Ken Styles - Class 1: The Love of the Father

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is the November 2010 North Battle for Study Weekend with Brother Ken Stiles. His overall theme is Godly Love. This is his first class, subtitled The Love of Our Father. Our reading was taken from 1 John chapter 4. Brother Ken? Well, thank you, Brother Tim. Good afternoon, everyone. We're going to put a couple of brethren to work right away, if that's all right.

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   How is it that? I'm going to hand out to everyone. I haven't had a chance to have somebody here. We'll start with everyone getting their own copy, and then if we run out in the back, we'll maybe ask a couple of the couples to double up.

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   The purpose of this is that you don't have to take notes necessarily and write down all the verses. And it's also to help reinforce what we have found regarding this subject, that it is not a subject that you study once and then you've completed your study. It's a study that you build upon.

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   And continue to see the theme of Godly Love in Scripture as you go through the readings and go through other studies. And hopefully by the end of this weekend, you'll see that it has that potential. But we'd like to begin by sharing with you just how happy Sister Diane and I are to be with you this weekend.

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   It really is a spiritual privilege and a pleasure to sit down with brethren and sisters of like precious faith to open God's word and to be instructed from it. But the subject that we're considering for the weekend, godly love, as we have styled it, is what we feel the, thanks Brother Nick, what the gospel is intended to develop within us.

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   It's, it's, it can become, as we have found in our life, a power that is greater than sin. And we don't mean that in any way other than it's stated. But we all know how powerful sin can be in our life. Either through internal temptation or in challenging relationships or whatever the case may be.

7. 2:39

   And you'll see in Scripture, from the mouth and from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, His declaration. That the power of His love for His God, for His Father in His life, was stronger than the power of sin. We'll see that it's not the same as human love. And we will need to differentiate between the two as we progress through the studies.

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   We'll look at examples of Bible people, faithful Bible characters, who embraced godly love as a principle by which they lived. Esther did not have godly love at the beginning of chapter 4. In the book of Esther, she had adopted and embraced godly love by the end of chapter 4. And it made a marked difference in her life and in her character.

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   We'll look at how godly love applies to husbands and wives, to parents, to brethren and sisters, in the ecclesia, and its great power for good in our relationships together.

10. 3:42

    God's love can teach us to be different people. Because we learn to love like Jesus loved. It's not something that happens mystically. It's not something that happens mysteriously. But when we learn to love one another as Jesus loved us and loves us still, it will teach us to be different people. We have one quote in the handout from Brother Roberts.

11. 4:11

    We like to begin with this because we found it to be very effective and very helpful in summarizing the study. And as we read through it, this is section one on the handout. And don't worry, we won't get through all the sections of the handout over the weekend. But again, we've left you with what we have found to be helpful in our study.

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    So for the parts that we're not able to cover, you can at least take those with you. As we read through the quote, notice how he stresses the importance of love and secondly, the danger we face in leaving it out of our life. There can be nothing more certain, he says, than that the sentiment of love is at the very bottom of the whole scheme of the truth in which we rejoice.

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    There can be nothing more certain than that the very object of the truth is to manifest God's love to us and to develop God's love in us. There can be nothing more certain than that the truth in its ultimate and eternal development, as we might say, will present the very highest form of this impulse of love.

14. 5:15

    And there can be nothing more certain either than that those who are not carried along by this prevailing impulse, which originates the truth and which we may also say is the essence of the truth, will be left behind. God is love and it is only in proportion as we remember this that we shall become capable of reflecting this quality.

15. 5:37

    We must remember the whole of the truth and not a part only. We must not leave out the love. This is our danger. We are not likely to leave out anything else. We see from the Bible that God is angry with the wicked, that corrupt and sinful human nature is nothing in his sight, that Jesus will be manifested to destroy the sinners of mankind, and that there is no salvation except in God's appointed way.

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    We see the necessity of placing ourselves in opposition to the corruption around us and are forced into a continual attitude of defense and attack. Therefore, we are not liable to forget our duty in these things, but we are liable to forget that God is love and that the whole truth is but the exemplification and expression of it.

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    What we find in Scripture, and we'll see as we go through the classes, is that the pinnacle of what the truth is intended to lead us to is God's love. All of our doctrines, our Bible readings and Bible study, our singing, our prayers, our joint fraternal weekends, our trials and suffering, our ecclesial activities, even our baptism is all intended and designed to lead us to God's love.

