Ken Styles - Class 2: The Love of the Son

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 Battleford Study Weekend with Brother Ken Stiles. His overall theme is Godly Love. This is class number two, subtitled The Love of the Son. Our reading was taken from John chapter 10, verses 1 to 18. Brother Ken. Thank you. The situations they faced and what godly love looks like on a practical basis.

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   But we found it helpful to first identify the foundation principles of godly love before we begin to try and apply these in how we live. In the first class, just to summarize briefly, we saw that godly love is the pinnacle of the truth. It's what our discipleship is intended to lead us to. It doesn't happen naturally.

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   We're not born with it. It's something that must be learned. Something that we must develop, commit ourselves to be developed within us. We saw, and we'll see again, that we need to differentiate between godly love and human love. And we'll say up front that husbands and wives whose marriage is based on human love have a far different marriage than a marriage based on godly love.

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   Raising children on the basis of human love is far different than raising children on the basis of godly love. Teaching children to grow up and respect and yearn and embrace human love is far different than teaching them to grow up and learn to embrace godly love. So it does have a key impact on how we live.

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   We saw that godly love only exists when faith is present because it springs from faith. It's not done because a person deserves it. It's because they need it. Its fundamental purpose is to turn a person from sin, including ourselves, either sin that we've already committed or sin that threatens to overwhelm us. It will always lead a person to righteousness.

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   A simple test. If you're not sure what to do, if you're not sure what godly love looks like in a situation, ask yourself the question, will my actions lead a person to righteousness? It isn't something we do when the rest of our spiritual life is going well. The woman in Luke 7 comes into that setting that would have been terribly shameful for her from a natural perspective.

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   When everything else in her life is not going well. But she shows forth her love because godly love is something that we do even in the midst of our sins. Even in the midst of our trials. We don't wait until the perfect day when everything else is going well to show it. Now there's one point from 1 John 4 that we wanted to go back and pick up.

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   But before we do that, just to bring your attention to a couple sections on the notes that we don't have, we won't take the time to go through. If you look at point number 7, God's love is the basis for ours. His love is intended to be our model and motivation. We've given you several examples there.

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   Because God loves his enemies, he is kind to the unthankful and the evil, we should love our enemies. Because God executes judgment for the faithless and the widow and the loves the stranger, that's how we should love. So this whole purpose of establishing an understanding of what the love of the Father is, is on the divine, the scriptural principle that if we can understand how God lives, then we can learn to live and to love like God loves.

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    So in the end, it's his love that is shining through our life. Our love becomes a reflection of his. Now, 1 John 4 reveals what we think is one of the tremendous potentials to which godly love will bring us and change us. And it really will transform our lives if we allow it.

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    It's not done mystically. It's not done magically. It's not done because we sit in a room and think about it. But the scripture portrays godly love as the power to change our life. And we'll give you an example of one of those areas. If you turn to 1 John 4, and we read in verse 7 of 1 John 4, Beloved, let us love one another.

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    For love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. And the Greek there for God is love, as it means love comes out of God. It stems from God. It doesn't arise from the flesh. The love we're talking about this weekend comes from God. As we said before, you can't learn it from the world.

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    You won't learn it by watching the movies, the television programs. You won't learn it by reading the romance novels. That is not the love of God. It can only develop from a mind that is enlightened in the will and the purpose of God. And in this context, John is not pointing to our baptism when he says that we are born of God.

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    We are born of God, in verse 7, when we begin to love like God loves. And we begin to love and to live and to reflect His love. When the Father's love becomes our love, he says, then we are reflecting that. Similarly, we don't just know God by studying His Word. We know God when we learn to live like He lives.

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    So we are to be born of God and we are to know God by the love that exists in our life. And then in verses 10 and 11, John sets what we call the expectation that God's love will become our love. And the love that we show to each other. Herein is love, John writes, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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    Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. And this is why we need to understand what God's love is. Because it's the same love that He turns around and expects us to show to each other. And that's why we say it's His love that provides the model and the motivation for our love.

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    Now, a couple of times this weekend, God willing, we're going to have to go a little deeper into the Word. And this is one of those times to understand what John is trying to show us and teach us. In verse 12, there is an enigma. No man has seen God at any time.

