When I am conducting a wedding service, I speak to the couple about two kinds of love - human love and divine love. I emphasize that our love for one another grows stronger when it is grounded in God's love for us. Jesus speaks about human love and divine love. he tells us that we are to "love our enemies" (Luke 6:27). He tells us that our love for our enemies is to be grounded in God's love for sinners: "The Most High is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:35-36). God has shown His love for us. We are to show His love to others. While we were His enemies - sinners who had rebelled against Him, He loved us and gave His Son to die on the cross for us as our Saviour.
Let's think about God's love for us - His enemies, and the love we are to show to other people - even our enemies. When God loved us, He did something for us. he chose to send His Son to be our Saviour. This is God's pattern for us. Love is not just a matter of words. love leads to action. We are to show our love for others by helping them. Helping others - This is what the Lord does for us. He is our Helper: "My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:2). "Our help is in the Name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth" (Psalm 124:8).
Helping others - This is God's way of showing His love for us. How does the Lord help us?
* He becomes "Emmanuel" - God with us.
* He shows us what love is through living a life of perfect love.
* He took our sins upon Himself that we might receive His forgiveness for all our sins.
This is God's love for His enemies. This is His pattern for our loving our enemies. We learn to love as we learn what it means to be loved by God. The love of God is not selective. He does not only love some. He loves all - " God so loved the world ... " This is the kind of love which inspires us to love other people with the love of God. God loves everyone. We must love everyone - even our enemies: "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:9-11).
I began by referring to something which I say to couples during their marriage service. I return to the marriage service now. During the wedding, I read, from God's Word, these words from the Apostle Paul - "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Paul's words are an echo of the words of Jesus in Luke 6:27 - "Love your enemies."Paul's words are not simply a description of human love. The first thing we may say about Paul's words is this: they describe God's love. It is in God alone that we see perfect love. It is the perfect love which challenges us to live a life which is, more truly and more fully, shaped by His wonderful love. God loves us. His love changes us.
Here are some verses of Scripture which speak to us of God's love and call us to learn to love others the way God loves us.
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 4:32-5:2).
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity" (Colossians 3:12-14).
"We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God" (Romans 15:1-7).
As we read these words from Paul's letters, which are an echo of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, we become aware of how far short we have fallen of God's perfect love.
* Let us confess our sins - 'Lord, I have not loved as I ought to love.'
* We rejoice in the love of God - He keeps on loving us, even when we fail to love Him as we ought.'
* Let us thank God for His love - 'Thank You, Lord, for loving me with a perfect love, the greatest love of all.'
* We resolve, with God's strength to be more loving - 'Lord, help us to love ... '

Luke 6:27-36