Love, 2 Tim 3:10

2 Tim 3:10

Love

Love is another attribute of God that is a communicable one. As God loves, so too those made in his image are capable of loving and being loved by other humans. Yet, from the outset, we need to be reminded that the way we love is vastly different than the way God loves. His love has no limits. Ours is often limited by our sin disrupting what love is intended to be. God's love is pure. Our love is often tainted with elements that are not characteristics of love at all. The biggest is lust. True love is never described in the Bible as being something lustful--not even among spouses. In our time and for many centuries this has been one of the great confusions. People "feel" a certain way about someone so they automatically think it is love because it involves feelings. It is often mistaken identity. There are strong emotions that may come into play in our lives that are not true love, but an imitation. For instance, Falling in Love, is often, really, falling into lust, or falling into an emotional desire to have the attention of a person. We must be careful to have a right definition of love. And, as so many of the other characteristics in this list, it is God who defines what love really is. And God defines this characterisitics because it is one of a few attributes used to define God in his essence. We read, God is love.

Love is the next bit of character in the list we have been working through in 2 Tim 3:10ff. I want to read the context of the word as it appears in the text and then look at the definition, make some exposition of the idea and then talk about some application to all of us. There is application to be made all through the definition and exposition as well.

The text:

1. Carefully FollowedàTo Timothy

¹⁰ But you (Timothy) have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, ¹¹ persecutions, afflictions,

2. Persecutions Endured

which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured.

3. Due Credit for Deliverance

And out of them all the Lord delivered me.

Love:

In the KJV, the words for love are usually translated "Charity." The biblical notion of love starts with the idea of self-giving. God is the one who started it all by giving to us the world.

In love, God created the universe in order for mankind to have a place. He created all things. The apex of his creation was man, then woman to complete the man where he was lacking. What man lacked was the ability to reproduce others after his own kind and to have a helper that would be just what he needed. As we have on many occasions, we have gone back to the beginning to see where all of these attributes began to be manifest. God sustained his creation out of a general benevolent love. He sent rain of the just and the unjust. He sent the sun to shine upon all. God made the crops grow so the earliest humans could find nourishment in order to thrive. After the Fall, humans took the lives of animals as coverings and as food to provide for their needs as they sought to show dominion over all God had made. Yet, there was a particular kind of love that distinguished some from the others.

Adam and Eve sinned and fell from grace in the Garden. We've read the account of what God commanded to Adam and how Adam must have passed along the command to his wife. We read about the temptation of the devil as the serpent. We noted that Adam and Eve, after they sinned, knew they were exposed or naked. They sought to hide themselves. God manifest his presence in the Garden and spoke the consequences of the original sin by giving a number of curses.

Turn to Genesis 3 & 4, as the narrative of the patriarchal history continues:

 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." 11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" 12 Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 14So the Lord God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 

God continues with what is called the protoevangelium--the first intimation of the good news of salvation.

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." 16 To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you." 

There is a desire that includes marital relations that is not equal to lust. Lust has a lewd and lascivious component. True marital desire is a strong want to satisfy the other person in the marriage and not seeking after one's own satisfaction. This was recovered by the Puritans. Feminists in our day, the new breed of feminists, enjoy and admire the Puritans for putting proper charitable love that gives to others rather than being motivated by what one gets and relational romance back into marital life. All of this comes through the curse.

And, it continues…

17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return." 20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

In Chapter Four we get a picture of life outside of the garden. This is what it was like to be the first fallen couple in a now fallen creation.

Gen 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord." 

Literally, she said, I have a man, the Lord. Eve may have seen the birth of her firstborn son as the fulfillment of the prophecy heard through the curse. She believed God. Perhaps, a little bit too literally. Many people have done that in the history of the world; many still do that today. But, Eve heard from God that one would come to reverse the curse. As soon as a son was born, she remembered the promise and spoke these words. At least,  Eve was disposed to understand every experience in her life in the light of God's revelation. And, it was a meager revelation at that point. Without seeing the word, Love, we find the love of God. The first parents sinned. It was through Adam that all mankind would inherit a sinful nature giving sinful tendencies in everything that was done. But, here we see the curse starting to have less effect. Eve, by faith believed the promise. She was waiting for the one to come who would crush the serpent. This one would be the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam. It would take many years for this to come to fruition. And, through those many years, God's people would come to understand the salvation as being a manifestation of the love of God. The unquantifiable, infinite, eternal, unchanging love of God.