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    Why in the midst of these verses about love and the need to love one another and the need for God's love to be our love, why does John say no man has seen God at any time? If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us. And if we go back, leaving a finger in 1 John 4, if we go back to John 1, verse 18, there's a couple of references that I think will help identify scripturally what John is pointing out.

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    Because this phrase, no man has seen God at any time, we know also shows up back in verse 18 of chapter 1 in the description of the Lord Jesus Christ. No man, John writes back in his gospel at chapter 1, verse 18, no man has seen God at any time. But that doesn't mean God hasn't been seen.

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    And how was God seen? He was seen when the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And the RSV, it says, He hath made Him known. So when John uses that phrase, no man has seen God, he then turns around and says, but Jesus revealed the Father and how He lived.

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    And if you recall in John chapter 14, leaving John chapter 1, Jesus says this identical point about Himself. It is true that no man has ever seen God. And Philip asks Jesus in John chapter 14, beginning at verse 8.

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    Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus' response is that you have already seen the Father. The Son has declared Him, or made Him known. And you see that in verse 9. Have I been with you so long? Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long with you?

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    And yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me has seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, show us the Father? So Jesus' response is, Philip, you may not have seen the Father, but you've seen me. You've seen my character. You've seen how I'm living. And if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.

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    So now we have in John 1, John declaring that no man has seen God, but the Son hath made Him known. Now we have in John 14, Philip saying to Jesus, Show us the Father. And Jesus says, You haven't seen the Father, but you've seen me. Because he who has seen me, has seen the Father.

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    And then in verse 10, he elaborates. Believest thou not, I am in the Father, and the Father in me. The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Now notice those phrases in verse 10. I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father dwelleth in me.

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    Now, come back to 1 John 4. Because what we're going to find is in 1 John 4, it's no longer a discussion of no man has seen the Father, but the Son has made Him known. John's point is, no man has seen the Father,

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    but we, by our love, should be making Him known. These words are applied to Christ. Sorry, are applied to us in 1 John 4, not to Christ. Going back to verse 12, no man has seen God at any time. And notice the phrases now, if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.

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    So John is talking about us here now. He's not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about our love for one another. If our love for each other is the same love that God has for us, then John says, God dwells in us. Not some mysteriously way, not some mystical way. He's not talking about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

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    John is saying, if God's love abides in us, then he says, God dwells in us. And therein is the answer to the enigma of why he says in verse 12, no man has seen God at any time. Because notice down in verse 16 as well, and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.

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    God is love, and He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ in John 14 says, I am a reflection of the Father.

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    He dwells in me, I dwell in Him. Because of the character and the love that I am showing forth in my life. John is now calling us, calling us, to reflect that same character, that same love. And that is why in verse 12, he says in 1 John 4, for no man has seen God.

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    But you see, when we learn to love one another as God has loved us, then you see, we should be able to echo the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who has seen my love, he who has seen how I treat my brethren, has seen the love of God. Because His love dwelleth in me.

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    So you see, God manifestation, reflecting God's love and His character, is not a theory. It's not just some concept we talk about. It's God's expectation of us that we will learn to love each other as He has loved us. So that when others see our love, they are seeing the love of God.

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    That's the love, brethren and sisters and young people, that we are called to. The remarkable height of our discipleship that this will take us if we will embrace us. We should be able to echo the words of Christ. If a person has seen me, has seen my love, which is God's love, he has seen God.

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    because His love has been developed in me. I wasn't born with it. He has developed it in me. And that's why we say God's love for us has to become the standard by which we live. That we will manifest His love to one another and His character will be seen in us. Just a couple other quick references to finish up the points from the love of the Father.

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    If you look on page 2, Ephesians 2 verse 14, it talks about God's plan of redemption. We've got a couple extra copies of the handout up here if anyone is lacking one after the class is over. We'll go through this quickly because it's in your notes. But if you look at Ephesians chapter 2, we call this God's plan of redemption.

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    Because it includes all the pieces. The death of Christ is there. The grace of God is there. The need for our baptism is there. The need for our faith is there. The fact that we can't be saved by our works of the flesh is there. But the fact that God does all this so that the works of righteousness that spring from faith will exist in our life because we are His workmanship.

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    That's all there. All the pieces of God's plan of redemption are there. So it is not correct to say that we are saved only by grace because we are not scripturally. But grace is important. It is not to say we are saved only by the cross because we are not. It is not correct to say we are saved only by faith.