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    It's why Jesus died on the cross. It's why the Bible has been left on record for us. All of it is intended to bring us to the point where we are developing God's love in our life. And we see that he is at work to develop his love within us. And the outcome of his love at work in our life, and as we develop his love in our life, is it provides for us a new heart that will transform our character.

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    Again, referring to the handout at number two, the first thing to note about godly love is that it doesn't happen naturally. It's not something we're born with. It's something that must be learned. It must be developed within us. And it isn't learned without much heartache. It asks a 130-year-old father to slay his son, whom he loves, as a test of his faith.

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    It asks another father to live with grief for 20 years over the apparent death of his beloved son. It asks a prophet, a husband, to refrain from mourning over the death of his wife, whom God acknowledged was the desire of his eyes. It strikes family tragedy and bodily affliction into a blameless and upright man.

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    A man, scripture says, was one who feared God and eschewed evil. There was none like him in all the men of the east. On three separate occasions, God's love causes a mother from Bethlehem to stand over the gravesite of her husband and her two sons in Moab. It responds to the refusal, the faithful refusal of a 90-year-old man to bow down to the head of the Jews' enemies by permitting a death sentence to be passed upon the entire community of believers.

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    And it then asks a queen of a vast empire to lay down her life for her people. In the New Testament, it permits the Jewish persecutors to cause havoc in the life of an apostle in city after city after city as he tries to preach the gospel to save those who are in darkness.

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    And then God's love leaves him in prison for two whole years when he could have been out preaching and witnessing. Finally, God's love asked the beloved Son in whom he was well pleased to lay down his life and to submit himself to a public crucifixion. Brethren and sisters and young people, this is the love of God.

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    It's all done out of love, out of a desire on his part to save those whom he loved, to teach them to walk by faith in the midst of their suffering and to love him in response to the trials that he brought into their life. It was designed to keep them from being overcome by sin or if they were already overcome by sin, to rescue them from that situation.

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    But don't just see the suffering of the people we've listed there. Recognize the wisdom of our God. Look at all the good that came out of these afflictions. The eternal promises that came out of the situation with Abraham. The redemption of a family in the case of Naomi. The redemption of an entire generation in the case of Mordecai and Esther.

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    And the redemption of an entire race in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we were to ask each of these faithful men and women about the love of God, about the wisdom of his love, each of them would tell us that God is right and God is wise in how he loves us.

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    And they would echo the sentiment that we not turn to sin in the midst of our trials that he brings into our life. They would encourage us to trust his love, to embrace his love, to learn to reflect his love, and make it the love that we reflect in our life. Because it is the way to life.

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    The way to life eternal. It's important to recognize and identify up front what love is. Especially when you hear the concept of love used so abundantly in the world today. For the purposes of our study, we are going to use God's definition of love. We're going to use the Bible's definition of love.

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    And how it defines love. And we will differentiate it from time to time between it and human love. And it can be a bit confusing at times. Because we see God's love on the one hand and we see human love on the other hand. And sometimes they can be confusing and almost appear to be the same.

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    They are not. They come from a different source and they direct a person's actions in a different direction. And we'll see ample evidence of that. The definition and the way that we would summarize it is not one-dimensional. It involves all of the 12 aspects that we have listed under number 3 and likely more.

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    We're just trying to demonstrate the fact that godly love cannot simply be summarized by a single term or a single sentence. When you take all of the verses in Scripture which speak of God's love and godly love and you put them together, this is just a simple summary of 12 aspects of it.

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    And again, there's likely more. First and foremost, the one we know well is it's a self-sacrificing love. It's a putting the needs of others before our own kind of love and others first, not me first, love. Because he laid down his life, John writes in 1 John 3.16, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

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    Secondly, it's obedience to God's commandments. If you love me, Christ says, you will keep my commandments. It's done from faith. It springs from faith. In Galatians 5 and 6, Paul writes, faith is working through love. You see, if faith is not at the foundation of what we are doing, when we think we are showing love, then it is not godly love that we are showing to another person.

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    If it is not springing or arising from faith, we may be doing them a lot of good. But it isn't godly love. Trusting that God will take care of us if we obey him. That he will bring us through the various trials we may be in. And the wonder of godly love and how it's connected with faith is that we continue to trust him regardless how vulnerable a situation this might put us in.

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    And how difficult and how much more difficult our situation might become. Oftentimes, for those who learn to love with the love of God, their situation actually became more difficult and more stressful. And the trials were heaped further upon them because of the fact that they were showing and reflecting godly love in their life.

