In this compelling episode of The Sound of Faith, Sharon Otts explores the profound connection between love, faith, and physical healing. Drawing from personal experience and biblical teachings, she discusses how a fresh perspective on love as a new commandment can transform not only our spiritual journey but our approach to health and well-being. Sharon delves into the teachings of Jesus and the early church, emphasizing the critical role that walking in love plays in manifesting faith and receiving healing.
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Otts, thanking you for tuning in today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message is very important and pertinent to anyone who has struggled with the need of physical healing. This message is not something I’ve read about or heard about, but one I have lived through and still apply every day for my own physical healing. Walking in healing by love. I will start a two-part message. Today will be part one. We will begin in John 13 and verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. Now, when he said, I’m giving you a new commandment, we might pause for a moment and think, is it new? Didn’t you tell us in the Old Testament? In fact, in Leviticus 19, 18, he said, you should love your neighbor as yourself. So what’s new about this commandment? Because obviously to love your neighbor as yourself is very powerful. I mean, if we can love other people like we love ourselves, we are going to be really loving people. How many know that? Amen. Because you know what Paul said, nobody ever hated his own flesh. You know, only people that the devil has tricked and put a spirit on them. But normal Christians, we love ourselves. We love who we are because God made us who we are. But if we will love our brothers and sisters the same way, that’s a good thing. And yet Jesus said, I’m giving you a new commandment. Now, the word new here simply is better translated fresh. I’m giving you a fresh perspective on this commandment about loving one another. Not brand new that you’ve never heard it before, but I’m giving you a new way to look at it. And this is how I want you to look at it. I want you to love one another as I have loved you. Now, it doesn’t mean in the same exact way as I have loved you, because let’s all just be truthful. We can never love anybody the same way Jesus loves us. Amen. We just can’t love one another. What Jesus did for us when we were yet sinners. He died for us when we were unlovable. Amen. And we just can’t do that. That’s not what it means. Here’s a better way of saying it. Love one another because I have loved you. And you know when you let that sink in and you think about it, it doesn’t leave any room for not loving anybody. Simply because he loved us. Because he loved me, I can love you. Because he loved me, I can love you and you. Amen. And that’s what Jesus meant. And he said, this is how people are going to know that you are my disciples. Not because that you have a certain doctrine that you stick to and not because you wear a certain robes or you wear your collar on backwards or you have a name attached to you. That’s not how they’re going to know you’re my disciples. They’re going to know that you are my disciples because you love one another. Now, think about when Jesus spoke this. If you read the beginning of the chapter, this is him talking after the Last Supper and after he has washed the disciples’ feet. Even Judas… Even Judas’ feet. Amen? And it’s just literally minutes away from him being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. And then for him being beaten at Pilate’s whipping post and crucified on the cross. So what he would have said right before that has got to be of the utmost importance. The words of a dying person are to be acknowledged. Amen. And you want to hear what they’ve got to say. And Jesus was going to say the most important thing that he could say right before his death. And he said that you love one another. Now, you know that the church of Jesus Christ got off to a great start. And you know that we can read about the church of Jesus Christ, that infant church. That’s what the book of Acts is about. Amen? Do you know that in the entire book of Acts, the word love is not found? It is in the New Testament countless times. But you will not find it even once in the book of Acts. Now, what you will find over and over again is in one mind, in one accord. For instance, I’ll read to you what they said, you know, describing the time of Pentecost. These all continued in one accord in prayer and supplication. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one accord in one place, right? You see, it was not necessary to keep talking about love when you’re walking in love. They didn’t have to preach about love one another. They didn’t have to get their sermons about walking in love because they were walking in love. Amen? Now later, the epistles that we have by the apostles, we find that they exhort again and again how we’re to love one another. I mean, think about John’s three letters. John 1, 2, and 3. Over and over again, what does he say? My little children, love one another. Love one another. Amen? You can’t say you love God and not love your brother. I mean, especially 1 John, it’s just peppered throughout the entire letter. Love one another. And about Peter. