The profound nature of love as exemplified in the New Testament, particularly through the Apostle Paul's letter to Philemon. It begins by emphasizing that God's love for humanity is the foundation for our capacity to love others, drawing parallels between God's love for us and our love for Him and fellow believers. The message highlights five expressions of love within the book of Philemon: Paul's love for Philemon, Philemon's love for Jesus, Philemon's love for all saints, and Paul's compassionate love for Onesimus, a runaway slave. Ultimately, the sermon concludes that love, as the singular fruit of the Spirit, is demonstrated through obedience and sacrifice, serving as the most convincing witness to Christ's followers.
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Back in nineteen thirty-one, over fifty years ago, my father started writing a monthly letter called the Letter of Encouragement. Those were pretty hard times and the Lord's people were very much discouraged and he had an exercise along that line and he had written that letter for over fifty years when he went to be with the Lord last February, February nineteen eighty-two. And he was exercised that my brother and I should try and continue this. And so we have been continuing writing this monthly letter of encouragement. We write it in the ultimate month, and it's sent out at no charge.
And if anybody is interested in receiving this, if you don't already, the remedy is very simple. Just give me your name, address, and zip code number, and we'll see that sooner or later you get on the mailing list. And we would appreciate your prayers for this, too, that the Lord may use this in blessing to his people. Two of my dad's books were compilations, actually, of articles that appeared in that letter of encouragement over the years. Some of you may have a copy of the words of encouragement or of bread and up in despair. They were taken from those articles that he wrote month by month. Now for our reading tonight, will you turn with me again to the book of Philemon? Philemon?
and we'll read beginning at verse one. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Epiah and Archiphas, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house. Grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints. That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
For we have great joy and consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by these brothers. Wherefore though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet For love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such in one as all the ages and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bond, which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me, whom I have sent again. Thou therefore receive him. That is my own vow.
Someone has said that when we are born into this world, there is an invisible sign written on everybody's chest. Will somebody love me? It is a fact that if babies are neglected, completely neglected, except for physically feeding them, They can actually die for a lack of love in their earliest years. We were singing a little moment ago, the light of the world is Jesus. We get up in the morning and we see the sun up in the sky and we say, oh, it feels good.
And you think of the sun as shining for four billion and more people in this world. That's one way of looking at it. But then you can look at the sun and you say, isn't that wonderful? That sun shines just the other night in there. This is the day which the Lord has made, and he's got that sun up there just to shine for me. It's my own particular son. And it's wonderful to know that God's will love the world that he gave his only begotten son. But isn't it wonderful to be able to say the son of God loved me and gave himself for me? He's my own particular private son.
We want to think of it in that way. All of us need to know that we are loved and all of us need to love. One of our boys is quite a fattest for t-shirt. And you can't give him a better present like when I go away to his dad, bring me a t-shirt. But he's got one t-shirt. His name is David. And none of it is written, no one cares. about David the person. No one cares about David the person. David the Psalmist said pretty much the same thing. He said, no man cares for my soul.
Well, on his last birthday, I wrote him a little note in the birthday card and said, yes, we care very much about David the person, but probably not as much as David the person cares about David the person. You know, we're not generally short and self-love anyway regardless of whether others are loving us or not. I want to think with you tonight of this little book that from beginning to end is permeated with the thought of God's love for us and the thought of God's love through us. The very man to whom it was addressed suggests the subject of love, as I mentioned last night, Philemon means the one who When we think of kissing, we don't ordinarily associate that with hatred, although we know Judas betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss.
That which should be an expression of love was the means that he used to betray the Son of God. You know, it's interesting that in this chapter we have five expressions of love. Just as in the preceding evening, we look at five expressions of fellowship. When I think of the subject of love in relation to the child of God, I think of two prayers that the Lord Jesus, two things that the Lord Jesus mentioned in his prayer in John chapter seventeen. First of all, he prayed that the world may know that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved them.
That's one of the most astounding statements in the word of God. The Lord Jesus said he wants the world to know That thou hast loved them. As thou hast loved me. We sing in one of our hymns a mind at perfect peace with God. Oh, what a word is this. A sinner reconciles through blood. This, this indeed is Jesus. By nature and by practice far, how far removed from God. Yet now by grace brought nigh to him. Through faith in Jesus' love. So near. So very near to God.
