WHERE LOVE LEADS?
BIBLE PASSAGE: REVELATION 19:7-8
Picture taken from Google
Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of
Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
FEBRUARY 20, 2022
MEMORY VERSE
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:
this is the first commandment.
MARK 12:30
INTRODUCTION:
Being in love changes
everything. For instance, a woman is not a fan of basketball but when she met a
man who caught her attention which is a player of a certain team in basketball,
changes her likes. She will try everything even watching basketball just to
catch the man’s attention and let him know that they have common interest. What
changes her perspective? Love did but the question is where does love to lead her?
Sometimes love leads us to the wrong direction and gives us bad perspective in life. One example is a woman who loves a drug-addict- person. Remember the one-line lyric in a song Somewhere Down the Road which says, “We have the right love at the wrong time” and another popular love quote, “Love is blind.” These one-lyric song and quote explain that a person in love can’t see what is wrong and bad. This love categorizes the wrong kind of love but how about what TRUE LOVE leads us? And what our love to the Lord leads us?
LESSON OUTLINE:
1. LOVE LEADS YOU TO BE FAITHFUL (HOSEA
3:1-3)
Then said the Lord unto
me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to
the love of the Lord toward
the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. So I
bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and
an half homer of barley: And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many
days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so
will I also be for thee.
In Hosea 3:1-3 shows the love of God
to the people of Israel. God directed Hosea to go back to his wife, even though
she was committing adultery. It wasn’t in the past; it was in
the present; yet he was commanded to go back to her and to love her. This also shows us an important
principle about love: Hosea is directed
to love, even when it must have been hard to love. Just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel: Why did God command Hosea to go back to his
still-unfaithful wife? Not only for the sake of Hosea and his wife Gomer, but
also so that they would become a living lesson of the LORD’s relationship with
His people. They were still steeped in spiritual adultery, yet the LORD still
loved them. When we think of the greatness of God’s love and compassion towards
us, it should make us much more loving, compassionate, and forgiving towards
others.
In human speaking, if you are in love, you give less
time to other people; you focus to the person you are in love with. You’ll give
your best to please the man or woman you love, and you’ll stay faithful not
unless you fall out of love.
How about our love to God? Just like the love we show
to our loved ones; God deserves our love. If we love God, we should be faithful
too. Our love to Him must be the foremost in our hearts, exceeding the bond of
any other relationship. Jesus identified the greatest of all commandments “Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy souls, and
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment”
(Mark 12:30). We should return to God the love He bestows upon us.
2. LOVE LEADS YOU TO BE OBEDIENT (1 JOHN
2:3-6)
5 But whoso keepeth his
word, in him verily is the love of
God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
There’s an instance wherein a young lady was once told by her
boyfriend to stop wearing short skirts especially in church event and the next
Sunday, all young people were surprised to see this young lady wearing long
skirts and nice blouse. This is just a minor example of what love results; a
person can do everything to please her love of her life.
How about our
love to our God? The evidence of someone knowing God, and fellowship with Him
is that he does keep His commandments. A simple,
loving obedience is a natural result of fellowship with God.
Love is not primarily an emotion. We may feel
lovingly towards someone or experience the emotional warmth of another's love,
but love is much deeper and more active than the way we feel. True love is
always expressed in action; like God's love was shown by giving His Son to be
our substitutionary sacrifice. The believers who John was addressing were being
caught up by Gnostic teaching which claimed that if you have a special
religious formula and mental attitude you can know God: but John said you do not
need a formula – you need love and obedience.
How do we know if we have a relationship with God?
We will listen to what He says and obey. The people who claim to know God
through a religious formula but do not obey Him are not listening to His word;
they have no relationship with Him. Worse than that, they are liars and frauds
because they are claiming to have a relationship with God which does not exist.
When the people who know God hear His Word and
choose to obey Him, they demonstrate that they really do love Him. As they grow
in their relationship with Him, they grow to be like Him: His character comes
out in their behavior and lifestyle. It is not that they slavishly adopt the
way Jesus lived, but that in knowing Him they love what He loves and hate what
He hates. Our lifestyles become more like Jesus as we want to let His Word
inform our desires and choices.
Alas, we do not always live consistently like that.
But the personal test is: do we want to? Does it matter to us that we please
Him? Indeed, even the act of confessing our sins demonstrates that we want to
be made clean again so that we can be restored to a loving relationship in
which we obey Him. If you love Him, seek out a new opportunity to obey His Word
today. If you are ridiculed for being like Jesus, give thanks that your love
for Him is shining through.
https://www.wordatwork.org.uk/1-john/love-leads-obedience
3. LOVE LEADS YOU TO COMMITMENT (PSALMS
37:4-6)
Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that
which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
TAGALOG: Maging tunay ang inyong pagmamahalan. Kasuklaman
ninyo ang masama at pakaibigin ang mabuti.