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    Because of Joseph's love for his brethren in chapter 37, his life will become increasingly more difficult in subsequent chapters. Because of Ruth's love for Naomi, her life will become increasingly more difficult. the same with Nehemiah, the same with Mordecai, and there's others that we could recall. Number four, it's done in hope of a future reward.

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    Hebrews 6 says that we should remain diligent in our love for the saints in full assurance of the hope that we have. It's done not because a person deserves our love. And this is when you begin to see how godly love is so different than human love. Godly love is not extended because a person deserves our love.

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    But because a person needs our love and what it brings to their situation. We don't deserve God's love. We were sinners, as Roman 5 tells us, and enemies when God loved us and Christ died for us. So God's love is not something we earn. It's not something we're entitled to, as we know.

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    God's love is something we need. And if we didn't have it, we'd be lost. So when a person is in need, we don't ask the question, do they deserve this?

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    The question we ask is do they need this? It doesn't matter what they've done. Not godly love. And if they need that, that's what the Lord says we should give to.

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    When a brother or sister is overcome by sin, whether it's because of despair or temptation or wrong doctrine or whatever the situation may be, what they need us to bring into their situation is God's love to help rescue them from that situation. That's not human love. That's godly love. It's giving to the need of a brother or sister, whatever it might be.

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    Deuteronomy 15 and 1 Corinthians 8, verse 9 speak of giving based upon their need, not our surplus. If we're giving to others based upon our surplus and what we have left over when our needs are taken care of, we will see that is not godly love. That is human love. It requires our total involvement, our total commitment.

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    And we recall this as being the first commandment that Christ spoke of in summarizing this subject. It requires all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. So godly love is not something that we do or show periodically, but in every situation in our life, there is never a conversation I should have with my wife without bringing godly love into that conversation.

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    Now I'm not saying I do that every time and I certainly don't want to leave you with the mistaken impression that I stand before you as someone who has perfected this subject because I haven't. But these are the spiritual ideals, the standards that God is calling us to. And we're going to see he doesn't just give us these standards and say, what do you think?

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    Pick out one or two. We will see that it is God's expectation that we develop his love in us. It is the expectation of the Lord Jesus Christ that we develop his love in us.

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    So I should never have a conversation with my 15-year-old son at home regardless of what he has done, regardless of how shaming his actions have been to me and to my reputation, whatever my reputation might be. I should never interact with him in any way without bringing God's love into that situation. And that's what it means in my mind to love God with all our heart, all our soul, our strength, and our might.

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    The second commandment, we are to do for our neighbor as we would like to have done for us. Now this principle of loving your neighbor as yourself can be a bit confusing. Some people think it means, well I need to learn to love myself before I can learn to other people. That is not what the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching.

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    When he says we need to love our neighbor as ourself, he says take a look at the situation that your neighbor is in and put yourself in that situation. And then ask yourself, if I was in that situation, what would I need? And he uses the principle as we know of the Good Samaritan.

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    He was attacked by thieves and the Good Samaritan came along and bound up his wounds and poured out oil and wine and then he sent him on his beast and the Good Samaritan walked while the man who was wounded rode on the beast and then he stayed with him that night in the inn and he got up the next day and he took care of the bill and he asked the innkeeper to keep looking after this individual.

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    See, whatever needs the Good Samaritan had that day when he was walking along the road, whatever needs he had immediately became of secondary importance to him because here was a neighbor lying in a ditch and he asked himself, if I was in that situation, what would I need for someone to come along and do for me?

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    And we can begin to see the power of godly love at work in our life when we begin to see that the needs of others, if we are loving with God's love, can take on that type of importance in our life.

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    Matthew 7, verse 12, which we won't take the time to look up, says, Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law in the prophets. See, godly love is what the law in the prophets were intended to bring a person to.

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    Matthew 22, verse 40, says, On these two commandments, after Jesus had summarized the first great commandment and the second great commandment, he says, On these two commandments hang all the law in the prophets. Romans 13, verse 10, as we know, says, Love is the fulfillment of the law. That's why we say it is the pinnacle of what discipleship is intended to bring us to.

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    And that is true both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Godly love is done as a servant, not a master, as we see in Galatians 5, verse 13. Through love be servants of one another. Galatians 5, says, It restrains us. It prevents us from engaging in wrong conduct. And then it also constrains us.

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    It compels us, according to 2 Corinthians 5, 14, to right conduct. It provides a proper balance between insisting upon right doctrine and conduct while being careful not to offend in matters of conscience. So when we come to 2 John, and the ecclesia there had a misunderstanding of love, they were under the impression that love teaches that we should accept all brethren and fellowship all brethren regardless of their beliefs.

