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Hard Questions Part 2

Hard Questions Part 2. “How do I love the unlovable?”. Last Week:. Hard Question #1 “How Can a Loving God Allow Evil?” This Week: “How Do I Love the Unlovable?”. Breaking the Question Down:.

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Hard Questions Part 2

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  1. Hard Questions Part 2 “How do I love the unlovable?”

  2. Last Week: • Hard Question #1 • “How Can a Loving God Allow Evil?” • This Week: • “How Do I Love the Unlovable?”

  3. Breaking the Question Down: • It is a “how” question but it can be a “why” question such as “why should I love those who I do not want to?” • A second aspect to consider revolves around defining “love” and the shades that love can come in. • And a third aspect is to consider what is meant by “unlovable”.

  4. The Third Part: • We may find some people unlovable whereas someone else loves them dearly. • Who do you find hard to love?

  5. The First Part: Why Should I? • 1 John 4:8 and 16-21 on page 1902 • 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. • … because in this world we are like him. • 1Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us • …21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

  6. John 13:34-35 Page 1675 • “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

  7. 2nd Part: What Kind of Love? • Why do you ask? • Luke 10:25-37

  8. Good, Better and Best Love • Good – Wish Them No Harm. • Consider Judas: • Matthew 5:43-48 Page 1503 • …Loveyour enemies and pray for those who persecute you,… • 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? • …48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

  9. Better: Wish Them Well. • Even when people have hurt us God can bring us to the state when they come to mind we wish them well. • We can love the sinner and hate the sin and the damage that it has caused.

  10. The Best Level - Forgiveness • Ephesians 4:32-5:2 reminds us to “Forgive as God forgave you” • Romans 5:6-11 on page 1753 • …when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. • …But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. • …when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son,

  11. How Do I Love This Way? • Follow the Leader! • Jesus shows us the why and the how. • Why– To avoid the darkness. • How– Change perspective and offer forgiveness.

  12. How? • 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 on page 1799. • …those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. • …if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! • …gave us the ministry of reconciliation: • …not counting men’s sins against them. • … 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

  13. How do we offer forgiveness? • It requires a change of focus and letting go of the desire to bring about justice.

  14. Now What??? • How are you going to put this into practice for the “unlovables” in your life? • How do you handle knowing that you are one of the unlovables! • Love is a choice and Jesus enables us to make the best choices even when we do not feel like it.

  15. Next Week: • An Awkward Question – • How Do I Live with Christian Ethics in a Secular World?

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