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, 22, Love one another with a pure heart fervently. And in 1 Peter 4, 8, he said, above all things, have fervent love among yourselves. The word fervent there. You know. My first response is when I see the word fervent, I think of something that is hot, you know. But here is not the meaning. I was actually a little surprised when I looked it up, this particular Greek word in 1 Peter 1.22 and 1 Peter 4.8. The word fervent means to stretch out. Now think about that for a moment. It makes sense when you think about it. If we have the kind of love that Peter’s talking about, we’re always going to be putting ourselves out for the other person. We’re always going to be stretching out to help others. Like we’re putting out this call for people to help Sister Linda Evans in her time of need. It means to put yourself out, stretch out to help someone else. That’s the kind of love he wants us to have. Not an I love me love, but I love you love. and I love you and I’m going to go out of my way I’m going to go out of my way maybe out of my comfort zone I’m going to reach beyond myself to manifest this love to you. Amen? And we know that Jesus, in the book of Revelation, wrote seven letters to the churches. And the first one was the letter to Ephesus. And we know that he commended them about three things. He commended them about their labors. They were hardworking. He commended them about the fact that they had stood strong against the false doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And that is the same doctrine that’s out there right now, saints. Grace covers everything. Doesn’t matter what you do, you got grace. God’s grace just covers everything. If you repent and you say you’re saved, now you can just, you know, do whatever you want because grace covers it all. And Jesus said, that doctrine I hate. Oh, that’s another message I can’t preach today. You know, Jesus just doesn’t go around hating everything. But he hated that. Amen. And you know what? I’m in good company. I hate it too. Because it’s tricking people. It’s tricking people that’s been saved for a long time. And now all of a sudden they can do what the world does. They go out and drink with the world and socialize with the world and live like the world. Oh, but we’re under grace. We’re not under the law. And Jesus said, I hate that doctrine. He commended Ephesus for standing up against it. And he commended them for their perseverance. But he told them they need to repent because they had left their first love. And, you know, that’s something we have to watch out for. We can be so busy doing the work of God and the ministry of God that we get away from the love. It becomes more of a business, you know, a job that we have. Amen. Especially people that are in ministry and ministers and pastors and all. They’ve got to be careful because after a while they act like they’re running a corporation. You know, I’ve had the Lord rebuke me many times when I’ve been so busy doing his work, folks, his work. He’ll say, ministry is about people. Don’t forget, Sharon, it’s about people too. So some days he’ll have me take off a half a day or a whole day of all the other work and just have me write cards to people. He said, that’s ministry too. Amen. That’s what we’re about. So that’s why he rebuked them. So… Finding out that we’re to walk in love is going to radicalize really where we are spiritually even now, no matter how long you’ve been saved. So turn with me to 1 Corinthians, the 13th chapter, and you will recognize it immediately as the love chapter. Many Bible scholars say 1 Corinthians 13 is the most beautiful literary work of the New Testament. It’s equal to the Psalm 23. in the old testament And you will see it on many plaques and pictures and things like that, amen? And it’s a beautiful chapter. And, you know, Paul is usually always very dogmatic because he’s preaching doctrine and he’s correcting error. But this is so beautiful. This shows really his true heart, amen? So let’s begin in verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, from now on I’m going to use love, okay? I become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing. Now here’s what’s so interesting to me about 1 Corinthians 13 before we go further in dissecting this. And that is that 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 are all about the gifts of the Spirit. He is telling us what they are. He’s giving us the details and the mechanics of how they function. But he stops midstream and interjects, With 1 Corinthians 13. He cuts himself off at chapter 12, gives us 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and then 14 goes right back into telling about the gifts of the Spirit. So what is he doing? He’s realizing that all of these gifts, as powerful as they are, if they are not motivated by love, they accomplish nothing. Amen. No matter. He says, wait a minute, wait a minute. I’ve got to make you people understand. I don’t want you to get puffed up because knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. And