Love that isn’t Lame-love

²² Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, ²³since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; ²⁴for”All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, ²⁵but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.  1 Peter 1:22-25 ESV

• A “theology” (more properly, anti-theology) of lame-love (examples): Lame preaching about love, lame hymns and songs about love, cliches and catch phrases.

• What is authentic Christian love?
• Real love is all about bringing glory to God
  • Matthew 22:36-38
• Compare: “Lame-Love”
  
• And yet, Christians sometimes are the worst when it comes to being loving.
  

• The Vertical Perspective: Why a lame-love view of God is false and dangerous (Matthew 18:6; 2 Peter 2):

• Compare: 1 John 5:2:

• The Horizontal Perspective: Why is a lame-love view toward others false and dangerous (2 Timothy 4:3-4)?
  

• Characteristics of biblical otherly-love
  • 1 Peter 2:1
  • Matthew 10:16
  • 1 Timothy 1:5
  • Ephesians 4:14-15
  • Romans 15:2
• Characteristics of biblical brotherly love as set forth in 1 Peter 1:22-25?
  • Positional brotherly love (Level 1): philadelphia [G5360]
  • Biblical love in and through Christ (Level 2): agapa [G25]
  • 1 John 2:10
  • Romans 14:20-21
  • Matthew 18:15-17
  • Galatians 6:1 (and 2:11)
• Where, when and how did Peter learn all of this (John 13:10-11)?
• Why is biblical brotherly love challenging and difficult (John 15:17-20)?
• How is biblical brotherly love possible (1 Peter 1:22-23)?
• How do we grow in biblical brotherly love (1 Peter 2:2-3)?
• Conclusion (Psalm 34:8-18)