Faith, Hope, and Love in the Church
The Direction of Our Love
Colossians 1:4
1:3 We give thanks to God, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4. since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; 5. because of
the hope laid up for you in heaven…
As we saw in our first look into this section of Scripture,
these verses talk about the object of the Colossian’s faith—Christ Jesus, the
direction of their love—toward all the saints, and the place of their
hope—which is in heaven. The purpose for
Paul writing this epistle, which we see in 4:12 and 2:1-3, and it is so that
the Colossians would stand fully assured in their faith. When working with someone to build up their
confidence, you start with commending them on what they are
already doing well or right. We see Paul
doing just that in these verses as he commends the Colossians on the exercise of
their faith, love, and hope. We have looked
at the object of their faith, Christ Jesus, so now I want to talk about the
direction of their love, which is toward all the saints; and as it was for the
church at Colossae, it should be for the church today.
So as we consider the direction of their love and therefore
the direction of our love in the church today we want to look at 4 things.
- What is this love they have?
- Where does this love originate?
- Why is this love directed towards the saints?
- How is this love manifested?
What is this love
they have? Well, the Greek word for
love used here is agape. It is one of
the four words the Greeks used for love.
These four words for love are storge,
eros, phileo, and agape. Storge
means natural affection, like you would have for a pet, or the natural
affection a parent has for their child.
It is not used in the NT except twice in its negative sense in Romans
1:31 and II Timothy 3:3 to describe how far man falls without God. Eros,
is a passionate, sensual, physical love.
It is a love based on infatuation and sensual attraction. It is often used to describe romantic
love. This is the kind of love we see
portrayed in movies, television programs, romance novels, and sung about in our
music. Interestingly, it is never used
in the Scriptures. Then there is phileo, brotherly love. It is a warm and tender affection. It can be deep and intense. It is used to
describe the love for those near and dear to one’s heart. It is a love that cherishes. It is a love
that is reciprocal in nature and a love that is shared. It is used throughout the NT. Finally, there is agape, the predominant word used for love in the NT. It is a love of the will and the mind. It is a love of choice and commitment. It is not devoid of emotion, but overrules
and overrides emotion. It acts in spite
of how one feels. It is a selfless love,
an unselfish love, a sacrificial love. It
is not motivated by the self, but by others.
It loves even if the person who is the object of the love is
undeserving, unworthy, and unloving in return.
It puts what is best for the other person first and foremost. It is a love which compels one to
action. In the NT it is used to describe
the love of God, the love of Christ, and how we are to love. This type of love was thought unattainable by
the Greeks and is only used in secular Greek writings two or three times. The picture of love which this word paints
for us in the Scriptures is not “being in love” but the act of loving.
Where does this love originate? As
you can see the Greeks were right in thinking the agape type of love was unattainable, from a human perspective. The heights this love operates in are unassailable
for us mere mortals. So where do we go
to find this love, where are the headwaters of this love? I John
4:7-8, 16 As we see in these verses, God is love. Note that it does not say that God has love, or
that God is a loving being, but that God is love. By saying that God is love John is saying
that love is intrinsic to who God is, it is part of His nature, and is
inseparable from who He is, and, therefore, inseparable from His actions. It is as much a part of Him as your eye color
is of you. This love that is part and
parcel of who God is, is agape. God is agape. This love of the will, of choice and
commitment, this love that compels to action, this love that is selfless,
unselfish, and sacrificial, this love that loves despite the unloveliness of
the object loved, that loves despite of its unworthiness, that loves in spite
of its hatefulness in return, this love that comes from a predetermined state
of mind that exists because it is part of core of His being, this is the love
that God is. This is the love that is described in I Corinthians 13 as patient,
kind, never jealous, never bragging, never arrogant, never acts unbecomingly,
is never self seeking, is not provoked, never takes into account a wrong
suffered, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things and it never fails.
This is the love that the
Colossians had for all the saints, and, as such, this is the love that we are to
direct toward all the saints. So how do we get this love? Let’s look again at I John 4:7. We are to love (agape) one another, for love (agape) is from God and everyone who loves (agapes) is born of God and knows
God. So we see that agape is from God and only those that are born of God (born again)
and know God have this kind of love. So
this love, this agape, is not
something that an unregenerate person, an unsaved person, or someone whom the
Bible calls the natural man possesses.
This love, agape, is unique to
the believer. Now let’s look at Romans 5:5. Here we see that the love of God (not just
any love, but God’s love, agape) has
been poured out within our heart through His Holy Spirit who was given to
us. Poured out is in the perfect tense
here, which means that it is a completed event with continuing results or
effects. So we see that God has given us
His love, His agape, in our heart
through His Holy Spirit who indwells us, and we received this love, all of this
love, the minute the Holy Spirit came and took up residence in our heart, and
this love never goes away. Now look at Ephesians 3:17. This verse tells us that we are rooted and grounded in this love, this agape.
