Once again, we want to look at the
perfect example of the one perfect man that
walked on this earth, Jesus Christ, and to
see in Him an example for us to
follow, particularly in the area of love.
We have seen in previous studies how Jesus'
love was shown not in sentimental words, but
in the fact that He valued people, He
had compassion for people.
People were more important to Jesus than material
things.
The love of Jesus is seen in the
fact that He was willing to die in
order to save people from their sin.
God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son.
The highest proof of God's love is in
this, that He gave His Son to die
for us.
Jesus said, greater love has no man than
this, that a man lays down his life
for his friends.
And it was not just physically that Jesus
died.
Every day in His relationships with people, He
died to Himself.
This is the cross that He told us
to take up daily.
The greatest proof of my love for another
is that I am willing to die to
myself, to my rights, my reputation, my own
interests, in my relationship with that person.
Anything less than this is not love.
The world is full of people who seek
their own.
We're always seeking, how will this benefit me?
That's what I meant by using people for
one's own ends.
True love is totally interested in the other
person and not interested in what I can
get out of that other person for myself.
And if we don't cleanse ourselves from this
filthiness of the flesh and spirit that there
is in all of us, we will never
be able to love others with the love
of God.
We must ask the Holy Spirit to remove
from us, to help us to crucify these
wrong attitudes, so that we can love people
with the love of God.
And this is one reason why Jesus was
never irritated with people, even if they were
crude or stupid or they made mistakes, they
may be slow, and they never got on
His nerves, they never upset Him.
Their untidiness, their disorderliness, their slowness, their carelessness,
it never made Him impatient or irritated.
Why do these things that you see in
other people irritate you?
I'll tell you the reason.
It's because you're not willing to die to
yourself.
That's the reason.
You do not know love.
We sing about love, we speak about love,
but what is the proof of love?
That I'm willing to die.
That when I see something which is slow
or disorderly or untidy in that person, I'm
willing to die.
I must love Him first.
You say, but don't you think we should
correct Him and set Him right?
Yes, by all means.
Jesus also corrected.
Why did people accept Jesus' correction and not
accept the correction from the Pharisees?
Why was it different when Jesus said something,
they listened, and when the Pharisees said the
same thing, they wouldn't listen?
It was because they saw Jesus loved them.
And when people see that you love them,
they will accept your correction.
It's when we don't love them and we
correct them, that we are like the Pharisees.
See, if I'm irritated with a person, I'm
unfit to correct him.
I need to correct myself.
If I'm impatient with people, I'm not ready
to correct them.
I need to correct my own impatience first.
But how many people see that?
Do you see that you need to correct
your irritation and your impatience and your lack
of love before you correct the untidiness and
the disorderliness and the carelessness and the slowness
of other people?
Jesus said, before you see a speck in
the other person's eye, you remove the beam
from your own eye.
You know, a perfect person can easily bear
with imperfect people.
Jesus was perfect.
That's why even though he lived in a
world which was thoroughly imperfect, he could bear
with the imperfections of people.
We, who are not at all perfect, we
who are so imperfect, why is it we
cannot bear with other imperfect people?
We are imperfect, they are imperfect.
They have to bear with us and we
have to bear with them.
Why is it we find it so difficult
to bear with other imperfect people around us?
I'll tell you the reason, my friend.
It's because we are imperfect.
The more we press on to perfection, the
more we take up the cross and die
to ourselves, the more we'll be patient and
we will tolerate the mistakes of others.
We'll be able to forgive them.
We won't get upset.
We won't get irritated.
We'll say, what does it matter?
Two thousand years from now, it won't make
any difference.
This little thing you're getting upset about.
You see, you will see things from eternity's
viewpoint.
You'll see that that person has got to
be loved more.
Never mind if you made a mistake.
Look at the way some parents get irritated
with their children.
You think they really love them?
Yeah, they love them enough to feed them,
clothe them, educate them, sacrifice many things for
them.
But when the child does something to cause
some inconvenience for the parents, then the parents
get upset.
In all our relationships, we need to die.
It's when we love a person that we
can correct that person.
When the beam is taken out of my
eye, then I can see clearly to be
able to take respect out of the other
person's eye.
Look at Jesus' love in the way he
spoke to people, in his speech.
You know, our speech is a great revealer
of what is in our hearts.
Jesus said that from the abundance of the
heart, the mouth will speak.
Whatever is in your heart will come out
when you speak.
You can't hide it for long.
Why do people belittle others, pass remarks and
jokes about other people that hurt them?
Why do they do it?
