The Rule and Testimony of Love
Hebrews 6:9-12
Remember: Although the items in 6:1-5 may receive a passing grade in the contemporary church, our author gives them a failing mark. Remember the parable of the soils! Mk 4:1-7 & 13-19
6:9 The author has confidence in the faith of his hearers because he sees some things that accompany salvation. "accompany"- a form of #2192-echo, literally, "connected with, adjoining, neighboring." Their behavior was an "echo" of the salvation that was within them!
1. Remember the shift of pronouns in vs 4-6? The "you" of 5:11-12 became "those, they, them", in vs 3-6. Beginning in verse 9, we are back into "you & your" territory!
6:10 What is this evidence that the author has witnessed? "your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His Name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister."
Labor-#2873-"the labor which love prompts & which voluntarily assumes and endures trouble and pains for the sake of others." In our context, for the sake of the people of God, the people of His Name's Sake! There is no room for "be warmed and filled" in this text. This is James' kind of love! James 2:15-16
I. The Rule of Love
A. When we come to Christ, our coming is actually the Father's "translating" us from "the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love." He has exchanged our environment! We have a new King!
B. Our new King has rules! Mark 12:28-34; John 13:31-35, 15:9-14 His "rules" are actually only one—The Rule of Love.
1. Jn 13:35 & John 17:17-24 This Love, this unity of Oneness, is to be the evangel, the true "great commission" of His Kingdom.
2. This love is nearly universal in application. Who is our neighbor? All encounters of God's Providence are our "mission field" of love! Matt 5:43-48 extends this mandate even to enemies.
3. What does this love look like? John 15:12-14—it lays down its life for its friends! Exchanging Kingdoms, living under the mandate of our new King, means that we put to death our ego centeredness—my will, my needs, my stuff—we die to these for the sake of our brothers and sisters in need, because that is what comes out of citizens of the Kingdom of the Son of His Love!
4. Romans 5:5; I Timothy 1:5 This love flows out of who we now are as justified sinners, not something we do to gain God's favor. It is the result of the "shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts that is the integral in the first work of the Holy Spirit! That which the Spirit works within, by its very nature, must flow out from within! Matt 6:1-4 Do them in secret, that your Father who sees in secret may reward you openly.(Mt 25:31-40) By the Spirit, it is a "Nature" thing, not a "duty" thing. (The Love of the Spirit-prayer's motivation and strength Rom 15:30)
5. Romans 13:8-10 Paul here sees the Rule of Love as the entirety of our sanctification! "Love is the fulfilling of the law." This is Paul, brilliant theologian, teacher of doctrine—not John, the impressionable young man who leaned on Jesus' breast. No love, no salvation, no sanctification—both men's words agree! See John—I John 2:3-11
C. All of this because Love is the very nature of our God! I John 4:12-16
II. The Testimony of Love (a trek through scripture)
A. Here is what this love looks like:
Romans 12:9-21 (notice that this is after the dying to ourselves part as living sacrifice part in vs 1-2),
I Corinthians 12:31-13:13 Love is the "better way". The "gifts" of the lesser way may not even accompany salvation! Without love, "I am nothing". (vs 2)
B. Love as proof, as testimony!
II Corinthians 8:1-8, 24 Does Corinthian love look like Macedonian love? Note vs 1—the grace of God leads to sacrificial love! (12:15, 13:14)
Galatians 5:1-15 Legalism destroys love and the evidence of true salvation! What is the solution? Return to the Rule of Love!
Don't skip these verses! Eph 1:15-16; Phil 1:3-11; Col1:3-4, I Thess 1:2-3, (2:8-12 Paul's living out this Rule in their presence.); II Thess 1:3-5, II Tim 1:7 (Paul exhorts Timothy to boldness because God had given him the Spirit of power, and of Love, and a sound, illuminated mind.); Philemon 4-6 (the sharing of our faith is ineffective without the testimony of the labor of love that evidences our faith!)
James 2:1-13 James' Royal Law is the Rule of Love!
I Peter 1:22-23 KJV "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned (unhypocritical) love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." This is the evidence of the new birth by the Word of God! 2:17, 3:8
Hebrews 6:9-10 Love is faith's accompaniment. Without love, faith is discordant, like a clanging cymbal. There is no melody! People want to cover their ears!!!!!!!! James would say that faith is probably not real!
C. God's solution to lovelessness!
1. Romans 5:6-11 God always must demonstrate His Love to sinners. If He didn't, He would have no audience on the earth. Do you really KNOW the Love of God, or are you still trying to convince yourself that He Loves you? Remember, that is why His Holy Spirit is poured out in our hearts! He is the Love of God! Ask Him to teach you, convince you that God Loves you unconditionally and passionately!
2. Ephesians 3:14-21
a. Ask the Father to strengthen you through His Spirit of Love in your inner man (or woman).
b. Ask the Father to enable you to believe that Christ dwells in your heat through faith, for this is the root and ground of love.
c. Ask the Father for a greater comprehension of the incomprehensible Love of Christ so that you may filled with all the fullness of God.
d. Remind the Father of His inspired Word—believe that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think!!!!
e. Remember, all of this is by the power that works in us, His Holy Spirit. We cannot produce this love! It is the Fruit of the Life Giving Spirit gifted to us from the Father at the Son's request. (John 14:15-18) Trust Him to do His Work.
