Rewriting The Code: Spirit-shaped Love
A Sermon On:
Galatians 5: 16-25
1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
INTRODUCTION
We are told in scripture of a time when young King Solomon is lying in his bed and God approached him saying, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." (1 Ki 3.5) And on another occasion a sick man hollers, and the divine Son of God, Jesus, approaches with this question, "What do you want me to do for you?" (Mk 10.51)
If God were to come to you, what would be your request? If you could have one thing for your life - what would it be?
[Give the people a minute to choose something]
Have you made your decision?
I wonder how many of us would have a request something like that found in this next song that we're going to sing? Hymnal #264, which sings the prayer:Lord, I want to be a Christian..... Lord, I want to be like Jesus!
Would we -- could we -- pray it?
Let's sing the words together.
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Psalter Hymnal # 264 Lord, I Want To Be A Christian
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Lord, I want to be a Christian..... Lord, I want to be like Jesus!
Lord, reshape my inner character; my spiritual & moral fibre.
Lord, reprogram me, rewrite the inner "code" of my heart!
You know how when a computer programme is written and a bug is found, or an improvement is needed, someone has to sit down with all the lines and pages of code and rewrite them; defective or obsolete sections taken out, new routines added in.
We work our way through life with hearts and minds, intellect and wills that are flawed. They're like a glitched computer programme --- the glitch being sin, somehow skewing us away from God's perfect plan for human life.
For your life and mine.
Sin - leading us into destructive emotions, self-centred thought patterns, stubborn attitudes.
We are -- and I'm sure on these we could easily agree -- far less than we would or could be.
Imperfect.
Incomplete.
We all could stand some moral and spiritual reprogramming.
Which is the job of God's Holy Spirit.
Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost, the Christian Festival commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit of God to the world, onto the Church, and into the hearts and minds of all who submit their lives to Jesus Christ.
He has come to be the --- remember the word?? --- Paraklete, the Guider-Helper-Comforter for believers.
He has come to draw us closer to Jesus.
He has come to make us more like Jesus.
And that's the reprogramming work He does, reaching inside our minds and emotions and wills and desires. He reshapes them, redirects them, re energizes them. He points them God-ward.
He helps us to bloom into beautiful people, people whose lives bear fruit in the form of developing characters that are pleasing to our Lord and that add to the richness and well-being of life for ourselves and for those with whom we come into contact.
Lord, I want to be like Jesus.....
We're going to spend a fair bit of time over the summer months looking at some of the ways the Spirit does this work. Our theme bible passage will be:
Let's read it together:
Galatians 5: 13-25
The key verses, ones that I'd encourage you to memorize this summer are:
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." (Gal 5: 22-23)
THE UNITY OF SPIRITUAL FRUIT
Did you notice as we read our passage together that Paul speaks of the acts (plural) of the sinful nature, and of the fruit (singular) of the Spirit?
Many sinful acts.
One spiritual fruit.
The sinful nature leads to a whole series of separate acts that fragment, tear down, and isolate the various parts of our lives from each other;
acts that set people in conflict with each other.
On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit builds up, it unites;
It is a healing force that brings together what once was separate.
The acts of the sinful nature concentrate on me, myself and I. They isolate me and seek to place me as king of the castle, even though the heap I am standing on may be the broken pieces of the lives of those I have damaged in my reach for the top.
The fruit of the Spirit focuses on Jesus Christ, and seeks to enfold me into His body. It seeks to make me one with his people as I fulfil that place in life, that calling, which he has prepared for me.
It unites the Body.
It gives growth to the body.
None of those areas is unique or separate from any of the others. That doesn't mean we can't look at the various components. We can and WILL do that, just as one can study the various facets of a beautiful diamond, even though they are part of the one precious whole stone. There will be elements that are the same, and elements that are different. but they all belong together. ONE fruit.
Just like the one white sunlight that shines in the window can be aimed through a prism and broken down into many hues of the spectrum -- blues, yellows, greens, reds. At the edges they blur together. Unique, yet also part of the whole.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Oh that people would look at the Church, the ONE body of Christ, and see this ONE set of attitudes and virtues in EVERYBODY! Oh, that we would join together with each other and help each other grow towards that ONE goal!
THE FRUIT OF CHRIST'S ATTITUDE
And we will strive to do that. We, the body of Jesus Christ, will constantly pray for that, because as the Catechism so rightly states in Q/A 116, "God gives his grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually asking and thanking God for that."
We will walk hand in hand side by side looking towards ONE goal, the goal having the attitude and mind set of Jesus Christ.
Lord, I want to be like Jesus!
Beginning with that first element of spiritual fruit - Love.
Love - the glue that holds the other segments of spiritual fruit together, the background shade against which all other hues of the spiritual fruit spectrum are displayed; the base code into which all other elements of Spirit-led reprogramming are plugged.
That comes as no surprise when we hear the Bible proclaim to us:
"God IS love." 1 John 4.8At His essence, says His Word, He is love.
A love directed towards sinners, undeserved, unsolicited, seeking us and not letting us go.
