1 Tim 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 
	In our introduction to 1 Timothy, we considered that this letter contains the heart of the Apostle Paul’s nurturing and guiding Timothy in the manner in which a pastor needs to care for the Lord’s church. Timothy had been given charge of the Churches in the region of Ephesus. He was a young pastor with a great responsibility. To meet that challenge, the Lord impressed upon the Apostle Paul to write these letters of encouragement, admonition, warning, and instruction to Timothy. It was done as a father would advise his son, with tenderness, firmness, love, and support. 
	As is true with every letter of the Apostle Paul, this encouragement and instruciton is apropos to every Christian, regardless of their function within the body of believers. It stresses that which is the very basis of our New Life in Christ, the love of God. The very salvation of mankind is the evidence of the tremendous love of God. Without that love, there would be no salvation, no redemption, no forgiveness, no glorification, and no hope within the lives of mankind. 
It is God’s love alone, expressed in His grace, and His Mercy, and His Lovingkindness that has pulled us up, out of absolute death into the Life of Jesus Christ. God’s great Love is Jesus Christ! In Christ, we are to give forth the complete and perfect love of God unto others, to allow the Holy Spirit to draw them into the acceptance of that same saving love of God. It is there for all who will accept the salvation of Jesus’ sacrifice of atonement and resurrection of redemption.
	There is a tremendous burden that is put upon Christians, as we walk on this earth. In everything we do, say, think, and feel, the measure of God’s love must be evidenced. This is not a choice. It is the living expression of Christ Who indwells us. Sometimes we may lose sight of that fact, but we will always return to the truth of the Great Love of God in our lives. Accordingly, love not only becomes the expression of our lives, but the test by which we verify our actions, words, judgments, and attitudes. There are several aspects of this love from a pure heart that are a check and verification in our lives. These are key to our relationship in Christ and with each other.
	As we consider these elements, please realize that we are undergoing the deep introspection of our Christian life. Is our life truly hidden in Christ? If it is, we will find these essentials are the natural expression of our hearts and beings. 
The first thing that is tested by this love in Christ is true discipleship. Our Lord tells us this in John 13:35. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." This is an aspect of our walk in Christ that needs to be clearly evident in our daily lives. If we are indwelled by Christ, we are indwelled by God’s Love. It is the very core of our new nature in Chirst. As such, it must be evident in the manner in which we deal with all people, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. What kind of testimony do we share if we choose to hate one another? Where is the Love of God if we choose to disregard and belittle another by presuming to determine their value and worthiness of our love? God did not look for anything within us that was worthy of the sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son. No, He chose to love us because He could not do anything other than love us. It is His inherent nature to express love, unconditional, unreserved, unearned love to such, even as we. 
The Apostle Paul declares this in Chapter 1 of 1 Timothy, verses 15+16. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. He was the worst of sinners, and yet God loved Him with this unconditional and undeserved love. He became the vivid testimony to the rest of this world of what the Love of God can accomplish in anyone. We were all sinners. We were all at enmity with God. We were all without hope in this world. BUT GOD loved us. In that love, we were made an absolutely new creation with a new nature. We were no longer born of sin, but born of love. That love is the very core of our life. As His love is our life, so can we do nothing but love others, regardless of anything else. We love as God so loved us, unconditionally and completely.
The next aspect of Christ’s Love as the test of our new nature is that of genuine service. We see this recorded in John 21:16, as Christ is dealing with Simon Peter. He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Shepherd My sheep." If we love God with all our heart and all our being and all our thoughts and all our desire, we will become a servant of all. We will be partakers of the life of the One in Whom the service of love, even unto death is everything. Christ came to the world, not as a King, not as a Monarch, and certainly not as a VIP. He came as a lowly servant, born in a stable. He came as a servant unto His Heavenly Father. In that service, He became as servant unto all those Whom His Father so loved. He completely laid down His life in that service of love. His entire walk on this earth is characterized by the vital truth that He came to serve others and not Himself. 
	As His disciples, the ones who have received spiritual life as a direct result of that service, we are called, as well, to be servants. We are to live our lives as our Lord and Master lived His life. He was not concerned with his own glory or vindication. He was not looking for a position of authority. He was simply seeking to do the service of God’s Love for you and for me. 
This is the key aspect of Paul’s exhortation to Timothy. It is so evident in these days that there are those in Christianity who have lost the sense of what service means. We see so many ministers who are reveling in their position and in their influence. They can become so wrapped up in the glory and the honor of this world, that they forget that a minister is foremost a servant of God and God’s flock. It is a life of complete servitude unto the call of the Holy Spirit to be that which is needed in the love of God for His people. Ministry is not a profession; it is a life of service. The same is true of every Christian. We are all called for service, not for being served. God’s love is that of being available to anyone in need as He is always available to us. 