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    And John writes and he says, You misunderstand God's love. You are wrong to welcome and fellowship all brethren regardless of their beliefs. That is not godly love to wink at error. In 1 Corinthians 8, when Paul was talking about meat offered to idols, no, idols don't exist. But if my eating meat offered to idols will cause my brother to sin to the point of losing his salvation, Paul says, it is godly love not to eat of that meat.

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    So in matters of conscience that could cause my brother or sister to lose their way, even though an idol doesn't exist, godly love will not eat of that meat. And lastly, James 2 says it does good to all. It is careful not to show partiality. In Scripture then, godly love is portrayed in a preeminent position.

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    It's all-encompassing, all facets of our discipleship. All that we do is to be done in love. We know in Colossians 3 that both Paul and Peter speak of its preeminence. Above all things, Paul writes, put on love which is the bond of perfectness. 1 Peter 4, verse 7, the end of all things is at hand.

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    Be sober, Peter writes, watch unto prayer. Above all, have fervent love one for another which covers a multitude of sins. 1 Corinthians 13, we know most of what we'll hear this weekend, we've heard before. We're just trying to put it together in a way that can impress upon our minds what God is trying to teach us.

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    It holds a three-fold place, a three-fold foundation in 1 Corinthians 13 with faith and hope. But Paul writes, the greatest of these is love. Brother Thomas wrote, it was greatest because it includes hope. It hopes all things. And it includes faith because it believes all things. So to summarize godly love as simply being a self-sacrificing love, hopefully you can see is a bit too simplistic.

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    It's a bit too limiting. We really need all of the pieces. And again, that's not all of the pieces on that list of 1 to 12, but it's a good start. For example, agape love. You know, the self-sacrificing love is a big part of godly love and we don't want to diminish that at all, but it's not the only part.

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    The filial love, the love of brethren, the love of a husband for his wife, the love of children. They're all different words for love and they're all parts of godly love. Which is why in John 5, verse 20, it says that God had filial love for his son. And in John 3, verse 35, it says God had agape love for the Lord Jesus Christ as well.

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    In John 11, Christ has both filial and agape love for Lazarus. In John 16, Christ said that God had filial love for the twelve. Then he turns around in chapter 14 at verse 23 or a couple chapters earlier where he says God had agape love for them. And in that section of John in chapter 14 and 16 at that crucial night when this is the last night with the Lord Jesus Christ, he's not telling them in chapter 16 when he says God had filial love for the eleven actually, that this was somehow a diminished form of love.

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    He doesn't have the highest form of love for you. He's got a diminished form of love for you. What we learn in Scripture is that all of these pieces of God's love are important and we really need to put all the pieces together. 1 Peter 1, verse 22 says we need to have a sincere or an unfeigned filial love for our brethren, but also to agape them one another earnestly from the heart.

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    Now we mentioned it's important to differentiate between godly love and human love or natural love. How the world defines love. In Philippians 1, verse 9 it says godly love can only arise from a proper understanding of the truth by a mind enlightened in God's will and purpose. We won't go there but you can use it as a reference.

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    Godly love springs from the word. It's the principles of the word put in action. It doesn't come naturally. If all of these young kids we have here this weekend, if our, as parents, we don't sit down to teach them about God's love, they are not going to learn it all by themselves. It's something that has to be taught.

67. 27:22

    It has to be learned. It's fundamental purpose, godly love, is to turn a person from iniquity. either iniquity we have already committed or iniquity we would commit if left to ourselves. Godly love hates sin. It hates sin because it knows that that situation will not lead a person to righteousness. And this is where godly love and human love separate.

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    Human love based on humanism is a love of man without God. So that the human love, the natural love, is what we're born with. It's what's innate in the flesh of all of us. It's the principles of the flesh put into action. It's not intended. It's not based. Its outcome is not a desire to turn a person from sin.

69. 28:21

    Human love is intended to make people feel good. To make people feel loved. To make people feel important. And it's a reciprocating love. So I love you with human love and my anticipation or expectation is you will turn around and love me so I can feel good. And it's a manipulative type of love.

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    I will love you with human love because I'm hoping that somehow you're going to do something for me. That is not godly love. At times godly love can look like human love. And in those times it can be a bit confusing because it has the appearance of righteousness. It even encourages people to do good things.

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    But it encourages them to do things that are outside what God defines as the boundaries of righteousness. So with human love you have all kinds of sin being tolerated even promoted in the name of human love. Christianity is losing sight of godly love as it increasingly blends ever more human love with godly love.

