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Of all the advent themes, love is perhaps the most difficult to comprehend. This is because we tend to connect love mainly with warm feelings of affection or with romance. But what sort of love is Christmas really about? What does it mean for God to come as a baby born in Bethlehem? How is this an act of love? What sort of love is it?
These questions could be answered in a variety of ways. This morning, we will look at three different passages that talk about love, starting with Luke 10, which contains the parable of the Good Samaritan.
In this passage, an expert in religious law has the right answer to the question of how to inherit eternal life. But, within his answer is an assumption. The assumption is related to the idea of neighbour. The Jewish lawyer likely had in the back of his mind the popular debate about the definition of neighbour common to the Jewish people of those days.
Some Jewish leaders insisted that Gentiles, heretics, or Samaritans, were not neighbours.
When Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-48, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” he might have been thinking about a passage in the Jewish Scriptures in a book called Sirach which contains instructions related to how to treat neighbours and enemies.
The passage says, don’t bother doing good to evil people because your efforts will be in vain. But, if you do good to your neighbour, you will be rewarded. In contrast to this sort of teaching is the parable of the Good Samaritan in which the hero is the one the Jews would have considered an enemy.
Jesus asked the lawyer who the neighbour was in the story, to which he replied the one who had mercy on him.
A few weeks ago, in the final message of the Hebrews series, I talked about loving one another, focusing on the idea of brotherly love.
Today, we are looking at love in its highest sense. It’s the sort of love that includes those we consider undesirable.
First, let’s get an overview of the different types of loves that would have been understood in the time of Jesus.
These summaries are based a book by C.S. Lewis called The Four Loves.
Affection is the most basic and instinctive form of love, found in families or between close companions. It’s the love of familiarity and comfort. At its best, it is humble, unassuming, and the foundation of many relationships. But, it can become possessive or resentful if expectations of reciprocity are unmet or if it clings too tightly to its objects. This word is very rare in Scripture. The most helpful example is in Romans 12:10, which says, “Be devoted to one another in love.” The word devoted is a compound word made up of affection and friendship, or brotherly love.
Friendship, or brotherly love, is the love between equals who share common interests, values, or pursuits. It is less instinctive than affection and often overlooked in modern culture, particularly in our highly individualistic society. Because of online social networks, friendships can exist without ever being physically present with one another. Brotherly love is chosen freely, fosters mutual growth, and allows for companionship in shared goals. It is the command of Jesus and his Apostles for Christians to love each other with this sort of love. But, it can become exclusive or lead to pride, especially if the friendship turns into a clique or rejects others.
Eros, or romantic love, is the deep longing and desire for union with another person. Unlike mere sexual desire, it involves a total focus on the other person. It celebrates human intimacy and beauty, reflecting God’s creativity. The danger is that it can idolize the beloved, leading to obsession, possessiveness, or moral blindness.
Agape, or as C.S. Lewis calls it, Charity, is selfless, unconditional love, the kind of love God has for humanity. It seeks the good of the other without expecting anything in return. It is the highest form of love, capable of redeeming and transforming the other loves.
While Eros is love for the lovely, Agape could be described as love for the unlovely. Eros is motivated by beauty, but Agape loves even the despicable. While divine in nature, human attempts at Agape can be misunderstood or misapplied, such as enabling harmful behaviours in the name of love.
Each of these loves is valuable but incomplete on its own. Human love can be distorted by selfishness or pride but redeemed when rooted in God. Agape, which is our focus today, serves as the highest and most perfect form of love, elevating and purifying the others.
In the passage I read earlier, in which the law is summarized as loving God and loving our neighbour, the word for love is Agape. Let’s look at some other passages that contain similar instructions. I’m being selective because the word Agape appears over 300 times in the New Testament. One of the most famous passages about love is chapter 13 of First Corinthians. Agape appears eight times in this passage.
When God came to earth as a baby born in Bethlehem, the kingdom of heaven had come because the earth was now once again the dwelling place of God. Not yet in its final form, but the work had begun. When Jesus died, rose from the dead, and commissioned his followers to go out into the world to share the good news of the Messiah, he sent them not only with instructions but also with power and the ability to do the same sort of things that Jesus did.
After Jesus left the earth and ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit came upon the first disciples with power. This power was meant to be a witness that they were indeed sent by Jesus.
In 1 Corinthians 12, we see Paul celebrating the various gifts given to people in the church. These gifts are for the benefit of one another and our communities. They are vessels that carry God’s power and grace to continue the work begun by Jesus.
The kingdom of heaven was coming near through Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection. It also comes near through the church as the Christians exercise their gifts in unity and love for one another.
But we can go wrong when we confuse the work of the kingdom of heaven with religious activities. As we see in Chapter 13, religious activity is temporary.
The existence of local churches and the programs and ministries we run here are vessels of God’s grace and power.