so he stops in the middle and says, wait a minute, I got to interject here. Let’s have a parenthetical on love. Amen. So what he’s saying, he says, now you can have the gift of tongues. You can have interpretation. You can have prophecy. You can have those powerful gifts. He said, but if they’re not motivated by love, how many remember that show? The gong show. That’s what they sound like. They sound like a clanging gong. Amen. It would be like getting up there and just beating away on just the symbols. Just beating away on those symbols. After a while, we would all be like this. Amen. He says, that’s what it is. He says, all it is is a bunch of noise. And here’s what he said. He said, I convey nothing. My message conveys nothing. If I have wisdom, if I have knowledge, if I have revelation, even if I have mountain-moving faith. How many want mountain-moving faith? Come on, every hand ought to be raised up because I guarantee you at some point in your life there is going to be a mountain. It may be like I’m facing. It might be a sickness. It might be an infirmity. It may be your marriage. It may be your finances. It may be your children. You know, whatever it is, you’re going to face a mountain in your life. And we all want and need mountain moving faith. That’s a miracle working faith. But he says, if love is not your motivator, he says, if it’s not my motivator, I am nothing. And here’s a point I want to make, and it will be the baseline for everything I say from now on. Faith is not enough. And you know that I have ministered much to your faith. But faith is not enough. Galatians 5, 6 says, but faith works by love. I think that’s worth repeating. Say, faith works by love. Amen? We have to have a love walk with our faith walk. And this is the answer to everything we need, and especially, as we’ll see here today, healing. Keep your place in 1 Corinthians 13, but I want to direct your attention to one verse in 2 Thessalonians 1 and 3. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet or as it is fitting. Because your faith grows exceedingly. And the love of every one of you all toward each other abounds. This is what I want to see take place in Faith Tabernacle. I want to see our faith grow and grow and grow exceedingly. Amen. But I also know that it is connected to if our love abounds toward one another and abounds. Do you see the relationship there? Amen. They had exceeding faith. He was bragging on them. You’ve got exceeding faith. And he said, you know why? Because the love that you have for one another abounds. And love supports faith. Amen? Faith cannot operate the way God designed it to operate unless it works by love. And so this is what he was saying back in 1 Corinthians 13 where we left off. He said, now if I give away all my goods to feed the poor and my motivation is not love, I gain nothing. Now, somebody may think, well, doesn’t giving all your goods away, doesn’t that constitute love? If you gave everything away to the poor, to the needy, surely that constitutes love. Not according to Jesus. He said some people give to be seen of men. Isn’t that what he said? You can read all about that later in Matthew, the sixth chapter. He says, don’t be like these Pharisees. They give away, but they do it to be seen of men. And he said, they go so far as to blow the trumpet. So everybody will stop what they’re doing and look so they can see them. And I’m bestowing this upon you. Amen. Amen. I want everybody to know that it’s my contribution is the reason why you have built this wing on this hospital. And thank God for those generous people that do that. I’m not putting them down. You know, I’m not putting them down. But I’m saying that if some people, that’s their motivation, then Jesus said, when men applause for you and when men pat you on the back, you’ve got your reward. Amen. You got the reward that you wanted. You got it. But don’t look for any in heaven. You got it here on earth. Amen. Now, somebody said you can give without loving. But you can’t love without giving. Amen. There’s just something that when you are a lover, you are a giver. How many know that’s true? God will put it on your heart to give something to someone. And it doesn’t just have to be money. You may not be able to afford to buy people presents and gifts, but you just want to give them. Amen? There’s something in your heart. God may tell some of you ladies to go in your closet and pick out not the stuff you don’t care about anymore because it’s now out of date, but something you really like and tell you give that to sister so-and-so. And you say, but Lord, I just got this. I haven’t even worn it yet. The tags are still on it. I just wore one time, Lord. He said, that’s all right. I want you to give it to so-and-so. Amen? It works on men, too. Amen? And God can move when your heart, giving your time, giving time to people, reaching out. Amen? Oh, yes, when you have his love. Because we see here that he says there are some that could even give their own lives as a martyr and be burned at the stake. But he said if they weren’t motivated by love, it profits nothing. Now that’s kind of hard to wrap your head around, but I can help you out