TOPIC: LOVE WITHOUT LUST

MEMORY VERSE: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently” -1 Peter 1:22

TEXT: 1 Corinthians 13: 4-13; 2 Samuel 13: 1- 17

INTRODUCTION

Generally in all life experiences, there is always a perversion of everything good. The devil generally fakes and counterfeits the pure, lofty, ideal and divine. This is the issue between these two values; love and lust.

Love is certainly one of the loftiest virtues. It is pictured as pure gold. The Bible says “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity”– (1 Corinthians 13:13). Charity or Love has an unusual permanence in its character. “Charity never fail; whether there be prophesies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues; they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away”- (1 Corinthians 13:8). Love is commanded by God. Love makes us spiritual. The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

Love is counterfeited in lust. Lust is a perversion of love. Lust is of Satan. It is carnal, fleshly and devilish. It gives an appearance of loftiness, divine affection or purity of motive, but it is really far from all these. .. Lust is condemned by God. In our time, lust has filled the pews and destroyed the ideals of holiness and purity in the Church. It is dangerous to continue in the orbit of lust because it burns and destroys. It is high time the Church re-establishes her position and conviction, re-examined the relationship among the brethren and purges it of every stain of lust. God wants us to manifest love without lust.We need to compare the impact of these values and determine what influences them most in people. Does Love and Lust come from same source?

1.PURE LOVE AND ITS SOURCE

1 Corinthians 13: 4-8; John 15: 9, 12; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 4: 7-21

A Christian is called to a higher life of love without lust. The chief word in the New Testament for love is Agape, a word which was rare among the Greeks. Agape is pure love which is the result of neither lust nor attraction but of deliberate choice of giving love, where it is neither deserved nor expected, of self-denial that the object of love might be benefited. This marked God’s love for man, and it becomes a distinguishing mark of the man who follows Him. We shall examine five ways pure love can be exemplified:

  • Jonathan’s love towards David exemplifies this pure love. “Jonathan loved him as his own soul” (1 Samuel 18:1, 3; 20:7) with the same kind and same measure of affection. Jonathan’s love displayed some unity in a steadfast bond. The two, Johnathan and David were joined together closely, firmly and sincerely. They both loved one another at all times, in adversity as well as in prosperity.
  • Jonathan’s love was confirmed by a solemn pact. Neither hatred nor the unquestionable authority of Saul could weaken this pure love. In time when the love of many wax cold and iniquity abound like in the case of Saul, men of pure love bound together by common faith and love toward God do well draw closely together and strengthen each other’s heart and hands. This is the power of pure love.
  • Pure love is practical, self-sacrificing and helpful. It gives of its best. Pure love is manifested in generous giving and it seeks not to receive in return.- (1 Samuel 18:4)
  • Pure love is characterized by disinterestedness in gains. It acts fairly because it is not influenced by personal advantage. Christ had nothing to gain by His own death. All the advantages of His sacrificial death accrue to man. He received nothing from us for what He gave us. (Romans 5:8)
  • Pure love is consistent and constant. This is God-kind of love. It is the agape, the unequalled love. He loved us without beginning, without intermission and without end. This is the great difference between pure love and impure love or lust. It is important to note that lust or carnal love is defective in three ways; “it begins to love late, ceases early and loves little” 2Sam13:15

The source of Pure Love is from God (1 John4:7-10). The person who has divine love at work in his heart is the one who has experienced the new birth and truly knows God. Pure love has neither fear nor torment (1 John 4:18, 20). When real and pure love (agape) fills our hearts, it drives out all forms of fear, suspicion, and mistrust. While we keep our reverential fear towards God, we are free of the fear emanating from alienation from God, guilt or consequences of sin. Pure love sees Christ in everyone and there is no lust in it.

This kind of love is neither abstract nor polemical. It is practical. This perfect love must be manifested by Brother for Brother. Words about love for God are void by acts without love towards a brother. Pure love is an affectionate fatherly or brotherly love. It gives, cares, sacrifices. Can we compare the love practiced today by many with the scriptures; 1 John 4:20.

