THE REFRESHING NATURE OF LOVE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

Philemon 7

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Where would we be without the incredible, refreshing nature of love? It would be a life filled with nothing but darkness and despair, right?

I have lived almost 64 years now and I’ve never met a person yet who didn’t long to feel loved by someone else and if that love can be sustained, it’s an added blessing. I believe this goes all the way back to when we emerge from the womb, leaving the enclosed safety within to emerge into an environment that is completely alien to us, an environment where a baby encounters light and the immediate love and nurturing of others immediately. This includes being held and cared for from birth until that day we enter adulthood and maybe have children of our own to love but even then, we still experience the love of our parents until that day when either they or we come to the place where life in this world ends.

Thankfully, we have more sources of love than our parents when we grow older. Many are fortunate to marry and share life and love with a husband or wife. We also develop friendships either through work or social interactions, friendships where love becomes central to the relationship. And we also find love within our church families, especially in small group environments where Christian believers can connect on a very personal level, sharing joys and sorrows with one another.

As we turn to our scripture verse from Paul’s letter to Philemon, the Colossian slave owner who has a special relationship with the Apostle who referred to him as a “dear friend and fellow worker”. In the preceding verses, Paul had commended Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus for the love they had for all God’s “holy people” in Colossae (v. 5), a referral to the Christians there. We know further that Philemon was hosting church meetings in his home (v. 2). This dedication to loving fellow believers and actively promoting the cause of Christ and the Gospel had impressed Paul, leading to these words found in verse 7:

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

Note here how Paul wasn’t praising Philemon for being a great leader in the church, citing metrics on how successful he was for growing the church and helping bring large numbers of Colossians to salvation. Rather, Paul centered his admiration on the matter of love and how Philemon expressed to the “Lord’s people”. This love, that brought Paul “great joy and encouragement”, had “refreshed the hearts” of the Colossian believers, fulfilling something that, as mentioned prior, every person craves.

Indeed, love refreshes Christians like the Colossians more than 2,000 years ago as well as us today because of its amazing nature and what it brings to all who receive it. Consider these verses from the scriptures that remind us of some of the benefits love brings to the one being loved:

1. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14

As soon as a person places their belief in Jesus and becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit is placed within them, the Spirit who serves to lead and guide the believer to be like Christ in the way they live. This changed behavior through the direction of the Holy Spirit produces fruit, referred to as the fruit of the Spirit, and that fruit includes qualities Paul calls for as he wrote to the Colossian believers.

Specifically, we find the Apostle encouraging his brothers and sisters in Christ to “clothe” themselves “with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness but note what he says about love. He testifies that it “binds” all the other virtues “together in perfect unity”. In other words, we can’t properly exercise the other fruits of the Spirit if love isn’t exercised above them.

Love needs to be active before we can show others gentleness, compassion, and kindness.

Love needs to be present so we can humble ourselves and place the needs of others before our own.

Love allows us to be tolerant and be patient with others.

and...

Love will always transcend hatred and resentment, allowing us to forgive others when the world says we shouldn’t.

With all this in hand, consider this about love and why we need never doubt its astounding power.

2. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8

God’s Word is truth and it’s full of absolute statements like this one. If our Lord tells us that love never fails than it doesn’t. Ever.

We may fail to exercise love but when love is extended and used as God intends, it will not fall short. This is good news for us when we consider how it binds all the other virtuous fruits of the Spirit together in perfect unity. For if love never fails, neither will the other Christian behaviors we’re called to exhibit.

3. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8

The gist of these words from Peter are that love can lead us to forgive or “cover over” sins that may have been committed against us. To see how this happens, we need only look to the cross where Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be sacrificed to cover our “multitude of sins” and at the core of why He did so was love, His love for us and the love of God, His Father and ours, who made it all possible.

4. For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Look at the core of the Gospel and you find the matter of love, a love that led our Creator to not allow us to perish, rather saving us through His Son Jesus, the substitutionary sacrifice that brought pardon and atonement to anyone who would believe in Him. And this pardon and atonement brings with it a promise that all who are in Christ Jesus will “have eternal life” becoming co-heirs of the very Kingdom of God with Him (Romans 8:17).

With this, all Christians are victorious, their eternal hope secure, all because of the refreshing nature of love. This removes any need to worry or be afraid in life, even when death might loom, because the promise of everlasting life is sure.

And this leads to the final verse in today’s message:

5. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4:18

Because of the redeeming work of Jesus on Calvary’s cross, His perfect love that brings salvation to all who believes in Him “casts out fear” and dispels any concerns we might have in life. Our future, living in glory with Him and God forever is secure and no one can take it away. And no matter what life might bring our way, we can live with the bold confidence that the best is yet to come.

Friends, when we look at the center of Christian life, we will always find love at its core because love is what is at the heart of the One who made us and the One who saved us.

Be refreshed by that truth.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.