Introduction
“Love” is a popular word in our society. We love everything from burgers to boyfirends; our shows to our children! But what is Love? More particularly, what is the difference between the world’s idea of love (a secular idea of Love) and a Christian’s concept of love? In Matthew 13 Jesus commands his disciples to “Love one another.” Join us this morning as we discover what this actually means.
I stumbled upon one author’s take on this question and I appreciated it very much:
The difference between secular love and Christian love is that secular love is not rooted in the cross of God’s Son, and is not sustained and shaped by the power of God’s Spirit, and is not acted for the glory of God the Father. So the source of it is different, the sustaining power of it is different, and the goal of it is different. —John Piper
I will add a fourth —The world’s love is not informed by God’s Word.
Let us deal with eahc of these in turn:
Love is
Love is
Love is