He cannot nearer me. Or in the person of God's son. Is just as near as he. So dear. So very dear to God. I cannot dearer me. The love already loves his son. Such is his love to me. why should I ever careful be since such a God is mine? He watches for me night and day and tells me, mine is mine. Heirs of God join heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ. And while that is a statement of our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed astounding, there is, I might say, that to me there is a statement that is in a certain sense even more astounding.
The Lord Jesus prayed in the very last verse of that high priestly prayer in John chapter seventeen, verse twenty-six, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Think of it. That God by his spirit has shed abroad in our hearts his love, so that we who are his have the capacity to love as he loves. That to me is utterly astounding. And yet the Word of God insists that that's the way it is. Let's look at these five expressions of love.
First of all, Paul and Timothy's love for Philemon. Notice the address, verse one. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon are dearly beloved. and fellow labor. And to our beloved Messiah, apparently these were husband and wife, and perhaps, as the passage indicates, one to Christ by Paul's ministry. Because he says in verse nineteen, how writing of Philippians, Thou Oest unto me, even thine own self, besides. Any servant of Christ, and we are all servants of Christ.
Every believer is a servant of Christ. We're called to serve. We have been saved, not to live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. There's an interesting thought suggested in First Corinthians chapter twelve, you have the gift that God has given to his church. In First Corinthians chapter fourteen, you have the church of God in operation. And in between, in First Corinthians chapter thirteen, you have what makes it tick. you have the great love chapter. First of all, the gifts, and then the operations, and in between, sandwiched in between, the love of God, indwelling us, empowering us to do what He bids us to do.
Notice secondly, Philemon's love for the Lord Jesus, verse five, it says, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus. You know, we're responsible as servants of God to love those whom God has brought into blessing throughout, as Paul did, and Timothy did for Philemon and his wife. But he speaks so highly of Philemon's love for the Lord Jesus. How did this come about? Love is not native to the human heart. The Bible tells us how the love is created in our heart.
We love, and I understand the word him should be in italics. That's true, we do love him. But it says, we love because he first loved us. And you can apply that. We love God. We love our brethren. We love the world of sinners' love because he first loved us. The emphasis in the Gospel of John is not our love for Christ, but the emphasis is on Christ's love for us. And that's what creates love in our heart to him. We respond to his love. For instance, in John chapter eleven you read that now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and lastly.
In John thirteen in verse one it says, Jesus having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And I think it's five times over. The Apostle John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He does not refer to himself as the disciple who loved Jesus, but as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And the more we drink him and appreciate his love for us, the more our hearts will go out in response to him. That's one reason why as we come together to remember the Lord Jesus. What we're contemplating is His great love for us. And our hearts are warm in love for Him as a response.
We love because He first loved us. And that's why, as Christians, we should delight ever to come and come again to our Lord's supper and there drink in a fresh. Something of the wonder of that great love wherewith He has loved us. You know what Jude says in verse twenty of that little book? He doesn't say keep loving God. He says, keep yourself in the love of God. Many years ago, a hymn writer by the name of C.P. Bliss, he had heard so many hymns that emphasized how much we love the Lord Jesus.
He wrote a hymn that emphasized how much we are loved of Him. I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of his love in the book he had given. Wonderful things in the Bible I see. This is the dearest that Jesus loves me. A number of years ago before our brother Will Fell went to be with the Lord, they were looking for a furnace. And they saw an ad in the paper, used furnace. And so he and his brother went to this place. When they got there, they discovered it was a bar room. And he wasn't particularly in favor of bars, of course, but they were looking for a furnace, not for something to drink. So they went downstairs in the basement, and they were just what they wanted.
So they made arrangements to purchase his furnace. When they got upstairs, he said to his brother, he said, we can't leave here without a witness, said the Lord. And he stood at the end of the bar, and he began to sing. I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of his love in the book he has given. Wonderful things in the Bible I see this is the dearest that Jesus loves me. And a lady who had apparently been drinking stepped off of a bar stool and came down and grabbed him around the legs and began sobbing. She said, I used to sing that in Sunday school.
