If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 13 and we're going to be reading from verse 1 through 6 this morning. Proper response to God's grace. Hebrews chapter 13 verses 1 through 6. Our main focus this morning is going to be on the first verse. Hebrews chapter 13 verses 1 through 6 reading out of the NASB.

Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them and those who are ill treated since you yourselves also are in the body. Marriage is to be held in honor among all and the marriage bed is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money being content with what you have for he himself has said I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you so that we confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?

Let's pray. Christian loving father we pray that you would anoint this time that your word and your word alone Lord God would be heard and that our hearts may be softened and that our lives may be changed. Encourage us strengthen us rebuke us this morning by your word in Jesus name we pray amen.

Let me start off this morning by asking a rhetorical question so don't answer it okay don't even remember it because I don't want you to say something wrong okay so the question is if you had a choice between what kind of church you want to belong to you want to go to a church where they are known for their grace or do you want to go to a church that's known for their holiness?

Don't answer that question. Let me ask you again what church would you want to belong to a church that is known for their grace or a church that's known for their holiness? I don't want you to answer that question because generally speaking I already know the answer because I've had so many conversations in the past where even with other pastors that they have said that I'd rather err on the side of grace than to err on the side of being too harsh.

It sounds godly on the surface because who wouldn't want to be at a church where they're known to be gracious because when you say I go to a church where they're known for their holiness automatically we think of judgment right everybody is like examining one another and you got to jump through hoops to belong to that group and so it sounds godly it almost sounds biblical to say I'd rather err on the side of grace but the biblical truth is to err on the side of grace is error and that's why I said I would rather err no error is error and the problem is if you look at the Old Testament false prophets the primary rebuke to the false prophets was they kept on telling them peace peace when there is no peace he was teaching grace God loves you unconditionally he forgives your sins and he kept on saying peace peace while the true prophets were coming and warning them if you do not turn from your sin God was going to bring judgment let me make this very clear there is never a time where God does something where he chooses to rather be gracious and to be than to be holy God who cannot lie cannot change his mind will never do anything that contradicts his nature God is holy holy holy and he is love he is love nothing that he does will contradict either side and that's the whole point of the cross the whole point of the cross is where God's justice and his mercy and love came in to union a perfect union without contradicting one or the other we have a tendency to think that holiness and love is on the opposite side and we need to somehow balance this sometimes we emphasize holiness sometimes we emphasize love and then sometimes we get it wrong sometimes we get it right but the accurate biblical understanding of God's justice and his love they always go hand in hand the cross if you err on the side of grace you don't need the cross because all God has to say is okay I'm just going to forget it I know you guys been sinning but this time I'm going to pretend like I didn't see it just sweep it under the rug right if we err on the side of grace we would allow all kinds of sin and say well because I'm being gracious because we're being gentle and merciful we're just going to pretend like it never happened just kind of sweep it under the rug if we err on the side of just justice we don't need the cross either because as soon as somebody sins they get what they deserve and they get punished and the end so the cross is the perfect union of God's justice and his mercy that came together that God's justice was satisfied to magnify his grace so to be gospel centered is not simply to be gracious to be gospel centered is to have the perfect union that we see at the cross where God's holiness and his love is in perfect display and so we have to make sure that we don't embrace one or the other simply because of our own personal prejudice that whatever it is that we practice in our personal lives and in the life of the church is a clear reflection of who God is and what he displayed on the cross this morning we're going to be looking at one verse it's in it's the first verse of many verses that are coming in in chapter 13 we have 13 imperatives here in light of all that we have been taught about who Jesus is he says this is how you ought to live and so in the first line alone I think there are several things that I want to highlight here because because it is so important in application right we have 13 chapters in the book of Hebrews 12 chapters of telling us why we shouldn't drift it was giving us motivation because I know some of us who are impatient with theology just kind of you know just just tell us you know just briefly what it means and then tell us what we ought to do because we're practical people we're type a personality and so we want to get things done so some of us are a little bit impatient when we start to get dig too deep into theology say that's for pastors and theologians but for the rest of us just tell us what I'm supposed to do on Monday right and you probably hated the book of Hebrews because it's 12 chapters of telling us why we shouldn't drift because they were neglecting such