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    All of these pieces are necessary. But notice how they all relate to love. In verses 1-3 of Ephesians 2, it starts out with the sinful nature that we possess. And then in verse 4, there is the love of God in the giving of His Son. And then it goes through the death of Christ and how we need to repent and be baptized.

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    The words used in Ephesians 2 are to be quickened together with Christ, which is synonymous to being baptized. God extends His grace to us. We live by faith. faith. There are good works that are the outcome of this. And those good works, remember we said in class 1, you have to be careful when you see the word works in the New Testament.

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    In this case, in verse 10, the good works that is spoken of is our love done in faith. We are not saved because of our love. We cannot earn our salvation. We cannot earn our salvation. But if our love is not present, if our response to all that God has done for us is not to respond in faithful obedience and to show forth our love in response, there will be no salvation.

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    It's important to differentiate between the two. We are not saved because of our love. But if our love is not the product, is not the outcome of all that God has done for us, there will be no salvation. So connect, if you have a pencil, the love of verse 4 and the love of verse 10.

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    The process starts with the love of God and the giving of His Son and the process is consummated. The outcome is achieved with our love in verse 10 in response to it. And between those two loves is the grace and the cross and the faith. And they're all necessary parts. But the love of God that begins in verse 4 is then completed by our loving Him in verse 10.

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    If you turn the page over to number 9 just again quickly, godly love is not an emotionless love. It will bring us to tears.

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    There were real tears that flowed in each of these events. We won't take the time to go through them. But we don't want anyone to leave this weekend with the mistaken impression that this is just some academic study where you put all the verses together and you can go away with a better understanding.

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    That is not godly love. Godly love will bring us to tears. It will bring us to our knees. It will bring us to times in our life when we don't know what tomorrow brings.

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    But we face tomorrow by faith and with love trusting that God will bring us through. So we now turn to the love of the Son.

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    If we see what the love of the Father is in the Son. Hopefully we can see how the love of the Son fits into it. Again, if you look on your handout, just reading those two references from John 3.16 and 1 John 4.9 on page 3. If the outstanding example of God's love was in the giving of His own Son for the salvation of the world, then the outstanding love of the Son is in His willingness to lay Himself down.

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    So we read in John 3.16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoso believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. In the companion verse in 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.

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    And you note, because God loved, He gave. And what He gave was His only begotten Son so that others could spiritually benefit. Again, we have no right, no claim to salvation brought by the sacrifice of His Son. It is all a result of God's doing, of God's love. It was His love that sent His Son into the world and it was God's love that asked the Son to offer for Himself.

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    And just a quick comment there on the phrase only begotten. You know, if we're not careful, we read this with human love. That this was the only Son God had and therefore He loved Him like any other human parents would love a Son if that's the only child they had. That is not the love that the Father had for the Son.

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    God loved Jesus for His character, for how He lived. We won't take the time to look it up, but in John 1.14 it talks about Christ being the only begotten Son. And in that reference it unites two items. One, because the Son reflected the glory of the Father. Where John says we beheld His glory.

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    The glory of the only begotten of the Father. And secondly, it says because He was full of grace and truth. The Son was a living manifestation of the Father. Everything the Father represented was seen in the life of the Son. The Son was pure obedience to the Word of God. That's what made Him the only begotten Son.

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    So that it wasn't human love. It was godly love that the Father had for the Son. He was pleased with His character and that's why in His baptism He says, this is my only begotten Son in whom I am well pleased. Not this look. It's my only boy. Here He is. That's not the love of God.

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    He's drawing all men's attention to the character of this wonderful Son. Why the Father loved the Son is no more evident than in this very issue of the Father asking the Son to lay down His life. You see, God loved the world on the one hand that was steeped in sin and God loved the Son who though He bore the same nature had no sin and because God loved the world that was steeped in sin He asked the Son who had no sin to lay down His life so that He could provide a covering for the sins of the world and the Son without sin responded out of love for His Father and for those who were steeped in sin but it was all of love the Son the Father takes the Son who we say His life was pure obedience and the Father loves obedience and He took this lifetime of perfect obedience by a Son who loved Him and who had learned to trust Him and who suffered greatly with all the tears and the agony and the doubts and the nights spent in prayer and the heartaches and the struggles against sin and God asked the Son because of His love for the Son and His love for the world to lay down His life the love that the Father would have had for the Son is really incomprehensible we can speak of it knowing that it existed but to say we can begin to understand the love of the Father for the Son I'm not sure we can but God took this perfect character that was irreplaceable this precious blood that had never sinned

