answering this simple question then, how do I keep from growing cold? Two ways. First, accept the fact that love is not an option. Loving others is not an option. I'm so glad the church is here today to hear this, but this doesn't relate to me.

In fact, there's some people I really wish were here, they're so unloving. Jesus said, they will know you are my disciples by this distinguishing mark, agape, love, for one another. This isn't an option for an obedient believer. This happens to be our personal identification.

This is our badge. Jesus is essentially saying, this is how the world can measure the authenticity of your discipleship. They can watch you, how you love your spouse, how you love your children, how you love this family, how you love your enemy, how you love that boss. Jesus is essentially giving the world the right to say, yeah, you really are a disciple. The world is given the opportunity then, and this is so remarkable, this kind of love, that the world says there's got to be something supernatural taking place in your life because my love, my version of it ebbs and flows and it's up and down and my love is self-centered and my love is self-serving and my love is intense feelings of deep affection, which I don't have right now. But you guys, how do you do that? Marcus Felix, a Roman lawyer living in the second century wrote to the Christians and I quote, they love each other even without being acquainted with each other.

It is a badge of identification. Secondly, acknowledge the fact, not only that love is not an option, but acknowledge the fact that truth is not an opinion. John writes here, notice verse six, walk according, this is your sphere, this is how you walk around, according to his commandments. Commandments are not the same thing as suggestions. They're not opinions that come and go.

According to the divine dictionary, there is a divine moral law giver who's delivered some commandments. They're not our opinion, they are declarations, and the declarations of them happen to be our personal confession. What he says, we will believe. What we believe, we will then behave. And the lawless world around us is losing its memory, anchored to nothing.

In that mythical village, they forgot who a cow was and what milk was. In reality, they're forgetting what love is and what truth is and who God is. And they will tell you, you know, you're awfully dogmatic. You know, you're always making these declarations of that's right and that's wrong. I mean, come on, stop going around putting notes on everything, telling us what to do about that, what to do about this, and relax. Truth is personal to you, it's flexible.

It's elastic. Is it really to them? Steal their car, lie to them, bear false witness against them. And the intuition of the law which is written on their heart says, hey, hey, hey, hey, that was wrong, give me my car back. One author with a touch of humor wrote that everybody really wants inflexible dogma in truth when it matters to them. He wrote, imagine going to the doctor's office for your annual checkup. The doctor says to you, you are a magnificent physical specimen. I know you've heard this recently, haven't you? You have the body of an Olympic champion.

Congratulations. Later that day while climbing a flight of stairs, you have chest pains. You find out that your arteries are so clogged, you're one jelly donut away from the grim reaper. You go back to the doctor and say, why didn't you tell me? And the doctor says, well, I knew your body was in worse shape than the Pillsbury Doughboy. But if I tell people stuff like that, they get offended.

It's bad for business, they won't come back. I want my office to be a safe place. Where you feel loved and accepted. Hey, you'd be furious with that doctor, wouldn't you? You would say, look, when it comes to my health, I want the truth. You want love? You can't have love without the truth of God's definition. You want truth? You can't have that without the origin of truth.

Your creator, God. You want to keep your heart from growing cold, believer? Accept the fact that love is not an option for you. Acknowledge the fact that truth is not an opinion.

I couldn't help but think, beloved, one of the most dangerous times in your life and mine where we most likely grow cold is when life hands us some disappointment. When loving actions don't receive a reciprocal response. When truth only makes your life harder, not better. When God, whom you believe, exists according to his word, yet seems so far. When our memories fade and we doubt the meaning of words like love and truth and God. Dark times, difficult times, can be the prelude to discerning moments, developing moments, so long as we stay close to the dictionary, the divine dictionary, which gives us the meaning and reality of life-directing, hope-building, heart-redeeming words with meaning like God, love, and truth. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Have you ever found yourself wanting to define truth or love your own way instead of using God's divine definitions? That would certainly make life a bit easier.

It would also be the exact opposite of what you should do. I hope this message was an encouraging challenge for you today. Stephen Davey is your Bible teacher on this daily broadcast called Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen is also the president of Shepherds Theological Seminary. How would your life be impacted if you set aside one year to study God's word, experience authentic community, grow in discipleship, take a trip and do some study in Israel, and earn your master's degree in theological studies all in one year? The school Stephen leads offers a special program called Shepherds Institute, and you can experience all that I just described. This unique one-year program offers a life-changing opportunity to all believers, no matter your vocation. We've had men and women join us right out of college and before entering their career. They spend one year in God's word, earn their master's degree, and then enter the workforce better equipped to serve God in their church and community. Learn about this unique opportunity at wisdomonline.org forward slash STS, and then be sure and join us next time on Wisdom for the Heart. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Music Fades Out"]