As the son of Pharisees, or as he calls himself, a Pharisee of Pharisees, the Apostle Paul would have been taught these truths in the synagogue in his hometown from the time of his birth. Paul knew these stories well. So, when in his epistles he writes that "God loved us" he is including himself in that pronoun. Paul wrote much about the saving love of God. Inn Romans 5:8 we read "God commended his love toward US, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Paul writes about this love that the believers and he received from a gracious God. In Ephesians 1, Paul would say this "love had been lavished upon us." As the world might look at it, it was too much. In the mind of Paul it was just enough. He knew the reality of what God's love had done for sinners--it broke through the sinful barrier that men and women would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Or, in the words of another Apostle, John, who wrote that familiar verse, John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might have everlasting life. It is the love of God that makes it possible for men and women like us to have everlasting life. What man must do is believe, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save them from their sins and to give them everlasting life.

This is the particular giving of the Son of God. Not all people will enjoy this benefit, only those who believe. The application of this seems obvious--repent of your sin and believe the gospel of God's grace.

Paul commends Timothy for carefully following his ways. Here we focus in on Paul's love that reflects God's love. The question that seems obvious is how do people love God? It is not to have a certain set of feelings about him, but defined in our actions towards Him.

Let me ask the parents a question that I don't expect an answer for, at least not now. When is it you have a great deal of love for your children? It is when they are doing something cute. But, that wears off quickly. Is it not when they obey you and have learned to obey you so they don't continue in disobedience.

Aren't you favorable disposed to your children when you see the attempts to teach them godly character are having some effect? Don't you rejoice when they have followed through on something like picking up their room, or making the bed, or taking out the trash, or they show concern for a younger sibling or respect for an adult…. How do you feel about your child when you see these sorts of things? You thank the Lord for bring fruit and way down deep you tell yourself that biblical child-rearing works--it may take a while to train some, but God has given his wisdom and when followed, it works. That wisdom is given by God for us to learn what to do and why to do it because God loves us..

The way God says he wants to be loved by his people is by keeping his Word or in other Words, by keeping his law. In a way similar to what we experience as parents, God as our father desires our obedience to his standards, to his ethics, to his ways that are better than our own.

Exodus 20:6 in the middle of the giving of the Ten Commandments, or the Law, God places those words showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments. They are not just anybody's commandments. They are God's own. Love to God is equated with keeping God's commandments.

In John 14:5, in the upper room, Jesus said the same thing to his disciples. If you love me, keep my commandments. So much of Jesus ministry toward toe Jews of his day had to do with their wrong understanding of His Law contrasted with the right understanding of it. The people were often astonished at Jesus's teaching because he spoke with such authority. There are dozens of places in the gospels where we could go to see this worked out.

And even after the New Covenant has been inaugurated by Christ's death, we find the Law as the standard in the book of Acts as late as Chapter 23. We find the principle of fallen nature not following the Law of God in Rom 7:8 where the The commandment of God produced in Paul all sorts of sinful desire. Paul summarizes the Law in Rom 13:9 as being consistent with love. Love for God and neighbor reaches back into the Law--Exodus 20; Deut 6:4; Lev 19 to not hold a grudge against your neighbor, but to love them.

In 1 Cor 7:19 reads that it is the keeping of commandments that matters more than circumcision.

Keeping His Commandments is how God wants to be loved.

If we don't love him as he wants to be loved and he has truly loved us, he might do to us what he has commanded parents to do with their children, give disciple. In both the old testament and the new we meet this idea of God's chastisement.

Why does God chastise us?

Why do we correct our children?

The answer is the same for both of those questions. It is because parents love their children.

In Hebrews 12: 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."

Don't despise the correction of God that comes in many different ways. It might come through hearing the Word preached, or read, it might come by way of a casual comment in a conversation, it might come from the lips of a child, it might come from unexpected sources as the Spirit brings conviction to your mind. There are many ways God is free to contradict you. Listen and heed his hand of correction. It may not start off to be pleasant, but if we continue reading in Heb 12 we discover " but afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those so exercised by it."

If chastening comes, it is a sign that God still loves you. It is people who never experience the correction of the Lord in any way that I feel sorry for. It is those God loves, that he corrects. Thank God for His perfect, fatherly correction. It is always a good thing to be loved by God.

