No Greater Love – Dr. Charles Stanley

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No greater love. Jesus said greater love has no one than this, that one would lay down his life for a friend.
That’s an awesome statement when you begin to think about what he’s really said, but probably one of the most misunderstood misused words in our vocabulary is the word love.
We spell it L O V and we put loving chocolate candy, loving somebody, loving a sport.
We put all of those things in the same category. Well, in the Greek language, they didn’t do that.
They made it much more specific.
And when I think about the way people use love today, here’s what they’re really saying.
Some people really, truly, genuinely love.
But some people when they say I love you, what they’re saying is I want you, I desire you, I lust for you or I need you.
But very few people know how to say I love you with the kind of love that Jesus was talking about in the scripture.
And so we use it rather casually and sometimes uh in our thinking, we mean what we say, I love you.
But what does it mean to say?
I love you, especially what Jesus said when he said, there’s no greater love than this that you lay down your life for your friend.
Well, love is at the heart of the scripture.
The Bible in essence is really the story of God’s redeeming love for mankind.
Salvation was a gift of love. Eternal life is a gift of love.
Our forgiveness is a gift of love that is, it’s all about true, genuine love.
And if I should ask you that you feel loved by somebody, but most of you would probably say yes, life without love is emptiness.
There’s no such thing as happiness without being loved or having somebody to love.
But we use that word rather loosely.
And I want us to see in this passage of scripture in a few moments what it’s really all about when Jesus said, no greater love has anyone than this than you lay down your life for your friends.
So you’re sitting there thinking, well, do you mean to tell me that for me to express true, genuine love that I’ve got to die?
Well, keep listening and let’s see if you’re gonna live or not.
And so I want us to look to see what he says in the 13th and 15th chapters of John because I’m gonna read two verses in each one of these.
And Jesus the night before he’s going to be crucified, saying to his disciples over and over and over again, many things, especially about the Holy Spirit.
But here’s what he says in the 34th verse of the 13th chapter, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
But this shall all men know that you’re my disciples that you have loved one to another.
So three times he says it, then if you will look in the 15th chapter and the 12th and 13th verse is, here’s what he says.
This is my commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you. What an awesome statement.
What a requirement, what pressure almost listen.
This is my commandment that you love one another just as I’ve loved you.
Greater love has no one than this. That one would lay down his life for his friends.
Now L O V E, what does that mean?
Well, in the Greek language, they had four different words for love.
One of them was eros E R O s which is passion, infatuation, sexual love.
That word is not found in the Bible.
Then the second word is store gay, which is a word that refers to family love, like a mother for the child and vice versa.
Then there’s Phileo love, which is a word that means a genuine warm intimate friendship.
That is, it’s love, but it’s the kind of love that friends would have toward each other, but genuine love at that.
Then of course, the last word is agape love and that is in essence, it means sacrificial love.
Because is there any such thing as true, genuine love?
Until first of all, I deny myself in behalf of the other person. So I would simply ask you this.
Who do you love? Sacrificial e who do you love? Beyond want, need desire, lust.
Who do you love beyond those four descriptions?
Well, it’s interesting what Jesus says here because he deals with love on a whole different level than we think about.
And as we said before, love is the denial of oneself in behalf of someone else.
So look at this, first of all, Jesus commands us to love one another.
And how many times he said that in just one verse, love, one another, love, one another, love one another.
In every single one of these verses, Jesus uses the word agape, love, sacrificial love.
It’s the love that put him on the cross. It’s the lovin frustrating is 13, which is the love chapter.
It’s the love when he comes to the fruit of the spirit.
It’s the love that Jesus always talked about loving one another.
He talked about sacrificial love, not just the light friendship.
And I think in the day when there’s so much hurt and so much pain and so many people suffering loss of all different kinds, not only from finances to their loved ones in war.
We don’t understand what true genuine love is all about because when we do our relationship with God is different, our relationships with each other are different, they’re far more meaningful, far more satisfying and far more rewarding.
So, what did he mean by that?
Well, when he used this word sacrificial here or the other word of God, he also said to them That he was giving him a new commandment.