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    And it ends up with a mixture part truth and part error. It ends up teaching that God is an all loving God and that he will forgive all and he will accept all and he will save all because of his all lovingness. That's human love. That's not godly love. They're even redefining love to accept alternative lifestyles so that homosexuality is finding an ever increasing presence in society and in the churches.

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    It's redefining the role of women in the churches to give them an increasingly important positions of leadership that the scripture says is not for theirs to have because of God's wisdom. If you follow current events you'll know that the Episcopalians and the Methodists in North America are moving in this direction. The Church of Canada 20 years ago crossed the homosexual bridge in allowing that way of life into their community.

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    But from the world's perspective it is seen as a better love. It's a more encompassing love. It's a more compassionate love. They will even try to defend it as being a superior love than what the scriptures speak of. So that both society and Christianity are gradually moving away from the first commandment. That's what's happening.

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    They are stressing the need for love to do good to your neighbor without the first commandment which defines what righteousness is. And when you take the first commandment out of the picture the need to love God as he defines righteousness and to obey him with all our heart and soul and strength and mind when you take that peace out and all you have left is we need to do good to all men what you end up with is all kinds of sin now being accommodated and people actually believe that is a superior form of love.

76. 31:41

    The second commandment without the first a love that is void of the righteousness of God may give people a sense of goodness but it will not lead anyone to righteousness and there is the inherent failure of it. Take a look at 2nd Timothy 3 we're familiar with this passage but this is actually a latter day prophecy about love we're familiar with the warning that Paul says to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 3 the reason we say it's a prophecy about love is notice the love and just scan down the first five verses of this latter day prophecy about love and what love will look like in the last days notice the love that will be present in the last days and notice the love that will not be present in the last days there is a love but it isn't godly love that men will be practicing these five verses describe what society looks like when godly love has been taken out of the picture in verse two men shall be lovers of their own selves do you see why we say that godly love does not teach us that we first need to love ourselves before we can learn to love other people you hear that today and Paul warned Timothy that was coming in the last days it would be perilous people would redefine love to say I first need to love myself and take care of myself before I can begin to take care of others godly love it says will disappear from society and be replaced by a love of man by human love the loves identified in the latter day prophecy

77. 33:54

    in verse two you have the loving of self and in verse four you have the loving of pleasure but there is no love of God in the last days is what Paul warns Timothy and brethren and sisters as we know this is not a warning to those outside the community Paul is warning what will happen to the community of the last days if we lose our ability to love as God intends us intends that we love what does a man or a city or a society look like who loves himself and doesn't love God and that's the description provided in verses 2 through 5 he will become covetous and boasters and proud and blasphemers children who learn to love themselves will be disobedient to parents unthankful and unholy it's far easier for those of us who have seen society change in the past 20 years to recognize the stark warning and the reality of 2 Timothy chapter 3 but especially to the young people to those who haven't seen society change over the last 20 years it's important that we teach our young people in our Sunday schools and in our CYCs and in our Bible schools and our Bible camps that we continue to identify for them just how vastly different godly love is from human love and young people regardless of the situation if anyone ever comes along to you in its simplest terms remember godly love will always lead a person to righteousness so if anyone ever comes along to you and ask you to do something or not to do something or to keep quiet about something if what they're asking

78. 35:50

    you to do will not lead a person to righteousness it is not godly love that they're asking you to show another contrast of godly love is that it is limitless it is without bounds there is nothing I should be unwilling to do for your sake within the parameters of righteousness remember we say godly love does not ignore sin in a sinner it doesn't pretend it isn't there it doesn't turn a blind eye so if I come to you and bring wrong doctrine or if I come to you and bring wrong living it is not love on your part to ignore that in my life and you may have to ultimately separate from me if I refuse to change my teaching or my conduct that is godly love but if I then come to see the error of my ways regardless what I have done and I admit my teaching was wrong my conduct was unholy and I come back with that frame of mind then the very same godly love that separated from me the very same godly love will embrace me with open arms and do all it can to help win me back to righteousness it's the same godly love that is manifested in both situations because godly love will always seek to return a person to righteousness love and love a couple other items on the handout if you look at point number five there is a special relationship between godly love and obedience they are presented as being synonymous in scripture and again it's a consistent message in the old testament and the new testament to love god is to obey

79. 38:01

    god this is the divine standard for love it's how god measures our love for him so that love and obedience are inseparable from god's standpoint and we won't go through the various examples other than to point out be careful when you read the word works especially in the new testament because it's not always a negative word in scripture and we can lose sight of the fact that scripture speaks of righteous works and we need to identify when Paul speaks of works whether he's battling against the false teachers of his day who thought salvation was by works of the flesh in contrast to the works of obedience that Paul says we need to all strive to fulfill in our life so the works of the law associated with the Pharisees and then later on with the false brethren within the community the works of the flesh that were based on keeping rituals and mutilating the flesh as he describes it in Galatians keeping the letter of the law Paul exposes those are works of the flesh !