Because they are not like Christ.
They don't love.
I wonder whether they are even born again,
such people.
They don't seem to have any sensitivity to
saying rude things about other people, to saying
things that hurt others.
That's sad.
They make subtle wounding statements.
You see that sometimes in husbands and wives
who say sharp things, stinging remarks to one
another.
Jesus never did it once.
No.
He knew how to rebuke people strongly.
He turned around once to Peter and said,
Get behind me, Satan.
But he didn't say that in irritation.
He didn't say that in anger.
He said it to help Peter to see
how in the statement that Peter had made
at that time to Jesus to avoid the
cross, that is satanic.
God wanted Jesus to go to the cross.
And here was Satan trying to stop Jesus
from going to the cross through Peter.
And to help Peter to see the seriousness
of that, he said that's satanic.
But otherwise, he would never hurt people.
He never made any subtle wounding statements to
anyone.
He never discussed the weaknesses of the disciples
behind their backs.
You know that?
Isn't it amazing that in all the three
years that his disciples were with him, he
never discussed even Judas Iscariot with all the
other eleven disciples.
He never exposed Judas in all those three
years.
And I'll tell you the proof of that.
If Jesus had been discussing the weaknesses of
Judas Iscariot with all the other eleven disciples
behind Judas' back, then at the last supper,
when Jesus said, one of you is going
to betray me, everybody would have known.
Yeah, yeah, we know that.
Jesus has already spoken to us about Judas.
Everybody has said, we know who that is.
But none of them knew.
They all said, Lord, is it I?
How is it none of them knew?
It proves that Jesus never discussed even Judas
Iscariot.
Jesus was not a backbiter.
Jesus was not a gossiper.
A lot of believers are gossipers.
A lot of believers are backbiters.
You know why?
They haven't seen the glory of God.
They haven't seen the goodness and the love
of God in Jesus Christ.
They talk about being filled with the Spirit
and having supernatural experiences and praising and shouting
God, but they haven't been freed from backbiting
and gossiping.
We need to see the glory of Jesus,
then only we can be like Him.
The Holy Spirit wants to show us how
Jesus lived and then says, now let me
make you like Him.
He doesn't just say, be like Him.
He says, let me make you like Him.
Isn't that good?
Supposing the Holy Spirit just showed me the
glory of Jesus and said, be like Him.
I'd just give up in discouragement.
I'd say, Lord, I can't.
But that's not what the Holy Spirit says.
The Holy Spirit shows us the beauty of
Jesus and the way He spoke and then
says to us, now my son, my daughter,
will you allow me to make your speech
also like that?
Pure, good, loving.
Will you let me control your tongue?
Will you let me control your speech from
today onwards?
This is the fullness of the Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
We can be filled with the Holy Spirit
so that we never hurt anybody with our
words or any such thing.
He leads us along the path of death
to ourselves.
On the other hand, Jesus used His tongue
in a positive way to encourage people, to
correct people.
He made His tongue an instrument of life
in God's hands.
We read a wonderful verse in Isaiah chapter
50 and verse 4 where it says concerning
Jesus' tongue.
It's an amazing word.
It says there, you have given me the
tongue of a disciple so that I can
know how to speak a right word to
a weary person.
Just think if you could have a ministry
like that.
You don't have to be a preacher.
You may never stand in a pulpit.
But just to have the right word for
weary people.
Do you know how many weary people come
across your path every day?
How many people do you think you meet
in a day?
In your office?
In your neighborhood?
There must be at least some.
And some of them are weary.
And do you have a word to encourage
them?
Or do you gossip, backbite, discuss politics and
the weather and they remain with their heaviness?
God wants you to use your tongue.
God wants to use your tongue to speak
a word of encouragement.
And sometimes a word of correction too.
Jesus used His tongue also as a sword
to cut down the proud and the haughty.
Think of how the Roman centurion must have
been encouraged when Jesus said, I've never seen
such great faith.
Or the Syrophoenician woman, when Jesus praised her
for her faith.
You read that in Matthew 8 and Matthew
15.
Think of that sinful woman in the house
of Simon the leper in Luke chapter 7
who was encouraged when Jesus praised her for
washing His feet.
Or Mary of Bethany was praised for her
sacrificial offering.
They would never have forgotten these words of
Jesus.
Think of how Peter was strengthened when Jesus
said, I'm going to pray for you.
Just a few words.
What strength.
Many people must have heard words like these
from Jesus' lips.
And they can come from your lips too
if you ask the Holy Spirit to give
you the love of God in your heart
for people.