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UNDERSTANDING
THE LOVE OF GOD SERIES
THE
QUALITY OF LOVE
We look at the quality of love and the agape love of God in this
message. In the last message you have
seen the love of Jesus Christ. We are
going to talk about the quality of this agape love and what it does.
Col. chapter one,
there is an interesting verse inside that speaks about this love but in a
manner which sometimes would boggle our theological minds. Col. 1: 24 “I now rejoice in my sufferings
for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ,
for the sake of His body, which is the church.” Paul says I fill up the afflictions of Jesus
Christ. I fill up in my flesh right
now. He refers to the suffering that he
is going through for Jesus Christ.
The next phrase is the part that really
shakes your theology and some times you need to be shaken. In saying this phrase, he says in what is
lacking in the affliction of Christ.
Paul says that I am suffering now to fill up. Notice the word fill up, in my flesh
what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
We know that in our theology that Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection is
complete and that means He does not need to suffer anymore. He does not need to die for our sins
anymore. He does not need to take our
sicknesses upon Himself anymore. We all
realized that Jesus has a completed work.
Now here is where we have to broaden our
theology understanding a little bit. It
is sound theology when we say that the work of Christ is complete. There is nothing you can add to it. There is nothing you can take away from
it. When Jesus declared it is finished
that means it is finished. He meant what
He said and He said what He meant. He
has completed His work in fulfilling the law in dying for our sins, in taking
the curse of the law upon Himself. Jesus’ work is completed.
Then there must be a meaning when the
apostle Paul says I am now filling up what is lacking in the affliction of
Christ. The key is not in the work
of salvation. The work of salvation
where Jesus bought our redemption, spirit, soul and body has been
completed. But here Paul is talking
about being Christ like, being Christ to the
world. Jesus needs witnesses today. That is the part of His work that is not
completed. Jesus needs a witness in every
nation of the world. Jesus told His
disciples as the Father sends me so send I you. Jesus requires all His believers that just as
we read in John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.” In the same way
I John 3: 16 is for us which says, “By this we know love, because He laid
down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren.” This verse talks about
how when we love one another, we will go to the extent that we are willing to
lay down our lives for each other.
So let me put it this way, the other part
of the ministry of Jesus is this, that Jesus so loved the world that He has
sent His witnesses, He has sent His instruments into the world, instruments of
love, instruments of power so that whoever believes in the message of the
Gospel that they carry will have everlasting life. When we go and bring the message, the message
has to be two fold. It has to be in
precepts and it has to be by example.
Jesus did not just come to preach a great sermon but He came to live a
great life. Jesus did not just come with
His word and says I love you but Jesus says it with His action I love you. It was love in action. In the same way we should not just love
people in word but in deed also as apostle James wrote, Let us not love in
words alone but in deeds. That
doesn’t mean that you don’t love in words.
You do still love in words but you love in words and in deeds.
Now that word here in Col.1: 24 speaks about
the love of God that suffers long. This
is the quality of the love of God. In
Col.1: 24 Paul says I am filling up the sufferings of Jesus, I am suffering. In verse 24 I now rejoice in my sufferings
for you. Notice the direction, the
object of his sufferings. He says I am
suffering for you. Thank God he did not
say I am suffering because of you. They
were not the cause of his suffering but because of his love for them. He says I suffer for you and verse 25 of
which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was
given to me for you to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been
hidden from ages and from generation but is now been revealed to His saints. In the next verse it says Christ in you the
hope of glory.
So when we talk about agape love, we have
touched a little bit on that last Sunday when we said that Jesus loves us
greatly. He suffers greatly. Let me tell you that when you love greatly you
have to be prepared to suffer greatly because love will have to bear the
weak. The Bible principle is that the
strong always bear with the weak. All
the things that are hurtful in your life, all the things that are unpleasant in
your life, the strong always have to bear the weak. We don’t expect the weak to bear the
strong. In Romans 14 it tells us very
clearly in the doctrine where he talks about certain people who don’t understand
about the Sabbath day and about food.
Those who are weak in their faith we should receive them without
doubt. We should bear up with them. The Bible principle is that the strong bear
the weak. So when somebody whom you feel
is lesser than you in the faith, whom you feel has not been renewed to the
extent that you have been renewed, who is causing hurt because of their
ignorance their unbelief or their sin, you have to bear with them. But many times the opposite is done. We try to get them to change to bear with us
instead of we bearing with them.
Now this word
in Col.1: 24 is interesting. The word affliction and the word suffering
has nothing to do with sicknesses or troubles or the
things that are not in line with the will of God. Some people say I am having this cancer,
praise God I am suffering for Jesus. No
way, God did not send you the cancer to suffer for Jesus. It says the suffering of Christ. That means anything that Christ suffered you
can suffer too except for the redemption of God. I did not see Jesus suffer sicknesses; I
don’t see Jesus carrying leprosy on His body.
