What's Love Got to Do With It?

Love is the common thread woven from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus answers the question of the greatest commandment without hesitation: love God with all the heart, soul, and mind, and love the neighbor as oneself. These two commands do not make the rest of God’s Word complicated; they hold up all the Law and the Prophets. Love God. Love people. If those two things are truly done, the rest follows.

God’s love gives the reason for sending His Son, and Christ’s love gives the reason He stayed on the cross. The nails did not hold Jesus there, because Jesus had power to come down and call for angels. Christ’s love for sinful people held Him there. Love covers a multitude of sins, and love makes a disciple recognizable before a watching world.

Agapeo describes love as a choice, a direction of the will, and joy found in doing it. Love cannot be based on Hollywood pictures, good feelings, or whether another person seems easy to love. Love chooses to keep loving when somebody is in the face, having a bad day, acting ugly, or carrying faults that would ordinarily push people away. Christ’s love compels believers to serve God, obey His Word, spend time with Him, and treat others as they would want to be treated.

The church at Ephesus shows that works, labor, patience, discernment, and perseverance cannot replace first love. Jesus commends what that church did right, yet Jesus still says, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Love for God must remain first, because religious activity without love can become busy but empty.

Agape is the doing kind of love. God so loved the world that He gave, placing action behind His love. Agape does not merely give people what they want; agape gives what love sees they need. God’s answers may not always look like the wants that were prayed for, but God’s love is not confused about what is needed.

Faith works through love, and love that never demonstrates itself must be questioned. Church membership, a famous name, a large building, music, status, and finer things cannot become substitutes for loving the Lord. Love has everything to do with everything, because all that is said and done must come back to loving God and loving people.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Love is the common thread Love is not one subject among many in Scripture. Love connects God’s saving purpose, Christ’s sacrifice, the life of the church, and the way believers handle one another’s failures. Love for God and love for people hold together what can otherwise become a complicated religious life. [34:29]
• 2. Agapeo makes love a choice Agapeo refuses to make love dependent on mood, chemistry, or ideal circumstances. Love chooses another person and finds joy in doing what is right before God. Love becomes most visible when it remains present where natural affection would rather walk away. [41:02]
• 3. Christ’s love compels different actions Christ’s love drives believers beyond what comes naturally. Love produces obedience, service, time with God, patience with difficult people, and mercy toward enemies. Love does not merely soften the heart; love moves the hands, mouth, schedule, and choices. [49:34]
• 4. First love cannot be replaced Religious labor can be strong while love for God has grown cold. The Ephesian warning shows that discernment, endurance, and good works do not excuse a heart that has left its first love. Love for the Lord must remain the center, not an accessory added to ministry activity. [51:41]
• 5. Agape gives what is needed God’s love does not operate by giving every desire that rises in the heart. Agape gives according to what the one who loves sees is truly needed. God’s “no” and God’s different answer can carry as much love as the answer that was wanted.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [29:17] - Love Compels the Right Thing
• [30:45] - What’s Love Got to Do With It?
• [31:46] - The Greatest Commandments
• [32:43] - Love as the Common Thread
• [34:29] - Love in God’s Saving Plan
• [40:41] - Agapeo: Choosing to Love
• [44:15] - Love Causes Uncommon Grace
• [49:34] - The Love of Christ Compels
• [50:30] - The Warning to Ephesus
• [52:25] - Love Is an Action Word
• [54:08] - God Gives What Is Needed
• [58:11] - Loving God Over Status

Bible Reading

Matthew 22:35-40
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” [31:46] [32:02] [36:15]

Revelation 2:2-4
“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” [51:08] [51:41]

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [34:35] [56:37]

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. [35:15]

2 Corinthians 5:14
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; [49:43]

1 Peter 4:8
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. [34:58] [45:00]

John 13:35
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. [37:39] [57:37]

Observation questions

1. In Matthew 22:35-40, what are the two commands Jesus calls first and greatest, and what does He say depends on them? [36:15]
2. What good qualities and actions does Jesus recognize in the church at Ephesus before He addresses what is missing? [51:08]
3. According to John 3:16, what action did God take because He loved the world? How does that action show that love is more than words? [56:37]
4. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, what valuable things does Paul say become empty or worthless when love is absent? [35:15]

Interpretation questions

1. Jesus joins wholehearted love for God with love for neighbor. Why is it important that love for God comes first while love for people is placed right beside it? [50:00]
2. The church at Ephesus had endurance, discernment, and good works, but had left its first love. What might it look like for a church member to stay busy serving while their love for the Lord is growing cold? [51:41]
3. First Peter 4:8 says love covers a multitude of sins. How can believers show patience and mercy toward another person’s faults without pretending that sin does not matter? [49:06]
4. The love of Christ compels believers to do what may not come naturally. What kinds of responses toward difficult people show that Christ’s love, rather than anger or pride, is in control? [49:43]

Application questions

1. Is there an area where love for God has been pushed behind busyness, church activity, personal goals, or simply getting through the week? What would it look like to put the Lord back in first place in that area? [58:11]
2. Who is one person in your life who feels difficult to love right now? What is one gracious and truthful action you could take toward that person this week? [49:34]
3. Love is a choice, not just a feeling or a picture of a perfect relationship. Where have you been waiting to “feel like it” before choosing patience, forgiveness, service, or kindness? [41:17]
4. Jesus said that people recognize His disciples by their love for one another. What would the people closest to you say your actions communicate when you are frustrated, disappointed, or under pressure? [43:51]
5. God’s love gives what is truly needed, not always what is wanted. Can you name a prayer, disappointment, delay, or closed door that may require trusting God’s wisdom and love more deeply? [54:08]
6. What is one practical way you can put action behind love this week—through serving, making time for God, meeting a need, encouraging someone, or showing mercy? [57:38]
7. Are there any things—status, a church name, music, possessions, reputation, or ministry activity—that can quietly become substitutes for simply loving the Lord? What helps keep your heart focused on loving Him? [59:35]