"The Absence Of Love Defeats A Life" – Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The study begins with a hard diagnosis: if we do not love, we make ourselves absolute, and we begin making rules for ourselves; because we love ourselves in first, second and third place. He who loves has no rules for himself: he has the same rule as Jesus. And you know you love when it hurts, when your stomach closes from worrying. From there it walks through the bankruptcy of the one who does not love —with his children, with his spouse, at work, everywhere—, the loneliness without purpose, and the threefold cord of Ecclesiastes 4:12, because we were not created to live isolated. It reaches the heart of the passage: Christ died before we were born, before the sins we would commit, and there was no good in us to move that love. Then it passes through 1 Corinthians 13 —though I speak with the tongues of angels, without love it is only empty noise; and love never fails, when strength, spirit and enthusiasm run out—, through the love without dissimulation of Romans 12:9, the love that works no ill of Romans 13:10, the walking in love of Ephesians 5:2, and ends in the everlasting love of Jeremiah 31:3 and the mercies that are new every morning.
I. He who loves has no rules for himself.
A. If we do not love, we become absolute and make rules for ourselves.
1. We love ourselves in first place, second place and third place.
2. He who loves has the same rule as Jesus, who gave His life for us sinners.
3. We are born to love: that is what you were born for, not to satisfy yourself so much.
4. The believer’s business on the earth is to be a servant, not a king.
B. When one learns to love, one lives greatly stirred.
1. He who loves becomes a diligent person, full of good.
2. Love is a sowing, and every sowing yields a harvest.
II. If one does not love, one is bankrupt.
A. Bankrupt with the children, with the spouse, at work, everywhere.
1. When do you know you love? When it hurts, when your stomach closes.
2. For family it is duty and obligation; this is about love for all that is around you.
3. A gesture, a smile, something that flows from love, produces an effect.
B. There are people who have no empathy with anyone.
1. To care for no one is to be absolute to oneself: such people are in danger of salvation.
2. In heaven there is order, and none of these cheap feelings of the soul.
3. Mediocre feelings: no surrender, no courage, no fight.
III. The loneliness of the one who does not love.
A. Where there is no love there is loneliness, sadness, and no purpose: no reason to live.
1. When one loves there is always something, always much good to do.
2. If the one racing to the hospital with a sick man does not move you, nothing moves you.
3. It is one single life; the day you die you will say: how short it was, and I wasted the time.
4. You do not owe yourself to the one who does not love you: you owe yourself to the one you love.
B. If you want to make a mark on the earth, it is not by what you say.
1. It is by what is in your essence, which comes out of your pores; and for that you must keep current.
2. If you have no love, you do not have it even for yourself.
3. “They are adults now, let them manage”: that is eternal loneliness, because there is no sowing.
C. Nothing satisfies; only one thing satisfies, and it is love.
1. A beautiful house does not fill the heart; nor the longed-for car, when the payment comes.
2. The more you love, the more you grow; otherwise you will feel defeated.
3. If everyone has a fault, then you are perfection itself and everyone else is small.
IV. We were not created to live isolated (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
A. “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
1. One alone may be easily overcome; two united are stronger.
2. When there are three, one brings us to the truth of what may be dividing us.
3. And with three it is a firmer union: God present in the relationship.
B. Today people live entirely alone: the second is not needed.
1. “I go to the store alone, people bother too much”: so self-sufficient are we.