And Paul's love observed by Timothy would have included Paul's love toward God and his love and concern for people. On many occasions, he almost gave his life that he might preach the gospel of salvation, the good news of God's love towards those who believe. What a blessing it must have been to see the Apostle in action as he loved God and man.

Romans 5:5 tells us, 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Those who have come to believe can't help but be loving toward others. Toward their God, their spouses, their children, their church, their neighbors and even their enemies. We should be the most loving people on the planet. Another reason for this is that it is something the Spirit of God produces in us in order for it to be displayed from us to others. In Gal 5:22-23 it is the fruit of the Spirit that is mentioned first. Jay Adams calls it the great umbrella. Love covers all, including a multitude of others sins.

There is so much to be said about love. But let me go back where I began--to God's definition of human love. He gives us a portrait through another of Paul's great lists that we might see what this God-wrought love looks like.

1 Cor 13:4-7: 4 Love suffers long

We saw what long-suffering is last week. The Spirit produces this. If this is not how someone deals with other believers, it is not of the Spirit of God.

and is kind;

This is so basic, but not always practised. Those who are zealous for the doctrines of grace ought too to be zealous for grace or kindness in the way they treat others. Are you patient and kind?

love does not envy; love does not parade itself,

The daughter or friends recently announced publicly on Facebook that she was breaking up with her boyfriend. She wanted him to give the kind of attention he was not ready to give. So, she made a public parade of these things. They are back together, But, what she is ready to give and what she wants is not what the scriptures define as love. Call it "love." But it is something else. She wants what she sees others have and wants it for herself. Love might look very different from one to another. We should never require someone to change for us. That is self-centered envy. I do not know if her public parading of the end of their relationship embarrassed him into taking her back. If it did, it will not last. Many people want relationships with others thinking they can change them over time. When the other person, does not change, the one expecting change sees it as unfaithfulness. It is unjust. But, many times I have heard, especially the woman, say things about thinking they would change the other. We need to accept others as God does. That is as they are, not as we want them to be. Some never change for the better. People are who they are at the time we know them. They often represent themselves as different than reality. The passage says,

is not puffed up; 

We must not inflate our opinions in the eyes of others nor let others be inflated in our own view of them. That is why longer relationships are better than those that are a flash in the pan. Even in the church, it is after a while that we get to know each other with their gifts and graces and all their remaining flaws.

5 does not behave rudely,

Humans have this tendency, don't we? It may be in the confines of our own presence or with those we know best and are therefore most comfortable. The love produced by God and manifest through believers should have none of this. About a year ago I asked someone why they were being so rude to someone else. They were offended I asked. I reminded them that true Christian love does not behave rudely. They replied, "oh." They never repented, they did seek justification for it. That's whay guys do. No, strong men under the influence of the Holy Spirit do not behave rudely. They show a vigorous God-wrought love to all, even men. There is nothing feminine about it. It is how Jesus conducted himself among men. Give me Jesus and his qualities over those of the world any day. 

does not seek its own,

This is what our age is all about. Again, Christianity is counter-cultural. Christians should stand out by how different they are. Yet, many fear living distinctively different than the world.

is not provoked,

It is not easily wronged to the point where one flies off the handle--as the cliché goes.

thinks no evil; 

It thinks the best of others until there is no more evidence to give the benefit of the doubt. Then it is not evil that is thought, it is truth based on certainty. Some people don't like this because it hits to close to home.

6 does not rejoice in iniquity,

Too many times I have had people almost boast about their sin. Sins they have commited in stealth as one man put it.

but rejoices in the truth; 

The truth is not always pleasant. But, when it is and it proves our prejudices wrong, we are glad to hear it.

7 bears all things,

True love worked in beleivers by the Spirit of God does this. Love endure a lot from others.

believes all things,

Until there is reason not to. We put the best construction of what professing believers tell us until it is contradicted by other testimony. In my experience it is often from the lips of the same person that give reason to doubt what they have said.

hopes all things,

It anticipates a resolution of goodness and grace.

endures all things.

This is the great catch-all at the end.

This is a portrait of the love we are to have for one another. How wonderful would our lives be if all of us loved in this way. How wonderful would it be for people who visit to find a loving place that shows concern for them. In the NT, people could tell God the Father was among his people by the way they loved one another.

And, there is so much more that could be said about this wonderful concept of love. This is true love that should be sought by all. It is the pattern for all of our loving, especially for those seeking a partner in life. Are you ready to love like this? AMEN