You know, we never know. what a little witness an expression of our appreciation of Christ's love may have another third he speaks of Philemon's love toward all the saints he says in that same verse first of all hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints I like that you know sometimes we can be so exclusive in our thinking we can think as though the Lord's people are limited to the assemblies of the saints who meet together, to remember the Lord Jesus. The love which thou hast toward all the saints.
Writing to the Colossians, the Apostle spoke of your faith in Christ Jesus. The love, your love toward all the saints and the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. Love toward all the saints. A few years ago, My dad, before he went to be with the Lord, he gave my brother and myself a trip over to Holland. He wanted us to see where he was born and raised and show us a little bit of the country. We went over for three weeks. We were only one week in Holland, one Sunday, and he said we went to England and other places. We spent eight days around that area. So before we left, I had a letter commendation written for the three of us and signed by the brethren from our assembly.
And my dad told me, he said, you know, he wasn't saved, you see, when he left Holland. He said, this is quite a kind of an exclusive assembly, and they may not even receive it. He went to the door, and I gave the brothers a letter of commendation from our assembly. And he spoke English quite well, and he was very cordial, showed it to our seat, And we sat there waiting for the meeting to begin. Well, after a few moments, he got up to read a letter. And there were several letters that morning. And I don't understand Dutch, although my father was Dutch, I don't know one word from the next.
But when they read our name, I knew that this letter was read about us. And I noticed one rather elderly brother, his head began to bob, and he seemed to get a little excited. He went over and talked to his fellow. Then his brother came to see us. And I happened to be on the end of the line, so he approached me on the road. And his first question was, are you open, brethren? And I said, no. We're brothers in Christ. I wasn't accepting any of these labels people put on you. We're brothers in Christ. He said, yes, yes. I don't remember all the other questions he said, but he said, do you know Brother Campbell? I thought to say, I knew his soup real well, but I thought I'd be in the soup if I said that.
But I said, no, I don't know Brother Campbell. But I said, we all know the Lord Jesus of our own personal faith. And with that, he sat down, and we were received. You know the interesting thing to me was not simply that. Was that thing? Never asked if we knew the Lord. Do you know Brother Campbell? Are you open, Brother? We just said we were open. And we would have said we were open brethren that had shut the door in our face. When it said we know Brother Campbell, the door would have been open. It wasn't a question of whether we knew Christ. But you know, even in that exclusive setting, after that meeting was over, three different families came up to us and invited us on for dinner.
You know what? I was reminded of that expression in connection with Job. that he was a fruitful vow and his branches hang over the wall. No men put up their barriers. But we should be large in hearts, large enough in our hearts, to include all of the saints. And we sing it in one of our hymns, but whether we practice it or something else, Lord, we confess that we are one with all whom of thy name. Love toward all the saints. And the scripture says, if You love not your brother whom you have saved. How can you love God whom you have not saved?
You know what a difference it makes when you look at that believer in Christ as a brother. Some years ago there appeared in Reader's Digest a story that touched my heart. There was a story of a man running a Vern Bagman. And he lived in the northeastern corner somewhere of the United States up around Maine or thereabouts. And he belonged to a volunteer fire department. And one early morning, we received a call that there was a man trapped on a ledge along the ocean front there. It was so rough, there was no way of rescuing him from the sea side.
And the only way of approach was to go down the edge of this deep cliff. And so those men stood there and they were saying, well, who's going to volunteer? And finally, Byrne Bagley volunteered. They tied a rope around him and they began to lower him down that sheer cliff. And as he was being lowered and by the wind being buffeted and knocked against the side and pattered, he tugged on the boat. He said, boys, I can't stand it. You'll have to pull me up again. So they pulled him up. This group of men sit around wondering, what next to do what could be done and finally the same man said I guess I would he said boys let me down and they lowered him again and in spite of all of the tremendous buffeting that he got he managed to get down and tie a rope around this man he was full of safety and then burned back he was full of safety several months later he received a reward for his heroism And someone asked him, then Bernie.
He was always wondered about it. That night we heard you sort of mutter something under your breath. I guess I would or something. What did you mean? Well, he said, as I stood there that night, and I looked down there at that man in his helplessness, and I realized with a rising tide, he would soon be drowned, and there was no way other than that way to get to him. And as I looked at him, I said, If that were my own brother, would I go down and get him? I'd get that, wouldn't it? Oh, it makes a difference, doesn't it? Relationship. If you love not your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?
