Christian Fellowship (3) What is Love?

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the three-part objective standard for assessing and guiding mutual love and brotherly affection: the precepts of the law, the pattern of Christ, and the…

The analogy of a thermometer is used to explain that just as a thermometer objectively measures bodily temperature, God's objective standard (law and Christ's pattern) assesses the presence and actings of mutual love and brotherly affection, moving beyond subjective feelings.

will be well pleasing to God? Then you and I together must come to this objective standard with its three strands of biblical material, the precepts of the law, the pattern of Christ, and the principles of 1 Corinthians 13, 4-7. They should be to us with respect to this issue what a thermometer is with respect to the question, what is my present bodily temperature? It's not enough to say, I feel flushed, I believe, I have a temperature.

21:24 - 22:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section expounds Romans 13:8-10, arguing that love does not dispense with the law but fulfills its demands. Martin uses the analogy of a vessel filled with water and a bullet…

Professor Murray's analogy of God's law as a vessel (a clay pot with specific dimensions) and love as water filling it is used to illustrate that love 'fulfills' or 'fills up' the demands of the law, giving it life and purpose.

of the law love works no evil to his neighbor love therefore is the answer is the fulfillment of the law this suggestion comes from professor murray picture the law like a vessel picture it like a big clay pot sitting up here on the corner of the pulpit it has specific dimensions and texture and size it's eighteen inches across fifteen inches high the opening is eight inches it swells out to the eighteen and comes down to ten that's the vessel it has form it has limits it has dimensions it has a purpose it has a purpose

36:15 - 36:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Love is not a self-interpreting guide. Love is motivational. Law is direction.

An illustration of a bullet needing both an explosive (love) to propel it and a barrel (law) to direct it is used to show that love without law is dangerous and law without love is useless; both are needed for right action.

no ill to his neighbor ill to his neighbor in a way that is consistent with God's law therefore love is the filling to the full of the law someone has used another illustration and I found it helpful for a bullet to hit a target you must have both an explosive to propel it and you guys that know something about rifles and hand guns so many grains of powder you must have an explosive to propel the bullet out of the shell toward its target whether that target is a deer or an elk

38:28 - 39:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Love is not a self-interpreting guide. Love is motivational. Law is direction.

A Puritan quote, 'Law is love's eyes, and without it, love is blind,' is used to emphasize that the law provides direction and understanding for how love should be expressed, preventing it from being a blind, groping emotion.

law that's the teaching of the passage according to this passage the commandments of God's law are the norms by which biblical love operates one of the old Puritans stated it this way is love's eyes, and without it, love.

40:41 - 41:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Love is not a self-interpreting guide. Love is motivational. Law is direction.

Martin's own couplet, 'Love is law's breath, and without it, law is dead,' is used to convey that without the animating power of love, the law remains a dead letter, unable to motivate obedience from a transformed heart.

And I follow that with a couplet of my own. Love is law's breath, and without it, law is dead.

42:01 - 42:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin asserts that God's law is the 'love-o-meter' for assessing mutual love and brotherly affection. He connects this to Christ's summary of the law in Matthew 22:37-40…

The story of a man who amputated his own leg to survive after being crushed is used as a vivid example of legitimate self-love, which the Lord Jesus assumes in His command to 'love thy neighbor as thyself.'

What caused that man last week? I don't know if you heard about it in the news. He had had some association with the medical profession and it seemed limbs amputated. He was crushed and in a position where he perhaps would have died and bled to death.

47:21 - 47:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Continue to keep the law of God as the conduit of love one to another, avoiding shameful relationships and financial dishonesty.

The congregation's preparation for the pastor's conference, specifically the bulletin board showing service assignments, is cited as a tangible manifestation of love, demonstrating self-giving in time, energy, and money for Christ's servants.

But I just stood down there and looked at the bulletin board that has all of the service things laid out and all the different suits and who's been served. And I got blessed. Because here is a tangible manifestation of love that's laying down money, laying down time and interest to serve the Christ's servants, seeking nothing in return. And I've blessed God in its right to boast and glory in God's people.

73:02 - 73:36 Read in full sermon