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    this Lamb without blemish that was holy and harmless and undefiled and because God loved us He asked the Son to lay down His life if you lay down your life you can save the world steeped in sin and in the process you can save yourself and the Son complied out of love because of His love for the Father and because of His love for us it was all done out of love we have a section there in the notes we won't spend the time on it about how the world views this situation before doing so again if you have a pencil handy you see that phrase in John 3.16 in your notes whosoever believeth in Him you want to underline that part and in 1 John 4.9 you see the phrase that we might live through Him you want to underline that part as well because you can't go from God's love to our salvation without including the part where we believe in Him which means we take on His name we take on His affections we take on His character we take on the love of the Son and we make that our life we live through Him you can't go from God's love to our salvation without without us adding our love to the situation and what we're adding do you see is our love to the love of the Father in giving the Son and in the love of the Son in laying down His life for us so when you have the love of the Father in giving of His Son and the love of the Son in laying down His life for us

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    and you add our love to that by our believing in Him and living through Him now you have the righteous basis for God to forgive our sins and in the end to save us but the element of what we consider is nigh blasphemy in the churches around us is when they can look at the cross and that part in italics on number two is the false teaching make sure that wasn't whited out when the photocopies were made that is not the truth the world teaches Christianity teaches because of sin God was angry with man and this man deserves therefore to be punished and to die for his sins and instead of killing man God takes His anger and sin and punishment and guilt and He lays it all upon the Son and then the Son dies to appease an angry God the innocent one suffering death for the guilty we say it's blasphemous because there is no anger taking place on the cross it is the love of the Father and it is the love of the Son it wasn't punishment that the Father was inflicting on the Son the Father was at work in the Son destroying sin's power over Him it wasn't the innocent suffering for the guilty the Son needed the cross He needed to crucify His flesh throughout His life if He was to overcome sin and to live under righteousness we don't worship a God who asks us to bear up under trials that don't have some benefit for ourselves the Son was benefiting from the standpoint that He needed the trials He needed the suffering to keep sin in check

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    we don't want to confuse that with the motivation of the Son the Son wasn't motivated by getting up each day saying now how can I save myself it was all done for us and we've given you some of the references there the motivating part on the part of the Son was His love for His Father and His love for us so He did it all for us is how the Scriptures continually emphasize this but God wasn't angry with the world two more references to keep in mind in fact you might want to keep them open at the same time if you look quickly we know what these are but just to have them open side by side John 3.17 and Romans 8 verse 3 sometimes we find it helpful to have two verses two parameters two concepts to lay side by side as we're seeking to teach our young people to understand what does the gospel really mean when it comes to living our lives in John 3.17 it says for God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved in Romans 8 verse 3 we read for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh you see in John 3.17 God was not angry with the world He sent His Son into the world not to condemn it but to save it but Romans 8 teaches us He also sent His Son into the world to condemn

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    sin by breaking its domination over Him so He didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world He sent His Son into the world to save the world but He did send His Son to condemn sin in His own flesh by overcoming it at every step and you put those two pieces together and that was the simple definition of the life of Christ to save people and to condemn sin and brothers and sisters and young people that is the simple definition of discipleship God sends us into the world to save people and to condemn sin we don't do it as the Lord Jesus Christ did He's not looking for us to achieve the victory over sin but in principle we don't condemn people we condemn we save people we condemn the sin so that His purpose in life should be our purpose in life it's what the Father sent the Son into the world to do and it's what He has sent us into the world to do I will give you another example of those times where we have to go a little bit deeper in Scripture we won't be able to spend a lot of time on it but I wanted to at least for those who are interested point you in the direction of the height of discipleship to which the principle and the subject of the love of God will take us we said before it is the pinnacle of our discipleship we saw in 1 John 4 that it was God's expectation that we would learn to love one another to the point with His love that others

