Love is a Delight
10.12.08
it is a common statement that
love is selfless and self-sacrificing
this is true but if that is all that is said
it misses something very important
main idea:
obedience to God is a delight and joy
or love is a delight and joy
Psalm 119: 16,24,32,35,40, 47-48, 70-72, 77, 97, 103, 111-112, 127, 143, 165, 167, 174
keyword: delight
Nehemiah 8:1-18
keyword: joy
the commands of God bring joy and delight to his people
1. Love delights in what delights God
Jeremiah 9:23-24
God acts with justice and righteousness and God delights in these things
1 Cor 13:6
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.”
truth here means what is good
real Love delights and rejoices in doing what delights God
2. Love delights in the good of others
2 Corinthians 8:2
“their abundance of joy… overflowed”
Love is the overflow of joy that delights in the good of others
they denied themselves and gave sacrificially to those in need
because they find joy and delight in their good
A man can not find much delight in just his own good restricted to himself
there is a much larger and expanded joy in the good of others
you often here people say
love is not a feeling
which means love is not a mere warm feeling
but love is not just action either
Paul said that if a man gives everything he has to the poor but has not love, he gains nothing
a sacrificial action is not necessarily love
love is sacrificial action done out of delight in what delights God
and delight in the good of others
3. Love delights in the meaning and blessing that comes to our own lives
Acts 20:35
“more blessed to give than receive”
real love finds delight and joy in love
(though it is often bitterly hard as well)
if you find love and your obedience to God
joyless and without delight
here are some possible problems:
you are thinking of love as a selfless, joyless duty
you are not walking by the Spirit, but trying to obey God without the Spirit (fruit of the Spirit is love and joy)
you do not believe Jesus when he says there is more blessedness, pleasure, delight, joy in loving others than in a life doing what we want to do