very easily. Think about these Islamic terrorist, jihadist, bombers, suicide people, whatever you want to call them. They think that by blowing themselves up, they’re going straight to heaven. And their God, their God… Allah is very pleased with them because they blew themselves up and they tell even these 12 and 13 and 14 year old boys, these kids, you’ll be in paradise tonight with Allah. So you see, they are doing it, but are they doing it out of love? Oh, they’re doing it out of the worst hatred we can even imagine. We can’t even imagine that kind of hatred. Amen? So the bottom line is, does it matter without love? He says, I am nothing. I convey nothing. I gain nothing. I want to draw your attention to the fact that he said, I, I, I, not the gifts. not the gifts that he’s preaching on before and after. Amen? Oh, no, he said, it’s me. I’m the one. I have to have love. If I have love, then as God uses me in any of these gifts, amen, oh, then it’s going to be profitable. Then it’s going to be a blessing. Then it’s going to do in the body of Christ what God designed it to do. Amen. Now, quickly, we’re going to read verses four through six. I’m not going to discuss them because they would in and of themselves take at least an hour. But you know what? You people are very smart. You’ve got Bibles and you’ve got dictionaries and you can Google. That’s your homework. I would say look these words up, especially in some other versions, and you will really get a blessing. Because love suffers long or is long-suffering. And it’s kind. Love envies not. It’s not jealous. Love vaunts not itself. In other words, it’s not a bragger. It’s not a braggadocio trying to everybody look at me, hear me, what’s all about me. It’s not puffed up. But love does not behave itself unseemly. When you see people acting badly as a Christian, there’s something wrong with their love walk. Amen? It seeks not its own. It’s not selfish. It’s not easily provoked. Ooh, wow. You need to look that one up for sure. It thinks no evil. Wow, our toes are getting stepped on more. It rejoices not in iniquity. And these all three, these dovetail together. But it rejoices in the truth. So as I said, you would do well to do a little study on what this is. Now let’s moving along. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is part shall be done away with. Now when I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man or when I became an adult, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known. And now abides faith, hope, and love. These three, but the greatest of these is? God. Love. Amen? So what is he saying here? It believes all things, bears all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. The word bear here means to cover. It means to cover. And I quoted 1 Peter 4 a moment ago and said that he said that you should have fervent love amongst yourselves. I didn’t finish it. The last part is because love covers a multitude of sin. Amen. And that would give you the meaning of what love is. Now, you all are very smart. You know it doesn’t mean you cover up sin and let it get by. But it means that you are not trying to uncover people’s sin to embarrass them, shame them, humiliate them because all you’re going to do is chase them away. Amen. Amen? That’s not love. Amen? That would not be love. If God showed me something about someone that I see that they’re going down the wrong road, I’m not going to stand up here and say, before everybody, what am I going to do? I’m going to get them in private. And I’m going to say, the Lord put me on your heart. So it means to cover them, to believe all things, and to hope all things is actually the same Greek word. Elpis. Elpis, which we all know means hope. So where it says believes all things, it’s talking about a continuous hope and support. Remember right before Jesus was led away, he saw Peter and he said, Peter, Satan is desired to have you, to sift you as corn is sifted. But I have prayed for you. And when you’re converted, I want you to go strengthen the brethren. What was he saying? He was saying, Peter, you’re about ready to mess up big time. But I believe in you. I still believe in you, Peter. I love you. I believe in you. And I know that you’re going to get converted. And then you’re going to be able to use your situation to go and strengthen other people. It hopes all things. This is beautiful. It means this. It expects the best. Amen. It always expects the best. Have you been around people that always expect the bad and the worse? They pull you down and you try to counteract what they say with something good. But bless your heart, they come back with something negative. And after a few times, you just decide, let’s change the subject. Oh, but be that person that expects the best. Amen. That always is looking for the best. Because no matter how much a person has fallen short or failed in some way, there is still something God has put in them that’s good. And we’ve got to support that and bring that out. Even when you’re dealing with your children, you should not jump right to the bad thing they just did. What do you do? You say, now, you know mommy loves you because you are such a sweet kid and tell all the good things, and