Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Love Hurts

2 TIMOTHY 4:9-11 – Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.

THEME OF THE DAY: LOVE HURTS. Today’s scripture is sad, very sad and here is why. The greatest Christian ever to live who invested so much in the lives of other Christians with a sincere, sacrificial, and costly love is in prison. All the believers he influenced; all those he personally was the instrument of God to bring them to Christ, where are they in his time of great need? Gone. Departed. Only one is with the great Apostle – his personal physician and friend Luke. But what is even more painful in today’s scripture is a man named “Demas.” This isn’t the first time we encounter him. Previously, the Apostle Paul writes of him in his letter to the Colossians – Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas (Colossians 4:14) and his letter to Philemon – and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. Both cases are affirming as Demas being his friend and co-laborer in the Gospel, but not now. Demas deserted Paul. He chose the world over his brother in the Lord. And no doubt Paul grieves over the loss of his friend and brother. I am sure lying in that cold dungeon cell he shed tears over the good times of fellowship and labor with Demas only to have the reality of a fractured relationship now upon him.

In the first letter to the Corinthians, we have the famous thirteenth chapter known as “the love chapter” and contains these words – Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a). I would like to add another quality of love; it hurts. Why? Because it demands transparency, vulnerability, sincerity, and a willingness to take the risk of developing genuine relationships. And when that happens? Somewhere along the line is going to be betrayal, hurt, and abandonment. Even among Christians. How many relationships in churches and fellowships have been severed that once knew sweet fellowship, encouragement, loyalty, but then something happens and instead of practicing 1 Corinthians 13 love, we let our hurt break the relationship. And that makes love hurt.

Sit back for a moment and imagine what would happen in our churches and families if we truly obeyed Jesus’ command and modeled His love by being quick to forgive all offenses, hold no resentment toward others, not be critical of others, restore all strained relationships, never gossip or think ill of another Christian, and always encourage one another. We would see Biblical Christianity lived, not merely professed. And do we want to know if this is truly us? Think on these words from Mark Dever, “Do you want to know that your Christian life is real? Commit yourself to a local group of saved sinners. Try to love them. Don’t just do it for three weeks. Don’t just do it for six months. Do it for years. And I think you’ll find out, and others will, too, whether or not you love God. The truth will show itself.”

PRAYER: “Father, help me not be afraid to genuinely love; to take the risk of transparency as You command.”
QUOTE: “Christianity is not lived in a safe cocoon isolated physically, emotionally, and spiritually from other believers.”

Because of Him,
Pastor Jim