One commentator says this about the relationship between gifts and love:
Love is primary for Paul because it has already been given concrete expression in the coming of Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world. Love is not an idea for Paul. It is not even a “motivating factor” for behaviour. It is behaviour. To love is to act; anything short of action is not love at all. And love is not set over against the gifts. It belongs in a different category altogether. For Paul, love is the way in which the gifts are to function.
Let’s look, for example, at Paul’s statement in verse 3, which says that if I give all that I possess to the poor and even sacrifice myself for others but do not have love, it is of no benefit. Paul is making the point here that an action such as self-sacrifice by someone who is otherwise unloving has gained nothing for themselves.
This is a warning for those who think they are earning merit points or trying to gain approval by behaving in a Christian manner. The intention in this passage is not to dismiss the value of the gifts or good deeds. They are good things.
But what is not good is religious performance, gifts on display by one who is not otherwise acting as described in the previous verses. It is not a matter of the gifts or love, or even the gifts motivated by love, but the gifts and actions done by a person whose whole life is otherwise also given to love. If not, that person’s life before God adds up to zero.
The heaven comes not through religious activity, but through a church made up of people who are devoted to living lives of love.
The next passage we will look at is 1 John 3:16-18, which tells us explicitly what love looks like.
Have any of you ever had to visit the emergency room due to a bad decision you made? I imagine that once you got there, the medical staff treated your wound. But imagine going to the emergency room with a broken leg due to jumping on a trampoline. A doctor friend of mine used to tell me he wished trampolines were never invented because they cause so many injuries.
Imagine getting to the exam room, and the doctor comes in, takes one look at your broken leg, and proceeds to lecture you about the dangers of trampolines. He tells you all about how to avoid this injury in the future and then walks out the door.
Or, imagine the opposite. Instead of a doctor who hates trampolines, he is highly accepting and empathetic.
He tells you about his childhood experiences with trampolines and how everyone should have one. After 20 minutes of story-telling, he tells you to take care of yourself and walks out the door.
This can often be our experience with other Christians and with the church. We are wounded, looking for someone to treat our injuries. Instead, we are faced with judgment or unhelpful empathy. What is the alternative? To treat the wounds. To be a place and a people who are willing to inconvenience themselves to ensure the needs of others are met.
Be encouraged. I’m sure you can think of a handful of ways this has been happening among us recently.
We have had our share of funerals this year, haven’t we? We have lost some people dear to this church family.
In the midst of grief and loss, you have cared for each other and even beyond our church family.
When Steve passed away, we knew it would be a bigger funeral, which meant more work and more people involved. We had people working behind the scenes, getting things organized, making sure there were enough chairs, that the family was fed, that the parking lot was cleared and safe, and that the building would be a place where people were free to grieve and be together in the midst of their grief.
Christmas gift baskets and hampers have gone out in the last few weeks. Families who could not possibly afford a good Christmas dinner were given turkeys, and children were given gifts. A group of you were here on Friday, wrapping the gifts so the children would experience the joy of receiving and tearing open gifts at Christmas.
Parents are spared the shame and embarrassment of being unable to provide these things for their kids.
This place is increasingly becoming known as a place of hospitality. I have been told numerous times in recent months how warmly welcomed people feel when they come here.
One of the greatest needs in our society today is emotional and spiritual support. At our recent Hope Heroes training, 17 of you became more skilled at caring for the grieving.
As we anticipate the start of Alpha, we will be inviting people who will hear the truth of the gospel for the first time.
Be encouraged. But also be challenged. Caring for the wounds of people requires wisdom and skill. Giving up our lives for one another is not mindlessly running around doing religious activities.
Loving as Jesus loves means not just sacrificing ourselves but sacrificing for the benefit of others.
As one author said, the death of Jesus is not simply a demonstration of love in the sense that we might gaze on the spectacle of the crucified Son of God and say, “He must have loved very much in order to suffer all that.”
This is not how we know love. Rather, the point is that we experience the benefit of life given to us as a result of the death of Jesus, and so we realize that the love was for us.
If you were sitting at the end of a fishing dock, enjoying a peaceful day to yourself, and I came running down the dock, jumped in the water, declaring my sacrificial love for you as I drowned, you would think I’m crazy. The point is not the sacrifice; the point is that the sacrifice actually benefitted the recipient.
As we seek to be a loving community, consider what the needs among us truly are. If you know of a need, and you do not have the skill or the ability to meet the need, consider who you might ask to help. If we are a loving community, there will be no shortage of people who can help.
This is how heaven is coming. Through a church who loves like God, who lives a life of love individually and together, and who loves by meeting practical needs, by treating the wounded skillfully and with great care.
The sort of love that we are to be reminded of at Christmas is sacrificial love, inconveniencing ourselves to care for the wounded, the outcast, the undesirable. This is what God did when he came as a human.
And this is how we are to love if we want to participate in heaven’s arrival on earth.