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Sunday, September 12, 2010

16th Sunday after Pentecost 9/12/10 1 Timothy 1:3-5

16th Sunday after Pentecost
09/12/10
Text: 1 Timothy 1:3-5
Title: Love As You Are Loved.

For the past two weeks great anger and sadness has been building up in many people concerning the anniversary of the September 11 attack by Muslim extremists on the United States and the proposed building of a Mosque near what we call, “Ground Zero.” I am sure some of you here this morning, just as I am, are dealing with emotions that we know are not God pleasing.

I am not here to defend the Muslim faith, for it is indeed an evil faith just as all other belief systems are evil that do not lead a person to Christ. Oh, I know like a lot of other things today it is not politically correct to say that, but according to our sacred texts; the Word of God, anything and anyone that teaches a doctrine other than Christ crucified is evil, the work of the devil.

The problem is that there are all sorts of pastors, teachers, other self-proclaimed authorities, and political pundits out there that are saying, “Just follow me, for I know the truth.” What are we to do and who are we to listen to? Those who don’t know God, as he is shown to us in the Bible struggle with knowing the truth, as they are drug back and forth by popular opinion.

Those who know the Word of God on the other hand rely on God’s Word for he has told us in Romans 12 :2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

We then who live in this world with all of its problems and uncertainties are to balance all we read, watch, and hear with what God tells us because only God’s Word is completely trustworthy in all times and circumstances. While there are a lot of verses in God’s Word that can give us guidance. No, tell us what to do, I think that the letter to Pastor Timothy from Pastor Paul, especially chapter one, verse 5 is the most fitting for what is going on in the world. “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

Martin Luther in November of 1532 wrote a sermon on this verse that probably took two hours to deliver. It is a wonderful sermon on what it means to be a Christian all based on that one verse. Luther, in that sermon makes it perfectly clear that we owe it to God to live according to his Word, for he after all humbled himself to be one of us, was mutilated and killed for us that we might find favor before God. We do owe God a great debt, one that we can never pay off, but we, as Luther points out are not to love because we have to pay back the debt, but because we are loved and forgiven by God for Jesus’ sake. It is his holy will.

Paul in writing, ““The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." has expressed in a nutshell how we are to live according to God’s Law, for in that verse we learn that love flows or as it says issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. Pretty simple wouldn’t you say?

It is simple and yet so hard for us, as we live in our sinful flesh that continues to try to throw off the forgiven person who has a pure heart. Let’s take a deeper look at the words of the text, that are so simple and straightforward yet so hard to follow, for we need to know what he means about love flowing from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

Love, as most understand it are those feelings we have toward someone because of what they have done or can do for us. We love them because we are pleased with them. On the other hand we don’t love them if we are displeased with them. Is that love as God defines it? No.

When a couple comes to me for pre-marriage counseling, who is in what they think is love I do a Bible study with them on what God defines love to be. I ask them to write down what makes them and their partner lovable. Then we look at what God says about love. They are always surprised, for while what they wrote down about each other is good, it is not what God calls love.

The problem we have and all people have had since Adam and Eve sinned is that we have an upside down view of love. It is all about me and what I get out of it and there is the problem, for God’s definition of love is all about others. That is what he commands us to do. Love your enemies, for who doesn’t love those who do good for you he tells us.

But you say it would do no good to love my enemies, for they will continue to hate me. Maybe so, maybe not, but unless you love as God commands you, you will never know. They might continue to hate you or they might be turned by your love, so that they know God and his love. You just never know, but one thing I do know is that when you selectively love some and not others, as we naturally want to do, you will receive as much ill will from those you don’t love, as joy and benefits from those you choose to love. That is just the way it is and not the way God wants us to love.

In loving those that don’t like you, or for that matter loving those you don’t like, as God commands you to do, you will have peace and not be bickering and biting at anybody. Life will be better and who doesn’t want to live a better life.

To love as God commands you to love is hard and for some it might seem impossible, but to say that it is impossible is to call God a liar, for you have his Word that you can love as he commands.

So how does one love as God commands? First of all you must listen to God taking his words into your heart, for God’s words are the cause, foundation, ground, fountain, and spring of love.

Paul also mentions that love comes from a good conscience which is nothing more than living your life in such a way that you don’t offend or grieve anyone just as you are not do anything that would offend or grieve God. that is what we are suppose to do, but we all know how we fail in not giving offence or grieving anyone, much less God.

This morning we have learned that our idea of love is not God’s definition of love. We learned that God’s definition of love, is that we are to love all people, not just people we choose to love. We have also learned that love comes from a pure heart and a good conscience both of which we struggle to have.

But there is one more thing that brings forth love and that is faith. Faith is the chief article and highest commandment of all because faith contains within itself a pure heart, a good conscience, and love. I can say that because faith covers those times when we don’t love as we are commanded to and our heart is not as pure as it should be, and the conscience is not at peace because we have given offense and grieved others.

Faith is what lets us stand before the mercy seat of God, acknowledging our failures, our sins, our inability to love as God commands and receive from him who is pure and has no sin the garments of holiness free from God’s wrath.

Therefore let us hold onto Paul’s words, actually God’s Words, as they are written down for us in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." for as we learn from Romans 12:2. We are not conformed to this world, but are transformed by the renewal of our mind, that by testing we can discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Amen