Love Forever

2nd Sunday of Advent

Sriptures: Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Matthew 22:34-40 and Philippians 1:3-11

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Love the Lord Your God

(1) These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to

observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

(2) so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long

as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may

enjoy long life.

(3) Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may

increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord , the God of your

fathers, promised you.

(4) Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

(5) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

(6) These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. (7) Impress them on

your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when

you lie down and when you get up.

(8) Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

(9) Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Matthew 22:34-40

The Greatest Commandment

(34) Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. (35) One of

them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: (36) “Teacher, which is the greatest

commandment in the Law?”

(37) Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with

all your mind.’ (38) This is the first and greatest commandment. (39) And the second is like it:

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (40) All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two

commandments.”

Philippians 1:3-11

(3) I thank my God every time I remember you. (4) In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray

with joy (5) because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, (6) being

confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the

day of Christ Jesus.

(7) It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I

am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.

(8) God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

(9) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of

insight, (10) so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless

until the day of Christ, (11) filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus

Christ–to the glory and praise of God.

This is the word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Being that this is the second Sunday of advent and we light the candle of love in many of our church’s today. I thought appropriate that we look at the greatest commandment, and that is a command to love. And then consider what Paul wrote about this love to the Philippians.

Do you remember the first time you told a boyfriend or girlfriend those three words, “I love you?” When did you first say it to the one you married? I don’t remember the particular occasion, but I remember thinking about it. I remember thinking, do I dare tell her how I feel? I really think I love her, but should I tell her yet? Then I thought, what if she doesn’t have any of

these feelings for me? Will she be embarrassed? Will I be sticking my neck out? Will it change our relationship if I tell her that I love her? Should I wait until I’m more certain?

For myself that was a long time ago, over 51 years. I still say those words – perhaps not as often as I should. And I still love to hear them said to me, “I love you.” Those three words are powerful. To say them, to hear them said, can make a big difference.

Long ago after we were married we decided that we should say: I Love You Forever. We would add the Forever, at the end of cards we would exchange and still do today as a reminder of the promises we made on our wedding day.

While reflecting on that statement, on that promise, I began to ask myself questions like; ”If we are made in the image of God can we “Love Forever”?

Like God does! Can we love each other too much and if so, how much is too much?

For your consideration, I found a couple of articles I’d like to share with you.

In a southern city newspaper there was an ad inviting people to a seminar entitled, “Women who love too much.”

Some time ago a young widow told her pastor how deeply she had loved

her husband and that she sometimes felt guilty because maybe she loved him too much. She added, “Sometimes I wonder if I loved my husband too much. Could that be the reason God took him away from me? The Bible says we serve a jealous God in the Ten Commandments”

(Exodus 20:5). “For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,”.

So one might be tempted to ask: “Can we love God too much?”

In a recent church magazine a retired pastor lamented that he gave too much time and effort to the church. He wrote, “I was a fool to give so much time and effort to the church to the neglect of my family and friends.” Should love of family or friends come before love of God?

Can love of God make you spend too much of yourself in church work?

Well the only place we can find answers to all these questions are in the Word! Because as we read in the gospel John 1:1 he starts by writing; “In The beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Apparently, Moses, who wrote our first text, believed that we should love God with our whole beings. We are to love God with an “all”. All our hearts, all our souls, and all our might.

According to our second text, Jesus believed and taught the same. He repeated what Moses had said and added another dimension: “with all your mind.” When you add up heart, soul, mind, and strength, what do you have? Isn’t it the total person, your whole self? That’s a tough assignment. That’s why Jesus called it the first and greatest commandment. If you and I obey

it, all other laws will automatically be obeyed won’t they.

Is it possible to obey the greatest commandment ? If so, how?

In Philippians 1:9-11, we read Paul’s apostolic prayer. After telling of his love for the Philippians and of his thankfulness for their generosity, Paul proceeds to pray for them. Although such prayers are standard features of first-century letters, Paul uses this prayer to advance his pastoral concerns for the Philippians.

He begins his prayer for the Philippians with a petition for the congregation to grow in love and discernment and then states the purpose of this love: a life of holiness.

He first prays that the Philippians abound in love and the truth of the gospel. Love and discernment go together for Paul. He calls the Philippians to love in such a way that their love is founded on truth and understanding. Paul desires for the Philippians to have this love and discernment so that they may live a life of holiness and obedience to God, so that they may “be pure and blameless for the day of Christ”.

We know that a life of holiness is evidence of the truth of the gospel, and Paul calls the Philippians to live up to that calling. In the final part of his prayer, Paul tells us the characteristics of this holy life. It is first and foremost filled with the “fruit of righteousness”.

This fruit is the outworking of love, which finds its ultimate source in communion with Jesus Christ. He is the source of the fruit that will show itself in the Philippians’ lives and in our lives still today, if we are to “abound in love”.

More than that, Christ is the supreme example to follow on our path to holy living. One hallmark of a holy life is that it gives glory and praise to

God. Praise and glorification of God is the goal of right discernment and correct conduct.

This Second Sunday of Advent, we do this in our singing of Christmas carols. We do this in the partaking in Communion as we come to His table and remember all that Jesus did for us in His outworking of love.

This love, Paul trusts, will be accompanied by: “Knowledge and depth of insight”. Paul was not blind to the dangers of emotion uncontrolled by intelligence. He was determined, by his own account, to pray and sing “with my spirit, but … also … with my mind” (1 Cor. 14:15), and he was equally concerned that he and his converts, as well as us today, should love in spirit

and mind alike.

Paul reminds us still today, that it’s love that fosters the growth of true knowledge and discernment or spiritual perception. “Knowledge,” divorced from love, “puffs up,” whereas “love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). But if love is absolutely essential, “knowledge and depth of insight” are necessary.

The truth of the gospel is liable to be corrupted when ignorance and faulty judgment provide a foothold for the unsound teaching. With so many competing forms of doctrine and ways of life are presented for acceptance.

We need the Word. Remember this, true knowledge and depth of insight will enable Christians to discern what is best. When the writer of Deuteronomy tells us that above all we are to, “fear the Lord your God”, and teach it to our descendants, that fear of God, is to Love God with a Forever Love, and that Love becomes Faith. Faith by which we may overcome any fear we may encounter in this life.

May I use the words of Paul in telling you, “this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight”. Understand this, Deut.6:4 tells us, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This same Jesus whose birth we celebrate this advent season is, One with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And that is first and foremost, true knowledge and depth of

insight we need. Only then can we begin to “Love Forever” The God who Created us, Saved us and Abides with us.

Our love can only abound if we obey the commands of Christ. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Now you have the knowledge and depth of insight so that your love may abound and grow and

the ability to, “Love Forever”!

Any questions? Check with The Word !!

In His Service,

Pastor Joe