2. You cut off today, you cut off tomorrow; and with that loneliness there is no coping.
3. The more years one adds, the more one sees the reality: who would take me to the doctor?
4. The third one says: go, sleep tonight, I will stay with her at the hospital.
C. “I have my children, they are enough and more.”
1. If that is your thinking, what did you sow in them? The same; they will not be with you.
2. The second need not be the child: perhaps it is the friendship made with a neighbor.
3. This is the law of sowing and reaping: what am I sowing? Love.
V. While we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).
A. Before we were born, Christ died for us.
1. He died before the sins we would live out.
2. Sinners, because since Adam and Eve sinned we already are.
3. There was no good in us that could move such love.
B. His love is wholly supernatural and out of this world.
1. If we knew it in fullness, we would not be carnal nor so obstinate.
2. We claim knowledge; no man on earth has the knowledge.
3. We learn it knowing the blood of Christ, which He makes us understand by the Holy Spirit.
4. How then ought we to worship Him, as if grasping His robe to touch it?
VI. Though I speak with tongues (1 Corinthians 13:1).
A. Without love it is only empty noise.
1. People display their spiritual level by how many tongues they speak.
2. An instrument that makes a sound but transmits no life.
3. Love is the heart of the gospel, greater than gifts and talents.
4. What this gospel sows from Genesis to Revelation is love.
B. The one excellence of life is to love.
1. Love is wide enough for all, from the least to the greatest.
2. He who loves goes and solves it: arrives, finds the fault, and it is done. That is the essence.
3. The angels write and carry it to the Father: each of us has books up there.
4. Loving leads to service, never to mistreating anyone.
VII. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).
A. Strength will fail, and spirit, and the smile, and enthusiasm, and speech, and dress.
1. There was a violent crisis years ago; it was not overcome, one learned to live.
2. It does not happen to everyone: only to whom God wills it.
3. Everything passes, everything ceases, all glory.
B. But love will never cease.
1. If someone was in trouble, one had to help: love stays active.
2. Throughout eternity love will go on: we will keep loving the Lord and one another.
3. The one who tries us is God, not the devil; and if He tries me, He knows I will pass the test.
4. I do not live for myself: I live for Christ.
VIII. Love without dissimulation (Romans 12:9).
A. There are traits every believer must develop in his dealings of love.
1. How much do you love? That is where you will be tested or rewarded.
2. It is not “I love so-and-so”: it is how much we love, in general.
3. Love must be an essence that comes out of our pores.
4. If you have no wish to begin loving, your days will be sad.
B. Abhor that which is evil: every unloving act, all malice.
1. What you said, where you threw the barb, where you drove the nail.
2. When one acts with rancor and with deceit; all that is born of the desire to harm.
3. And the conclusion it leads to is hatred.
4. How easy it is to criticize; but the day we decide to love is our happy day.
C. A clean heart, without a mask.
1. Who harms you? Your own heart. We are the ones who harm ourselves.
2. What they said of Jesus affected Him; but dying for you did not.
3. Let what we say agree with what we do.
IX. Love works no ill (Romans 13:10).
A. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”
1. If you love, summing up all the commandments would not be complicated.
2. Love never intends harm to anyone: if you love, it cannot be done.
3. An enemy is an enemy; but to harm him, no: rather seek his good and his honor.
4. Let the words of our mouth be acceptable before the Lord.
B. He who loves does not steal, does not lie, does not covet.
1. True love avoids wounding, harming, or taking advantage of a neighbor.
2. Love is the root and motive of all obedience, and it is not heavy.
X. Walk in love (Ephesians 5:2).
A. To walk in love means to give ourselves to another: so did Christ, our perfect example.
1. It is not an isolated act but a continual way of life: our daily walk.
2. Christ is the measure of true love: He did not merely speak of it, He proved it with His life.
3. True love means surrender, self-denial and service: God receives that as a sweet savor.
4. If someone drops a pencil, it costs nothing to bend down and hand it back.
B. You show that you love by how you speak.
1. When a conversation goes out of proportion, better not to carry it on.
2. Such is our pride, that we want to be correcting everyone.
3. “These young people cannot speak”: thank God they open their mouth to say anything to you.
XI. I have loved thee with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).
A. God’s love has neither beginning nor end.
1. It does not depend on circumstances, nor on errors, nor on time.
2. It is a firm, unchanging love that does not move; and it is a faithful love.
3. “I have drawn thee with lovingkindness”: shown in patience, compassion and forgiveness.
4. He said it to Jeremiah when Judah was about to fall into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands.
B. His mercies are new every morning.
1. If you think God does not love you, think how much compassion He has had with you.
2. How often He could reject us: we fail much, for we do not do the good.
3. God’s goodness is not exhausted, does not tire, and is not extinguished.
4. Let us add to love: today we love one, tomorrow two, and it will multiply.
Christian Church Mega Zoé · Pastor Edermira Cruz
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