Sermon – Love & Hate (1 John 3:11-24; 4:7:21)

Read the text – 1 John 3:11-24 & 1 John 4:7-21

Love that is Christian, is a love for others that is both pleasing and acceptable to God before it is to the world. This is a huge topic and so contested today. For today, love is often determined by popular opinion or consensus – and as directed by the loudest voices. In this talk, Ken Noakes looks at the importance of understanding Love in the context of truth and obedience. God indeed wants Christians to be loving – love that is truthful, sacrificial, obedient even if different to the way the world looks for love.

Bible Talk Outline Download

Love (Part 3 of 6)

Without love, truth will not be valued. Without truth, it is difficult to know how to obey. Without obedience, it is impossible to demonstrate true love.

To understand Love, it will help to understand how it is integrally connected to Truth and to Obedience, such that you cannot separate the three. These three ideas intersect with one another at almost every point.

Taking our lead from the letter of 1 John, we have looked at Perfect Love (Part 2 of this series). We turn our attention now to the relationships between Love, Truth and Obedience.

Let’s consider ‘Love’.

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Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner.

Imagine, after a long day, I drive home to find that the only thing remaining where my house once stood was its smoldering remains! And standing outside was my child holding a sign saying: ‘Hate the sin, Love the Sinner!’.

It is one thing to recognise that sin is bad – in fact so self-evident that there is no chance that it would not be seen! Yet it is a whole new level of self awareness to think that the sinful actions that caused damage and hurt should be separated from the person who caused the damage and hurt – such that the perpetrator should bear no responsibility!

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