Main Thought
Everyone knows that love is important, but why is it so important? Ultimately, it’s because love is our life purpose. We were made to experience love with God and other people. Love can be felt and it can be acted out; however, love is more than feelings and even more than actions. Love is a motive that inspires our feelings and actions. It desires good for another. Love seeks to build healthy relationships. Conversely, sin is that which ruins relationships. God’s law, as we learn of it in the Bible, describes ways by which we can act in love to build healthy relationships rather than break them. The law of God teaches us to love well. It isn’t easy to love; it’s something that we all need to grow into. Maturity can be seen in the ability (or inability) to give and receive love freely. Yet our efforts to give and receive love ultimately fall short without God. Imperfect people cannot produce perfect love on their own. We need perfect love from a perfect God! As we pursue God and endeavor to love like Him, He fulfills our life purpose.
Main Passages
37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
- Matthew 22:37-40
14 Let all that you do be done in love.
- 1 Corinthians 16:14
…You received without paying; give without pay.
- Matthew 10:8
Discussion Questions
What stands out to you in the Main Thought and Passages above? Why?
Dr. Greg Mitchell’s sermon and the Main Thought assert that “Love is our life purpose.” What do you think about that statement? Can you see evidence of that statement’s truth in your own life?
Do you feel that you are able to give and receive love freely? If it’s difficult to do one (or both) of those things, why?