1. Love is one of the most misunderstood concepts in our culture. It is often and usually confused
with certain feelings, certain emotions, or with certain sentiments. Some people equate love with
sex; other people today never equate love with sex. Others use the word love so much that it
becomes trivialized and loses its real meaning. We have to let the Bible define love rather than
let our experience define love.
2. In the New Testament love is for the believer the highest expression of the spiritual life. Love
summarizes the adult spiritual life. Spiritual infants don’t love; they have not developed the
spiritual character, integrity (or virtue) necessary for there to be love.
3. Love is the unique mark of the disciple in the New Testament—not the believer but the disciple.
There is a distinction between disciple and a believer in the New Testament; as a believer may
not be a disciple. A disciple is a student, a person who is putting forth a tremendous amount of
effort to fully understand everything that the Word of God teaches. It is certainly possible for a
person to have believed in Jesus Christ, and yet go no further than that in the spiritual life. That
is, the growth they experience is negligible. John 13:34–35.
4. Jesus said in that commandment that we are to love “even as I have loved you.” Therefore, the
standard for understanding divine love is what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. This is
substantiated by a number of verses in 1John, such as 1John 3:16 4:9–10. Love has to be
based on something that never changes in order for it to have any integrity and value. It is only
the character of God that never changes.
5. Christian love is evidenced by obedience to the Word; it is not evidenced by feeling. John 14:21
1John 3:17–18.
6. Those who love God love His Word. Love has to do with wanting to know all we can about a
person: how they think, what they like, what they dislike, etc., and you want to be able to please
them (what is being described here is personal love). The only way we can love God and
demonstrate and demonstrate a knowledge of who He is and His value system so that we can
live in a way that pleases Him is to know how He thinks. In order to know how He thinks, we have
to know His Word, and the only way we are going to know His Word is by being involved in a
consistent, dedicated systematic study of the Word of God, making it a priority in life over and
above every other priority in life. To love His Word means having to learn His Word.
7. As we learn God’s Word and apply His Word in our life our love for God grows and strengthens.
John 14:23 15:10 1John 2:5; 4:12, 16.
8. The primary way for a believer to grow is under the guidance of a pastor-teacher in a local
church. I realize that nearly every Christian organization tells you, “Read your Bible daily,” but
that is not ideal; nor is that commanded by the Scriptures themselves. Now, I completely
understand that, in some cities, a local church that teaches Bible doctrine is hard, if not
impossible to find. God moved me to a place where doctrine is taught regularly and with
authority. Because of technology, I have been primarily in churches where the pastor was not
actually in front of me, but I am in a group and Bible doctrine is being taught.
9. It is rare, if not nearly impossible, for a believer to grow spiritually outside of God’s design for the
believer (under the authority of a pastor-teacher who understands the importance of the teaching
of the Word of God).
10. Love—personal love towards God and impersonal love towards man—is often a measure of just
how far we have moved in the spiritual life.
11. Love, therefore, represents the believer who has advanced to spiritual adulthood because he is
abiding with God. It is only in that state of abiding, when we are filled with the Spirit and walking
by the Spirit, that that love that the Spirit alone produces in us is manifested.
12. Love for God develops from our knowledge of Bible doctrine, and in no other way. It is the fruit
of the Spirit and is the unique distinguishing mark of the disciple, it is not something that can be
naturally generated.
13. Love for God, then, motivates love for other believers and that is why John can say that, if
someone says they love God and yet hates his brother, then he is a liar. There is an intricate and
intimate relationship between loving God and loving other believers.
14. Impersonal love for other believers is the evidence that we truly love God. So that becomes a
barometer for spiritual adulthood.
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