Inheriting God’s Love Dna Series

Inheriting God’s Love DNA

(I John 4:7-21)

1. There is much debate about whether obesity is genetic. Identical twins raised apart.

2. As one strand of DNA asked the other, “Do these genes make me look fat?”

3. Seriously, though, I have greatly enjoyed the results of a DNA test through Ancestry.com, and am in touch with distant relatives I never knew existed. I found that on my dad’s side I am mostly Czech, which was a surprise, I thought I was mostly Slovak. On my mother’s side, I confirmed my Polish descent, but also found out I am part Lithuanian and have some lineage from the Balkan states. It has been fascinating. Friends: native American, African.

4. You can hide family secrets, but DNA doesn’t lie.

Main idea: We inherit a certain DNA from our parents; believers have one spiritual parent, the Father. We evidence our family relationship by evidencing His qualities, especially love.

I. Why It Is NATURAL for Us to Love

A. Love comes FROM God and a result of the new birth (7).

B. Absence of love suggests we do not BELONG to His line (8).

C. God took the initiative to love us and DEMONSTRATED His love through propitiation (9-10, 19).

1. Jesus was sent with one main mission and several lesser tasks. Sadly, people disagree as to what His mission was. He shared His mission statement in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

2. Verse 9 is more or less a midrash on John 3:16.

3. My cousin Wally claims to have invented granola bar; Quaker oats gave him a commemorative plaque for the achievement, but others lay claim to the innovation. Debate over who first invented wireless/radio. Marconi is history’s choice. Same is true: who made the first automobile. Ford, Haynes, or several European candidates.

4. But no debate about this: God loved us first, (10) an idea repeated in verse 19. God’s love initiated, our love is in response to God’s love.

5. Whenever in conflict –with spouse/friend –often someone feels disrespected. First steps toward reconciliation involve intentionally showing respect to the offended party. Then a person must look at his own sin or error, apologize for it without partly excusing it because of the what the other person had done.

6. God did nothing wrong. Man disrespected God, God had not disrespected man. God has nothing to apologize for, man does. Even so, God took the initiative. Love.

7. Propitiation means a satisfaction of God’s justice and wrath, and, if accepted by faith and repentance, it brings us God’s forgiveness and mercy.

D. We should love others in LIGHT of how God loves us (11).

1. Dos God always please us?

2. God is concerned about our long-term best interest.

3. He also loves us in a way consistent with what is right.

4. So important to get this right in child-rearing and all relationships.

5. The word ofeilw “ought” or “should” implies a debt we owe.

E. God is made in some sense VISIBLE by our love (12).

John 1:18, “ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side,he has made him known.”

Isaiah 6:1, “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”

“No one has seen God in His pure essence without some kind of filter…” (Constable)

We evidence our family relationship by evidencing His qualities, especially love

II. Why He Who ABIDES in God Must Abide in Love (13-16)

A. Because the HOLY SPIRIT works within those who abide in Christ (13).

Romans 5:4b, “…God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” God pours His love out in our hearts, and the overflow is what we have to share! This is why we need to cultivate the Spirit’s work by setting our minds (spiritual).

B. Because the Father SENT the Son; we have believed and are connected to God (14-15).

1. “We” have seen refers to the apostles; our faith is based upon eyewitness testimony.

2. Unlike eastern religion which is philosophically based, our faith is historically based.

3. When Moses went up to the mountain, his face glowed; since we are in proximity…

C. Because God is love and we reflect His DNA.

1. The Greek construction is such that “love” and “God” are not interchangeable.

2. The text says neither love is God or God is only love.

3. I John 1:5,7 does the same thing with light, 2:29 does the same thing with righteousness…we must not let an agenda distort our view of God: multi-faceted.