Spiritual Growth
The Marks of Spiritual Growth - Love
May 21, 2006

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35

Review: Romans 8:29…2 Corinthians 5:14…2 Corinthians 3:18…1 Timothy 4:7-8…Ephesians 4:15-16

1. Why did Jesus give love priority?

• Love is first and greatest.

For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3:11

Jesus replied: " '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. Mat 22:37-40

• Agape love as contrasted with eros, phileo, or storge.

• God teaches us to love in order that we may know Him.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8

• Love is the bumper sticker of our faith. (John 13:35) Observable love is the most clear and obvious apologetic for our faith.

• Love is a confirmation of our faith.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 1 John 3:14-15

• Love will lead to obedience and growth in holiness.

If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. John 14:23-24


2. What does Christian love look like?

• 1 Corinthians 13 – The love chapter.

 The qualities pictured here are a picture of our Lord Jesus.
 This passage has been called the most beautiful in all of scripture and yet one of the most devastating.

• Verses 1 – 3: The supremacy of love over other things.

o Over spiritual gifts.
o Over intellectual powers.
o Over faith.
o Over material or bodily sacrifice.

• Verses 4-7: A list of love’s qualities.

• Love is patient.
• Love is kind.
• Love is never jealous, never envious.
• Love is not proud- arrogant, puffed up, conceited, self-important.
• Love is not rude.
• Love does not insist on its own way.
• Love is not easily provoked or angered.
• Love is not resentful. It keeps no record of wrongs.
• Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
• Love bears all things. It protects others.
• Love believes all things and hopes all things. It is always optimistic about its object.
• Love always perseveres.

• Verses 8-13: Love’s permanence.

o Love is superior to spiritual gifts, all of which will come to an end.
o Love is made perfect in eternity.
o The greatest is love.


3. Why don’t we love others as we know we should?

• Knowing that we are loved by God and others.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19

• Inability to love ourselves.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14

• Judgmental attitudes.

• Fear.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

o Fear of rejection.
o Fear of criticism.
o Fear of painful consequences.
o Fear of commitment.
o Fear of conflict.
o Fear of abandonment.

• Self-centeredness. (See Gal 5:13-14 above)

• Overcoming the barriers.

o Pray for the Holy Spirit to empower.
o Trust God.
o Begin to act in a loving way, regardless of the way you feel.