Main Text: Proverbs 15:9 - The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.

I. What is Love?

A. Love is the act of keeping the commandments of God. II John 5&6

1. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments”. John 15:14, 23-24

2. The two great commandments: (1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind (2) Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:37-40

3. We love God by following the first four commandments: (1) Have no other god’s before God (2) Do not bow to false idols (3) Do not take the Lord’s name in vain (4) Remember the Sabbath of the Lord. Exodus 20:1-11; Hebrews 4

4. We love our neighbor by following the last six commandments: (5) Honor your mother and father (6) Do not commit murder (7) Do not commit adultery (8) Do not steal (9) Do not bear false witness (lie) (10) Do not covet your neighbor’s possessions. Exodus 20:12-17

5. God’s commandments are boundaries that set the parameters of love. Any affection or emotion that exceeds God’s parameters also exceeds God’s definition of love. Therefore, our modern definition of love is deficient and falls short of the one true source of love that is God.

 

II. What are the fruits of love? I Corinthians 13:4-8

A. Patience (longsuffering). Proverbs 10:12; 17:17

B. Lack of envy. Proverbs 17:17

C. Lack of prideful worship. Proverbs 21:24; 15:9

D. Behaves with dignity, not unseemly. Proverbs 3:12

E. Does not seek it’s own wellbeing, not selfish. Proverbs 27:5

F. Not easily provoked. Proverbs 10:2

G. Thinks no evil, does not premeditate evil or revenge. Proverbs 10:2

H. Rejoices in the truth. Proverbs 29:3; 12:1; 19:8

I. Endures all things. Proverbs 10:12; 15:12

J. Believes all things (all things that are true). Proverbs 15:9

K. Hopes in all things (all things of God and truth). Proverbs 15:9

L. Bears all things. Proverbs 10:12

M. Love never fails. Proverbs 3:12

 

III. God’s love for his people.

A. Proverbs 15:9. Love thinks no evil. God is patient, longsuffering and not easily provoked against the righteous.

B. For whom the Lord loves he corrects, even as a father the son in whom he delights - Proverbs 3:12.
Love rejoices in truth and correction upholds truth. Correction keeps us righteous and protects us from unrighteousness. God chastises us so we can be partakers in his holiness – Hebrews 12:6-11.

 

IV. God’s love manifest among his people.

A. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins - Proverbs 10:12. Selfishness and impatience stirs up strife (domestic violence, marital issues, church discord among the brethren, family strife among siblings). Selflessness and longsuffering covers all sins. It does not hide sin. It endures offence and forgives sin.

B. Reprove not a scorner lest he hate you, rebuke a wise man, and he will love you – Proverbs 9:8. A scorner is a scoffer or mocker. (1) Scorners are proud and haughty – Proverbs 21:24 (2) Scorners are incapable of discipline – Proverbs 9:7 (3) Scorners do not love those who reprove – Proverbs 15:12 (4) Scorners do not hear their father’s instruction –Proverbs 13:1 (5) Scorners cannot find wisdom – Proverbs 14:6 (6) Scorners should be avoided – Psalm 1:1 (7) Scorners are an abomination to men – Proverbs 24:9. Wise men embrace rebuke because they love truth and seek righteousness. Our flesh hates rebuke, but our spirit delights in rebuke.

C. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox (steak dinner) and hatred within – Proverbs 15:12. The poor home filled with love is better than the rich home filled with hate.

D. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity – Proverbs 17:17. Therefore, a friend rebukes and encourages in love. A brother helps us bear our burdens.

E. Open rebuke is better than secret love –Proverbs 27:5. It is better to rebuke openly in love than to be nice in silence. Our concern over hurting the feelings of others or offending them with godly rebuke is not biblical. Real love does not concern itself with the reaction of the other person, their offense or the loss of fellowship if the rebuke is founded in love and truth.

 

V. Love does not embrace evil.

A. Whoso loves instruction loves knowledge; but he that hates reproof is brutish – Proverbs 12:1. (King James uses brutish. The 1599 Geneva Bible uses foolish). Brutish Defined – resembling the character of a brute; a savagely violent person. God calls false teachers “brute beast” who “speak evil of those things which they know not, but those things they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things corrupt themselves” – Jude 4-10. These “natural brute beast” are “made to be taken and destroyed” and they “speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall perish in their own corruption” – II Peter 2:12

B. He that gets wisdom loves his own soul: he that keeps understanding shall find good – Proverbs 19:8
We grow and prosper when we love wisdom and receive knowledge from God.