I love it when you do this, that, and the other, but you know what you just did. Mommy doesn’t love that because that wasn’t a good thing. Of course, when they get older, you won’t be saying it quite that… sweetly amen but the point is is you start off with the good stuff because your kid no matter how bratty they are right now they are a wonderful kid there’s something good in them I know sometimes it’s hard to find but it’s there amen When Todd was in first grade, he had this cold, cold, aloof teacher. She was one of those kind that showed no emotion, and she just didn’t. And she had Todd written off as incorrigible, and she had, honestly, I’m not exaggerating, she had the kid in jail as an adult. That’s how bad he was. He’s five years old, people. She said, I know how these kids turn out. Of course, now he works for the FBI. Right. So they had me up that school constantly. They were wanting to put him on medication, which I refused to do. We had to just suffer through first grade. Second grade, he got a teacher that was the pat on the head, give you a little hug. And he fell in love with that teacher. That kid, like, night and day. He turned into just not only a sweetheart, which he already was, but a great little student because the difference in the approach. Amen? And love endures all things. It means to hold up under and never give up. Never, ever give up. Now here’s what we learned here. When we get to heaven, we are not going to need… Faith and hope. We’re only going to need love. Amen? We’re only going to need love in heaven. Right now we need faith and we need hope because we’re looking through the glass darkly. Or we’re looking through a glass. How many know when people today on their vehicles, they get them tinted so dark you can barely see the person inside there? Amen. And you’re trying to figure out who it is. And it’s dark. Amen. That is kind of a picture of what he’s saying. Right now, we’re trying to see heaven. We’re trying to see God and Jesus and all of this. We’re trying to see this. But we are looking through a tinted glass. And so sometimes it’s hard. But that’s when you got faith. And that’s when you got hope that tells you it’s true. It’s real. Believe it. Hang on to it. Amen. But he said when you get to heaven, you won’t have to hang on to faith or hope because he said then you’re going to see him face to face. You’re going to see him face to face. What did he say in 1 Corinthians 5, 7? We walk by faith and not by sight. Amen. We’re looking through a glass that’s opaque, if you will. Amen. And we’re having a hard time sometimes believing and seeing the victory. Oh, but let me tell you something. If you will just hold on to hope and faith, I’m telling you and knowing that God loves you. Love will never fail you. Now abides faith, hope, and love, but the greatest is love. greatest greek word mega we know what mega means it means superlative love because you see without love faith fails and without love hope dies amen but when you know that god loves you you it allows you to hold on to your faith and your hope amen Amen. What an insightful and invaluable word for us today. Walking and healing by love. Do you know that in the book of Acts, the chronicle of the early church, the term love is not used once. However, the terms in one accord and in one mind are found 13 times in the first few chapters. You see, it was not necessary to have to keep talking about love when they were all walking in love. His great teaching on the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, Paul stopped midstream to write chapter 13. on the role of love in the operation of the gifts. He made it clear that unless love is the motivator for the gifts, I am nothing, I convey nothing, and I gain nothing. Not even mountain-moving faith can operate fully without love because, and this is the key to getting healed and staying healed, faith works by love. Paul concluded that there now abides faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love because love never fails. But without love, faith fails and hope dies. This is why it is impossible to walk in faith and not walk in love. And it is why some Christians do not receive their healing and or keep it. Walking in love is both vertical and horizontal. When we know how much God loves us, we believe his word to heal us. And we don’t allow fear to paralyze our faith because perfect love casts out fear. We must also walk in love towards others in the body of Christ. So if you have done all you can do to purify and strengthen your faith and you feel your faith is rising and yet still you have not received your healing, it’s time to check your love walk. Where there is bitterness, criticism, judgmentalism, jealousy, a lack of faith is not the problem, but a lack of love. I learned all these things on my journey to healing that I still must apply every day. And this groundbreaking teaching is a two-CD set and can be ordered for a love gift of $15 or more for the radio ministry. To order Walking in Healing by Love, mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or shop online at soundoffaith.org, where it’s also available on MP3s. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
