Study Notes

I.      There is a love that’s not really love

A.    There is a false love, a counterfeit of love, a love that’s trying to pass itself off as love, but is not really love-2Cor6:6, 1Peter1:22, Romans 12:9

1.      Unfeigned-Sincere --- Feigned-To impersonate anyone, play a part, To simulate, To pretend, To make a show, To assume a false appearance, To counterfeit, To represent falsely

2.      NLT-Don’t pretend to love others. Really love them; NRS-Let love be genuine; ERV-Your love must be real; VOICE-Love others well and don’t hide behind a mask; love authentically

3.      There is something people are saying is love, but it is not love

B.     Jude 3-5-There were men coming in the church and turning the grace of God, the love of God into lasciviousness which means do whatever you want and we won’t say anything to you about it because we accept you (Grace-Loving kindness)

1.      Real love teaches you to deny what’s wrong and live righteously and godly-Titus 2:11-15

2.      Real love doesn’t accept what is wrong, what is ungodly, what is unrighteous, it teaches against it

3.      This idea of do what makes you happy and live your life how you want and we won’t judge you we’ll just accept you is not real love

a.    One of the main ways real love is counterfeited is through this idea of we accept you and do what makes you happy

C.    There’s a ditch on each side of every revelation and the ditch of love is lasciviousness, no accountability, no correction

1.      2 Timothy 2:15-We have to rightly divide the word of truth and you do that with other scriptures

a.    People look at a few verses about love and get the create and idea of what they think love is in totally and ignore other verses about what love is, what love himself did and they get into a ditch

2.      Hebrews 13:5-One the main demonstrations and manifestations of love is correction

a.    When God’s correcting us He is loving us; The enemy tries to twist it into something else; that if you’re being corrected that whoever is correcting you doesn’t love you and is judging you and doesn’t care for you and the person that just let’s you go on in error and never corrects is the one who really loves you – WRONG

b.    One of the main ways this false love manifests is love without correction, love with accountability and it’s a false love that just lets you be and lets you do whatever you want without ever saying anything to you about it

3.      This idea of I can’t correct them because I just love them too much is a lie, you don’t love them enough-1 Samuel 2

a.    The reality is you love yourself too much and more than you love them and you don’t want to deal with the discomfort of correction

4.      Lack of accountability is not be loving and merciful it’s being neglectful

a.    There needs to be accountability in families and in organizations because there’s accountability in God’s kingdom and things that are wrong shouldn’t be allowed to go on and on and on and on

b.    People that don’t like confrontation and correction can sometimes fall into the ditch of so-called love and mercy and everybody gets to do whatever the want even if it’s wrong for as long as they want and it’s okay

c.     Romans 11:22-There’s a severity to God and if you disobey him and refuse to repent you’re going to see the severe side

II.     Did Jesus preach a message of love and acceptance?

A.    Jesus preached the kingdom of God and repentance (Matthew 4:17-From that time Jesus began to preach, “Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” --- Mark 1:15-Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the KOG, and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel --- Mark 6:12-They went out, and preached that men should repent)

1.      In a Kingdom there’s government, there’s rule, there’s law, and in Kingdom there’s a King who establishes right from wrong

2.      Jesus came preaching you need to change the way you think, change the way you live, to line up with this kingdom of God

3.      This is love himself manifested in the flesh saying you need to change the way you think, the way you live

4.      Acceptance says don’t change you’re fine, repentance says change

B.     Jesus was motivated by love and compassion moved him and the reason that was his message is because his love for people was real, not phony and he knew that if they didn’t repent they would perish and love doesn’t want to see anybody perish-2 Peter 3:9

1.      Real love knows if you don’t repent it’s not going to go well for you and because I love you I’m not going to give this false idea that everything is going to be okay because it’s not going to be okay

2.      Jesus didn’t preach this because he hated sin (even though he did) he preached this because he loved people; He wasn’t saying this looking down on them, feeling superior to them, he was saying this because he cared for them, loved them-Luke 13

C.    Jesus did not come to judge the world so when he is telling people to change the way they live he’s not judging them-John 12:47

