Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday, May 2, 2014
LUK 10:27 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
The word for love in JOH 13:34 is agapao which refers to a mental attitude love based upon a maximum amount of doctrine resident in your soul.
PHI 1:9 In fact, I pray this, that your virtue-love may excel to the maximum still more and more by means of metabolized doctrine resulting in all spiritual discernment,
1TH 4:9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
You cannot have impersonal unconditional agape love for all mankind until you first of all have personal love for God.
1. Temporal blessings which are above and beyond logistical grace support.
2. Eternal blessings which are blessings for the eternal state.
The first sign of momentum and progress is a personal love for God ultimately manifested by occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The word for control is the pres-act-ind of sunecho which is sunechei meaning to motivate, to compel, to urge.
Loving TLJC motivates us, it compels a person to go forward in the plan of God in spite of the pressure and distractions.
We are talking about a certain type of love, a love that comes from the mental attitude of the soul and therefore a love that is based upon thoughts and knowledge.
God does not “work all things together for good” until there is love for God.
Satan has so bombarded this society with a spirit of hardness, indifference and self‑importance that we automatically think of our own interests first and others’ second.
God requires all true Christians to esteem others above themselves.
Did Paul mean that he as an apostle should look on the members of the Church as being above his office, or that a pastor should
consider his position less important than that of an usher?
Did he mean that a husband should think of his responsibility as being less than that of his wife and children?
Are we required to have feelings of inferiority about ourselves?
Should we pretend humility over our abilities when we are better skilled or more qualified than others to do a task or hold an office?
The Williams translation says, “Practice treating one another as your superiors.”
The 20th century New Testament states it, “Each of you should… regard others of more account than himself.”
The New American Standard Bible has it, “Let each of you regard one another as more important than himself.”
This verse, then, has to do with being lowly in mind ‑ abasing and humbling oneself in preference to others.
It means putting the interests, cares and comforts of our fellowman above our own ‑ forgetting ourselves in sacrifice and service.
We as Christians should extend this attitude of honor to the unconverted of the world.
Christ said, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15).
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (MAT 5:16).
Esteeming others above ourselves, then, describes the attitude God wants Christians to develop as a basic approach to life ‑ whether toward each other or toward the world.
Just after commanding Christians to esteem others better than themselves, Paul said, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (PHI 2:5).
Paul wrote, “Christ… being in the form of God… took upon him the form of a servant… humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (PHI 2:5‑8).
He did so not only because He loved people, but also to set an example for us to follow.
God has called us out of the world not only to repent of our sins, but also to repent of what we are ‑ greedy, grasping, selfish people.
The new disposition that God wants us to acquire is a complete reversal of our former motivation.
God wants us to empty ourselves of vanity and self‑centeredness so that the happiness and well‑being of others becomes more important in our minds than ourselves.
God’s desire is for us to lose our sense of self‑consciousness and replace it with an attitude of outgoing concern for all ‑ an attitude of wanting to see them grow, advance and prosper.
3JO 1:2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
As we yield to God and His Holy Spirit, a miraculous change will occur in our lives.
This new disposition will become a daily habit ‑ a spontaneous way of life (GAL 5:22‑23).
A major test of how converted we are is how we respond to the needs of people less fortunate than ourselves.
Esteeming others better than ourselves is simply a matter of expressing love and humility and thinking of them first.
1PE 1:8 “Even though you have not seen Him, you love Him; in fact, though you do not see Him now but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with happiness inexpressible and full of glory.”
When you start to love someone you have not seen, it’s because you have them in your soul and you have lined up with their thinking.
“believe in Him” is not used here for salvation, it’s the key to loving God…believing.
Answer: Bible doctrine, you believe the word of God.
“full of glory” is a reference to the spiritually sustained believer who is reflecting the glory of God.
When there is love for God, it results in love for people.
The strength of personal love toward people comes from your personal love for God.
Virtue means right thinking resulting in right action.
Virtue means graciousness and power.
To love people personally demands more ability, more character, more integrity, more grace and more power than anything in life.
The per-act-ind of ginosko which is egnokamen meaning to know, to become aware, to perceive, to understand, to be conscious of, to comprehend intellectually.
Until you have divine viewpoint and metabolized doctrine in your soul you will have no capacity to love and no virtue.
Right thinking resulting in right action.
Virtue means graciousness and power.