As the Apostle Paul writes in Eph 4:11-13, concerning our service unto one another, And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ. The fullness of Christ is that complete service of love unto the Father. That is our call on this earth and that is our place in the midst of the vast needs of this age.
	The Apostle Paul wrote about love to the Church at Corinth, in which he touches on the many attributes that God’s Love works to establish in His people. Many look at this passage with only a vague idea that these are merely unreachable goals for Christians. They are considered more in terms of guidelines than as actual expectations of our behavior. The Apostle Paul, however, was very earnest in his description of the love of God that is instilled into us through Jesus Christ. God’s Love works from within us, guided by the Holy Spirit and fully in line with and rejoicing in the Word of God. 
	1 Cor 13:4-8a, Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails… This is an excellent word picture of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In our lives, He is characterized and expressed by every one of these virtues. Please consider just how much the Father, in His great Love, has invested into us through the death and resurrection of Christ. It should draw forth from our hearts utter thanksgiving that He looks at us through the eyes of Love and not through the eyes of hatred and deception and self-justification.
	As Christians, whether we are ministers or not, everyone of these characteristics is to be in evidence within us in our dealings with others. There should be that recognition that something is very drastically different in our lives and in the manner in which we live our lives. We should be known by these characteristics in our every interaction on this earth. These are not goals or guidelines; these are our life in Christ. These are the true evidence of who we now are by the grace and the mercy and the love of God. 
	One absolute key to this love is the manner in which we talk with others. How do we conduct our speech, our communication, express our attitudes, and our desires, and our focus of life? If we are using language or expressions that are common place oaths of this world, there should be a registration in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, that we are not being His expression of Love. 
If we are sarcastic, bombastic, or caustic in our vocal comments, we are not drawing others but rather pushing them away from the Love of God. Consider that the greatest charge against Christians is that we are hypocritical in our actions and in our beliefs. This is a fair charge when we know the Lord, yet persist in continuing in the habits of our unbridled tongues. Rather than building up, we delight in criticism and in tearing others down. As was mentioned when we began our consideration of this letter, we are warned not to gossip or to participate in whisperings and in complaints about and against others. That is the way this world acts, not those whose lives are truly hid in Christ. There should be every measure of love in our voices and words as it is in our hearts.     
The next test of God’s love in the life of a Christian is that it demonstrates the reality of our New Life in Christ Jesus. We are known by our love and that love is the life of Christ within us. It is in love, that we are assured that we do belong to Christ and that we are now part of His Beloved Church, His Bride. 1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Love is expressed in life. It is proven as it lives forth in ever increasing clarity, no matter what we are encountering. Please do not think that this love is the stereotypical picture of roses and soft music and butterflies flittering about in a sun drenched meadow. 
This perfect and absolute love is born from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, scourged and nailed to the Cross of Calvary. It is the heart of God as it stands unmoved against wickedness and deceit. It is the strength of utter endurance under the greatest onslaughts of trials and tribulations. It is the victorious song that was sung in the Coliseum as the early Christians were being burned alive, or torn apart by wild beasts. It is willing to completely sacrifice its life for the sake of another, even if that other is unlovable by this world’s standards. It is only as this love becomes our strength under fire that we can stand against all the powers of darkness and proclaim with absolute confidence that our Lord Jesus Christ reigns supremely and eternally.
This is the love that is in our hearts unto God and is proven by brotherly love to one another. As the Apostle John writes in 1 John 4:20+21, If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 
	Love is the measure of our hearts unto God. As our lives become more and more captured by His Holiness and His Righteousness and His Mercy and His Grace, we cannot be anything but filled with love. That love seeks to find anyway to be expressed. It looks for those avenues through which it can enrich others, to draw them into the life that we have in Christ. 
If our hearts have not yet embraced one another, if we are still glorying in the destruction of those perceived as enemies, we need to immerse ourselves in His Word and read of the love of God. We need to seek after the effective work of the Holy Spirit to bring us, however He chooses, to the place where our hearts are filled with nothing but love. Lose ourselves in prayer to the point of the absolute death of our earthly wants and desires. Pray unceasingly that we more fully, faithfully, and perfectly express His love unto others. Seek after Christ with all our hearts. Desire for Christ’s love to saturate us to the point, through the death of ourselves, that we can do nothing but Love as God so loved us. Amen
	 John 3:16+17 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. 
But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Amen

Our benediction this morning is from 1 Tim 6:15+16 …He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.