In this sermon, Mel Purvis dismantles the sentimental, shallow, cultural misunderstanding of "love" and restores the biblical meaning of God's love. He argues that modern Christianity often portrays love as softness, permissiveness, leniency, emotionalism, or tolerance. But Scripture reveals love as holy, sacrificial, truthful, disciplining, self-emptying, and anchored in the character of God, not human feeling.
Purvis explains that love is not the absence of judgment, correction, boundaries, or truth—but the presence of God's nature expressed through righteousness and sacrifice. He shows that divine love reaches its climax not in sentimental acceptance but in the cross, where love confronts sin rather than ignoring it. He insists that:
You cannot understand love apart from holiness
You cannot preach love without preaching sin
You cannot receive God's love without responding in obedience
The sermon is both corrective and pastoral—calling believers to reject a worldly definition of love and embrace the fierce, holy love of God.
