Passage: 2 Timothy 1:1-2
Speaker: Mitch Kim
Series: Forming Love In A Culture Of Fear
The Power Of Love
Walking with my father at the end of his life, I realized the power of love. After After thousands of sermons preached and many churches planted, the lasting fruit of his life was seen in the relationships of people loved with the love of Christ. Love lasts. Similarly at the end of Paul’s life his focus is on love. As we look around us at the fear that drive such divisions in our world, we need a perfect love that casts out fear. How will such love be unleashed in the world? Only through us— stepping into personal relationship with other. Yet often we feel so inadequate in our love for others. The opening verses of 1 Timothy remind us of why we can step in confidently to love. We have confidence to love because of our calling and God’s grace.
First we have confidence to love because of our calling (1 Tim 1:1). Paul is not great in himself, but he has a calling, “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” He is confident because he has been sent by Christ Jesus himself; his confidence is not in his natural gifting but in the One who has called him. Similarly we are confident because of the One who has called us — called us to Himself and called us to love. Also we have confidence to love because of the purpose of that calling, “according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.” This promise of life has not yet been fulfilled. We can proclaim and share this life so that it might abound.
Also we have confidence to love because of God’s grace (1 Tim 1:2). Paul does not only give of himself; he releases grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. These gifts of grace, mercy, and peace are overflows of God’s lavish and undeserved grace. We do not simply share ourselves, but we release the abounding and overflowing gifts from God’s presence.
So what? God has given us all that we need…to love. His love for us enables us to love one another. And we can have confidence to love because of our calling and His grace. So let us live a life of love, as Christ has loved us and given himself for us (Eph 5:2)!