A love that reached its peak in His Son Jesus Christ and the amazing life sacrifice on the cross. We see the cross and the empty tomb and there we see the extent and the contours of Holy Divine love.
Love -
Something to which believers are called and directed.
A nonnegotiable priority for those who call themselves Christ-followers.
For they hear the Scripture's call:
"Live a life of love just as Christ loved us..." (Eph 5.1-2)
"And over all these put on love which binds all together..." (Col 3.12)
"Do everything in love..." (1 Cor 16.14)
"Serve one another in love..." (Gal 5.13)
"Speak the truth in love..." (Eph 4.15)
Love. Hear the Word of God paint some contours of Spirit-encoded love:
1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Love -
One of the first things we have to do in trying to understand this is to debunk the myth which Coors Light and friends try to perpetuate --
You know the one. You've seen the ads. Good-looking girl meets good-looking guy holding beer. (There's always a beer in there somewhere, right?) Boy looks into girls eyes. Heart strings go boingy boingy. And they boogie in delight across the crowded dance floor and off into the sunset.
We mistake love for a feeling of attraction or desire of the moment. Trouble is that emotions come and go. Last night's beans can affect them. You fall into them and out of them.
Love is something carved by the Spirit into our soul -- carved in to stay.
The word used in 1 Corinthians 13 is a very special word for love.
It is not the word that would refer to erotic/sexual love, love that wants to be joined physically with the lover, the "One Flesh" love of Genesis 2.24 and the Song of Songs.
And it is not the word for love between friends, brotherly love, the give and take between equals, the love of 1 Samuel where we read that Jonathan loved David as his own soul.
The word of 1 Corinthians 13 is the word agape. It is the patient, kind, non-envious or boastful, non-proud or self-seeking love that rejoices with the truth, protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres.... and never fails kind of love.
Agape love is a love focused entirely on the other person. It is a giving, selfless love; giving whether the recipient deserves it or not; that seeks their well-being; that is unconditional.
It is shaped after God's love for us.
And so, standing under the shadow of the cross where His great divine love was displayed blood-red, we can say that:
Agape love is given whether the recipient deserves it or not. Remember, did any of us deserve the saving sacrifice of Jesus?
Agape love is not concerned about what one can get out of it for oneself. Remember, Christ was willing to empty Himself completely and let go of everything in order to bring eternal riches to us who had nothing.
Agape love does not demand reciprocal treatment. Remember, God loved us while we were yet sinners, dead in sin, unable to give anything!
Agape love is very concerned about the well-being of the one being loved. Remember, God wanted desperately to have us live wholesome and fruitful lives - here on earth and in eternity. That's why He sent Jesus -- never mind the cost!
Vulnerable, love makes you -- you can't love without exposing yourself.
Risky. You're never quite sure of the response you're receive.
And yet - non-negotiable. Said Jesus,
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." (Jn 15)
Spirit-inspired, holy, agape love.
Let me offer four ways in which we can open ourselves to the Spirit's fruit-bearing, love-building work in us:
- Looking to Jesus: see Him in His Word. Read the gospels. See Him act there, out of love, for you. Spend time in His loving presence, allowing yourself to be surrounded by it -- open not just your intellect, but your emotions as well: in meditation, in prayer, in corporate and private worship.
- Do an inventory of your life. Honest & brutal. Grab a paper and begin to list those character traits, those actions, those thoughts, those words that are an offence to God; those for which Jesus died. Look at that list -- it is for those things that Jesus came. In spite of those things you are loved by God.
Then look at others, remembering that list tucked in your pocket or in your mind. And act accordingly. You'll find yourself living the truth of Luke 7.47. Have a look some time and see what it says.
- Take time to have fellowship with other pilgrims of faith. That is the school of love. There, with other unlovables, you will be able to exercise the muscle of love that the Spirit will grow within you - live out the command of love. Remember what a saint once said, "You can meet without loving, but you can't love without meeting." Have a look at Hebrews 10.24-25 for background there.
- Practice the act of agape loving. Spiritual muscles are like body muscles. If you don't use them, they weaken. One of the great truths of the Faith is that God supplies what we need when we need it. Like manna in the wilderness, God nourishes us, grows us, develops us as we need it.
To grow in His love we need to give away the love He already placed within us. To share it. To risk it. To open it up -- especially to those who don't deserve it, those to whom we'd least like to give it, who may never be able to repay it.
If we fail to do that, love within will atrophy. And we'll become bitter. Joy will evaporate. The sin of self-centredness will begin to control us. And with that, our peace-filled sense of the Lord's presence will grow more distant.
Agape Love..... joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The united fruit of the Spirit.
Lord - I want to be like Jesus, in my heart.
There is printed in the programme on page 6 an ancient prayer of dedication.
I'd like to invite you to pray it with me:
"Jesus, Master, Carpenter of Nazareth,
who at the last upon the cross, through wood and nails,
did purchase a complete salvation for humanity;
wield well your tools in this your workshop,
that we who come to you rough hewn
may be fashioned to a true beauty by your hand."
[an old prayer quoted by S.Winward Fruits Of The Spirit 14]