BACKGROUND:
Peter gave another reason to love others: Believers have a common ground in Christ. We have all been born again; we are sinners saved by grace. Our new life did not come from our earthly parents; that life will one day end in death. Our new life will last forever because it was given to us by the eternal, living word of God. God’s word lives and endures forever, because God who gave it lives and endures from eternity past to eternity future. The powerful, living word of God himself, recorded in Scripture, brings new life to believers; the eternal word of God himself assures the permanence of that new life. It is only through hearing and/or reading these words that people can find eternal life, for the Scriptures tell the gospel message and make the way of salvation clear to those who seek it.
Quoting the prophet, Isaiah 40:6-8, Peter reminded believers that everything in this life—possessions, accomplishments, people—will eventually fade away and disappear. As the grass and wildflowers bloom for a season then wither and fall, so all of this life is transitory in nature; it will pass away. Only the word of the Lord will last forever. Peter’s readers would face suffering and persecution, but that would be only temporary. The word of the Lord was the Good News that had been preached to them. That Good News is good for eternity.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
What kind of person is God looking for?
#6. GOD IS LOOKING FOR LOVING PEOPLE
This is the number one trait of the New Testament Christians. “See how they love one another.” 1 John 4:7-8 (Living Bible) “Let us practice loving each other. For love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God and that they are getting to know Him better. But if a person isn’t loving and kind, it shows He doesn’t know God. For God is love.”
People today are looking for love. Streisand sang it, “What the world needs now, is love sweet love.” I know where they can get it. The Beetles used to sing, “All the lonely people where do they all come from. All the lonely people where do they all belong.” When I stand out and hug people on the patio I often wonder, How long does that hug have to last for that person? For some people that’s the only physical contact they get all week. I’ve often thought of going into full time Christian hugging. It would be a legitimate ministry. We’ve lost the element of love when we get too busy. I may do 120 Bible studies and I may memorize entire books of the Bible. And I may know how to defend my faith and win people to Christ. And I may know all kinds of great theological truths but if I have not love I am as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.
Do you really love people? Do you love people the way that Jesus loves people? That is the basis for ministry. Somebody has said, “Sympathy is when you say, ‘I’m sorry you hurt.’ Empathy is when you say, ‘I hurt with you.’ But compassion is ‘I’ll do anything I can to stop your hurt.’” If you study the life of Christ it says “He was filled with compassion.” He said, “I’ll do anything I can to stop your hurt even if it means going to the cross. He was moved with compassion.
It’s interesting to me that in Matthew 25 the one thing that we’re going to be judged for at that judgment is how we treated other people. “I was sick and in prison and you visited Me. I was naked and you clothed Me. I was hungry and you fed Me. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink.” How we treated other people. That’s one of those eternal values.
It’s so much easier to tell a person what to do than to stand with them in their pain and love them. Love them into the family of God. But the language of love always works.
Many years ago, Fulton Sheen, the Catholic bishop, visited a leprosy colony in Africa. As he was walking around there was this leper lying on the ground who not only had leprosy but also a number of other skin diseases. His body was open sores all over. Fulton Sheen leaned over to talk to the man. He was wearing a crucifix and, as he did, the chain came unlatched and his cross fell into one of the open sores. Fulton Sheen said, “I was revolted and stepped back in horror.” Then he said, “Then all of a sudden I was just filled with compassion for this man. I reached into the sore and took up the cross.”
That is the whole business of Christianity. Healing broken messed up lives where people are bleeding and hurting and dying and their lives are messed up and they’re like sheep without a shepherd and they’re confused. What God needs you to do is go out into the sores of life, out into the marketplace and take up the cross. And you do that by love. And God uses people who love.
If I gave everything I have to the poor and were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others it would be of no value whatsoever.
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