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    should be able to look at my life and say Ken Stiles reflects the love of God and He acts as God wants us to act in whatever situation I'm in in Ephesians 3 and verses 14 to 19 we'll just go through the notes to give you an idea but the outcome of these verses is that we will be filled with all the fullness of God that's what Paul is is not just alluding to that is what Paul is saying is the outcome of these five verses it begins in verse 14 for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so this was Paul's prayer and his prayer culminates in verse 19 these verses are not all part of a prayer but he says at the beginning I bow my knees in prayer because the outcome I am hoping for the outcome I am praying for in verse 19 is that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God and again that doesn't mean God's spirit somehow invades our body and now it takes us over and that's how we become filled with the fullness of God we are filled with the fullness of God when we take on his will not our own when we take on his purpose his mind his character his love and we make it our own that's what it means to be filled with the fullness of God to achieve this Paul says in these verses we need to be strengthened with the inner man or strengthened in the inner man with the might or power by God's spirit and this power is not

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    a supernatural gift it's the power of God's love at work in our life and it's achieved by understanding and faith the inner man is strengthened it's rooted and grounded in God's love in verse 17 it then advances to learn the love of Christ and when we learn the love of Christ and we learn to live by the love of Christ and that's what the phrase means when it says it passeth understanding it doesn't mean it's so mind boggling that it's beyond understanding it means we come to the point where we not only understand it but we begin to live it so we have the love of God that we are rooted and grounded in and we have the love of Christ that we begin to comprehend and to live and then we add our love to that you see the pattern God's love and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and our love is added to that and it will fill our mind fill our life with the fullness of God our character our love our thoughts our purpose our will becomes a reflection of the life and the will and the love and the purpose of our heavenly father again God manifestation is not some theory it's not just some concept to consider from time to time this is God's expectation through the words of the apostle Paul and Paul is not talking about this taking place in the kingdom being filled with the fullness of God is not something he says happens in the kingdom it happens now because of our understanding and our living of the love of God so just

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    as John linked godly love to manifesting God's character in 1 John 4 Paul does the same here in Ephesians 3 point number four on the same page again for your future consideration is if you go through the verses of John 5 verses 19 to 24 and then 14 verses 12 to 21 you find there is a correlation there is a correlation between our ability to show forth the love of Christ and his willingness to manifest himself to us on a greater level and what this means is as God and the Lord Jesus Christ reveal themselves to us in the word and again this is not mystically or magically as we study the word and we learn principles if we live those principles more will be manifested to us because of our love but if we learn and we don't love then the greater manifestation or revealing of themselves to us will not take place so what we find is our willingness to love as they loved is a prerequisite for them granting us a greater understanding of the will and purpose and doesn't that make sense isn't that reasonable that God would grant us the ability to grow and our understanding if we are willing to take what we learn and put it into practice and how we live when we come to the final night of the Lord Jesus Christ and in John chapter 13 this section in John 13 to 17 if we turn there now we see how the Lord Jesus Christ and we recall how he stressed the need for love and these final hours these five chapters 13 14 15

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    16 and 17 summarize his final message this is what he wants to impress upon the disciples and what he impresses upon them is their relationship with him as they had known it was coming to an end I'm going away and they didn't fully grasp what he meant but he doesn't let their confusion into this talk about going away and coming back he doesn't let their confusion prevent him from discussing significant issues he will go away and he will return at his second coming and in the interim he says this is my expectation this is how I am commanding you to conduct yourselves during my absence so that his message to the disciples in these five chapters have equal application to them while he is away and they have equal application to us while he is away five times he stresses the fundamental point you need to learn to love one another as I have loved you we've given you the references and the notes I have found it worth Bible coloring these this is how he expects us to live he knew his departure would create a massive void no one would be able to fill his shoes yes he would send them the comforter to help in the preaching work but the comforter would not replace his love it wouldn't settle disputes it wouldn't stop the bickering the only thing that would replace the void or fill the void that was going to be caused by his being taken away was their ability to learn to love each other you know we're at the very end and they're still bickering about who's going to

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    be the greatest and Jesus appeal to them is you need to learn to love one another as I have loved you and he does all he can in these chapters to impress this upon them and John says in chapter 13 verse 1 he began John begins the account by describing how before the feast in John 13 verse 1 of the Passover When Jesus knew that his hour was come !

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    He loved them unto the end and the RV says he loved them to the uttermost you could not love the disciples more than the Lord Jesus Christ loved them and then John will spend the next five chapters recounting what Christ's love looked like on the eve of his own death here he is about to die and we know his mind is troubled !

