Welcome to the Fourth Sunday of My Fall Series –

Redefining Godliness: Debunking Myths and Embracing True Faith

I’ve been spending these fall weeks talking about what it means to be a Godly woman and have identity rooted in Christ. I’ve talked about Proverbs 31, Sexual Purity, and Fruits of the Spirit. Today, I talk about how to Live in Love in our everyday life and how romantic love and biblical love can be confused with one another.

What is biblical love?

What usually comes to mind is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” And that is true because it displays how biblical love can be recognized. But I would also say that is how God loves – it’s the essence of his character. If you fill in the blank with ‘God’, it shows us how God loves us. He is patient. He is kind. God’s love never fails.

Then what does it mean to live in love?

With biblical love defined, God shows us how to live in love in 1 John 4:7-21. Since this is a longer section, let’s break it down by starting with verses 7-12, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

What do verses 7-12 tell us about love?

First, they tell us that love comes from God. Meaning that to receive and give love is a gift of God. We don’t always think that immediately but love is a gift. We usually denote this to romantic love and for it being received. But truly, being able to give out love is a gift as well.

Second, they tell us that those who love come from God and know God because God is love. Sometimes we skip over that verse or we romanticize it into our own form of love. But when it says God is love, it’s referring to biblical love as defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and how God’s character embodies all those things.

Third, these first verses tell us that is not that we first loved God but God first loved us. This is crucial to remembering why we love others and how we received God’s love first before we ever gave any love back to Him. It reminds me of being an infant and how our parents loved us before we even could comprehend or speak. It’s the kind of love I give to my own children where I carried them for nine months and loved them before I ever held them in my arms. God’s love is even more powerful than that.

Let’s break down the next section, verses 13-17, “This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.”

What do verses 13-17 tell us about love?

First, they tell us we live in God and He has given us His spirit. When we acknowledge Jesus as the son of God, He lives in us. When God lives in us, we cannot help but live in love.

Second, they tell us that since we proclaim Jesus as our Lord and the Son of God, we know and rely on the love God has for us. It repeats again that God is love.

Third, love is made complete when we live in love. We love as Jesus loved. Jesus loved us so much that He died on the cross. We surrender our lives to Him and live our lives according to His word.

Let’s break down the next section, verses 18-21, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

What do verses 18-21 tell us about love?

First, they tell us there is no fear in love and that perfect love drives out fear. Meaning, that if we fear something and act out of fear of punishment, that is not love. For example, if my boyfriend asks me if I want to go watch a football game for a team I cannot stand but I’m afraid we’ll break up if I don’t go, that is not love. I’m acting out of fear. Fear and love are opposites. While this is a basic example and we could go into love is sacrificial and does things it does not want to do at times for love of others. But if we fear how others will react to our boundaries and envision punishment for it, that is not love. That is fear. That’s why healthy relationships base their decisions out of love and not fear. Healthy relationships are built on a foundation of truth as truth and love walk together in unity. “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” 1 Corinthians 13:6 as mentioned above.

Second, the verses tell us that if we claim to love others but hate our fellow Christians, we aren’t living in love. While this is a hard pill to swallow, it’s the truth. What this means is that despite how other Christians react to us or treat us when we disagree, we live by Jesus example to love them. This does not mean that we accept any and all behaviors or keep friendship with them. We cannot be close to everyone in the church but we can love others in Christ to keep unity. That is one of Satan’s biggest weapons – internal conflicts within the church body. I would even argue that those who leave the church fully because of religion struggle to love others. God calls us love our enemies and pray for them. It’s easier to love people who love us than love those we disagree with.

We’ve defined biblical love and what to live in love means. But how do we live in love?

To live in love means to love with our actions. We are our choices, as cliché as that sounds. But those that love deeply, love in their actions, “Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth” 1 John 3:18. We are a living sacrifice to God and so we live as Jesus lived. Romans 12 gives us specifics. It shows that we overcome evil with good, we use our gifts to glorify God within the body of Christ, we are hospitable, we serve others, we live at peace with others as much as possible, and we allow God to repay when wronged, leaving vengeance in His hands.