1.      Many people today, if Jesus came to them and said you need to change the way you think and change the way you live to line up with the Kingdom of God, they would respond by telling Jesus he is judging them, when in reality he is loving them

2.      John 8:10-Jesus told her to change the way she lived and yet he didn’t judge her

a.    10,11-Jesus said neither do I give judgment against you, judge you worthy of punishment – So He did not judge her

b.    11-Neither did Jesus say I accept you the way that you are, He said change the way you are living

c.     While he accepted her, he didn’t not accept the way she was living – This is real love

3.      Jesus wouldn’t have looked down on or felt superior to someone who was in sin and he wouldn’t have made people feel like they were less or inferior, but nor would have he gave them the idea that it was okay to continue in sin

III.   Does this kindness and mercy and command not to judge mean we just be and let people do whatever they want and sin?-1 Corinthians 5:1-13

A.    2-What could they be puffed up about? (A man fornicated with his father’s wife)

1.      This sin should have bothered them, but rather they were puffed up that they were enlightened about grace and how they embrace everybody, how they accept everybody; They are puffed up because they believe they have enlightenment and knowledge about grace that other people don’t have

B.     6-Sin spreads and if they let this go it’s going to spread through the church, so they need to get this BEHAVIOR, this SIN out of the church

1.      That can happen two ways 1) This guy can repent and not do that anymore 2) If He wants to keep doing it then he has to go

2.      Part of the job of leaders is to judge what is right and wrong

a.    Sin is like yeast and it spreads through a congregation and if you act like something that is wrong is okay it will get worse and people are going to get hurt and as leaders it’s your job to protect the sheep and if there is an infection in a sheep that can affect the whole bunch and the infected sheep doesn’t want to be healed then the other option is quarantine

b.    If God sits back and accepts this and allows this to go one people are going to be hurt and destroyed

C.    12-Do not you judge them that are within? – He’s correcting them for not judging what this guy was doing; 3-Paul judged this guy

1.      Translations  

a.    MSG-I’m not responsible for what outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers?

b.    BBE-For it is no business of mine to be judging those who are outside; but it is yours to be judging those who are among you

2.      Should they say nothing about this and let him stay and destroy his life, others people’s lives and this church?

a.    Your heart is you want him to repent so that he can be preserved, but if he won’t repent then he has to be removed

3.      Paul is not judging them, he’s judging what they did and what they are doing – That’s not only different, it’s required of leaders

a.    To judge the behavior you don’t have to judge them and be bitter against them and despise them and come down hard on them and act superior to them and act like you’ve never missed it; In fact you’d tell them except for the grace of God you’d have done the same thing but that doesn’t make it okay and it’s still wrong and until you realize it’s wrong you can’t be apart of this and hopefully when you are on the outside looking in you’ll wake up and realize that you’ve messed up and repent

b.    Leaders and you yourself have to judge things, not people, judge spiritual influences and these actions

4.      6:1-We don’t judge people, but we have to judge things, (V2) the matters, the situation, (V3) the things, (V5) between them

a.    We love you and we are not looking down upon and feeling superior to you and we’re not acting like we’ve never done anything like this, but you can’t keep doing this, we’re not judging you we are judging THIS and this is wrong and if you want to hold onto this then it’s going to separate you from us, from God and you need to choose him NOT THIS

D.    What Paul is doing by the spirit of God as an overseer of the this church is a demonstration of the love of God and love for people-2 Corinthians 2:4-5, 7:8-11

1.      This correction is ministering is motivated by real, genuine love

2.      This is real love; It was uncomfortable, people got corrected, people got separated from the church and it was hard for Paul and it grieved is heart, but they repented and got mercy and didn’t perish

E.     9-11-Don’t company with a believer who is in sin, knows he is in sin and won’t repent

1.      If you are concerned about someone, how they are living and you feel led by the spirit to address them ask questions rather than making accusations

a.    The idea here is people have talked to this person, in the spirit of meekness they’ve admonished that person and that person knows what they’re doing is wrong and they are not going to repent

