The Love Series: Unconditional Love Overcomes Sin

Last week, we talked about why God created humanity and how that impacts the way we conceptualize sin. I’m going to skip over dealing with being saved vs. being lost for now, just because one, I believe trying to be “saved” is a selfish and ultimately sinful pursuit, and two, I think it’s more productive to focus on how people can live a life that’s pleasing to God rather than approaching things from the perspective of avoiding being lost. 

I often ask this question, and I think it’s relevant to ask it today: without the reward of heaven, and without the threat of hell, would you still choose God? How you answer this question is a good way to determine whether you’re motivated by selfishness, fear, or true love. If being saved is your motivation, you’ve got a problem, because according to Luke 17:33, “whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it.” If you’re afraid of being lost, you’ve still got a problem, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7. But if loving God is your only goal and it would still be your goal even if this world and this life were all there is, your heart is in the right place….and that is where I’d like to begin. 

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.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.”And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Mark 12:28-34

Loving God and loving each other are the two greatest commandments, and to understand how adhering to those commandments helps us overcome sin, we first have to have a “big picture” understanding of what sin actually is. 

What is “sin”?

“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:4 (other translations refer to sin as “transgression of the law”)

“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” Romans 14:14-19

“The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. . . . For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Romans 14:22, 23

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” Galatians 5:1-6

I think it’s really important to have a big picture understanding of what sin is because it helps to keep a more detailed understanding in context. It’s easy to get caught up in the “do’s and don’ts” if you don’t understand that sin stems from the heart—from our motives and intentions—not from the act itself. Paul specifically says in Romans 14:14 that he was persuaded that nothing is a sin unto itself. I believe that means that nothing is inherently “sinful”. The reasons why we do something are what makes it “good” or “evil”, and I think that’s an important distinction to make. 

For example, I mentioned earlier that I believe trying to be “saved” is a selfish and ultimately sinful pursuit. That might sound crazy to some people, because wanting to be saved is a “good” thing, right? But if you understand that “sinfulness” is defined by what’s in your heart as opposed to the act itself, it’s easier to see how working for or trying to earn salvation doesn’t proceed from faith, and according to the Bible, anything that does not proceed from faith is sin. 

I believe that if you have a big picture understanding of sin, the focus shifts from avoiding individual acts of “sinfulness” to building a relationship with Christ and allowing His character to manifest itself within you. Another way to think if it is like an oil leak in an ocean. Focusing on avoiding “sinful behavior” is like cleaning the oil from the surface of the ocean. No matter how much you clean the surface, the leak is still there and it will continue to pollute the ocean and everything in it. However, if you fix the leak, the pollution stops.

I believe many of us have been conditioned to clean the “surface” of our lives and to encourage others to do the same (i.e “upholding the standard”) rather than focusing on the heart problems that limit our ability to allow God to have full access to us and enable us to be who He created us to be. I believe one of the most fatal flaws within traditional religious communities is “accountability” that focuses on outward appearances rather than on empowering people to be transparent with what’s going on internally and supporting them in taking all of that to God without fear of judgment/rejection/condemnation. And in the coming weeks, I’m going to get into the pitfall that is presuming to know what God’s plan is for someone and telling them how to live their lives based on YOUR convictions rather than directing them to the source and giving them room to take that journey without getting in the way. It’s so easy to forget that “man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.” Only God knows the plans that He has for any of us and GOD has ordered the steps we need to take to fulfill that plan. And that is ultimately why I believe that true, Biblical love overcomes sin. Godly love is transformative in a way that nothing else is. Godly love addresses the leak, which stops the pollution, which transforms the surface into HIS image, not anyone or anything else’s. And the only way to recognize that is to experience it for yourself. Full intimacy with and reliance on God is the only way to love Him and love each other the way we’ve been commanded to.

So how do we love God? 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. . . . If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” John 14:15, 23-24

“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” 1 John 3:11-24

What are the commandments and how do we keep them? 

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:8-10

What is love?

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

How should we love each other?

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3:12-14

I think Scripture kind of speaks for itself here, and I believe that the message overwhelmingly points back to love. Not the selfish pursuit of mere sinlessness, because remember, that is what the Pharisees were after, and Jesus told His disciples that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20. Not self-loathing and depreciation. Not pointing the finger at each other and condemning one another or trying to push people to live their lives based on someone else’s convictions. Sin is an issue of the heart that only God can heal and the best way to “fix the leak” is to continuously point people back to the source. 

I wholeheartedly believe that community and fellowship are meant to uplift and encourage and to give people a safe place to be human and authentically pursue a personal, intimate relationship with the Creator. It’s not my job to be God for anyone else. My job is to love God as He convicts me within the context of MY relationship with Him and to be a living example of that love to others so that they, in turn, will seek it from God for themselves.

This week, I challenge you to ask God to reveal to you the truth about the condition of your heart. I challenge you to shift your focus from trying to live “right” to BEING “right”….like David, asking God to create in you a clean heart and renew a “right” spirit from WITHIN. And if you see someone doing something or promoting something that you believe is wrong, instead of condemning the action or trying to make them see the “error of their ways”, I challenge you to point them back to God and to encourage them to draw close to Him and seek Him and His will for themselves. I challenge you to pray for them and to ask God to open their hearts and minds to whatever HE would have them see and to ask Him to enable you to be for others whatever it is that HE would have you be. I challenge you to be intentional about asking rather than assuming. I challenge you to let God be God and to allow Him to define the part He would have you play. 

Next week, we’ll be talking about how God effectuates His plan in our lives and how that impacts how we should view accountability.