Well, that’s not new. For example, in Deuteronomy, the 6th chapter, he says with the love, the Lord God, with all of our heart, soul, mind and body that is his total love.
And so what was new about this? Here’s what was new about it.
What was new about this love is that it was to be a sacrificial love, a love that put other people first, not just loving God, not just loving each other with a nominal kind of a little, little light love but true, genuine sacrificial love.
That’s what he was telling them to love each other that way.
And so it was a different kind of love.
So he wasn’t saying that it was new in light of that.
No one had ever said it before but was new because he raised the standard. He lifted up high.
It was God’s kind of love. There was a whole different understanding for them.
And when I think about that and I think about what he said in this passage, love one another, even as I have loved you.
Now, what in the world does that mean that we’re to love each other as he loved his disciples?
We know that his was not just a little brotherly love. It was a sacrificial loving.
What he’s saying is this, he says we are to love each other.
Sacrificial e and he said, we’re to love the Lord were to love each other and we are to love our enemies.
Now, when it comes to loving your enemy, that puts a whole different light on it.
For example, if I should say to you today, do you love people that you know your enemies?
You may give me some religious answer. Oh, sure. But deep down inside you think. Yeah.
No, I don’t really love them. It’s difficult to love some people.
In fact, some people make it difficult for you to love them.
And when we find people who would destroy us, we say, am I supposed to love them? Listen carefully.
There is a difference in loving a person as a person and loving their ways and their ambitions and their desires that are ungodly and destructive.
We’re not required to love the ways of the ungodly and I’m not required to love their actions, their deeds, their motives and all the rest.
But we want to see every person saved. Yes.
No matter how mean and vicious and wicked and vile they are. We required to love their ways. Absolutely not.
And so when Jesus said, we’re to love as he loved, that’s the way he loved.
No matter, for example, I think about how they responded and, uh, how Jesus responded to them, it was always selflessly.
He wasn’t saying do this for me, do that for me.
He said, I want, I love you and I want you to love one another.
Like I love you, not thinking of myself, but thinking about the other person.
When you say I love you to someone, what do you really and truly mean? Do you remain?
Do you mean I care for you? I’m thinking about you.
I want what’s best for you and I want to do whatever I can to help you to become the person you want to be or you think about what it’s going to get you.
You see selfless love isn’t centered on self itself less. It’s you, that’s important, the other person, how you feel.
What happens to you. What, what are your needs? Not what I think they are, but what are they?
That’s the way he loved a second way he loved is this. He loves understanding. Thank God he does.
What do I mean by that?
Simply this when Jesus loved those disciples of his and he said, we’re to love as he did.
He loved them with understanding, he understood that they were weak.
At times they were afraid they were frail in their emotions.
He understood them, for example, when he would watch how they responded in certain situations and circumstances, he loved them.
Understanding Lee that is he didn’t ramp up this big list of things that he expected of them.
And when they fail, criticized them, he understood where they came from, he understood their background.
And I think often times people who are judgment of others, if they could just look behind their faces and see where they came from, how they grew up, how they were treated, never loved, shoved around, mistreated, rejected.
When you see people who come from those circumstances, don’t expect them to come pouring out genuine love upon you when they don’t even know how Jesus understood.
He understood Peter for example, who was a strong willed fisherman and he had to bring him down to himself a few times.
What was he doing? Was he criticizing him? No, he was understanding him.
And when Peter said, Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times?
You know, a little bit prideful about that.
And Jesus had to say knowing where Peter came from and knowing that even even a couple of times that would have been hard for him probably.
And he said 70 times seven, he understood where he was coming from. He understood his emotional makeup.
And I think oftentimes we have expectations of people.
If we could just look beyond the surface, we would understand why they treat us the way they do.
Understanding people and being willing to understand them is very important.
If I’m gonna love somebody and love them with genuine love and truly caring for them, I’m gonna ask the question.
Where do they come from? What’s going on in their life?
Did they come from a family where they felt rejected and unloved? They’re gonna be consequences.
