1 / 15

Hard Questions Part 2

Hard Questions Part 2. “How do I love the unlovable?”. Last Week:. Hard Question #1 “How Can a Loving God Allow Evil?” This Week: “How Do I Love the Unlovable?”. Breaking the Question Down:.

leann
Download Presentation

Hard Questions Part 2

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Hard Questions Part 2 “How do I love the unlovable?”

  2. Last Week: • Hard Question #1 • “How Can a Loving God Allow Evil?” • This Week: • “How Do I Love the Unlovable?”

  3. Breaking the Question Down: • It is a “how” question but it can be a “why” question such as “why should I love those who I do not want to?” • A second aspect to consider revolves around defining “love” and the shades that love can come in. • And a third aspect is to consider what is meant by “unlovable”.

  4. The Third Part: • We may find some people unlovable whereas someone else loves them dearly. • Who do you find hard to love?

  5. The First Part: Why Should I? • 1 John 4:8 and 16-21 on page 1902 • 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. • … because in this world we are like him. • 1Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us • …21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

  6. John 13:34-35 Page 1675 • “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

  7. 2nd Part: What Kind of Love? • Why do you ask? • Luke 10:25-37

  8. Good, Better and Best Love • Good – Wish Them No Harm. • Consider Judas: • Matthew 5:43-48 Page 1503 • …Loveyour enemies and pray for those who persecute you,… • 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? • …48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

  9. Better: Wish Them Well. • Even when people have hurt us God can bring us to the state when they come to mind we wish them well. • We can love the sinner and hate the sin and the damage that it has caused.

  10. The Best Level - Forgiveness • Ephesians 4:32-5:2 reminds us to “Forgive as God forgave you” • Romans 5:6-11 on page 1753 • …when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. • …But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. • …when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son,

  11. How Do I Love This Way? • Follow the Leader! • Jesus shows us the why and the how. • Why– To avoid the darkness. • How– Change perspective and offer forgiveness.

  12. How? • 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 on page 1799. • …those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. • …if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! • …gave us the ministry of reconciliation: • …not counting men’s sins against them. • … 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

  13. How do we offer forgiveness? • It requires a change of focus and letting go of the desire to bring about justice.

  14. Now What??? • How are you going to put this into practice for the “unlovables” in your life? • How do you handle knowing that you are one of the unlovables! • Love is a choice and Jesus enables us to make the best choices even when we do not feel like it.

  15. Next Week: • An Awkward Question – • How Do I Live with Christian Ethics in a Secular World?

More Related