You know, sometimes, you see, you think to ourselves, well, we can love God who we've not seen, but that brother whom we have seen, he's a pain in the neck. But you see, the love of God implanted in the heart does not consider the opposite. God didn't love us because there was anything attractive in us. God loved us in spite of our unattractiveness. That's what the love of God does. He goes out. He loves us. And isn't it wonderful to know that God treats our treatment of our brethren as our treatment of him? I've often thought that no matter what gift Jacob's sons said they didn't really love their dad.
How could they? They took his own beloved son. The Bible says that Jacob loved Joseph more than all of his sons. And they sold his beloved son into a life of slavery. Inasmuch. You have done it under one of the least of thee, my brother. You have done it under me. And we cannot touch a brother in Christ without touching the heart of God. There's a lovely verse that we often think about as Hebrews six, ten, that God is not unrighteous, but forget your work in labor of love, which you have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister.
And then we have in verse seven, Philemon's love for the Lord Jesus, spoken of as a real encouragement to the Apostle Paul into Timothy. Verse seven, it says, For we have great joy and consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee. You know, they always say the Greeks have a word for it. You know, we don't ordinarily, we say we love people with our hearts, but you know, the Greeks use the words the bowels of compassion, and that's where the word that is used in relation to the Lord Jesus repeatedly. It says he was moved with compassion, and it means to yearn from within the bowels. You know, that funny feeling when you get in the pit of your stomach and times of great emotion, move with compassion.
We often quote, First John, verse sixteen, it says, Hereby perceive we the love of God that he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. The next verse says, But whoso hath his world good, and see as his brother hath meed, and shall thou be devolved of compassion for him. How dwelleth the love of God in him? It was very easy to say, as James writes, You see your brother in need, you say, Depart, and peace be ye warmed, and filled, notwithstanding You don't give to the man in his need. He says, what does that amount to? George Sharp of Kenilworth, New Jersey told me a story one time. He said about this man in this great big church in Ireland.
And it had a stone floor in his church. And after the preacher had completed his service this particular day, He walked all the way to the back and waited as the people filed out. As he was waiting, a man came out and he had a loose sole on his shoe. Every time they hit the pavement, they go plump, plump, plump. And when he got back to the preacher, the preacher says, is that the best pair of shoes you have? He says, is the only pair of shoes? Well, he says, we'll have to do something about that. He reached into his pocket and he pulled out a great big roll of bill, big enough to choke a horse.
held together with a rubber band, took the rubber band off, told him to put it around his shoe. He said, put that around your shoe until you can get a better pair. And you know, sometimes we can be just as impractical as that in our dealing with human needs. Depart in peace. Be warm and safe. While even wasn't that kind of a brother. Notice what he said. We have great joy and consolation of our love because the Pauls of the saints are refreshed by thee. He was a real repression brother. And then notice fifthly, love for a slave. Remember this, that the Apostle Paul wrote and lived in the day when a slave had no rights.
Actually, under the Roman government, you could treat a slave worse than you could treat a horse. to this day that he wrote. And Paul says in his appeal in verse ten, I beseech thee for my son and my begotten and my bondage. The love and the compassion of the apostle had for this slave, this runaway slave. And he refers to him as his son. He didn't say this slave, my son.
What a difference that made. Here was Paul, who was greatly beloved of Philemon, and he appealed to receive this man as his son. None of his slaves. So what a difference that relationship made with his son. Absolute my son, my son, with God I have died for thee. This my son was dead. He's alive again. He was lost in his family. The Lord Jesus said, if a son shall ask, that beggar, you know, that dirty, filthy beggar, he says, how about fifty cents to buy a family? But if a son, if a son shall ask, my son.
And he seeks to receive him not now as a slave, but as a brother beloved in the Lord. And he says, especially to me, but how much more unto thee. This epistle of Philemon, when you think of it, is a love story from beginning to end. Paul's love to Philemon. Paul's love to Anissimus. Philemon's love to Christ. Philemon's love for Paul. Philemon's love to God's people. Philemon's love to Anissimus is just one grand and beautiful love story. And I think what it's telling us in one way or another, that's There is only one fruit of the Spirit of God.
