Let Love Be Your Greatest Aim in Life

Paul’s command, “Let love be your greatest aim,” puts the right target in front of every life. Life tends to move in the direction of its aim, whether that aim is fun, comfort, applause, success, possessions, or power. God calls His people to aim higher, because God is love and humanity was created in His image to become like Him.

The love Scripture calls for is not some vague, anything-goes kind of love. God’s holy love is joined to His truth, His character, and His moral holiness. God has existed forever in perfect love, and God created people so they could be drawn into that love, changed by that love, and sent out to put that love on display in the lives of others.

Jesus names the aim of life in the great commandment: love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love neighbors as oneself. Achievements, accomplishments, acquisitions, fame, and fortune may be used by God, but none of them can carry the weight of a life apart from a saving and sanctifying relationship with Jesus Christ. God will one day ask what each person did with the love poured out in Christ and how that love was shared with others.

John gives the anchor for this kind of living: “We love because God loved us first.” God takes the initiative through creation, the cross, the gift of the Spirit, and every good and perfect gift. Christ’s love must become more than a fact in the mind. Paul prays that God’s people will grasp how wide, long, high, and deep that love truly is, because the holy fire of God’s love heals deep places in the heart.

The love of God changes what comes out when life squeezes a person. A tube of toothpaste reveals what is inside when pressure is applied, and hurting, angry, impatient behavior reveals hearts that still need healing. People cannot give away what they have not first received. God’s love renews and restores the heart so patience, mercy, forgiveness, and grace can flow toward even difficult and unlovely people.

Christ calls each person to respond to that love through salvation, repentance, healing, surrender, and sanctification. God’s love meets people right at their point of need and leaves no heart untouched when it is truly received.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Let love be the greatest aim. Love cannot remain one goal among many. God calls love the defining direction of life because God Himself is love. Status, comfort, applause, and achievement become poor targets when they replace the purpose for which people were made. [46:19]
• 2. God’s love comes first. Human love begins as a response to divine initiative. God loved through creation, through Christ’s cross, and through the Holy Spirit’s work within the heart. A person does not earn this love, but receives it and learns to live from it. [55:35]
• 3. Holy love is not sloppy agape. God’s love is never separated from God’s truth or holiness. Love does not excuse sin or make everything permissible, but draws people into the character of God. Holy love both receives broken people and transforms them. [48:22]
• 4. Pressure reveals what fills the heart. Life squeezes every person sooner or later, and what comes out reveals what has been living inside. Anger, harshness, and impatience often point to wounds that need God’s healing love. God fills the heart so grace can come out under pressure. [63:14]
• 5. Receive love before giving it away. People cannot give others what they have never received themselves. God’s love heals the scabs on the heart and makes mercy, forgiveness, and patience possible. Loving difficult people requires more than effort; it requires God’s love flowing through a surrendered life.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [09:41] - God Loved the World
• [26:21] - The Powerful Name of Jesus
• [29:10] - Kids’ Lesson: Doing What Jesus Says
• [42:35] - What Is Your Aim in Life?
• [46:19] - Let Love Be Your Greatest Aim
• [48:03] - The Holy Love of God
• [49:54] - Life Is Learning to Love
• [50:43] - The Greatest Commandment
• [55:04] - We Love Because God Loved First
• [57:15] - Knowing the Depth of Christ’s Love
• [60:52] - The Healing Fire of God’s Love
• [62:23] - You Cannot Give What You Have Not Received
• [64:12] - Loving the Unlovely
• [74:41] - Responding to God’s Love

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 14:1
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” [46:19]

1 John 4:19
“We love because he first loved us.” [55:35]

Mark 12:30-31
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” [50:43]

Ephesians 3:17-19
“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” [57:15]

Observation questions

1. In 1 Corinthians 14:1, what does Paul tell believers to pursue before he speaks about spiritual gifts? [46:36]
2. According to Mark 12:30-31, what are the two directions of love Jesus calls greatest: toward God and toward others? [50:43]
3. What words does Paul use in Ephesians 3:17-19 to describe the vastness of Christ’s love, and what result does he connect with knowing that love? [57:31]
4. What examples of competing aims in life are named—such as fun, comfort, applause, status, success, possessions, power, and money? [45:07]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says to “pursue love.” What does it mean for love to be pursued as the defining direction of a believer’s life rather than treated as one goal among many? [47:08]
2. Jesus joins wholehearted love for God with love for neighbor. Why is it important that neither command can be separated from the other? [51:28]
3. God’s love is holy love, joined to truth and moral holiness. How does this help a believer distinguish genuine love from simply approving everything another person does? [47:44]
4. Ephesians 3 says that Christ’s love surpasses knowledge, yet believers are called to know it. What kind of knowing seems to be meant beyond merely knowing facts about God’s love? [58:11]

Application questions

1. What has most often been functioning as the main aim of your life lately—comfort, approval, achievement, security, possessions, success, or love? What would it look like for love to become the clearer target this week? [44:16]
2. God loved us first through creation, the cross, the Holy Spirit, and every good gift. Which expression of God’s love do you most need to receive and rely on right now? [55:43]
3. Pressure reveals what is already inside, like toothpaste coming from a squeezed tube. When you have recently been tired, frustrated, criticized, or inconvenienced, what has tended to come out of you? What might that reveal about an area where God wants to bring healing? [01:03:06]
4. Is there a painful experience, lingering guilt, or “scab on the heart” that makes it difficult for you to believe you are truly loved by God? What would a next step of honest surrender to Christ look like? [01:01:53]
5. Think of one difficult, demanding, or unlovely person in your life. Instead of relying only on your own patience, how could you make room for God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness to flow toward that person this week? [01:05:04]
6. Love is meant to shape everyday actions, including emails, social-media posts, shopping, driving, and ordinary conversations. What specific situation in the coming week gives you an opportunity to do something in love? [53:35]