2.      Why would he tell you to separate yourself from them and not to keep company with them? That doesn’t seem like the love of God, that doesn’t seem very Christ-like; The reason is simple: You want those people to repent so that they don’t get judged and having the opportunity to repent they have chosen not to, so if you just go on with life as usual that might lead them to think that what they are doing is not that big of deal, so the idea is you need to separate from them and transmit that message to them that what they are doing is very serious in hopes that they will wake up from their stupor and repent

a.    2 Thessalonians 3:12-15, Titus 3:10-You’re doing this because you love your brother; This is real love

F.     He clarifies that you only do this with a brother, NOT people in the world – Jesus ate with sinners

1.      We don’t judge the world-This is a big problem in the church today that believers are getting all up in a fuss about sinners sinning; that’s what sinners do they sin and that shouldn’t surprise you, upset you, nor should you judge them for it-John 12:47

2.      Sinners don’t need to change their behavior they need to receive Jesus and therefore you never address a sinners behavior you tell them about Jesus

G.   Luke 12:57-You have to judge and personally decide what is right – Not WHO is right, WHAT is right, NOT for someone else but for YOURSELF

1.      You have to determine based on what you believe the Word says and the conviction of your own heart what is right and what is wrong, but that doesn’t mean you look down on people and pronounce them guilty and speak evil of them

2.      CEB-Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?

3.      GNT-Why do you not judge for yourselves the right thing to do?

IV.   Examine your heart and be honest with yourself

A.    John 7:21-24-There are people who use take this verse and ignore many other verses as an excuse to judge people and they fell like it’s their calling in life to judge and correct people

1.      CJB-Stop judging by surface appearances and judge the right way

2.      He’s not talking about judging people, he’s talking about judging on this issue

3.      Matthew 9:13, Matthew 12:7-I will have mercy

B.     1 John 4:1-Test the spirits not the doctrine – These people judging other people test the spirit and check your own heart

1.      Don’t just test what you are saying, but test with what spirit, what heart are you saying it

2.      What’s motivating you to want to correct them? What’s driving that? Is it your love for them? Or is it your anger/fear about what they did? If love is motivating you the correction will be in love, with meekness and humility

3.      What is this incessant thing in you that wants to correct people? It’s not the lord

4.      Are you saying something to them because you’re angry at them or because you love them and have be led to do so?

5.      Why are you so concerned about what they are doing? Judge your heart

a.    Do you genuinely want to see them get the help they need?

C.    1 Thessalonians 5:12-Know those who are over you

1.      Translations

a.    CJB-We ask you, brothers, to respect those who are working hard among you, those who are guiding you in the Lord and confronting you in order to help you change

b.    NIRV-Brothers and sisters, we ask you to have respect for the godly leaders who work hard among you. They have authority over you, They correct you. 

2.      There are those who are over you, there are those who are under you, and there are those who are neither

3.      Acts 20:28, Colossians 4:17-If God didn’t give you place over someone you need to be very cautious about correcting them 

4.      1 Timothy 5:1-Don’t chastise with words someone who is over you in the Lord

D.    Romans 15:14-We are to admonish one another

1.      Admonish-Warn, Exhort, To warn, to reprove, to counsel against wrong practices, to caution or advise, to instruct or direct, to advise, to warn, to caution

2.      The idea is they are on a path and not repenting and danger is coming and they are in need of warning

3.      You have to discern do I have place to correct them? Did God give me that place? Do they know I have that place? Is it time to correct? Can they bear it now? You have to be led by the spirit of God in what you do

4.      Often times if a foundation of love and relationship isn’t laid, correction won’t be received

E.     When you are so concerned about what someone else is doing here are some questions:

1.      Are they saved? – 1 Corinthians 5:12

2.      Are you over them? – 1 Thessalonians 5:12

3.      Did they do something against you? – Matthew 18:18

4.      If you are so concerned about it have you prayed for them? – Luke 13:8

5.      Have you prayed for them? Have you sought God what you should do?

a.    If you haven’t spent anytime praying for them you’re are in no position to go talk to them

b.    We’re so quick to want to go straighten someone out to their face, but slow to spend anytime for the in prayer in God’s face

F.     John 21:18-20-There is so much stuff going on in people’s lives that is just none of your business

1.      Romans 14-MSG