To Live in Love is Counter Cultural

When we picture living in love, we tend to picture romance. But to live in God’s love, we’ve seen that we live sacrificially to God and to others, denying our “rights” by surrendering to God’s way of loving others. We’ve covered 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 4, and Romans 12, we see that they all are similar and give us insight on how to fully live in love. This is not what the world tells us love is. The world tends to tell us that we love ourselves first, we tend to our needs and emotions above others, and that we don’t have to deny ourselves to fully love.

That is what I love about the Bible so much if I’m honest. It’s truth transcends our faulty notions and receptions of worldly love. Godly love is much much much more powerful. It’s even difficult to fully comprehend.

Ephesians 3:17-20 is consistently taken out of context and misunderstood so if we read it slowly, we’ll see how powerful God’s love truly is, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

That verse blows my mind. If you read just the bolded words, you’ll see it tells us that when we are rooted in God’s love, we may have to power to grasp how vast it truly is. It surpasses all our knowledge and fills us with all the fullness of God. God can do immeasurably more with His power at work in us. Meaning that to live in love, means grasping how much God can do through us in our lives. If we think on that even momentarily, we think of the prayers we pray for others to come to know God, to heal, and then when God moves how He acts as He weaves His plan of love.

The Bible is Ultimately A Love Story

Do we ever see that in the text? I think sometimes we get wrapped up in the study, in the learning and knowledge, and even in application to live in obedience that we forget the Bible came to be because God loved us. The Bible itself is a book of God’s love for humanity. Not only did he send his only son to die in our place but He left us His word. When we cling to the word, when we love God and seek Him, that is when we experience the fullness of God in Ephesians 3. God is jealous for us. We are the objects of His affection. He wrote us the Bible not for amusement or dissection but because He loved us. Those moments we turn to the word and it speaks to us, it comforts us, or it pierces us, that is the power of God’s love.

If you’re not a writer or haven’t had a book written about you before, maybe it’s hard to comprehend how love builds those stories. Just one day figuring out that the Bible is a book of love has helped me understand God’s love more deeply in the last handful of years than I have most of my adult life just by knowing He wrote a book for me. For us. For humanity. If my book was written because I loved someone, imagine God writing a book for everyone who ever lived. That is love.

How do we live in love every single day?

Ways to Live in Love:

1. Pray to Know God’s Will: Daily prayer and bible study renew and protect our minds to live in love according to God’s will. To know God’s will better, pray on what is pleasing and perfect to Him.
2. Serve: Find out what your spiritual gift is and use it to serve your church. Give to others in need.
3. Be Joyful in Prayer: Find someone who is struggling and encourage them in their walk with Christ by praying for them daily.
4. Overcome Evil with Good: Find a person who you find difficult and do something kind for them that they would never know about and you cannot be repaid for.

The best example of love we have is Jesus going to the cross and dying for us. While there were a lot of verses discussed and talked about, the basic truth to live in love is to live as Jesus did. Jesus’s love overcame death. Meaning that we have died to the law, to the things of this world, and we now live in His love. His love is that powerful. I just want to remind you today if you are struggling in love, receive it, to give it, or to know God loves you if you are in tough season of your life, that God is love. God sent his Son to the grave to save you. He loves you. He “knitted [you] together in your mother’s womb” Psalm 139:13.

I pray that you are reminded of God’s love today. He loves you so very much. You are His creation. He made you to love and be loved in return. He made you to love others. I pray that you receive His gift of love and give it to others today as you live your life in His love. I pray that His peace shines upon you today and that you draw joy from the wells of His salvation.

Homework This Week: Daily pray all of Psalm 139. Be reminded of how deeply God loves you and how He encourages you to live in love.