How can you say that is the suffering for Christ when Christ Himself
never had that? It’s not the suffering
of Christ at all. It’s your own
suffering. It’s the devil’s sickness on
you and I won’t term it in the biblical word suffering. We teach clearly that God does not want us to
suffer poverty, God does not want us to suffer sicknesses, God does not want us
to suffer things that are not in line with His words but at the same time we
have to consider that there are Bible passages on suffering. So we have to dig into the Word of God to
look at what the Word of God says about the area that is require
of us. Suffering for Jesus, in fact Paul
says in Phil.3: 10 “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings.”
We like the first part. We say
that I may know the power of His resurrection but don’t miss out the second
part. Know the fellowship of His
sufferings and that’s the part that will conform you
to His image.
There are certain things that will not be
perfected in you until you suffer. For
tribulation lets read Romans 5: 3 “And not only that, but we also glory in
tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance,
character; and character, hope.”
There is no way you are going to have a Godly character without
tribulations. Look at it very carefully, tribulations produces steadfastness or the Bible
calls it perseverance and perseverance that is being patience throughout the
suffering produces character, and character, hope. That means you have great vision. Your vision becomes bigger. We see very clearly from the word of God
there is no way you can be conformed to the image of Christ unless we
understand the fellowship of His suffering.
See there are two aspects to the Word of God, His power and His heart
seen in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His
sufferings. Without suffering there is
no perfection of character. You may be
living under the same roof with somebody but you have withheld your love from
him or her – how can your love be perfected? After all the love of God has been
shed in your heart, but you have not allowed it to be expressed and shown to
others – how can that love be perfected?
Rom.5: 5 “Hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
who was given to us.” So you
already have the love of God in you. You
were born into love; your nature is to love.
When you withhold your love, when you withhold your relationship with
others, when you chose to relate to those who do not cause you sufferings, whom
it’s easier to get along with, do you know you are the loser in the end? Your character remains undeveloped. You are only able to love a certain category
of people. If God were like you, most of
us wouldn’t be saved. Because God put up
with all of us, all our weird character, all our sharp edges, God loves all of us, He did not just love a certain group of people. Thanks be onto
God. His love covers all of us. If you choose to love some and not love
others, you choose to withhold the love of God in your heart,
you are robbing your own self. Your
character will not be perfected. For
tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance character. In other words, tribulation will produce
character. If I am not used to loving
certain types of people, if I withhold my love from them, I am robbing myself. But when I chose to keep
loving them, not only something happen to them but something happen in
me. My character is being changed. That is what the suffering is. There is nothing to do with sicknesses or
diseases or poverty. It has to do with
choosing to love when it’s difficult to love.
Choosing to walk in agape love when it’s not easy to
love. Why do you think that in I
Cor.13 that love suffers long? Because
God knew that love has to suffer long.
Lets look at Col.1: 24 and see Paul expressing himself as he
does in the Greek. Lets
look at verse 24 “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my
flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” The word affliction is from the word ‘thlipsis’.
The word thlipsis of Christ that
is the afflictions of Christ is the same word translated tribulations in Romans
5. So he is still talking about the same
affliction, the same tribulations. It is
the normal word that is translated for tribulation. It is the same word Jesus used when He said
in the world you shall receive tribulations.
In the world you shall receive thlipsis. The root of this word is the word ‘thlipbo’. The
word thlipbo means pressure. When I put pressure and press on your muscle
that is thilipbo in the Greek. The noun for the word thlipbo
is thlipsis, which actually means pressure. So the word tribulation has nothing to do
with sickness. It has nothing to do with
poverty. It has nothing to do with all
the wickedness and the evil that happen in your life. The word just means the pressures of
life. I can tell you if you put some people
under the same roof it’s high pressure and Paul knows what he was talking about
when he say this love that helps him bear the pressure. See there is pressure upon you not to love. There is pressure on you to withhold your
love. There is pressure to react and yet
this love could contain and flow and take the pressure. What you are is what you really are under
pressure. It’s nothing if you are not
under pressure and say I love God. But
when the heat gets stand on and you still can say I love God then we know it’s
from your heart. It’s nothing to say I
am going to follow God all the way when times are easy but when the pressure is
hard on you and you say I am going to follow Jesus. That is when it’s really from your
heart. See it’s what you are under
pressure that proves your real character.
The rest of it is just camouflage.
It’s not real. The real part of
you comes out under pressure.