Nowadays,
we can see how a man prepares to be engaged. In the social media, there are lot
of preparations and ideas men do. They are very creative and try their best to
make it memorable so that their girlfriends would say “I DO.” What if a woman
is waiting to be engaged but waiting for nothing? Just imagine a woman waiting
for a man to say, “I’m committed to you” and at the end he would not see you as
the woman he would commit. It’s hard to swallow and move on because you waited
for years for nothing. It’s best to find
someone who would commit his life to you because LOVE LEADS YOU TO COMMITMENT.
In
spiritual aspect, it’s questionable if a person who says, “I love the Lord” but
doesn’t commit to Him. Why does God want us to be committed to Him? GOD WANTS YOU TO BE COMMITTED TO HIM SO THAT THE WORLD MAY
KNOW HE IS IMPORTANT TO YOU. Our commitment to him is our
witness. Our commitment to him shows others how important he is to us. The more
commitment, the more we show the world how important he is to us. If something is important in our
life, we commit ourselves to it.
If you like or love something, you commit to your time to it. If your job is important to you, you commit yourself to it. If your family is important, you commit yourself to it. If a person is important to you, you commit time, to be spent with them. If your health is important to you, you commit yourself to working out. Whatever it is important to you, you will commit yourself to it. We may say something is important but if we do not commit time to it obviously is not important. If it is valuable to you, you make the effort to commit whatever resources you need to appreciate it. If serving God is important to us, we must commit ourselves to serving him. What we commit and how much we commit shows how much we value our relationship with him. Really, how much we really love him. When we are committed to coming to church, we show others that God is important to us. It is our witness to the world. https://www.guidinglight.org/being-fully-committed-to-god/
4. LOVE LEADS YOU TO MARRIAGE (REV.
19:7; 21:2; GEN. 2:24)
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Any times the Judgement Seat of
Christ is referred to by the biblical scholars as “The Bema Seat.” The reason
for this is that the phrase, “Judgement Seat” is taken from one Greek word,
“bema” which translated from Greek means “Judgement Seat.” During the time of
Christ, this world could refer to the platform on which a ruler or judge
decided to athletic competition in the New Testament, he was likely using the
term as it applied to Greek sports. If the winner of a particular contest had
followed the rules of competition and won, he has honored at the bema; there he
was crowned. https;//www.arewelivinginthelastdays.com
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In the city of Corinth, a stone
platform was constructed to support the Bema Seat (Judgment Seat) of the local
officials. The seat was used to give out awards to athletes for their
competitive performances (usually a crown of wreath of leaves), but also to
address legal charges brought against individuals. Apostle Paul was quite
familiar with this seat. This is where he was brought before Gallio, who was
the proconsul oF Achaia at the Bema Seat (Acts 18:12), “And when
Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord
against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,” This seat was also what Paul referred to in 2Corinthians
5:9-10 as the “Judgement Seat of Christ.” In this context, Paul explains to us
tha this is where the Christians will receive an evaluation for works done in
the body, whether good or bad. https;//www.arewelivinginthelastdays.com
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The participants in the Judgement
Seat of Christ are members of the spiritual church. These are people who have
trusted Christ as Savior from the Day of Pentecost, until the coming of Christ
for His church. The Bible said that God will reward the actions of believers.
“Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth
mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.” – Psalms
62:12
For the Son of
Man is going to come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will
reward each person according to what He has done (Matthew 16:27).
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The Lord Jesus Christ is the Judge
(John 5:22-27). It is for Christians only (2 Corinthians 5:8-10).
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The rewards we receive on earth are
all temporal and perish. The rewards in the Judgement Seat of Christ are
eternal and will never perish.
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By consistently focusing on the
Judgment Seat of Christ, you will naturally develop a desire to please God
rather than men. Developing this attitude is the surest way to handle criticism
and opposition.
CONCLUSION:
Most people don’t want to be held
accountable. Whether we like it or not we are all accountable. We feel and act
like we’re not accountable but in reality, we cannot escape from the accountable
to the Lord. If we act unaccountable in the work we do, we will be unable to do
our best, it wasteful time and it hinders our spiritual growth. God’s Word
motivates us to do our best in our commitment to God,
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast,
unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that
your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
