Category Archives: Love

1 Cor 13:4 – ‘Love is not envious’ – sermon notes

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These are notes of a sermon preached many years ago (possibly 1994 or 1995) at Holy Trinity Norwich.

Text: 1 Cor 13:4 – ‘Love is not envious’

Envy is a member of a nasty little family of vices that also includes greed, covetousness and jealousy. As a public service, I have conducted some practical research over the past week, by trying out each of them in turn.

On Monday, at tea-time, there were four currant buns, and four of us sitting round the table.…

Recovering the wonder of Christ(mas)

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Simon Ponsonby is a well-respected church leader, Bible teacher, and author.

He has written about how, after 30 years of ministry, he realised that his faith had grown somewhat cold.  He felt disappointed by the drift he saw in his own denomination (the Church of England), and discouraged by the moral and spiritual failings of some of his friends and former role models.  In his own life and ministry, he had become spiritually dry, tired, and inward-looking.…

Why we do good works

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If ‘doing good’ does not equate to ‘preaching the gospel without words’ (for the gospel cannot be preached without words!), why is it imperative that God’s people should be ‘eager to do good’ (Tit 2:14)?  Why must we ‘not grow weary in doing good’ (Gal 6:9)?

1. Because we love God, and want to be obedient to his command to do good

‘By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments.…

‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Lev 19:9-18)

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The importance of this command is underscored by our Lord himself (Mt 22:39; Mk 12:31), along with Paul (Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14) and James (Jas 2:8).

Love for neighbour is presented in Leviticus 19 as highly practical, and covers five areas of everyday life.

1. Loving others with our possessions, Lev 19:9-11.

The practice of gleaning requires not only generosity on the part of the landowner but industry on the part of the poor.  But,

‘The main lesson to be learned is that God’s people are to be generous.

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Contending for the faith

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‘Contending for the faith’, writes Lee Gatiss in Evangelicals Now, is a phrase often used by Christians, but not always with a clear sense of its meaning.

Gatiss offers a helpful, if hard-hitting, summary of ‘the biblical doctrine of contending’:-

1. Contending is not a worldly exercise

  • We do not contend against flesh and blood, but against demonic powers.
  • We do not merely contend against something but for the faith, for the gospel.
  • We do not contend in a violent way for Jesus’s kingdom as if it were an earthly kingdom.
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Biblical words for ‘love’

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In an article in the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, D.A. Carson warns against ‘word-based reductionism’:-

‘When Amnon incestuously rapes his half-sister Tamar (2 Sam. 13, LXX), twice we are told that he ‘loved’ her, once with agapaō and once with phileō. It is hard to see how this love differs from erōs, acquisitive and sexual love (though the word erōs is never found in the Bible). Twice John tells us that the Father ‘loves’ the Son, once using agapaō (John 3:35), once using phileō (John 5:20), and it is difficult to detect any difference in meaning.

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How adversity can promote fruitfulness

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The Spirit often effects greater fruitfulness in our lives in the presence of adversity, Jas 1:2-4; Rom 8:28:-

  1. Love matures when there are people who hate us, Mt 5:43-48.
  2. Joy deepens in adversity, being directed to eternal things and to him who never changes, Ps 63:3; Hab 3:27-28; Lk 6:20-23; Jn 16:33; Acts 16:25; 2 Cor 12:10; Jas 1:2.
  3. Peace is magnified in difficult circumstances. We have peace with God, Rom 5:1; peace from God, Php 4:7; and we are peace-makers, Mt 5:9.
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