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    by it but he is just as turn over the disciples surviving the cross as he is with his own survival of the cross so John records that he begins by washing everyone's feet to teach them of the need to love one another because we read in verse 14 and 15 again words we're well familiar with if I then your Lord and master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash one another's feet for I have

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    to you and then he turns to Judas appealing to him one last time are you sure you want to do this but he doesn't ask Judas outright but he will use the collective counsel of the eleven to appeal to Judas and you ask how do you love your enemy in the midst of the last supper when your enemy is about to betray you what does your love what does of your enemy look like in that situation and what it looks like what it looks like is what the Lord Jesus Christ did he exposed the fact to the eleven that one of them would betray him and the eleven are aghast it can't be and one by one Judas listens to the eleven shake their head and respond Lord no one would betray you one of us you see Christ can't reveal Judas because if he does he wouldn't be able to control how the disciples might respond to that we know how Peter was so angry in the garden later that evening but you love your enemy by appealing to your enemy and letting him hear the counsel of the other eleven they don't know what they're doing but what the Lord is doing is using their appeals and their bewilderment as one last appeal to Judas to reconsider what he's going to do and it fails as the Lord knew !

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    it would but when you love your enemy even when ! you know he's going to put you to death it doesn't mean you stop loving him you continue to do what you can without revealing his identity but appealing to him to reconsider the path he's on well as we say if the father's love for us is best exemplified in the giving of his son the love of the son is best exemplified by his being willing to lay down his life for us we know in John 15 verse 13 where it says greater love hath no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends that phrase lay down his life first appears in John 10 come back to John 10 if you would because it's it's worth seeing again we're looking for God's definition of love as opposed to the world's definition of love and what we find is godly love involves laying down your life for your friends in verse 11 Jesus writes in John 10 or he speaks in John 10 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep regrettably the authorized version translated the Greek word and I think it's tithemi number 508 508 7 as the phrase giveth his life everywhere else that's used it lays down his life for instance if you look down in verse 15 of chapter 10 lays down his life verse 17 lays down his life it's the same word back in John 15 verse 13 greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for whatever reason they translated it

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    giveth his life but the principle is the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep and he will contrast what the good shepherd does with that of the hireling who flees and abandons the sheep and the wolf snatches the sheep so why does Christ lay down his life why does the good shepherd lay down his life and the reason is given in verse 18 because it is a command I have received !

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    from my father that's why he lays his life that's in verse 17 therefore doth my father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again so the good shepherd puts the needs of the flock before his own needs even at the cost of his life and why does he do this not only because it's a command that he has received from his father and not only because his father loves him

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    so he put all these pieces together and there are three principles that emerge remember the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep in contrast to the hireling who flees at the first sign of danger the hireling will not lay down his life for the sheep he is not willing to put the needs of others before his own so the three simple principles that emerge in terms of God's definition of love is that a death occurs it's done willingly so that others can benefit it's not complicated a death occurs it's done willingly so others can benefit and Jesus says God loves this it's a self sacrificing death because the needs of others are put before one's own and it's a willing sacrifice that is conveyed and John says in recording the words of Christ that this is godly love because this is how God defines love a death occurs it's done willingly and others benefit the temptation related to godly love is what I'm not going to die I'm not going to do it willingly and I don't care others don't benefit I'm out of here so that's what the temptation looks like with respect to godly love when it's presented before the Lord Jesus Christ and in this he is contrasting the truth with the religion of the Pharisees and the !

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    Godly love their religion did not encourage anyone to lay down their life their religion taught people to flee at the sign of danger put my life at risk for others no that was not their religion but that was the truth that's taught by our Lord Jesus Christ now it's quite easy to sit here and see how all of this applies to the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep so that they can have life more abundantly this is what John 15 13 says greater love has no man than this and a man lay down his life for his friends so we now can understand and appreciate the great love that Christ had for us and then we come to 1 John 3 and we find out the sobering point is that this same love of the son is the identical love that God is looking to develop in every one of his children so the love of the good shepherd is not a love that we appreciate and respect and we value and are thankful for from a distance the love of the good shepherd is exactly the kind of love that God is looking to develop in our life so come to 1 John 3 leave a marker in John 13 because we're going to come back but in 1 John 3 we read at verse 16 hereby we perceive or hereby perceive we the love of God because Jesus laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren you see this highest form of love this greater love has no man than