a great salvation he was re-explaining in 12 chapters of this great salvation that if you drift this is what you're drifting from and then now that he concluded that therefore this is how you ought to live and so for the next few weeks maybe a few months we're going to be in this chapter describing the application of this grace in our lives but the most important of these is in the first one let love of the brethren continue so there's about five things I want to highlight about love in this text first of all love is what sets us apart from the world do you remember we talked about last week the word holy the root basic understanding of the word holy is what to be set apart from set apart to distinguish from what is common that whether it was an animal whether it was an article once it was taken from the common area and then placed at the temple for God's use it became holy so clothing became holy bowls became holy animals became holy because it was set apart what causes us to be holy to be set apart the greatest that sets us apart from the rest of the world he says is love John chapter 13 34 to 35 Jesus says to his disciples a new commandment I give to you right a new commandment I give to you that in and of itself is strange because do you see this commandment in the Old Testament where he says to love your neighbor yes all throughout the Old Testament Old Testament God tells his people to love his neighbor in Leviticus 19 18 it says you shall love you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of the people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord right and I could I could give you you know dozens of passages where Jesus or God repeats the same thing to love your neighbor so why does Jesus say to his disciples a new commandment I gave to you clearly it's not new this is what was taught but you have to read the rest of what he says a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as what I have loved you you love one another that's the new commandment the new commandment isn't simply to love one another because God's been telling his people to love the aliens love the strangers love your neighbors but Jesus is saying the love that I practice with you but this is the distinguishing mark so it's not simply love that distinguishes us from the world it's the quality of this love that distinguishes us from the world because the world practices love yes or no yeah of course they do your co-workers they practice love your non-christian friends Christian or not they practice love you you didn't have non-christian friends that loved you non-christian mother and fathers they don't love their children the world practices love but he wasn't saying just any love he says as I have loved you the quality of this love is what distinguishes you and the world will know you are my disciples if you practice this love well what's the distinction naturally we all tend to in our flesh love those who are lovable love those who are close to us love those who can benefit us love those who don't hurt us but the Bible says in Romans 5 8 God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ loved us he loved us when we didn't deserve it he loved us when we were in rebellion he loved us when we had nothing to give while we were still blaspheming and resisting he said he his love he laid down for sinners who did not deserve and he said if you practice that love see if we practice the love that the world practices we're no different some of us are better at it than others but the kind of love that distinguishes us from the rest of the world the world will not understand why would you make an effort to love that guy that guy's slandering you that guy hurt you what benefit do you have from doing that and so it's the kind of love that the world cannot understand and when they see us practicing that love he they will look at us and say oh it's because Jesus did it they're doing what Jesus did for them see first John 2 10 it says the one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him the greatest identifier of a Christian is the one who practices this love you know don't be fooled just because you love your mom and your dad or your children or your good friends it's like okay I'm practicing love no he said the love he's asking us to practice love that identifies that's different than any other love it's to love people that are hard to love love people that you would not normally love if you weren't affected by the love of Christ he said that is evidence that you have met Christ in if you remember John right John before he met the resurrected Christ do you remember what John and James was known for they were called sons of thunder and they weren't sons of thunder because they were big guys you know every time they walked around the earth shook that wasn't why they were sons of thunder sons of thunder because they had a bad temper remember as they were going through Samaria and the Samaritans wouldn't help right and he got angry and he said Lord do you want me to pray to kill all these people right this guy was would have been a mass murderer but in the New Testament what is Apostle John known for Apostle of love he writes more about love than any other Apostle in the Gospel of John first and second John right he writes more about love than any other Apostle so he's known as the Apostle if you want to learn about love you got to go to the Gospel of John because he exposit love in his writings how did the sons of thunder a potential mass murderer and all they did was they just didn't want to help they should I kill all these people it's because he met the resurrected Christ a Christ even after he was crucified and mocked even after his disciples all took off even after one of his disciples betrayed him Jesus resurrects and this was all part of his agape love to save the world and you could tell John you know the lights going off it's not just John right Apostle Peter all the lights are going off because they could not understand why