https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Teaching-Love.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Romans 13:11-14<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. I received a complaint several years ago. After reading an article on why sex outside of\nmarriage is sin, the reader complained, “I wish you guys would pay more attention to the\ngolden rule, ‘love thy neighbor,’ than all the homophobic and ‘sex is sin’ stuff.”\n A. After pointing out that the article did not say sex was sin, but only sex outside of\nmarriage was sinful, I began dealing with the idea teaching against sin and\nteaching the golden rule were two different topics.\n B. It was especially interesting as the website at the time contained over 1,400 pages\nof material at the time of the complaint, less than 50 dealt with sexual sins and\nmost of those were responses to direct questions from readers; yet I was accused\nof being too focused on this one topic.\n 1. About ten years ago, about 12% of the 7,500 pages on the website covered\nsexual issues.\n
2. I don’t have a good way to measure it at the moment.<\/p>\n C. The truth was that he objected because the article he read applied to his situation\nand he didn’t want to listen to it.\n 1. He later confirmed this. “Alas, I do live in sin, but it’s not homosexuality;\nI live with my girlfriend.”\n
2. Not that he was interested in changing.<\/p>\n 3. He needed to say I was wrong so that he could feel justified in his own\nsins.\n 4. He wasn’t interested in leaving his sins. “If living in sin with my girlfriend\nis my worst sin, I’ll gladly take it.”\n D. He continued, “I feel the golden rule is being ignored by the church these days: the\nlaws that say “love thy neighbor and your enemies and love God with all your\nheart.” Maybe if you teach these principles instead of pointing fingers, people will\nfollow you. Sure, you teach that homosexuality, pre-marital sex, and the rest of\nyour favorite subjects are sin. That’s fine, but I believe there are more pressing\nissues that are leading men astray.”\n
II. How does a person teach “love God?”<\/p>\n
A. Jesus stated that loving him involved obedience – John 14:15, 21-24<\/p>\n
B. Friendship with God means doing as He directs – John 15:10-14<\/p>\n
C. You cannot know and love God without keeping His commandments – I John 2:3-6<\/p>\n
D. Keeping His commandments is loving God – I John 5:3<\/p>\n
E. When a person sins, he is breaking the laws of God – I John 3:4<\/p>\n
1. Hence, teaching against sin is teaching people to love God<\/p>\n
2. It is not the whole, because people also need to be taught righteousness. <\/p>\n 3. There are two halves, casting off sins and putting on righteousness –\nRomans 13:11-14\n F. Yet, the idea that a person can be righteous while remaining in sin is foolishness –\nI Corinthians 15:34\n
1. We have died to sin – Romans 6:1-2<\/p>\n
2. We must cease from sin – I Peter 4:1-2<\/p>\n
III. How does a person teach “love your neighbor?”<\/p>\n
A. The first passage that popped into my head – Romans 13:9-10<\/p>\n
1. Loving your neighbor means not sinning!<\/p>\n
2. Why? Because most sins involve harming a fellow human being.<\/p>\n 3. Think about this way, it is generally recognized that the last six of the Ten\nCommandments are an application of the idea of loving your neighbor, but\nfive of those six are commands to not sin. \n
a. Only “honor your mother and father” is stated in the positive<\/p>\n B. Loving your neighbor is considered the second greatest command because it is the\nnatural result of loving God – I John 5:2\n C. It is God’s command to love one another, and thus keeping God’s command\nresults in loving your neighbor – I John 3:22-24; 4:21\n D. We cannot love our neighbor while remaining in sins that harm our neighbor –\nEphesians 4:20-32.\n E. It is again a two-sided problem. Sins must be discarded while righteousness is\nadded – Colossians 3:1-15\n
IV. Sadly, some think sin doesn’t matter<\/p>\n A. The man who is committing fornication, but doesn’t think it is so bad, told me,\n“As I said, you’ve got your own beliefs. Some people believe music and dancing\nis a sin. Who am I to argue with them? Whatever gets them to heaven.”\n 1. In other words, you have your sins, I have my sins, but none of that matters\nbecause we’re all going to heaven.\n
2. It’s sad, because it is not even close to biblical.<\/p>\n B. I pointed out several passages that clearly stated that his “favorite” sin of\nfornication will keep him out of heaven.\n
1. I Corinthians 6:9-10 – He will not inherit the kingdom<\/p>\n
2. Revelation 21:7-8 – A part of the second death (hell)<\/p>\n a. This list is particularly interesting because it combines things that\nmany feel are minor sins with those people see as major sins\n
