Practice love instead of sin.
Notes
Transcript
A minister told his congregation,' 'Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17.'' The following Sunday, as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the minister asked for a show of hands.
He wanted to know how many had read Mark 17. Every hand went up. The minister smiled and said,' 'Mark has only sixteen chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying.''
Love is our calling
Love is our calling
To be in his love we should be purified by it, by having faith and obedience
Faith is a gift, and a choice
Obedience is a duty, to bring the fruits of the Spirit (and not expect them from following the law)
We get what we practice.
We get what we practice.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
We avoid sin and hate best if we keep in the practice of Love for each other because the love of Jesus is in our hearts.
Worse, is that whoever makes a practice of sinning may not even in God’s love.
Jesus spoke to the religious leaders who were not following him, and he chastised on that day, saying:
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
It is also written in the text from 1 John that:
Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
These are to be words of warning, and words of comfort. God has not sent his Son into the world to condemn it but that through him we all might be saved (Jn 3:17)
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Remember this week the text that was a song so long ago:
Behold what manner of Love the Father has given unto us
Behold what manner of Love the Father has given unto us
That we should be called the sons of God
That we should be called the sons of God