would the King of Kings and Lord of Lords lay down his life for us they could not fathom it until he actually did it and so his disciples began to understand that oh that's what he meant when he got on his knees to serve if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of God who could use the greatest in the kingdom of God but Jesus himself and he got on his knees and he served and so Jesus said if you want to follow me you pick up the cross and you do the same you remember Apostle Paul another mass murderer right he says I'm the worst of sinners and he literally was because he was responsible for the first martyr in the book of Acts if that wasn't enough he was so angry he got a bunch of soldiers to go collect all these Christians he hated Christians he hated the Gentiles until he encounters the resurrected Christ and the very people that he tried so hard to extinguish he becomes the apostle to the Gentiles as a witness to the world that he wanted to be just wanted to destroy now he became the main mouthpiece to spread God's love to them and so there was evidence that must that man must have met Christ in fact the greatest witness in the early church was the church itself in Tertullian one of the early church fathers this is what he says about how the church was viewed and he was quoting a pagan authority this is what it says it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us see how they love one another they say how they are ready even to die for one another they say for they themselves will sooner be put to death he says he's just describing their reputation outside of the church in the early church the greatest evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the makeup of the church itself do you know how much the Pharisees hated tax collectors because they were the ones who betrayed their country they were collecting money from their countrymen and Matthew the tax collector and you had these fishermen who are walking around calling each other's brothers in Christ I mean in a typical setting they would have killed each other in the early church you had the tax collectors teaching because he was an apostle he was teaching converted Pharisees the experts of the law about the new covenant in Christ you had runaway slaves and slave owners in the same congregation you had the rich and poor they didn't have rich on one side of the one side of the you know neighborhood and then poor on the other side because clearly they're not going to be the fellowship because you if we have home groups you're going to one one day go to the mansion another day go to a hut so that's practically that's not going to work but the greatest evidence in the early church was all of them were together and they loved one another and so you can look at that and say well what happened right my their early leaders must have been fantastic leaders right they they tapped into the organization they were able to get people to put away their ego and and they learned a system where everybody can get along are you kidding me that's not what happened see the secular world can't explain the church and if you've ever read anything from the secular world how they describe why Christianity blew up so much they'll say oh because it was the poor people and there was a desperateness and Jesus described where they started to help each other and that's why the poor people came in droves that's because they don't they didn't study the early church the early church was filled with poor people rich people slave owners and slave Pharisees Sadducees tax collectors all in the same church and so the only logical explanation was the resurrection of Jesus Christ that's no different than if we fell asleep one day and the Republicans Democrats you know are they love each other what was so powerful that they came together right something people who hated they wouldn't even walk into their town because they hated each other and yet they call each other brothers and sisters in Christ because they met the resurrected Christ that's what distinguished them from rest of the world that's why it's so hard to understand how that happened in the early church so the greatest mark of holiness that sets us apart from the world is love second love is the greatest application of this community there's a reason why love is at the top of this list and if you I can sit here and go through passage after passage after passage after passage of the various lists of the characteristic of a Christian and almost always love is at the top of that list in first Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13 said but now faith hope love abide these things but the greatest of these is love right I know if you've been raising the church you memorize this first you might have a plaque on this at your home somewhere your children who probably may have memorized this in Sunday school but have you considered the gravity of this verse we're saved by faith we persevere through all kinds of trial because of hope and yet he says above faith above hope love is the greatest wow I mean that that really should cause us to take a step back and think about this because the greatest application of God's holy calling is love even though my relationship with God is reconciled because of faith and it is because of this hope that I'm able to be sanctified and yet the greatest application of our calling he says is love in second Peter 1 5 through 8 Apostle Peter goes through the list of Christian disciplines that we ought to strive for and this is what he says now for this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge self-control in your self-control perseverance and in your perseverance godliness and in your godliness brotherly kindness in your brotherly kindness love you notice here on this list that in descending order that these are the things that Christians who are trying to be sanctified should apply themselves increasing manner to grow in and he says moral excellence knowledge self-control