(1) Minor? : cowardly, unbelieving, disgusting, lying<\/p>\n (2) Major? : murder, fornication, sorcery (or drug users), and\nidolatry.\n b. He didn’t like having fornication being equated to murder by the\nway.\n
C. There is only one way to heaven – Matthew 7:13-14<\/p>\n
D. It is a sin to alter God’s message – Galatians 1:6-10<\/p>\n
E. Does my little sin matter? Oh most certainly! Recall – Romans 6:1-2, 12-19<\/p>\n
V. We will appear before God to be judged – II Corinthians 5:10<\/p>\n
A. There is no escape – Romans 2:2-11<\/p>\n
B. Do you want to face God’s love or God’s wrath? The choice is yours to make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 13:11-14 I. I received a complaint several years ago. After reading an article on why sex outside of marriage is sin, the reader complained, “I wish you guys would pay more attention to the golden rule, ‘love thy neighbor,’ than all the homophobic and ‘sex is sin’ stuff.” A. After…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[1572,65,54,179],"class_list":["post-20109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-fornication","tag-love","tag-obedience","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-isnt-more-time-spent-on-spreading-the-golden-rule\/","url_meta":{"origin":20109,"position":0},"title":"Why isn’t more time spent on spreading the golden rule?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Yes, I did generalize your views when I inferred that the church goes after sins of the \"flesh\" and homophobic is one of the words I used to describe your stance. After reading your response it turned out that I was right in your case. It seems that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47785,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/teaching-children-about-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":20109,"position":1},"title":"Teaching Children About Fornication","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Roberts \"Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body\" (I Corinthians 6:18). Perhaps no precept of scripture is as widely ignored as this one. Our society is absolutely obsessed with sex. Advertising,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adolescence"","block_context":{"text":"Adolescence","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/adolescence\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/teen-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":42940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-told-me-that-if-two-people-love-each-other-then-sex-before-marriage-is-not-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":20109,"position":2},"title":"God told me that if two people love each other, then sex before marriage is not a sin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: God has told me if two people love each other then sex before marriage is not a sin. I'm a healer and I asked God to take away my gift if he was not happy with me having sex with my boyfriend and guess what? I can still heal.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2693,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-solomon-say-that-having-multiple-sexual-partners-is-bad-when-he-had-hundreds-of-wives\/","url_meta":{"origin":20109,"position":3},"title":"How can Solomon say that having multiple sexual partners is bad when he had hundreds of wives?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 26, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You stated, \"Solomon explains why having multiple sex partners is unhealthy by comparing sexual desire and intercourse to thirst and having a drink of water. 'Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3615,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/no-longer-living-in-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":20109,"position":4},"title":"No Longer “Living in Sin”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Sometimes you find interesting coincidences in the paper. One article brings up a question and another, unrelated one, supplies the answer. Recently I spotted an article in the June 7, 1995 edition of the Omaha World-Herald that shows the birthrate of children born to unwed mothers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1818,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-i-be-sinning-if-i-have-sex-with-my-girlfriend\/","url_meta":{"origin":20109,"position":5},"title":"Will I be sinning if I have sex with my girlfriend?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Will I be sinning if I have sex with my girlfriend? Answer: In the Greek language of the New Testament is the word\u00a0pornos. It refers to a person who has sex outside the bonds of marriage. It is most accurately translated as \"fornicator\" in English, but in some translations,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}