What a beautiful picture these words paint of our secure position in and
reservoir of, the love, the agape of
God. We are fixed into and draw from the infinite love (agape) of God. This is where this love we are to have for all the
saints originates and how we have come to possess it.
Why is this love directed toward the saints? Most of us who have been Christians for
any length of time are familiar with the two greatest commandments in all of
Scripture. The greatest is to love the
Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all
of your mind; and the second is like it, it is to love your neighbor as
yourself. We all know that when Jesus
came He fulfilled all of the law, so He fulfilled these two commandments. But what He also did was to raise the
bar. John 13:34-35. Here Jesus
gives a new command, and this command is to love (agapao) one another, which
would be fellow believers (the saints), not as ourselves, but as He has loved
us. This is what John is referring back
to in I John 4:7 when he says
“Beloved let us love one another, for love is from God.” So we are to have the same love toward all
the saints that Christ Jesus has for us.
This is why Paul is commending the Colossian saints, for following the
command of Christ to love one another as He has loved us. According to John 13:35 this love for
all the saints will prove to all men that we are His disciples, His
followers. If you think about what we
have seen about agape, you can
understand how this would be a witness to all men that we are disciples of
Christ, His followers; because only Christ or someone who has Christ living
within can love like this. We also see
that this is a particular love; it is Christ’s love, and His love for his own,
His saints, being lived out through His saints for one another. This is a powerful witness to all men, both
saved and unsaved, of the reality of the power and love of Christ. And when we follow His command to love one
another we prove our love for Him as He said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” and we
see the saints at Colossae
doing just that. Isn’t it wonderful that
the love of Christ has already been poured out within our hearts so that His
command to love one another as He has loved us is not burdensome, but a joy. Christ Jesus wants us to love one another as
He loved us. He wants us, His own, to continually share and experience His love
for us with and through each other. Oh,
what a glorious thing this ought to be in the church, to never be without the
love of Christ. What a wonderful
provision He has given us to never be without His love. This is the reason behind the gifts and the
gifted given to the church in Ephesians chapter 4, to attain to the stature of the fullness of
Christ, and in doing so the church will build itself up in love, agape, Christ’s love.
How is this love manifested? When
something is manifested it means that it is revealed. As believers we reveal the love of Christ in
how we live it out, and from the context here in Colossians it is lived out in
relation to other believers. Let’s look
at some practical examples from the Scriptures.
We are to be angry and yet, not
sin.
We are to let no unwholesome word
proceed from our mouth, but only that which edifies.
We are to let all bitterness,
wrath, anger, clamor, and slander be put away from us.
We are to be kind to one another,
tender-hearted, forgiving each other.
We are to bear one another’s
burdens.
We are to bear one another’s
weaknesses.
We are to be on the alert and
pray for one another with all prayer and petition.
We are not to be arrogant toward
one another.
We are not to be partial.
We are to treat each other the
way we would want to be treated.
We are to please others instead
of ourselves.
We are to defer to others by
considering one another as more important than ourselves.
We are to do no wrong to one
another.
We are to accept one another.
We are to weep with those who
weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
We are not to be provoked.
We are not to act unbecomingly
toward one another.
We are to speak the truth to one
another in love
We are to be patient with one
another.
We are not to gossip about one
another.
We are to consider how to stimulate
one another to love and good deeds.
We are to provide for one
another’s needs.
We are to reconcile with one
another.
We are to gently restore those
who sin.
We are to be subject to one
another.
Our love is to cover a multitude
of sins against us and still keep on loving.
No matter how much and how well
we love we are to excel still more.
This is the essence of love,
God’s own love, Christ’s own love, that has been given to us so it can be given
out to our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the love in which we are
rooted and by which we are grounded.
You know, we hear so often today
that we are to love ourselves or that we must learn to love ourselves. This is the mantra behind all the self-help
books and seminars, many of the twelve step programs, and unfortunately is what
is being taught in so many churches. This is the eternal lie. It is what Satan was really telling Eve to do
in the garden. It is what Satan was
tempting Christ to do in the wilderness.
Isn’t it interesting that there is no place in Scripture that says God
loves Himself. What Scripture says is
that God loves us, that God loves His Son, that God so loved us that He gave
His Son, His only Son whom He loved, for us, that we might have eternal life
with Him and enjoy His presence forever.
In addition, we are not commanded in Scripture to love ourselves, but to
love God, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and to love one another as
He has loved us. In fact, there is no
place in the Scriptures where self love is commended or commanded. The focus of our love is to be on God and
therefore on His saints, our brother and sisters in Christ. My friends don’t fall prey to the siren song
of self love, but follow the command of Christ, the example of Christ, to love
one another as He has loved us. Greater
love has no man than this than that He would lay down His life for His friends. My
friends, my fellow saints, let us love like this today.
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