“If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha.” (1 Corinthians 16:22)

We judge a man not by what he believes or hopes, but by what he loves. That was Augustine’s astute observation long ago. It’s an easy statement with hard impact.

Words, as they say, are cheap. A man may claim incomparable wealth without actually having a dime to his name. A kid may tell his friends all about his awesome vacation to Disney World, even if it never actually happened. A would-be messiah may say that your sins are forgiven without actually having the authority to grant it. The proof of the pudding, as they also say, is in the eating.

This is precisely what James was getting at in his faith and works discussion. Anyone can say he believes the gospel, even a well-trained parrot. The proof comes as the professed faith works out. If it’s genuine, it will show itself. Real faith is not hidden under a basket, it’s a city on a hill which cannot be missed. The kind of faith wrought by the Spirit of God produces a living, active love for the Son of God. Faith that has no life is, well, dead. Dead faith doesn’t save anybody.

Neither is hope a good indicator of a man. Any man can hope. We can be utterly convinced in our minds of just about anything. I mentioned earlier the false prediction of Christ’s return. Camping’s was just one of many such failures. Yet that didn’t prevent some people from quitting their jobs and heading to the mountaintops for a bird’s eye view of Jesus as He came riding the waves of the sky. They did this in hope. They were wrong. Their hope had no substance, no foundation, no reality. While their heads were in the clouds, their feet had no ground beneath them. We can’t test a man’s commitment to Christ by whether or not he hopes to have eternal life. There will be many on that day to whom the Lord will say, “I never knew you.” Their hope was hopeless.

But love is different. Love reveals what is real in a man.

 

We Love Ourselves

When the serpent came to Eve, he didn’t appear one day and say, “It’s either me or God. You will serve one of us, which will it be? You must choose.” If that were his approach, he would have made a more majestic display, dressing as a lion or a dragon or something provoking more fear and awe than a snake. But he knew better. Given the choice between serving him or God, the woman would have picked God no matter how impressive his own show might have been. But if the choice was between serving God or serving herself, his chances of success where greatly improved: “Your eyes will be opened, Eve. You will be like God. You will know good and evil…” and now the woman begins worshipping her true love. “Hey, that fruit could be good food for me. That fruit looks good to me. That fruit can make me wise. Bon appétite!”

Our greatest natural love is for ourself. Does a husband neglect his wife out of love for her? Does a mother speak critically to her daughter out of love for her? Does a boy disobey his father because he loves him? Does a couple break fellowship with its church family and seek to undermine its integrity in the community due to their love for the church? Does a man lash out in anger toward his boss out of love for him? Does a person harbor bitterness against another because of love for them? No. All of these and many, many more arise out of a love for self. We get hurt because we are concerned with ourselves. (There’s a reason it’s called self-pity.) We commit adultery because we love ourselves. We criticize, demean, and cutdown others because we love ourselves. We betray a friend because we love ourselves. We grow impatient, annoyed, and bothered because we love ourselves. We refuse to do the hard things of life because we love ourselves. We become lazy, cynical, and introverted because we love ourselves. We fail to love others because we love ourselves.

You might say that we come by this honestly because the world constantly commands us to be true to ourselves, take care of number one, do what makes us happy, and make our own way. Don’t be naive. It’s not an American invention. It’s not a product of the 60’s. It’s not new. It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. And it has always been successful because my primary concern is me, yours is you, and Eve’s was Eve.

Satan really only employs one strategy. He has only one. He exploits our love for self. Take that away, and he is powerless. Peter loved himself enough to deny the Messiah. Judas, enough to kill Him. But consider the Messiah Himself. The devil searched and searched for the selfish crack in Jesus’ armor, but there was none to be found. He offered food after 40 days of starvation. He offered extensive power. He offered validation and certainty about God’s love for Him. But Jesus loved God and man more than Himself, even to the point of death on the cross. Satan’s head was crushed. The snake was defanged, its venom neutralized. It was finished.

Do you see why the two greatest commandments involve love? Do you see why all other commandments hang on these two? What sin would you ever commit if you loved God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? In what way would you offend your brother, sister, husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father, friend, neighbor, coworker, fellow church member, or sales clerk at Walmart if you loved them?

But how will you ever love God or your neighbor if your greatest love is yourself?

 

Another Kind of Love

I said our greatest natural love is for ourself. There is a super-natural love, a love created by the Spirit of the God who is Himself love. When the Spirit gives new life to a human being, He produces love for God and others. He changes the object of our affections and desires. He leads us to love someone other than ourself.

 

The Greatest of These Is Love

What is love? Do you know? It’s not a feeling, though it involves our emotions. It’s not a tradition, though it forms habits. It’s not a language, though it must be expressed. Love is sacrificing what is yours for the good of another. It’s denying your own interests so that others will be satisfied. It’s dying so that others may live. It’s His will, not yours, be done.

Love remains patient when its own wishes are not met by others. It acts kindly toward others, treating them as a brother or sister in all circumstances. It does not become jealous of others, but rejoices in their blessings. It does not boast in its own accomplishments. It does not seek attention for itself. It doesn’t do things that are inappropriate. It seeks the pleasure and fulfillment of others, not its own. It doesn’t become upset or hurt by others. It forgives all of the sins against it. It is not aroused by wickedness. It dances when truth is believed. It endures all trials, believes through all circumstances, hopes in all that God has promised, and remains steadfast to the end. Faith may be lied about, hope may be misdirected, but love never fails. It is real. It lasts. It is greater than all. A man will be judged by what he loves.