D. Loves' Assurance
Hebrews 6:11-12/I John 4:17
Love is the missing ingredient in the outward, legalistic church. This love only flows from the mysterious union by which we are made one with Christ, a union of which the visible church seems to know little about. Such misunderstanding has led to an evangelism that equates stony ground with saving faith. There is no salvation apart from this Royal Rule of Love. This is the witness by which the world will know that we are Jesus' disciples! John 13:34-35
Hebrews 6:9-12
Remember: Although the items in 6:1-5 may receive a passing grade in the contemporary church, our author gives them a failing mark. Remember the parable of the soils! Mk 4:1-7 & 13-19
6:9 The author has confidence in the faith of his hearers because he sees some things that accompany salvation. "accompany"- a form of #2192-echo, literally, "connected with, adjoining, neighboring." Their behavior was an "echo" of the salvation that was within them!
1. Remember the shift of pronouns in vs 4-6? The "you" of 5:11-12 became "those, they, them", in vs 3-6. Beginning in verse 9, we are back into "you & your" territory!
6:10 What is this evidence that the author has witnessed? "your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His Name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister."
Labor-#2873-"the labor which love prompts & which voluntarily assumes and endures trouble and pains for the sake of others." In our context, for the sake of the people of God, the people of His Name's Sake! There is no room for "be warmed and filled" in this text. This is James' kind of love! James 2:15-16
I. The Rule of Love
A. When we come to Christ, our coming is actually the Father's "translating" us from "the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love." He has exchanged our environment! We have a new King!
B. Our new King has rules! Mark 12:28-34; John 13:31-35, 15:9-14 His "rules" are actually only one—The Rule of Love.
1. Jn 13:35 & John 17:17-24 This Love, this unity of Oneness, is to be the evangel, the true "great commission" of His Kingdom.
2. This love is nearly universal in application. Who is our neighbor? All encounters of God's Providence are our "mission field" of love! Matt 5:43-48 extends this mandate even to enemies.
3. What does this love look like? John 15:12-14—it lays down its life for its friends! Exchanging Kingdoms, living under the mandate of our new King, means that we put to death our ego centeredness—my will, my needs, my stuff—we die to these for the sake of our brothers and sisters in need, because that is what comes out of citizens of the Kingdom of the Son of His Love!
4. Romans 5:5; I Timothy 1:5 This love flows out of who we now are as justified sinners, not something we do to gain God's favor. It is the result of the "shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts that is the integral in the first work of the Holy Spirit! That which the Spirit works within, by its very nature, must flow out from within! Matt 6:1-4 Do them in secret, that your Father who sees in secret may reward you openly.(Mt 25:31-40) By the Spirit, it is a "Nature" thing, not a "duty" thing. (The Love of the Spirit-prayer's motivation and strength Rom 15:30)
5. Romans 13:8-10 Paul here sees the Rule of Love as the entirety of our sanctification! "Love is the fulfilling of the law." This is Paul, brilliant theologian, teacher of doctrine—not John, the impressionable young man who leaned on Jesus' breast. No love, no salvation, no sanctification—both men's words agree! See John—I John 2:3-11
C. All of this because Love is the very nature of our God! I John 4:12-16
II. The Testimony of Love (a trek through scripture)
A. Here is what this love looks like:
Romans 12:9-21 (notice that this is after the dying to ourselves part as living sacrifice part in vs 1-2),
I Corinthians 12:31-13:13 Love is the "better way". The "gifts" of the lesser way may not even accompany salvation! Without love, "I am nothing". (vs 2)
B. Love as proof, as testimony!
II Corinthians 8:1-8, 24 Does Corinthian love look like Macedonian love? Note vs 1—the grace of God leads to sacrificial love! (12:15, 13:14)
Galatians 5:1-15 Legalism destroys love and the evidence of true salvation! What is the solution? Return to the Rule of Love!
Don't skip these verses! Eph 1:15-16; Phil 1:3-11; Col1:3-4, I Thess 1:2-3, (2:8-12 Paul's living out this Rule in their presence.); II Thess 1:3-5, II Tim 1:7 (Paul exhorts Timothy to boldness because God had given him the Spirit of power, and of Love, and a sound, illuminated mind.); Philemon 4-6 (the sharing of our faith is ineffective without the testimony of the labor of love that evidences our faith!)
James 2:1-13 James' Royal Law is the Rule of Love!
I Peter 1:22-23 KJV "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned (unhypocritical) love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." This is the evidence of the new birth by the Word of God! 2:17, 3:8
Hebrews 6:9-10 Love is faith's accompaniment. Without love, faith is discordant, like a clanging cymbal. There is no melody! People want to cover their ears!!!!!!!! James would say that faith is probably not real!
C. God's solution to lovelessness!
1. Romans 5:6-11 God always must demonstrate His Love to sinners. If He didn't, He would have no audience on the earth. Do you really KNOW the Love of God, or are you still trying to convince yourself that He Loves you? Remember, that is why His Holy Spirit is poured out in our hearts! He is the Love of God! Ask Him to teach you, convince you that God Loves you unconditionally and passionately!
2. Ephesians 3:14-21
a. Ask the Father to strengthen you through His Spirit of Love in your inner man (or woman).
b. Ask the Father to enable you to believe that Christ dwells in your heat through faith, for this is the root and ground of love.
c. Ask the Father for a greater comprehension of the incomprehensible Love of Christ so that you may filled with all the fullness of God.
d. Remind the Father of His inspired Word—believe that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think!!!!
e. Remember, all of this is by the power that works in us, His Holy Spirit. We cannot produce this love! It is the Fruit of the Life Giving Spirit gifted to us from the Father at the Son's request. (John 14:15-18) Trust Him to do His Work.
D. Loves' Assurance
Hebrews 6:11-12/I John 4:17
Love is the missing ingredient in the outward, legalistic church. This love only flows from the mysterious union by which we are made one with Christ, a union of which the visible church seems to know little about. Such misunderstanding has led to an evangelism that equates stony ground with saving faith. There is no salvation apart from this Royal Rule of Love. This is the witness by which the world will know that we are Jesus' disciples! John 13:34-35