Lets look at Paul loving the Corinthians. In II Cor.2: 4 Look
at the word thlipsis and we can understand what Paul
is saying here about the quality of his love for them. After you have looked through his love, you
will understand that he really went through something in his Christian life. Paul says in verse 4 For out of much thlipsis affliction (that is out of much pressure, he
is undergoing a lot of pressure) and anguish of heart I wrote to you with
many tears not that you should be grieved but that you may know the love which
I have so abundantly for you. I tell
you love suffer long. Love puts up with
pressure. See Paul was referring to his
first epistle. This is II Cor.2: 4 He
was referring to first Corinthians.
First Corinthians reads about how there is a group from Cleopas that tells Paul about all the terrible things that
happened in Corinth, for example, the immorality happening, the confusion and
some challenging his apostleship and remember it hurts Paul because he founded
that church. He founded it with his
sweat, with his blood and with his tears.
It took effort to start that work.
And here was the news, it broke his heart. I mean he really loves them. Do you know that the more you love, the more
you put yourself in a position to be hurt?
Do you know that those that hurt you most are those you love most? It is nothing if the world tells you, you
rascal. But when you
husband or wife tells you, you rascal.
Which one hurt more? The one you
love. The more you love, the more you
put yourself in a position to hurt. That
is why the agape love of God, the quality of this love will help you to
withstand the pressure. Paul says
because of his abundantly love for them, abundant agape, he put up with all the
sufferings, he put up with all the pressure and he wrote to them with tears. You may not realize it but I Cor. 13 and I Cor. 1 right on to
the end in chapter 16, all were written with tears. When Paul was writing love suffer long, the
tears were trimming from his eyes. Love
is patience and love is kind. He was
crying and weeping away. It was from the
depth of his heart that came the revelation of the
love of God and you will agree I Cor.13 is one of the most beautiful
definitions of love. It came under
pressure. Love came out and flows out.
II Cor.4: 17 “For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
Paul considers that all those things that are pressing him. Now look at the pressure he went through
before you understand what he call light affliction. I think that is an understatement. You know the greater your love is the greater
you can take the pressure. Although you
put yourself in a position to be really hurt and under pressure, yet the more
you love the more you can take the pressure.
The more you love the more you can put up with somebody. Have you ever seen lovers put up with each
other when they are deeply in love. They
really put up with each other. The love
flows out. And Paul call
it this is light affliction. It is
nothing and it is bearable.
II Cor.4: 8 “We are hard-pressed on
every side.” The illustration is like those seeds that are
going through the mill, where you are being crushed to bring out the oil. You are being put through the mill. You see how they put one round stick of sugar
cane through one side of a rolling machine and the other side the sugar cane
comes out flat and the juice is drained to a glass. Paul says we are hard pressed and he says
on every side. We yet not crushed; we
are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but
not destroyed. You know what kind
of quality is that? Love never fail,
life or death, tribulation, heaven, hell, angels, devils,
nothing can separate you from the love of God.
The quality of God’s love is a quality that it can go through anything
and it comes out the same.
In verse 10 “Always
carrying about in the body of dying of the Lord Jesus.” I never understood what he meant by the
dying of the Lord Jesus until I understood love. See love puts up with people. Love bears with them, that the life of Christ
may also be manifested in our body.
Verse 12 “So then death is working in
us, but life in you.” That is what
he meant by filling up the affliction of Christ. What did Christ do? Christ died for us so that we may live. What did Paul do? He lived his life and gave his life even onto
death that others may live. See we need
Christ. Those great boosters throw an
object into orbit; there is a great propulsion force. Paul talks about the constraining. See when the pressure is outside is great but
the pressure within is greater, the pressure within will overcome. And the pressure inside is love. The pressure
from within is greater than the pressure outside, and then you don’t feel the
pressure. Don you know why you feel the
pressure, because the pressure outside is greater than the pressure
inside. Then you sensed the differential
of pressure. But when the pressure
inside and outside is the same, you don’t feel it. Right now you don’t feel air that much unless
you swing your hand or the wind blow on you.
But when you get into water, you began to feel the pressure on your
body. And the deeper you go into the
water the greater you feel the pressure.
That is why even those divers that dive very deep up to a certain feet,
when they come up, they cannot come right out into the air. They will have a condition where all their
body will form bubbles because the pressure in their bodies gets adjusted to
the pressure under there. When they come
up, they have to be slowly adjusted to the presence. See the pressure within must be greater than
the pressure outside. Then you will say it’s light. It’s
nothing.
II Cor. 5: 14 “For the love of Christ constrains us.” Verse 15 “and He died for all, that those
who live should live no longer for themselves.” Do you see what agape does? Chapter 7: 5 “For indeed when we came to
II Cor. 12: 15 “And
I will very gladly spend and be spent for you souls.” He says I will buy you with my life if I
can. This is the kind of love he has for
the church. Now this is the tremendous
thing he says, “Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.”