If we're going to be like Christ, the thing that is going to mark us is the life of love toward us. Isn't that what we want? That was the true of Him. And that's what we should desire to be true of us. And so Paul writing to the Galatians says, the fruit of the Spirit is, not the fruits of the Spirit are, because the fruit of the Spirit is only one. Someone has said that the fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy is love rejoicing. Peace is love resting. Long suffering is love suffering.
Gentleness is love caring. Goodness is love working. He went about doing good. Faith is love trusting. Relations that faith works by love. And then you have meekness with love submitting. Not my will, but thine be done. This is the love of God that we keep to His commandments. Love submitting. And then temperance or self-control. Love-control. Ruling in the life. Someone has spoken of him in this way. Love, joy, peace. That's inward. Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness.
That's love outward. That's in relation to our fellow men. Pave, meekness, temperance, that's love upward. That's in relation to God. The fruit of the Spirit is. First of all, you have the impression of love, the inward reality. Love, joy, peace. That's something that we know within. The impression. And somebody said, every impression will produce an equal expression. And we have the expression of love in the next three. Long-suffering, gentleness, Love suffers long. Paul writes in verse Corinthians thirteen in his comments. Love can take it and still dish it out.
And then secondly, it says gentleness. And the scripture says that the servant of the Lord must be gentle unto all men. The world says you need to be tough. God says know what we need today is real gentle men and gentle women. One of my favorite verses is Ephesians chapter four, verse thirty two says, Be kind. Tendron heart is forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. We had a fellow that used to write a column in the Myma Herald in our town paper. He died of cancer at a very young age. But I remember one article he wrote one day. He had several small children. And he also had several small puppies on this particular occasion.
And one of his boys was climbing on the piano, he'd yell at him, George, get down off of that piano. And then the lady says, Edward, what in the hell are you doing? And in between, he'd say to those puppies, come here, no teller, you're cute little rat, come here, come in the box. You know, he'd be talking to puppies like this. And then he'd yell at the kid, get down, haven't I told you, you know, and he'd scream at them. And he'd say, you're puppies, come here and say, nice boy. It's going like that. And finally, his little girl sighed up to him. If you look up at his face, she's only about four years old, says Maddie. I like the way you talk to God. I'd get through you, wouldn't it? He's done. Gentlemen.
Alfred gives you to say, home. Definition. The place where we were treated the best and act the worst. Love. That's where it begins. Goodness. Lord Jesus has said, He went about doing good. And it says, we have been created in Christ Jesus. I'm doing good work. And then we have faith, meekness, and temperance. There you have the submission of love, brought into control, subject to the will of God. Faith looks up to God and says, Lord, what will thou have meekness? Trust him in every circumstance of life. Take my yoke upon you, said the Lord Jesus, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and he shall find rest of your soul.
For my yoke is easy. And my burden is light. Someone has said meekness is not weakness. It's strength under control. I heard about the little boy, you know, and he was standing by a fruit stand and those beautiful, delicious apples there. And the fellow who owned the store says, what are you here trying to do? Seal one of my apples? He says, no, I'm trying not to. Well, that's meekness. Trying not to. Very easy to do it. But that's frightening. under control. We read of the Lord Jesus. He was me and lowly at heart. I think it's interesting that you never read any physical description of the Son of God in the Word of God.
I'm not speaking of those symbolical presentations like in the Book of Revelation and in the Song of Solomon. We don't not know whether the Lord Jesus was short at all. We don't know whether he was center-class. We don't know whether he had a beard or he didn't have a beard. We don't know whether he had gray hair, black hair, brown hair, Red hair, we don't know anything, whatever. We don't know whether it's blue eyes or brown eyes. Not one word. But you know what he calls attention to, the thing he wants to learn. Okay, my Joseph, I'm going to learn to be unique and lowly at heart. God doesn't look at me out there, dear. He looks on the eye. And he wants to see that. You know, that Lord is.
has often been said that the greatest motivating force in this world is love. And so Paul does not appeal to Philemon on the basis of the law. Had he done that, the law would have said, go out and grab Onesimus and beat him with an inch of his life, or even if you beat him to death, that was all legal. He was perfectly within the law to live on. Paul doesn't make his appeal to the law. He says in verse nine, for love's sake, for love's sake, I rather besiege the being such and one and fall the ages. John thirteen one says, Jesus having loved his own which in the world, he loved him unto the end.