perseverance godliness brotherly kindness and ultimately love the reason why love is at the bottom of this list is because all this striving is to ultimately get to love that the reason why we discipline is to get to love the reason why we knowledge is to get to love all the things that we are doing ultimately is to get us to practice the love that Christ practiced with us and that's what it means in first Timothy 1 5 when Paul sends Timothy to go to war in the city of Ephesus because the Judaizers were coming and beginning to spread the false gospel and he's telling this young man do not be timid I give you the authority and the word command here is a military command where a commanding officer is telling the subordinate I'm commanding you to go and command these men to stop teaching false doctrines and I give you the authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ to go and fight and this Timothy you know he's concerned he's timid he has some ailments and you know people are falling out and and so Paul is trying to strengthen him up to go fight but as he goes to fight he says but remember the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith the reason why I need you to fight is so that you can establish love the reason why doctrine needs to be pure is so that we can have love the reason why you need to you need to make your stand clear is so that you can ultimately have greater love see in our generation because of the way that the gospel has been watered down that we somehow think that doctrinal purity and love somehow cannot coexist but the very reason why God calls us to purity in the church is so that we can have greater love these things are not two opposite sides you cannot have one without the other third we are called to love as we love ourselves the word here for love is Philadelphia Philadelphia has two words philo love Adelphia is brother but literally the word in Greek means of the same womb so the Greeks use this word Philadelphia to only refer to blood brothers that you actually had a physical brother so the Christians adapted this to apply to all their true believers so this was a even though the word existed the way it was applied in the New Testament to New Covenant people is uniquely Christian and the reason why it was uniquely Christian is because that idea of family was applied to all true believers because we were all born by the same spirit so the Greeks used it to refer to people who are born of the same womb and the New Testament believers use it to all who are genuinely born again by the spirit and Jesus himself said when he was hanging on the cross and he was looking at his mother he looked at his the disciples and he said to the mother woman behold your son then he said to the disciples behold your mother from that hour the disciples took her into his own household so now you are true brothers that's your mother that's your father and so that our community is is actually our family Ephesians 4 4 to 5 there is one body one spirit just as you also called in one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptism and God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all right now like the application of all this sound great but what is the application of all of this he says we are to love one another as we would love our own family members that's basically what it says right love the Lord you got with all your heart soul mind and straight love your neighbor as yourself when we talk about the practice of holiness or practice of grace we somehow detach these these two things and and I've had a friend tell me years ago that he believes that the greatest problem in our generation is that we don't practice church discipline that's the problem that we need to weed out sin we need to call out people who are in error and so we need to keep the church pure now I know what he was saying I know what he was getting in but I don't know if I would phrase it that way because I don't think it's accurate I think the way we should we should understand is the greatest problem our generation is that we don't practice true love because the kind of love that we practice sometimes is no more than indifference we have different degrees of how we practice love we have people that we really care about and we love them we rejoice with them and we suffer with them and so we have that group of people and then we have some groups of people we don't neither hate them or love them they're just kind of acquaintances so when they when good things happen we high five right and then when they suffer a sad face on Facebook but that's about the engagement that we have and then we have people that annoys us they're acquaintances so when they suffer we rejoice inwardly quietly because we're Christian and then when they celebrate we're kind of like how they don't deserve that so we have different degrees of love that we we practice but the people that we really love we're engaged no mother or father who sees a child deliberately choosing a path that they know is going to hurt them and sits there and say well I want to practice grace and mercy I'm just gonna let you do whatever you want to do because I rather err on the side of grace no one would look at that and say what a great mom what a great dad if your child is staying up till 4 in the morning playing video games 14 hours and and ruining their life and hanging out with the wrong crowd and and they're making decisions that ultimately gonna hurt them no loving mother no loving father is gonna sit there and watch it and say well I rather err on the side of grace you'd get involved if that was your brother if that was your sister if that was your mother or father because we love them we would we would be more concerned about the damage that they're doing to their life than how they would view us so sometimes our idea of practicing grace is being indifferent because we're afraid how they will react to what we will say but we don't do that to people we really love people that