You have to ask yourself the question. Am I willing to love this person for better or worse?
Well, God loves you and me for better or for worse.
And all of us would have to say sometimes God it’s worse because we’re not perfect.
We’re all emotional beings were affected by different things. So how did he loved?
He loved, as we said, for example, in this particular passage selflessly and he loved understanding Lee and he loved also forgiving Lee, a person who genuinely loves is forgiving no matter what you say.
Yeah. But you don’t know what they did.
How many times have you gone to God and ask him to forgive you for the same thing over and over and over again.
Did he ever say one more time and you’re out?
No, you went to him over and over and over again.
And he forgave you think about this. What? Right.
What right do you and I have not to forgive somebody for anything when God has forgiven us continuously.
Remember the first time it really hit me and I was teaching in the Bible Institute and, and the other guys were pastors and one of them came to me one day and he said he was getting ready to go into the jail to witness to a person.
So I said, well, who is this person?
He said, he’s the man who killed my mother last week, drinking while he was driving.
There is no point at which you and I not to be forgiving, you can’t name anything.
When I think about people who are unforgiving, I think about this because it’s true, an unforgiving person is a miserable person.
They’re unhappy, they have no peace.
We say we reap what we sow more than we saw in later than we.
So when you sow unforgiveness, you reap the results of unforgiveness, which is a lot of things that happens in a person’s life.
And how did Jesus love? He loved forgiving li How is he loving in me today?
Unconditionally and forgiving Lee, no matter what you and I do as his Children, he’s willing to forgive us because that’s who he is.
And he says now this is the way I want you to love other people.
So that being the case, you and I have no grounds for an unforgiving spirit. None whatsoever.
How did he love?
He loved sacrificial e and that’s how he could say that you and I are to forgive one another.
And that the highest form of love, the highest form of love is to love someone to the point of laying down our life for them.
So you’re saying, well, you mean to tell me that if my love is to really be true and genuine that I got to give my life to him.
Well, let’s just see what he said.
The highest form of love is to lay down your life for someone else. Now, that’s exactly what he did.
Listen, whatever it took for Jesus to bring about redemption, that is the extent to which he went, which was to the cross.
And he says it’s the highest form of love.
And I think about all these men over all these past years and all the wars that we fought, how many men were willing to lay down their life because of what they believed, because of their convictions, because of their love, either for God or for the country or whatever it might be.
And the truth is there is sacrifice in all true, genuine love. And so how did he loved?
He loved in all of these fashions? And sometimes that kind of love brings a lot of pain.
It can bring rejection, heartache. I think about people who live in marriages where you cannot please the other person, you can not be accepted as a person.
They do not know how to love the person. Everything about the relationship it seems is one sided.
All the love comes from one side and none comes from the other. What are you supposed to do?
So that’s the end of that. No more forgiveness. I’m gone. I love you.
Not till death but till I find somebody that loved me in return, that is selfishness to the highest degree I’m not getting what I want.
So I’ll find what I want. Not that I will demonstrate true, genuine love to you. He loves us.
Sacrificial e now you’re saying, well, does that mean that for me to love?
Like Jesus wants me to live love that I’m, I’m to die and to love somebody that just kills me.
Well, sometimes you may think you’re dying every day And remember what he said in Mark eight chapter, listen to this 34th verse.
He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
And what is he saying? He’s saying in our lives, we the believer must live a life of self denial.
And oftentimes true genuine loves demands, self denial. You’re in the marriage, for example, relationship that’s very difficult.
It’s stormy every single day.
He says, sacrificial love is willing to hang in there no matter what.
That’s not the way we think, but it’s the way Jesus taught. He says that’s the way I love.
And he says, you have to love even as I love. Now, let’s think about this for a moment.
When he says that in this passage, the truth is it’s watch this. It’s impossible for us to love.
Exactly like Jesus loved. Now watch this carefully because his love was a substitution. Eri atoning love.
He came into this world for the primary purpose of laying down his life. His love was a substitution.
Every love that is he was to die, a substitution of death so that you and I may live.