He rose from suffering. He got a towel. He girded himself. He took a basin. And kneeling at those disciples that there is dirty seats. the son of God began to wash their feet. He said, what I do you don't understand now. Well, they certainly knew he was washing their feet. He said, you don't understand the meaning of what I'm doing now, but he said, you'll understand your actions. And in that chapter, he says to them three times over in two verses. Love one another. Love one another. That's what it's all about.
He bent down and he cared and ministered to them. He said, just as I've ministered to you. This is what you're supposed to do. Not literal seat washing, but he said, you know we're going to a defiling world. And we need to use the water to move. To cool one another's feet. Not to pour hot water all over us. But to seek to be a hell one to another. Notice, first of all, his royal commandment. A new commandment, give I unto you. And the Lord Jesus never commands us to do anything that he doesn't enable us to do. He never commands us to do anything that he will not enable us to do.
I can't love that brother. I can never forgive that brother. Don't say that. Because the Lord says, love one another. He doesn't say love ten thousand people. He says love one another. That puts it between you and me. I have a responsibility to love you. You have a responsibility to love me. He doesn't say love everybody in the whole world. That's the new commandment that he has given unto us. The Lord's command to love one another is mentioned five times in the New Testament. It's repeated seven times by the Apostle Paul. John refers to it in his writings fourteen times.
And Peter, four times. Thirty times all together. Isn't that something? Love one another. In other forms, forgive one another, and so forth. You know, do this, it says, for love's sake. First of all, we have the royal commandment. We have the reason and measure of love. He says, love one another as I have loved you. That seemed like a fall over the deadness. He says, I want you to love one another just like I've loved you. How did he love them? He didn't love them because of their falls, but he loved them in spite of their falls.
I don't know how you would have felt, but I can imagine how I would have felt the Lord Jesus had just instituted the remembrance of the Lord's sufferer. And Luke twenty-two is recorded. And right after that, the disciples are quarreling and bickering among themselves, who's going to be number one in the kingdom? And then the Lord said, do you remember that who's the greatest? The one that waits on the table or the one who served at the table? And they said, the one that served is the greatest. He said, he said, it shall not be so among you. He said, and I am among you as one that served. He said, I'm the waiter at the table. And then he said to him, not against his law, but here were these disciples and we look at their shameful conduct.
And the Lord said, ye are they which have continued with me in all of my trials. Isn't that lovely? He spoke approvingly of that which he should approve. Those men that stuck with him who seconded in spite of all the failure, that check of their His love covered the multitude of their sins. And he spoke with approval of that which they had done out of love for him. And then thirdly, in John thirteen and verse thirty-five, the Lord spoke of the result and witness of their love. He said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Not because you read the Bible. Not because you go to church. Not because you pray. But because you have a love and concern for one another, it is the most convincing argument that we can give the world. By this shall all men know that you love one another. In the early history of the church, they said critically of the Christians, oh how they love one another. I'll tell you this, the world is on the inside, out, outside. God has placed us into his church, a family of redeems. And he wants by our lives to make the world so jealous and say, oh, I want to be in a family like that.
And when the love of Christ is permeating our lives, that's the effect it will have on those about us. Love. Love is marked by two primary things. First of all, it's marked by obedience. You know, I can say I love God, but how do I prove I love God? It says, if we love God, we will keep it to man. When we are obedient to his word, that's the proof that we love God. Not that we should say that we love him, any more than a child might say to his parents, I love you, mother, but never does anything that flings his mother. You know, the words are empty in meaning.
Scripture says, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And then secondly, love is marked by sacrifice. You know, you can have sacrifice without having love. The Apostle speaks of that in First Corinthians. I know I give my body to be burned, and I give all my goods to be before. Now, that would be sacrifice. And have not loved. Prophets mean nothing. So it's possible to do those things and have not loved. And while it's possible to have sacrifice without love, it is impossible to have love without sacrifice. For God so loved the world that he gave. You see, the heart and the hand must be attached for love's sake.
Five to six days. And God bless you all. His word. Shall we pray? Now, our Father, we are thankful for thy holy words. We are thankful for the privilege of looking at it again. For this example, which I have been pleased to put in thy holy word, of the love of the Apostle Paul,