Single Vision Part 2… Love
GOD’S WAY BIBLE STUDY
Single Vision Part 2
Love
Tuesday July 2, 2024
To have a single vision means we are not distracted by non-essentials. It means we do not miss the point.
The point of our faith is LOVE.
Galatians 5:6 ESV For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
If we miss this, it doesn’t matter whatever else we get right.
James 2:14–20 (NLT): Faith without Good Deeds Is Dead
14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
The point of Christianity is LOVE. Don’t miss the point.
1 John 4:7–21 (NLT): 7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
Single Vision.. Love seen through the rebuke of Jesus to the church.
Revelation 2:1–7 (ESV): To the Church in Ephesus
1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2 “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Jesus was introduced in a unique way to each of the 7 churches. Each introduction addresses the condition of the particular church.
Each church had a word of encouragement, a word of rebuke or both.
To the Ephesian church, His introduction had to do with light.., stars, (angels) and lampstands, (churches.)
Revelation 1:20 (ESV): 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
2. The church was commended for
a)her tireless labor of love 30 years earlier, Paul had commended them for their love in Ephesians 1:15.
b)her perseverance started by Paul, he commended them for their love in Ephesians 1:15,
c) her soundness of doctrine. (they did not submit to false apostles nor did they tolerate the Nicolaitans.)
3. They had abandoned their first love…
They did not abandon Jesus for somebody else, but they had lost their fire. Their zeal had come to be replaced by an orthodox method of going through the motions. On the surface, everything looked the same but God cannot be mocked,
1 Samuel 16:7 For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
4. How did they get to this condition?
a)showing love can be hard work,
b)They were faced with opposition, which created the need for patient endurance.
c) Increased wickedness
Matthew 24:12 (ESV): 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
d) having lost their initial warmth, they only clung to their doctrine.
Matthew 24:12 (ESV): 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
5. Sound doctrine is non-negotiable, but if it is the only thing we have as the body of Christ, we would have missed the point of our calling.
We misunderstand what it means to shine. We think it is to display our wealth or actually, our crassness. We are insensitive to how the world feels when we act all arrogant and selfish.
Matthew 5:16 (ESV) In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
For the church to shine is to do good works, from a pure motive… love.
If we lose love as our motive for doing charitable deeds, we become clanging cymbals.
1 Corinthians 13:3 (NLT) If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
6. The church, the body of Christ, is the light of the world. The church can never die. It will simply be relocated.
Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Individual Christians and even congregations may lose their light, but the worldwide church will never be overcome by darkness.
John 1:5 (NLT): 5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
Matthew 6:22–23 (KJV 1900): 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
James 2:18 (ESV): 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
The call of Christ is a call to abound in love.
Philippians 1:9 (ESV): And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
The call to abound in love is a call to repentance.
Revelation 2:5 ESV Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
While Jesus understood the challenges the Ephesian church was faced with, He did not spare them for their failure to walk in love.
Matthew 24:12 (ESV): 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
If we are not growing in our love walk, are we really growing as Christians?
John 13:35 (ESV): 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
PRAYER
Hebrews 12:3-4 (ESV) 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Lord, give me the grace to love like you love.
Romans 5:7-8 (NLT) 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
2. Lord, give me the grace to pay any price you count me worthy of.
Acts 5:40-41 (NLT) 40 The others accepted his advice. They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go. 41 The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.
3. Every day of my life, give me the grace to grow in my love walk.
4. Not a new fire. Not a strange fire. Just your true flame rekindled within my heart.
5. Increase my capacity to love the unloved, the unlovely and the unlovable.