we really love we will say something despite how you may perceive me I will say something to you because I know and I'm convinced that if you keep going down that path that there is destruction there's no good waiting for you because we love them we will speak so the kind of grace that's that's supposedly being practiced in our generation is not grace at all it's just indifference and we're not doing it for them even though in the back of our mind we know where oh you go around he's gonna point out what's wrong you know so the problem in our generation is not that we don't practice church discipline we don't truly practice agape love because God's love and his grace cannot be separated if you practice one without the other it isn't from God if you practice justice without love you'll get vengeance if you practice grace without justice you have indifference just kind of ignore it let them be they're gonna do drugs let them do drugs they're gonna run down this path and at the end of it there's a cliff I don't want to bother them let them go you see God's justice and his mercy and his grace can never be separated and that's the community that he calls us to where the gospel of Jesus where the cross is at the center when cross is at the center his holiness and his love will never be compromised third sorry fourth love is not in us love is given to us you notice here he says to continue in my love he doesn't say practice love he says continue in my love the word for continue is a very theologically rich term and it's the word meno so if you've been at our church I've given several sermons on this on John chapter 15 when Jesus says if you want to if you want to bear fruit you need to remain in me right remain me continue in that word meno is used over 11 times in that passage and Jesus is telling his disciples as he is going to the cross that where I go you cannot come but if you want to bear fruit you need to meno in me the word meno is one of those words that can't be translated with one word so some of your translations it would say remain some of your translation it says to abide some of your translations it says to dwell some of your translations it says to live but basically that word means to be connected to continue what God has started that's what that word means so if you notice here he says let love of the brethren remain to continue in other words the love of Christ has given to all genuine believers all genuine believers because that was the greatest evidence of separation from the world in first Thessalonians 4 9 through 10 it said now as to love of the brethren you have no need for anyone to write to you for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another for if indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia but we urge you brethren to excel still more in other words the apostle Paul saying I don't need to teach you this because God already taught you this now what does he mean by that that God audibly open up heaven and say love so when apostle Paul showed up it's like oh I don't need to teach you because you heard that from heaven is that what he means well that's not what he means he means that the practice of this love is so fundamental to the gospel that as Christ loved us you would naturally love if God was generous to you you would be generous and that's what it means I don't need to teach you because at the root of the gospel at the root of redemptive history is God loving sinners it was given to us and it was given to us to do by the power of the Holy Spirit in first John 4 19 it says we love because he first loved us we love because he first loved us you know one of the first things that happens when you begin to stray away from God or begin to drift away from God you start to get annoyed with people that's the first thing because this is impossible to practice this is impossible to practice in the Old Testament God says eye for an eye tooth for tooth right what is eye for an eye tooth for tooth there's different degrees of relationships that we practice we practice vengeance justice mercy and grace eye for an eye tooth for tooth is what it's not mercy it's not grace it's justice right they took an eye you take an eye right they punch you in the mouth you punch them in the mouth that's justice the reason why God even has to tell us to practice justice is because our natural inclination isn't to practice justice what is our natural inclination to practice vengeance so as much as people are marching and saying no justice no peace they're not looking for justice they're not looking for justice they're looking for vengeance you hurt me I want to hurt you you punch me I'm gonna punch your family you slash my tire I'm gonna burn your car you rob from me I'm gonna take your whole bank account that's our natural in our flesh our desire is not to practice justice you have to be a righteous man a self-controlled disciplined man to practice justice that somebody hurts you and you only hurt them as much as they hurt you that's not our sinful state our sinful state is you hurt me I kill you right make sure make sure you never even entertain messing with me that's our tendency so imagine if that's our flesh that not only does he tells us to practice justice have self-control practice justice to go beyond that practice mercy it's like not take vengeance and not even justice just just hold it within yourself how hard is that when somebody deliberately tries to hurt you and you say yeah whatever right you must be emotionally dead or something is you are in so much fear that's not that's not how we think if somebody hurt us we don't practice mercy to grace and then go beyond that and then to love them to do what's best for them so tell somebody who may may or may not be satisfied with vengeance and then command them to practice the love that he could he gave to us while we were yet sinners to love them give to them take care of them and he said by that love the world will know you are my disciples because that's