The Power of Love

Peter Fitch, St. Croix VineyardSunday, September 20, 2015

Jesus

“The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ 31 The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

(Mark 12:29-31)

Paul

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

(Galatians 5:14)

James

 If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well.

(James 2:8)

The Love Chapter: 1 Corinthians 13

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

All super powers . . .

• Eloquence• Prophecy• Knowledge• Faith to move mountains• Total charity (give away everything)• Capacity for martyrdom

. . . are meaningless without love

So what is love?

• Paul will struggle in the next verses to describe it

• Often reverting to what it isn’t• For instance, it is patient and kind• It isn’t jealous or boastful

This, not that . . .

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Some kind of inner strength?

• Or is it a direction of outwardness?• Is it movement “toward the other”?• It doesn’t seem like a feeling or a longing or a

need; rather, it seems more like a disposition to see others in their best light, to care for them, to suffer with them, to enjoy them, to believe in them, to call out the best in them, to help them to become better than they are

Voices . . .

• Thomas à Kempis• Thérèse de Lisieux• Martin Buber• Desmond Tutu• Nelson Mandela

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

Thomas: The Power of Love

Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good; Love alone lightens every burden, and makes the rough places smooth. It bears every hardship as though it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet and acceptable.

Thérèse de Lisieux (1873-1897)

Thérèse: The Way of Love

I know well, Jesus, that love can only be repaid by love; what I’ve always looked for and have found at last is some way of satisfying my feelings by returning love for Your love . . . .But this love of mine, how to show it? Love needs to be proved by action. Well, even a little child can scatter flowers, to scent the throne-room with their fragrance;

Thérèse de Lisieux

even a little child can sing, in its shrill treble, the great canticle of love. That shall be my life, to scatter flowers--to miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word, always doing the tiniest things right, and doing it for love.

from The Little Way

Martin Buber (1878-1965)

Martin: Awakening to Love

The basic word I-You can only be spoken with one’s whole being.The basic word I-It can never be spoken with one’s whole being.

Martin: Awakening to Love

The It is the chrysalis, the You the butterfly. Only it is not always as if these states took turns so neatly; often it is an intricately entangled series of events that is tortuously dual.

Desmond Tutu (1931- )

Desmond: The Universality of Love

God does not give up on anyone . . . God loves me as I am to help me become all that I have it in me to become, and when I realize the deep love God has for me, I will strive for love’s sake to do what pleases my Lover. Those who think this opens the door for moral laxity have obviously never been in love, for love is much more demanding than law.

Desmond: The Universality of Love

An exhausted mother, ready to drop dead into bed, will think nothing of sitting the whole night through by the bed of her sick child.

(In another book, he points out that this happens all over the world . . .)

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

Nelson: The Task of Love

When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For

Nelson: The Task of Love

to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

Nelson: The Task of Love

I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

What we’ve learned

• Thomas: the power of love• Thérèse: the way of love• Martin: awakening to love• Desmond: the universality of love• Nelson: the task of love

Now, how do we gain it?

• How do we grow in love?• Religious pursuits often fail to produce love• The NT says that it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit

and the end of a journey towards God (something that grows naturally if we are walking on a good path)

• How has it worked for you? What has taught you to love?