This morning, we

continue our message series helping us to better understand and live out

unconditional love.

This series is

entitled, “Love Is” and it is based on that familiar passage found in

1 Corinthians chapter 13. 

We were created by

God with the need for love that can only be expressed through relationships.

As there are

different types of relationships, there are different types of love.  There is, however, a type of love that we are

to express toward anyone and everyone. 

In fact, the Bible teaches that if we learn how to express this type of

love toward God and others, that we will entirely fulfill all that God’s law

requires of us. 

This distinct type

of love is the love that God has for us. 

In the Greek language, it is the word agape.  It is this type of unconditional love that

we’ll be covering through this message series.

To be able to

possess and express this unconditional love, we’re going to break it down into

parts as Paul chose to do in his letter to the Corinthians.  He taught all about spiritual gifts and said

that it is not using these gifts that truly matters, but how we choose to use

them, our motive, that matters to God. 

We can do all sorts of good things for God, but if we do not do them as

an expression of God’s love, then they are pointless, useless, and meaningless.

1 Corinthians 13:1-5

1 If I speak in the

tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong

or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all

mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but

do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give

over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain

nothing.  14 Love is patient, love is

kind.   It does not envy, it does not

boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

In some

translations, you may read that love doesn’t keep a record of complaints or

that it thinks no evil or that it doesn’t count up the wrongs that have been

done or that love doesn’t keep score of the sins of others. 

We start with yet

another reminder that we find over and over again throughout the Bible and that

is the way that God describes Himself. 

As we learned last week, God first described Himself in this way to

Moses when he demanded, “Show me Your glory!”

Psalm 103:8-12

8 The Lord is

compassionate and gracious,

    slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always

accuse,

    nor will he harbor his anger forever;

10 he does not treat

us as our sins deserve

    or repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as

the heavens are above the earth,

    so great is his love for those who fear

him;

12 as far as the

east is from the west,

    so far has he removed our transgressions

from us.

Micah 7:18-19

18 Who is a God like

you,

    who pardons sin and forgives the

transgression

    of the remnant of his inheritance?

You do not stay

angry forever

    but delight to show mercy.

19 You will again

have compassion on us;

    you will tread our sins underfoot

    and hurl all our iniquities into the depths

of the sea.

When we ask God to

forgive us, He truly does.  It isn’t that

He forgets our sins, it is that He chooses not to recall them and not to hold

them against us.  It isn’t that we say that

we never sinned, it is that we stand forgiven and cleansed as if though we

never did.  John describes it in this

way:

1 John 1:8-10

8 If we claim to be

without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess

our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us

from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to

be a liar and his word is not in us.

How great is our God

that He would do such a thing for you and I? 

How awesome is H