80. 39:13

    Men gloried in these ! it was like it was a doctrine to be rejected in the first century it has no value in checking the flesh but works arising from faith righteous works works that are the fruit of righteousness that which God is intending to develop within us those kinds of works are called love because it's a reflection of our obedience to him and those kinds of righteous works are what God is seeking to develop there's also an inseparable connection a special relationship we call it in point number six between faith and love they share this special relationship we know from James 2 that we can say we have faith but if we do not have love if we do not have works if we do not have obedience then we don't have genuine !

81. 40:08

    It's a dead faith we've already seen in Galatians 5 that faith or another way to look at it is love begins with faith and when faith comes first and it precedes our love then it proves our love is godly love and not human love we first trust God and then we act by faith and love consistent with his word and that he is pleased with to give an example of how faith and works sorry faith and love work together turn over to the parable that Christ recounts when he's in Simon the Pharisee's house he arrives and the woman is weeping and wetting his feet with her tears and in verse 36 to 38 of chapter 7 we read one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him being Jesus and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet and behold a woman in the city which was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed !

82. 41:44

    Now when the Pharisee in verse 39 which had bidden Jesus saw it the Pharisee spake within himself saying this man Jesus if he were a prophet would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner and then Christ speaks the parable to Simon and it is a parable about love and forgiveness to people he says owes a debt neither could pay both are forgiven now what do you think Simon the one forgiven the fifty pence would they love more or less than the one forgiven the five hundred pence and Simon says well I suppose the one forgiven the most would be the most thankful and loved the most so we pick up at verse forty and Jesus answering said unto Simon I have something somewhat to say unto thee and he saith master say on there was a certain creditor which had two debtors the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both tell me therefore which of them will love him most Simon answered and said I suppose that he to whom he forgave most and Jesus said unto him thou hast rightly judged so Jesus now will explain this parable and the application of the parable and it's all about the woman and about Simon so he says in verse forty four this woman's sins !

83. 43:22

    And because she was forgiven for her great sins she loved much he turned to the woman in verse forty four and said unto Simon seest thou this woman I entered into thine house thou gavest me no water for my feet but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head thou gavest me no kiss

84. 43:52

    wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much she had come in faith you see the connection the special relationship between faith and love she had come in faith how do we know that in verse fifty he said Jesus said to the woman thy faith hath saved thee go in peace so this woman comes into the house by faith a woman in her situation does not present herself to two men eating at a table and expose herself for the sins that she committed and put herself in that shameful situation some would say unless she is coming by faith to be forgiven of her sins and Jesus said she came by faith and she loved much and because of that love she will be forgiven the other point to recognize there are two loves in this section of scripture the problem is the one in verse 42 is the second love the one in verse 47 is the first love this woman came through the door by faith and why did she come because she loved much and she was forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ and she goes out the door in verse 42 tell me therefore which of them will love him most once she was forgiven will she love the more or the less and even Simon could see the one forgiven the most will go out the door and love the most because of the forgiveness they have been given so you see when God forgives us our sins and we come before him by faith and confess them Jesus says we will be forgiven

85. 46:09

    for what purpose simply to cleanse our slate so we can go out the door and say I had my sins forgiven no Jesus said he who is forgiven the most will go out and love the most so the reason God forgives us our sins when we acknowledge them by faith is having cleansed us from our sins regardless of what they are so that it will bring us to an even greater level of love for him so he forgives us with an expectation like with that woman who went out the door that she would love the most and love even more that's what God is looking for in our life that because of his love for us we will take advantage of the forgiveness we have and the subtle warning to us in this parable and in this lesson is that if we don't confess our sins if we don't acknowledge our shortcomings if we place the blame on everyone else then there aren't many sins that we're going to look to be forgiven and if there aren't many sins we're going to look for ourselves to be forgiven we won't have all that much love for our heavenly father when the reality of the situation is we are all great sinners and we are all in need of !

86. 47:34

    his love and his forgiveness so that we will go out and learn to love him even more