This guy is really a fan of
Jesus. To many people he will be
fanatic. He says the more I love you,
the less you love me but yet I will love you some more. Sounds like God. Jesus love and love and love until we love
Him back and Paul did the same. He walks
in love. He lives in love. He says you don’t love me, praise God, I love
you still. What a character! This is the kind of man that turns the world
upside down. If you want God to use you
greatly, live the quality of love that He does.
Love like Jesus loves. That’s the
word thlipsis, the affliction and the pressure
of Christ.
Col.1: 24 having understood all these things that Paul
wrote, now you understand Col.1: 24 what he meant. “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you,
fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake
of His body, which is the church.”
I tell you Paul loves the church.
He loves the church and he loves believers so much. He is willing to spend himself for them. What quality of love do you have? The other word to consider in verse 24 is the
word suffering from a different Greek word.
I now rejoice in my suffering for you.
The word suffering is from the word ‘pathema’
which means affection and feeling. Do
you know Paul had feelings too? What was
happening were not flowing the way he would like it. In other words, the thlipsis
was flowing out against his feelings.
When Jesus Christ came on this earth, I
can assure you it was a very uncomfortable feeling. Some of you have a small measure of it. If you have been in a church living a good Christian
life, praising the Lord, worshipping God, suddenly we take you to a place where
everybody curses the Lord. Do you know
there is a different feeling? You fell
miserable, you feel tortured without even the tortures of a hot iron. You feel the difference because your nature
has been changed. I feel uncomfortable every
time someone blasphemy God. See it’s against your nature. Your nature is to worship and praise
God. The more you become like God and
know God, the more discomfort you have when people are not living right with
God. And this is the suffering of Jesus,
yet you put up with the discomfort because you love them and you want to win
them to the Lord. That is the internal
feelings within you.
See the word suffering has to do with the
word feeling, affection. Your feeling of
discomfort is there but you chose love and your spirit man came out and says I
will love in discomfort. I will love in
inconvenience. The love of God will love
in season and out of season. When it’s
uncomfortable with you and when it’s comfortable for you, you will still love
and love and love. This is the same word
that Phil.3: 10 say I want to know the fellowship of his suffering. You know what Paul is saying? I want to know what it is like for the holy
Christ who knew no sin to live among sinners.
I want to know what that feeling is like and suffer with Him. Now you can pray that prayer with
meaning. When you sing that song, To Be
Like Jesus, let me tell you, you cannot be like Jesus until you suffer like
Jesus. Your character cannot be like
Jesus until you have gone through tribulation and put up with all those things
and it takes time to change the character.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Character comes by tribulations and
tribulations with perseverance. So you
know where to get faith. You know where
to get Christian character by choosing to love.
Whatever situation you are in, whatever discomfort you are feeling, put
up with it, let the agape love arise and constrain you. Whether it be your non-Christian parents,
partner or spouse, win them with love, put up with them. Don’t react.
If you keep reacting, the love of God is not coming out. Put up with them. Let the quality of God’s love flow through
your life. In this world Jesus says you
shall have tribulations. You shall have
this kind if suffering. These are the
sufferings that Paul went through.
I Peter 4: 13 “But
rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s suffering, that when His
glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ
because of your godly character. Some people suffer because of their
stupidity. Some people suffer because of
their sins. Some people suffer because
of their mistakes. This is not the
sufferings of Christ. Christ did not
suffer because He was stupid. He was
wise. Christ did not suffer because He
was sinful. He was sinless. Christ did not suffer because He made a
mistake or disobeyed God. Do you know
that there are a lot of unnecessary suffering?
There is, we are not talking about those. They do not qualify to be sufferings of
Christ. There are sufferings of
disobedience. The suffering of Christ is
when you live a godly life, when you live a righteous life, when you live a
sinless life, when you live a holy life and you get persecuted because of
that. You get persecuted because you
obey God but because of the love of God you are prepared for persecution and
tribulations. God says in verse 14, you
are going to receive help. God is going
to help you when you do that and stand in love.
For the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. God is going to put His glory on you. The greatest pressure any human being has
ever taken was taken by Christ when He went to the cross three days and three
nights. He was in the depths of the
earth. None of us can understand the
fullness of the pressure He went through.
Paul prayed actually that I may know that fellowship. And out of the greatest pressure ever
undertaken and the greatest reproach ever experienced came the greatest glory,
the resurrection power from the dead spirit, soul and body He was raised. Mysteries of the spirit realm are going to be
unfolded and revealed, some of the most beautiful things that are going to
happen in your life and the greatest revelation that is going to unfold to you,
some of the greatest manifestation of God’s glory on your life is going to come
when you pay the price and take the suffering as a part of the Christian
life. Embrace the sufferings of Jesus
because of love. Love suffers long.
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