not something you can do in your flesh and that's why he says to remain in this love this love I gave you so the moment we begin to stray from Christ it is humanly impossible to even imagine to practice this love see God's holiness that sets us apart from this world is that love that he called us to that's why he says we love because he first loved us and then second Corinthians 5 14 to 15 he says for the love of Christ controls us Apostle Paul is talking about himself and his disciples now understand the context of why he's saying this do you remember Apostle Paul he was writing and he begged the Lord three times to take away the thorn on his side and if you read the commentaries people have done a lot of work to try to figure out what is that thorn is that he begged the Lord to take it away it was so painful for him some people say that maybe he was sick there's no mention of that anywhere in the Bible so I'm not sure if that's the best interpretation because if he was sick that would have been the only problem some jokingly said maybe it was his wife his wife just just couldn't stand that he's not making enough money you know he's always away from home it's as a joke and I don't think Paul is pretty clear he says he's not married but if you read the context of first Corinthians Paul when he showed up to the city he was trembling in fear he was getting beat up jailed whooped almost died shipwrecked so when he comes into the city he was in fear he was burnt out he was tired and he was looked like he was going to quit that's how he described himself and the Lord Jesus spoke to him and said I want you to continue your work because I have many who follow me in this city so Paul spent a lot of time in this city sharing the gospel bringing people to Christ and establishing this church so he had a special affection for this church because he spent a lot of time at this church and it is that church that was falling apart so if you've ever studied the New Testament you know the first and second Corinthians are its harshest letter to this to these churches because some people were questioning because they didn't like what he had to say that guy's an apostle how can he be an apostle I follow Peter I follow Paulus you know who is this guy and he was writing letters to change them to correct them they said this guy's letters are weighty but his presence is weak you know he writes with such authority but when he comes he's just a tiny little guy bald-headed guy according to church tradition I don't know about you but my inclination would have been well you got Peter okay then go to Peter Peter's problem you want Peter go to Peter Apollos is the better speaker go no sweat off my back I got all these other churches I got to attend to if you if you just take off and leave you know no sweat off of my back I mean his anguishing letter that he writes first Corinthians second Corinthians questioning his apostleship begging them to repent and still them questioning him who is this guy I don't like his sermons and so he begged I think him begging the Lord because his opposition who are constantly attacking him and he says in Philippians there are some people preaching the gospel just to make it harder for him to preach the gospel he was not only being attacked by the Judaizers but within the church who hated him when he was calling them out I mean he Galatians starts out am I a servant of man or servant of God and he was calling out even Apostle Peter and Barnabas his mentors because he was afraid that their actions were going to pervert the gospel and so because he was bold in preaching the gospel he had opposition even within the church and I believe when he said he begged the Lord to take away the thorn he was having a hard time with those who were criticizing him it is in that context he writes because it's so tempting to just let it go it's so tempting to shake off the dust and say good riddance I'm here risking my life almost died so that you can have the gospel and this is the way you're going to treat me good gone but he perseveres he agonizes he pleads it is in that context he says for the love of Christ controls us it was because of the love of Christ I endure having concluded this that one died for all there for all died and he died for all so that they would live they they who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf I believe when he was writing this this was his personal testimony I'm persevering because I'm no longer living for myself it's not about me it's not about my pain it's not about my sacrifice but Christ crucified because the love of Christ was compelling him to endure and to love fifth and finally love is the ultimate goal it is the fulfillment of this holy law Romans 13 8 through 10 says owe nothing to anyone except the love of one another for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law for this you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you should not steal you should not covet and he basically gives a brief list of the Ten Commandments and he says all of this is summarized therefore love is the fulfillment of the law so if you look at the Ten Commandments first four commandments is about loving God should have no worship any other God no graven images not take the Lord's name in vain to keep the Sabbath holy and then the next six is about the relationship that we have with one another and he said but the purpose of of holy living to obey these commandments is ultimately practice of love he's giving us a description of how to love God and how to love one another and that's exactly what he says in Matthew 22 37 to 40 and he said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength this is the great and foremost commandment the second like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend the whole law on the prophets so when we think of the law we automatically that goes into the context of holiness and when we think of mercy we think of God's forgiveness and and his what he did at