110 Sermon Illustrations on Christian Love

Some time ago I read in one of the daily papers a thing that pleased me very much. When the new administration of President McKinley went into office some clerks in one of the departments were promoted. One young lady was offered a promotion, but she went to see the secretary, General Butterworth, and said that there was a girl sitting next to her that had a family to support. A brother who had been supporting the family had died, or sickened, and it had fallen upon her, and she asked the general to let her friend that sat next to her have the promotion in her place.

The general said that he had heard of such things in other generations, but he didn’t know that it would ever happen in his generation. He was amazed to find a person on duty in Washington that was willing to give up her position and take a lower one, and let someone else have it that she might be able to help her family.

In Colorado the superintendent of some works told me of a miner that was promoted, who came to the superintendent, and said:

“There is a man that has seven children, and I have only three, and he is having a hard struggle. Don’t promote me, but promote him.”

I know of nothing that speaks louder for Christ and Christianity than to see a man or woman giving up what you call your rights for others, and “in honor preferring one another.”

* * * * *

Good men are not meant to be simply like trees planted by rivers of waters, flourishing in their own pride and for their own sake. They ought to be like the eucalyptus trees which have been set out in the marshes of the Campagna, from which a healthful, tonic influence is said to be diffused to countervail the malaria. They ought to be like the Tree of Paradise, “whose leaves are for the healing of nations.”

— HENRY VAN DYKE

On Chinese Gordon’s monument in St. Paul’s Cathedral, proud England has inscribed this epitaph, “Who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, and his heart to God.” Well may old England gather young England about the monument of her dead hero who gave Jesus Christ supremacy over both life and relations. Henry George and Cardinal Manning were talking together. “I love men because Jesus loved them,” said the Cardinal. “And I love Jesus because he loved men,” was Mr. George’s quick reply. It does not matter which way you go to it, only that you do actually go to the real love of men. This kind of Christianity is not outgrown; this kind has not yet been tried.--WM. F. MCDOWELL, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

Sam Harris is one of a recent band of atheists whose vitriolic rantings and button-pushing avowals seem to draw audiences like reality television. His observations are shouted angrily; his ideas are often inflammatory. His frustration with Christians is spouted with sarcasm, antagonism, and resentment. And something in his most recent work made me wonder how I might have contributed to it. In an open letter to American Christians, Harris begins, “Thousands of people have written to me to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians believe that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own.”(1)

When one understands apologetics as a defense of the Christian faith, voices like Harris, who attack Christianity and its morality with fluent hostility, easily put us on the defensive. How can one respond to those who readily earn and live up to titles like “Darwin’s Rottweiler” without barking a few hostile lines of our own? Is it ever Christ-like to respond to Harris in the manner that Harris responds to Christ?

There is no doubt that Jesus frustrated more than a view scribes; he was fairly harsh on the rich, and he responded angrily to the commercialization of the temple. Yet while these are the scenes we might summon to substantiate hostile words when the God we love is debased with insult, Harris is right. Jesus told anyone who would listen that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything that is in us, and the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as we would ourselves.

In fact, in this scene it is interesting that Jesus noted the second greatest commandment at all. No one had asked this question (we generally are not interested in runner ups), and yet he willingly offered the information. He made note of the second commandment as if it was so near to the greatest commandment to warrant formal connection. Elsewhere, Jesus furthered these instructions so that we would be sure that “neighbor” was not a word with which we could take creative license. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).

As in many of Jesus’s instructions for being a disciple, his approach hardly seems reasonable. Here we seem to be told that we must accord the Harris’s and Dawkins’ of the world a respect which they deny others. In fact, we are told that their disrespect is not something that should bring defensiveness but blessing. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

Of course, this is not to say that we do not gently point out the poverty of their arguments and bias of their sources, their blatant double standards, willful inconsistencies, and altogether unwarranted optimism for a world rid of faith. But this we do with respect, with humility, and with some real degree of the love we claim to know. “Since God so loved us,” writes John “we ought also to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:11-12).

Obeying the greatest commandment must never be the motivation for disobeying the second greatest. If the bombastic detractors of the Christian faith refuse to see its God, might they at the very least encounter the reality of God’s command to love them in spite of it.

