Faith That Produces: Love

2 Peter 1:5-9; Colossians 3:14

Introduction: Today we come to the end of Peter’s list of things to add to our faith. You might think this would be an easy lesson, love. The Bible is full of statements about love. It is one of the central themes of scripture. While it is good to study and know about love today we want to listen to what Peter is saying to us.

I. A Divine Word
The Greek language had three basic words that we would translate “love”. The word frequently used in pre-Christian literature was “Eros”. Our word erotic derives from Eros. As in our day and time the Greeks had a lot more interest in the Eros type of love than agape. Another word for love that we looked at last week could be described by our word for friendship or love in a family.

Judaism and Christianity chose another word that became frequently used in scripture for love, the word “agape”. The word “Eros” is not used in scripture and “philo” is used only a few times while the root word “agape” is used over 200 times. While “Eros” described sexual or what we would call romantic love, the word “agape” was used for a love that was more focused on another rather than satisfying one’s own desire or needs. Agape love is action oriented seeking the good of the one who is loved.

How do we define love? While the Greeks did have words with enough flexibility to describe different types of love the Christian community still had to fill the word with meanings that communicated what God’s love is.

Scripture puts it plainly; God is love, 1 Jn. 4:16. God is revealed as a God of love in the Old Testament where the word “hesed” or “loving kindness” is key to understanding God. God is faithful and loving in the face of his people’s sin and disobedience, Lam 3:22-24.
In the New Testament God’s love can only be understood in light of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. John defines God’s love as God giving his Son for the world, Jn 3:16. It is this act of giving and ultimate sacrifice for you and me that defines love in the Christian context. God shows us what love is, Rm 5:8; 1 Jn 4:9-10.

II. Adding Love
In this series we began with faith and end with love. When we love we participate in the divine nature. We are created in the image of God and we are truer to that image when we love more than any other time. The goal of goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, and brotherly love is godlike agape love. A failure to add agape love to our faith is to make these things empty as Paul showed, 1 Cor. 13:1-3.

Since this kind of love is action oriented then what actions arise out of agape love? First, agape love is giving but giving in a special sense. Most of us are giving people. We enjoy giving to people we love, our children, our family and friends. We talk about this characteristic of giving in relationship to God who is overwhelmingly generous to us. But that is not agape love.
Jesus puts it plainly in the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5:43-47. God’s giving is not just toward us but toward all people, good, bad, or indifferent. “Love your enemies,” Jesus tells his followers because that is what God does. That love is shown in giving and blessing those who are against us. What? Love the people who bombed the London subways this past week? Our desire is to destroy them, hate them, and not love them. I don’t know what your feelings were as the story unfolded this week but my feelings weren’t love for the bombers. I hope we can begin to understand how far we are from what God desires us to be.

As a church we set a goal to grow to be more like Jesus. We view ourselves as a friendly church, a loving church. And we are, among ourselves. It becomes more difficult when we think about people different from us and even more difficult when we think about those who may not like Christians. The fact is, we need to be adding love to our faith because the measure of our faith is not how we are but how God is.

Another aspect of agape love related to giving is our word, for-giving. Again, the cross becomes the measure of what this means as Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them,” Lk 23:34. The call for us to forgive is as plain as scripture can make it--as we forgive so we are forgiven.
The forgiveness of God is something we proclaim and celebrate. There is nothing that lifts our hearts more than to know that forgiveness. People who come up from the waters of baptism find a burden lifted that often they were not even aware of. God forgives; God gives life; God loves us.

We know this but how often are we burdened with unforgiveness, not God toward us but us towards others? Christians carry around offenses and anger toward those who have wronged them. Sometimes these are serious sins and betrayals but sometimes the offenses are petty and forgiveness is denied. We cannot love those we hate and fear. We cannot have agape love towards those we do not forgive. We cannot love God without loving the people around us, people who oppose us, people who may hate us, or just people who rub us the wrong way.
When Peter calls on Christians to add agape love to their Christian walk he is not asking us to do an easy thing, he is asking us to partake in the divine nature, to grow and produce the fruit that God desires to see in his people.

All the things that Peter lists here, from faith to love, are necessary for us to live productive lives in God’s house. Yet the challenge to add agape love to our lives may be the greatest challenge of all.


Livonia Church of Christ: July 10, 2005