the cross but here he says the commandment the holy commandment the fulfillment of that is love so these are not separate things so if you err in love if you err in love you err in the law if you err in the law you err in grace you cannot practice one without the other love is the fulfillment of the law 1st John 4 16 to 17 we have come to know and have believed the love of God which has for us God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God God abides in him by this love is perfected with us what does that even mean there's another word that's important in the New Testament the word perfected is teleos and remember the word teleos doesn't mean that you yourself are morally perfect that's not what that word means perfected means that whatever was intended for that is finding fulfillment so if a child enters into school when is he perfected when he gets perfect grades no when he graduates right I mean he's not saying when you get straight A's all the time you never get anything wrong then you are perfected that's not this word this word basically means what God had intended he's bringing to fulfillment so what does this mean Christ was crucified and he gave his love for us and is perfected in us when we are affected and love one another so his love is perfected in us when it when we begin to reflect that love in the way that we live let me let me end with this you know years ago I would go to retreats you know and usually four out of five times is usually somebody I know that asked me to come and speak and I would speak and a lot of these churches are not doing well and so I would come and give a message and one of the most common questions that I was getting at churches at retreats was Pastor Peter when is the right time to leave a church this is my friend's church right and he's talking about that church and so I would get these questions eventually like you know I said well this is this is the most one of the most common questions because people are frustrated and so one I can't how am I I'm at my friend's church yeah get out of here my friend came to speak so that you guys can benefit and then I said get out of here it's like so I'm thinking so I would give them the you know that what you should give right well how much of this is your problem right are you the troublemaker what kind of view that you have that do you have a high view of the church where you just going to hop around church to church so I would give him not knowing the context not knowing what the problem is I and I'm more concerned about this is I can't I can't tell him to leave I don't even want to know what the problem is because even if I wanted to tell you to leave I can't because I'm at my friend's church but years would go by now would be the most common question that they would ask and I'm just wrestling with this and so I'm wrestling with this idea of practicing love love as yourself and I'm just meditating thinking about this and it's a thought came to me what's the right way to answer this question and I thought how would I answer if my son asked me this question he went to college and he's struggling it's not growing there's stuff happening in the church and how would I answer this question because for my son I wouldn't be as concerned about what they would think of me because I'd be more concerned about him I wouldn't be so concerned about my reputation because I would be more concerned about him so I resolved that I'm going to be honest and answer you exactly the way I would answer my son and so that's the mindset that I have even inside the church if you ask me a question I'm going to answer you like I would answer my own son sometimes you may not like it but that's what I actually believe I'm not going to dress it up so that you won't hate me you might hate me but that's exactly what I would say to my own son so even if we have to discipline somebody at church I'd ask my question would I do this to my own son because I have to believe that this is what's best for him not because I'm annoyed not because I'm angered or not because I'm offended because I would never approach my children that way even if I'm angered I would make sure that whatever I say and do is for their own good and so that didn't solve all the problems but it made things much more simpler to practice this love that I need to practice this love as I would love myself to love my children to love my wife to love people that I genuinely love so when a church practices true biblical love accountability happens we don't just simply look at that and say oh what are they going to think if I say something and then sweep it under the rug you would never do that for your child you would speak up you would say something I'm not saying be jerks right we're not saying we're going to create an environment and I see everybody is wrong because you wouldn't do that with your kids either you wouldn't be so quick to point out every false things because you know that's not good for your kids either but true biblical love never separates holiness and mercy they go hand in hand so in practice and I know our natural inclination is I'd rather I'd rather err on the side of grace right our goal is to not error period we want to know who God is we want to know what the gospel is and we want to truly be gospel centered not what I want the gospel to be but what the gospel actually is let's pray again as our worship team comes let's take some time to reflect if there's any areas in our life where we superficially applied love but in reality was indifference where maybe we were overly harsh because we really didn't love we said you know we're going to speak the truth in love but it was more truth than love how are we practicing this in our lives to ask the Lord to show us search us and know us see if there's any hurtful ways in us so that our church would truly be identified by the love of Christ that the world would know that we are his disciples so let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.