2.LUST AND ITS DANGER

Matthew 5:28--30; 1 Kings 2:13-21; 11:1-3

While Agape love is pure, lust is impure. It is impure, unholy affection springing up in the heart and not repressed but fondly cherished. This was the kind of affection Amnon had for Tamar. This was contrary to divine law, not merely because the object of it was half-sister, but also because of its licentious nature (Matthew 5:28). Certainly, Amnon’s reason was swayed by lust, and then his heart became a congenial soil for all unholy affections. Lust is one evil most prevalent in the world today and strange enough; it is becoming common amongst so-called Christians. Inordinate affection for the opposite sex, sinful pleasure, sensual gratification through pornography, are all expressions of lust. Lust is selfish, it considers only what to get for self-gratification. Lust is deceptive; it blinds the victims to shame and horror inherent in its deeds. Lust, like most sins, has the bait and allurement of sin, which has a pleasant taste at the first, but in the end, bite like a serpent. The lady a man lust after in the name of love is commonly based on sensual inclination and essentially selfish.

Lust is gregarious in its effect. When lust enters into a company of friends all those who are therein will end up being infected. Lust invaded David’s house. David started it in his adultery with Bathsheba. Amnon later contacted it. Lust was Absalom’s language to articulate his severance from his father when he entered Jerusalem. He laid with his father’s wife under the sun ontop of the house. Adonijah desired Abishag for wife (1 Kings 2:21). Solomon eventually lusted after many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians and Hittites, etc. And he had seven hundred wives, princes and three hundred concubines…. (1 Kings 11:1-3). So, what do we understand by lust? Where does lust originate from and why the warning against lust? – Discuss.

3.DISCIPLINE FOR LUST

Numbers 25: 1-9; 1 Corinthians 10:6, 8; Psalm 106:13-15

We needto establish first, that Lust should not be found in the Church. Christians are exhorted to live “as becometh saints”(Ephesians 5:3), to “walk worthy of the Lord” “worthy of their vocation”” (Colossians 1:10; Ephesians 4:1). We are to walk in holiness and righteousness (not lust and evil) all the days of our lives (Luke 1: 74-75). Apostle Paul did not spare lust and evil in the Corinthian Church. He authoritatively thought believers to-“Flee fornication, every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body….” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). Of the perpetrators of this evil he said; “deliver such a one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh…” (1 Corinthians 5:5). And to the watching, standing members of the Church he warned not to keep company with fornicators” (1 Corinthians 5:11)

The lustful member of the Church cannot inherit the kingdom of God. If lust and immorality is so deadly, what can we do to safeguard ourselves from falling victim?

4. FREEDOM FROM LUST

Psalm 119:9-11, 105, 130, Job 31:1, 2Timothy 2:22

How can a Christian be free from the plague called lust? The surest safeguard is to secureintimate relationship and maintain close,constantand daily walk with Christ. This daily walk should begin early in the morning through a cultivated and diligent communion with Him in secret, serious study of the word of God, meditation and fervent prayer. Hence, the heart will be filled with the purest and noblest affections, leaving no room for morally despicable or vile affection.Thus, one becomes“Strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” and “be able to withstand in the evil day” (Ephesians 6: 10, 13).

There must be constant fellowship with serious minded Christians. Knowing that union and communion with people of like precious faith, shields off evil and ungodly influences especially in higher institutions and places of work.

Freedom from lust demands constant watchfulness and prayer. It requires continual suppression and rejection of every impure thought and feeling (Matthew 5:28) and every impulse to utter impure words (Ephesians 4: 29; 5:3). Let the prayer of David be yours; “ Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). Always practice the abiding presence of God (Genesis 16:13).

A Christian should always remember and consider the consequences of evil in time and eternity. Always remember, “A companion of fools shall be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20). Amnon found it so, we should evade all those who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God(2 Timothy 3:4). “Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).Finally, “Keep thine heart with all diligence” by giving no place to impure thought, avoiding every incentive to “fleshly lusts, which war against the soul”.Is it possible for a believer to remain victorious over lust? –Discuss.

1ECF Bible Study-April@2014