It was an atoning love and atoning death.
He had to die and give his life in order that you and I would be forgiven of their sin.
He paid that price. And what is the justification is all about God declaring us just and no longer guilty because of the price Jesus paid.
Now you and I can’t, we can’t do that. That was a one time thing.
And there’s no copying of his kind of love.
But the element of his love, which was sacrifice, we can copy.
And when he says you’re to love, even as I have loved you, that’s what he’s talking about.
It is a sacrificial love. Now, when I think about that and I think about the fact that we can’t love exactly like he loved in that light.
Then how can I love sacrificial? E what does it mean to love? Sacrificial?
E here’s what it means.
It means whatever is required of me as a follower of Jesus to love you.
That is to give myself to you to help you to do whatever I can for your sake.
Then it’s my responsibility to do it.
You said, does that mean give, give, give, give, give watch this carefully wisely in a disciplined fashion and carefully just given to someone.
Everything they ask for is not love. That’s why you don’t give your Children everything they asked for.
You know, that you have to give to them wisely when it comes to loving someone, it doesn’t mean give them everything they want.
It means to give them what is wise to give them because remember, selfless love is for the sake of the other person, it’s for their good.
So as I think about what it means to lay down your life, as Jesus said, the highest form of love, then how do we do that?
There’s no greater love than self denying love. So let’s think about in this light.
It means I’m to love somebody unconditionally. Let’s say that you’re in a marriage but nothing is right.
Can’t please criticism, rejection, disloyalty. If I love that person unconditionally and I love them sacrificial, E as Jesus love, I’m not gonna say, well, it’s too bad.
This is enough of this. I’m gone. I’m out of here.
If I’m looking out for the other person is good, I’m going to demonstrate genuine godly, forgiveness and love and how many people have been won to Christ by a loving husband or loving wife or by a loving friend who is mistreated.
Because you see, when you think about what love is all about, it’s very serious business.
It was so serious with Jesus.
He said it three times and Mr Precious love one another, love, one another, love one another, sacrificial e and when one person does that it is powerful, whether it’s in the family or whether it’s in a war zone, it’s powerful when someone lays down their life for the other.
And I think about the Lord Jesus who went to the cross, it was God coming to earth in the person of Jesus Christ dying on the cross motivated by one single thing, unconditional, divine, supernatural, awesome love, every one of us.
And he says that’s kind of love I want you to do for each other.
You may be listening or watching wherever you are.
And I was simply asking the question, have you ever felt loved by somebody really loved?
Is there anybody that you can name that you truly, genuinely love them sacrificial?
E if not, you’re missing something in life because you see without love, life will never be what it could be.
And unless it’s the right kind of love, genuine sacrificial love, that’s when love reaches its summer bone in its highest form.
And that’s when the happiness and the joy and the peak, listen, the peak of fulfillment is only available where there is sacrificial love.
And it is my prayer that if you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ, that you will because you will never understand and feel and experience that kind of love until you experience his forgiveness, the new life that he gives and the eternal rewards that will be yours because you’ve responded to his love.
And you say, well, how do I do that?
You acknowledge your sinfulness, you ask him to forgive you, not based on what you deserve, how good you’re gonna be.
But based on the fact that he went to the cross, sacrificial e died paying your sin debt in mind in full.
And the moment you’re willing to receive him to accept him as your personal savior.
That moment listen, his awesome divine forgiveness. Absolutely, totally filled your life. And that forgiveness is there forever.
It would rather be foolish not to enjoy the love of God and fight your way through life, never feeling truly divine love.
It’s unexplainable. It’s indescribable. I wouldn’t even try to explain and describe it. Let’s put it this way.
It’s the most fulfilling thing in all of life.
And that is my desire for you and father, how grateful we are for the wonderful, beautiful life of Jesus and the way he loved and the way he taught us to love.
I pray the Holy Spirit has and will continue to speak to every heart that hears this message wherever and in whatever language that we understand how much you love us and we understand the potential we have of loving someone else likewise and being loved in return.
And we ask it in Christ’s name. Amen.
Yeah.