 

Love Tells the Truth About Your Faith

Jesus said that if you love Him you will keep His commandments (John 14:15). Notice He didn’t say that if you love Him, you should keep His commandments. He didn’t leave room for a person to convince himself that he loves Jesus while failing to obey Him. This is a cause and effect relationship. The one who loves Jesus will obey Him; the one who doesn’t obey Him doesn’t love Him.

A few verses later, He said that the person who keeps His commandments is the one who loves Him, and that whoever loves Him will be loved by His Father (John 14:21). We see again that God is preoccupied with people loving and obeying Christ. That’s why they exist. Do you want God to love you? Do you want fellowship with God? Do you want to live in the presence of God? Love His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. To reject Jesus is to reject God. Love Jesus with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. He is your Lord.

So, our love for Jesus is demonstrated by our obedience to His commands. What does He command? He commands us to love one another. And here we are brought to the heart of new covenant ethics—our love for others, especially believers, proves or disproves our love for Jesus. It’s all over the New Testament, but most saliently in John’s writings. If you don’t love your fellow Christian, then you don’t love Christ. It’s that simple. If you are not patient, kind, and forbearing with other believers, you don’t love Jesus. If you are jealous of them, inappropriate around them, upset by them, and bitterly begrudging toward them, you don’t love Jesus. If you seek what’s best for you and work for your own pleasure rather than that of your brothers and sisters in Christ, you don’t love Jesus no matter what you say you believe about the gospel, and no matter what hope floats in your dreams. You will be judged by what you love because what you love says everything that needs to be said about what you really believe.

 

How Love Grows

Take care not to be drawn down by the innate gravitational pull toward works-centered obedience. Its weight is intense. The goal is not good works, it’s love. We must focus on loving Jesus, and strive for a greater fervor and passion for His glory, rather than create a list of do’s and don’ts. Only increased love will lead to increased obedience. It’s the circumcised heart, not the circumcised foreskin, that serves God faithfully.

How do we increase our love for Jesus? There are two ways:

First, we seek the power of God’s Spirit. Love is His fruit. We have already discussed it: He can change our hearts. He can move what moves us. He can increase our desire to please Christ. He can give us the zeal of John the Baptist to want more of Jesus and less of ourselves. He was sent to glorify Christ. He will do it through you. You should ask Him to, in faith without doubting, in hope and great expectation, incessantly and desperately. He will do it. He promised.

Second, we magnify our sin and His forgiveness to their accurate proportions. Earlier in the book, I mentioned Jesus’ statement that he who is forgiven much loves much. So, if you want to love Jesus more, be forgiven more. That’s not an encouragement to go do a bunch of heinous things so that His grace may abound. God forbid! You’ve already done enough heinous things. But for most of us, by the time we are finished minimizing the true wickedness of our thoughts, words, and deeds, a high-powered magnifying glass is required to see it.

People put certain sins in the category of wicked wickedness (unless, of course, we have committed them, in which case they get put in the other one). Such malevolent monstrosities are: murder, rape, incest, child-molesting, adultery, and similar abominations. Others we place in the category of not ideal, but nobody’s perfect wickedness (what Jerry Bridges effectively calls “respectable sins”). These include: critical, harsh, biting sarcasm; refusal to accept encouragement and kindness from others; abdication of love and discipline in parenting; a wife’s refusal to submit to her husband; a man’s failure to cherish his wife; parents who have routines but no relationship with their children; withdrawing from fellowship because one feels left out or unwanted or taken for granted or hurt; a teenage boy’s devotion to video games; a teenage girl’s devotion to teenage boys; lack of commitment to a church body; interpreting situations according to our feelings rather than according to truth; and a host of others.

But is it really a small thing for a husband to pursue his work, hobbies, and buddies to the neglect of his wife? Is it “not that big a deal” for a wife to withhold herself emotionally and physically because she doesn’t feel appreciated or understood? Is it “probably wrong, but what are you going to do?” when a father demonstrates rigidity and justice without grace, or neglect and cowardice without responsibility? Is it understandable that a pastor would be more concerned about getting caught watching porn than being incompetent with the Word of God?

And then there are the sins we “deal with” all the time such as giving social networking priority over Bible study, failing to truly pray, offering complaint rather than gratitude, speaking words that tear down rather than build up, and coming to worship while longing for football or a nap. These we don’t see as significant. We’re just “tired,” “unaware,” “struggling,” “having a hard time right now,” “afraid,” and “too busy.” We justify our sin with extraordinary skill.

In order to grow in our love for Christ, we must be honest about the depth of our depravity and the extent to which we love ourselves more than we love others.

But magnifying our sins to their accurate size will only produce pain, despair, and anger if we do not also magnify the grace of our Savior to its accurate size. We must believe the gospel. We must accept our full acceptance in the Beloved. We must immerse ourselves in the incomprehensible love of Jesus.

Too often, people will wallow in their own wickedness, refusing to believe the gospel for themselves. They feel too sinful or too inconsistent or too late for Christ to truly forgive them. They choose to let their own interpretation and evaluation overrule His. Again, it’s the self who rules, and it’s nothing less than unbelief and lovelessness toward Christ. It’s saying to Him that His sacrifice was not enough, that the cross was insufficient: “It may be good enough for others, but I’m too ruined. It’ll take more to redeem me. I’m a special case. ” Excuses, justifications, self-condemnations, and escapism dominate as such a person lives in unbelief and self-exaltation.

Genuine, saving faith admits the truth of sin and forgiveness. It sees the magnitude of Christ’s love and condescension in taking human flesh in order to serve vile rebels. It revels in the One who traded glory for Hell so that we could trade Hell for glory. It believes in the cross. It believes in complete forgiveness. It believes in grace greater than all my sin. It believes.

Then it loves.