Sermons - 2007 Week 45
Sermon outline - Pastor Chris’
The Qualities of Love (Part 2)
1 Corinthians 13:6-7
Verse 6 begins with a warning that love does not rejoice in iniquity and follows it with “but” rejoices in the truth. It is not a license for unconditional love to encompass even sin.
Question: do you love a sinful person so that he will change, or do you love a person when he develops the attitude of change?
It does not matter what you believe as long as you love each other. This free love concept is a mistaken concept because the second part of verse 6 qualifies it. For love rejoices in the truth. Truth is in doctrine and in theology. These are subjects that are not boring and should not be ignored because it is the foundation of our lives. We stake our entire destiny on it!
Is theology needed to rejoice in the truth?
Love bears all things. Bears all things acceptable to God. Here, again, it is not free rein to say that if one does not bear or tolerate all sinful, unrighteous acts, then one does not love. On the contrary, love again is not unconditional here. Selfless love does not glorify sin or compromise truth.
Love believes all things. Love gives the benefit of the doubt. It is not suspicious or cynical, which is unlike the spirit of our age. The other end of the spectrum is gullibility.\
How does one differentiate between the following: love which results in believing all things, love to the extent of obsession and gullibility
Love hopes all things. In no matter how difficult a situation, even when it runs out of faith, even when there is no silver lining, love still hopes. When hope weakens and disappears so does love.
Love endures all things. Love endures even when hope is gone. Love always breaks the heart – this aphorism is true unless love is completely bottled up. This implies that one must never love if one does not want to get hurt.
Love is everything. It bears the unbearable, believes the unbelievable, hopes in the hopeless, endures when it is unbearable, hopeless and unbelievable for love endures everything.
Mr and Mrs ET Chua
Note: My sincere apologies, no English Sermon recording available due to Technical Breakdown on Sunday - Ze Gang
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