As we at New Hope Baptist Church prepare for Old-Fashioned Sunday on November 21, I can't help but wonder what old-fashioned values we as modern Americans have surrendered that we need to reclaim. Many come to mind: old-fashioned modesty, old-fashioned courtesy, old-fashioned respect, the old-fashioned work ethic, old-fashioned music that communicated more to the head and the heart than to the hormones, old-fashioned church services, the old-fashioned King James Bible that God used to do His greatest works in human history. Each of these standards are upheld and promoted at New Hope Baptist Church.

But there's another old-fashioned value that can be lost even as we "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." {Jude 3} And that's the high ideal of loving the brethren -- the people who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Saviour just as (I hope) you have.

Yes, Ecclesiastes 3:8 says that there is "A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace." But it's possible to maintain love in war and in peace. In fact, the best kind of warfare is waged in defense of that which we love.

While we fight the Devil's encroachment into our minds, let's make sure that our warfare is motivated by our love for Jesus. While we strive against worldly influences in our families and Church, let's make sure that our warfare is motivated by our love for righteousness. While we battle those who would replace or remove the King James Bibles, let's make sure that our warfare is motivated by our love for truth. While we clash with the liberal elements in our society that would undermine our national institutions, let's make sure that our warfare is motivated by our love for true liberty -- freedoms that are balanced by a high level of morality. And may all this warfare be waged with an eye toward seeing lost people saved, and saved people growing to the point at which they, too, serve the Lord "in sincerity and in truth". {Joshua 24:14}

The call to love goes back to the First Century of the Christian Era. There aren't many things more old-fashioned than that! "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." {1st John 3:10-11} John is here informing us that one of the first things the Apostles began to learn from Jesus was that He expects His disciples to love each other. You can't claim to be a proponent of righteousness if your heart is devoid of love for those you're trying to "get right" and "keep right" -- whether those people comprise your immediate family, relatives at large, co-workers on the job, or the kids you teach in Sunday School. You can know the Book forward and backward, but you won't be able to effectively share your knowledge and wisdom with others if they aren't convinced that you love them. The adage is true: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

We who consider ourselves to be rock-ribbed fundamentalists need to learn that the attitude of love and the actions that demonstrate true love (called "charity" in 1st Corinthians 13) are a prominent fundamental of the faith. "And this is love, that we walk after his commandements. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it." {2nd John 6} Indeed, such love helps confirm true conversion. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." {1st John 3:14}

This call to love takes us beyond mere words and grand gestures into concrete, ongoing actions. "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him." {v. 16-19}

We're told in Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Christ's voluntary self-sacrifice proved God's love toward us. Now we're being challenged to commend our love toward Him by laying down our lives for our brethren.

We are to die differently than our Lord did, however. "For in that he died, he died unto sin once..." {Romans 6:10} Jesus died once on the cross at Calvary. That was all that was necessary for Him to fulfill His mission. But the Apostle Paul effectively modeled how we are to lay down our lives when he stated: "...I die daily." {1st Corinthians 15:31} Every day we're to put self to death, that we may serve others in the stead of our Lord. "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." {Galatians 5:24}

The world exists in a state of living death. We are to thrive in a condition of dying life. We crucify that which we'd rather do, so that that which God wants done can be accomplished through us.

How is this kind of dying life possible for post modern American Christians -- perhaps the most spoiled, self-seeking people in the history of the world who have ever claimed to believe in Jehovah/Jesus? The Lord gives us this insight: "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." {2st John 3:22-24} The Lord who asks us to die for Him even as we live for Him will empower and enable us to do so. We have but to obey Him, and to ask Him for that we need to implement our obedience. He will then fill us, and use us.

I, therefore, call you back to an old-fashioned love. It's the opposite of the "new love" that's based on the "new morality" (which is actually the old immorality)of the carnal gratification of base lusts. Old-fashioned love, rather, is exhibited in a life of service to your brethren in Christ. That, of course, is best accomplished in the local church, which is where the believers assemble. Come, learn, grow, and serve. To come, you'll need to die to that which your flesh would rather do. To learn, you'll need to die to that which your flesh would rather do. To grow, you'll need to die to that which your flesh would do. To serve, you'll need to die to that which your flesh would rather do.

You'll have to die daily if you're going to know true love. This is why Jesus said, "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." {Matthew 10:38-39}

Is it worth it? The Apostle John thought so. He wrote, "And now I beseech thee (I beg you), not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another." {2nd John 5}

Once you experience the self-sacrificing life of love, you'll learn that there is no better way to live--nor to die.