________

1. Sam Harris, LETTER TO A CHRISTIAN NATION: A CHALLENGE TO THE FAITH OF AMERICA (New York: Bantam Books, 2007), vii.

________

Copyright © 2007 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #21508]

The Bible is to be seen as the ultimate standard of authority for God’s people. The Bible derives its authority from the self-revealing and self-authenticating God. The Bible’s authority can and does communicate across cultural, geographical and temporal differences between the biblical world and our setting. Scripture is authoritative as it is rightly and faithfully interpreted in its historical setting. The Holy Spirit illumines our minds and hearts to understand the biblical message. Likewise, the Spirit leads us to recognize the authority of Scripture and to respond and obey its message today.[7]

The Bible calls for an obedience to the authority of God revealed in His Word, not in reaction to authority or in an authoritarian sense but from a true freedom that belongs to the children of God. We must avoid a concept of freedom that loses a sense of oughtness and responsibility. Simultaneously, we must avoid a swing toward authoritarianism so that our commitment to Scripture’s authority is misplaced in a church leader or in a societal trend.

Many people confuse a desire to obey Scripture’s authority with a personal insecurity that calls for a leader to tell them constantly what to do or think. More troubling is that some leaders encourage this confusion by commingling a commitment to biblical authority with the authority of certain positions in church leadership. What is needed more than ever is a clear-cut distinction between human and divine authority, so that the authority of the Bible is not undercut or lost through a false equation with human structures.

We demonstrate our concern for biblical authority not only by careful biblical interpretation but also by repentance and prayer. A commitment to the complete truthfulness and trustworthiness of Scripture is important because it is the foundation that establishes the full extent of Scripture’s authority.

Living with a Holy Spirit-prompted desire to respond to the message and authority of the Bible brings reproof and correction (2 Timothy 3:16), which result in contrition, discipleship and enablement for worship and service (2 Timothy 3:17). It results in training in righteousness that bears on Christian businesspeople and the integrity of their practice. It bears on Christians, who must speak to matters of injustice in society and in the church. Biblical authority addresses families and their commitments to one another. It speaks to preachers and teachers to handle carefully the Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15).

The authority of the Bible calls on us to recognize God’s desire for unity (through variety) in the church (Ephesians 4:1-16; John 17; 1 Corinthians 12) and the need to love one another (John 13:34-35), even when we disagree over the interpretation of Scripture itself. Thus, we need a renewed commitment to biblical authority that enables us to relate to one another in love and humility, bringing about true fellowship and community and resulting in not only right doctrine but also right practice before a watching, unbelieving world. We need a renewed commitment to biblical authority that will transform our performance-oriented church meetings into authentic worship and praise -- that will turn our church programs into service that is pleasing to God. The Holy Spirit, through the Scripture, illumines our appreciation of grace and motivates us toward faithful evangelism, social ministry and worldwide missions.[8]

We confess that God has revealed Himself to us. His revelation has been preserved for us in Holy Scripture by the Holy Spirit’s work of inspiration. We confess our belief in the divine inspiration, total truthfulness and complete authority of the Bible. Even beyond this affirmation, with willing spirits and open minds and hearts, we must dedicate ourselves anew to the authority of Holy Scripture, assured that we can place our complete confidence in God’s truthful and reliable Word.

________

This is the fifth of five articles by David S. Dockery, president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., on the authority of the Bible. The four articles were published as one article in the February 2008 issue of SBC Life, journal of the Southern Baptist Convention (www.sbclife.org).

FOOTNOTES

7. James Leo Garrett. Jr., Systematic Theology, Volume 1, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990), pp. 181-82.

8. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, “Authority,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume 1, ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), pp. 346-371 and D. A. Carson. “Recent Developments in the Doctrine of Scripture,” Hermeneutics, Authority and Canon, ed. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), pp. 46-48. Also see “Authority” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Walter Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984). Much of this article has been drawn from David S. Dockery, Christian Scripture (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995).

This series of articles originally appeared as one article in the Union University Bulletin, Volume IV, Issue 2, http://www.uu.edu/unionbulletin/pdfs/vol4-issue2.pdf. Reprinted with permission.