Somebody once sang the phrase “Love makes the world go round.” Although it’s not a verse in the Bible, it’s true. Now the love that really makes the world go round, the love that created the earth and put the stars in space, is God’s love. The Bible says that God is love. Since God is love and He created people in His own image, then love is at the heart of every human being. Without love, our world won’t go round, it will come to a screeching halt. Everybody instinctually knows that inside themselves. That’s why most of the songs on the radio are about relationships and love of one kind or another.
There is an empty space in every person that is looking for love, an empty space that is looking to be filled with a relationship, a relationship that won’t end, a relationship that will last forever. Last Sunday, we talked about how you can fill that empty space in your heart. You can only find true love, eternal love, by becoming part of God’s family, by becoming a child of God. But you know what, even when you become God’s child, even when you begin to experience God’s love in your own heart and life, there’s more that God has for you. You were not created to live life just “me and Jesus.” God said in NIV Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” So God has a family for you to be part of, a family of other children of God, a spiritual family of brothers and sisters, the family of God in the church. NLT 1 Peter 2:17 Show respect for everyone. Love your Christian brothers and sisters. God wants you to both experience love in God’s family and He wants you to learn to give love to others as well.
Your Christian brothers and sisters are part of the body of Christ, just as you are. As we learn to love one another with God’s love, we are actually giving and receiving Jesus’ love in our relationships within God’s family. That’s the way God designed a church to function, as a spiritual family. As you learn to love, you’ll be loved, you’ll sense the empty places in your life being filled up, you’ll be fulfilling God’s second purpose for your life, the purpose of fellowship. Jesus also said in NLT John 13:35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Love in a church, love in God’s family, will show people that what is going on here is really of God, that we are really followers of Jesus Christ. Would you want to be part of a family or group that was always fighting and didn’t show love? I wouldn’t want to. So God has put us in a family to learn to love others. So today I’m going to focus on how you and I can learn to love others in God’s family.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my April 30, 2006 message entitled The Importance Of Love