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    this that a man lay down his life for his friends is the very love that God expects all his children to exhibit circle the words because and we ought to because that's what John is telling us because Jesus did this we ought to do this as well we each need to learn to love our brethren by laying down our life for them now it's not a physical death that John is applying to us in verse 16 but each of us must be willing to die for one another so that others can benefit so that simple definition of a death taking place it's done willingly so others benefit is what we need to develop for each other we say it's not a physical death because John is not speaking of our need to literally die on a cross it's a spiritual death a death to sin each of us need to learn to die to sin by putting the needs of others before our own so just like the lesson of the cross

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    but was Jesus died to show me the death I must die to sin so is the lesson of his love Jesus loved not so that I don't have to Jesus loved so that I will learn to love with that same love my natural desires my lust all need to be crucified before I can learn to live righteously and this is where the cross and godly love come together the cross is what must be done to the flesh and godly love is how we do it by learning to lay down our life for the sake of others not a literal death but your needs become more important than my needs that's why we say godly love is how we live the cross it's what christ did and it's what god asked us to do the proof that verse 16 is not a spiritual death is in verse 17 because he then goes on to describe what godly love looks like who whoso hath this world good and see as his brother have need and shut up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of god in him you see if I take care of my needs before I take care of your needs that is not godly love godly love exists !

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    when I see your needs as being more important than my own and those needs of yours become foremost in my mind and whatever aspirations I may have whatever natural desires I may have those are all put to death out of a desire to do for you what the love of god calls me to do the danger is in verse 17 if we don't learn to look at others from this perspective if our love for them does not develop to the point where their needs become more important than our own verse 17 says God's love does not dwell in us so when you look at verse 16 and 17 together what we find is that there is a death to sin that must take place and it must be linked to the benefit of others it's no good my going through life saying I am devoted to crucifying the flesh you get up each day and you say that's my goal today is to crucify the flesh if others are not benefiting from my actions in a meaningful way that is not godly love and that is not the true spirit of crucifying the flesh this is not a complicated subject it doesn't mean we have to go out and literally put our life on the line that happens occasionally in scripture but for most of us we will never face the situation where we literally have to put our life on the line but every one of us every week I guarantee it every one of us every week has a situation in which a brother or sister is in need of something and we

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    have to decide will we serve their needs or our own so this is a weekly situation in a marriage it's a daily situation raising children it can be a daily situation the other warning from verse 18 is that it's easy to talk about this but he says in verse 18 of 1 John 3 my little children let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth now we'll finish just for two minutes coming back to John chapter 13 we want to take another look at this concept that no greater love hath a man than a man lay down his life for his friends and we'll see that in that verse 13 that is so often quoted by Christianity to exemplify the greatness of the love of Christ that is not the meaning that is not the intent or the purpose of verse 13 in verse 13 when Jesus says of John 15 greater love hath no man than this he is defining the outer limit of godly love and his point being there is no outer limit of godly love there is no situation !

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    where I can righteously say my needs are more important than your needs and I need to take care of myself before I take care of you and the proof of that is we will never find in scripture a single instance instance where Christ looked at a situation and he said my needs are more important than the needs of those who I've come to serve he always put their needs before his own but verse 13 doesn't just describe the unlimited love the son had for us verse 13 is describing the unlimited love we should have for each other Jesus has spent his life serving others he doesn't come to the very last night of his life and stand up and say look at how great my love is that's not his point in verse 13 I know that's often times how verse 13 is quoted we see that and they say wow that's an amazing love that Christ had for us that's not his point what he's doing in verses 12 13 and 14 is setting an expectation he says in verse 12 of chapter 15 this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you

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    there is nothing I was unwilling to do for your benefit and then in verse 14 he sets the expectation you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you what has he just commanded them to do to learn to love one another as he has loved them so they were to learn to love each other with the same love love this unlimited love this laying down your life kind of love that's the power of verse 13 and the danger brethren and sisters and the warning young people is he says in verse 14 you see how great my love has been for you and now I want you to learn to love each other with that exact same love but you are only my friends only my friends if you learn to love one another as I have loved you so if we fail to develop this unlimited love this love in which I am willing to lay down my life for others for their spiritual benefit if I am unwilling to develop that love in me then Jesus says I am not his friend so we have John we have Paul we have the Lord Jesus Christ himself all underscoring the importance of this subject godly love is not just something to consider godly love is the expectation of the father it's the expectation of the son that we will learn to love as they have loved us