The Foundation of Love
Text: 1 Jn. 3:11-18
Introduction
1. Illustration: On December 2001, the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” was finally reopened to the public, after having been closed for almost a dozen years. During that time, engineers completed a 25 million dollar renovation project designed to stabilize the tower. They removed 110 tons of dirt, and reduced its famous lean by about sixteen inches. Why was this necessary? Because the tower has been tilting further and further away from vertical for hundreds of years, to the point that the top of the 185-foot tower was seventeen feet further south than the bottom, and Italian authorities were concerned that if nothing was done, it would soon collapse. What was the problem? Bad design? Poor workmanship? An inferior grade of marble?
No. The problem was what was underneath. The sandy soil on which the city of Pisa was built was just not stable enough to support a monument of this size. The tower had no firm foundation.
2. The foundation of the Christian and the Church is love.
a. It is the foundational principle upon which the church is built.
b. God’s love for us, and His command for us to love one another.
3. Unless our lives are built upon the foundation of love, they will crumble.
4. Read 1 Jn. 3:11-18
Proposition: Love is the distinguishing characteristic of all true believers.
Transition: The first thing that love does is...
I. It Distinguishes Who Is the Child of God (11-13)
A. We Should Love One Another
1. John begins this section by stating "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another..."
a. What does John mean that this is the message we’ve heard from the beginning? The beginning of what?
b. He is talking about the beginning of the Church and our Christian lives.
c. It was the fundamental teaching of Jesus.
d. Matt. 22:34-40 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
e. Jn. 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
2. Love is so essential, so foundation to the Christian life that it is the first thing taught.
a. This is not a new teaching; they had heard it from the beginning.
b. They could not say they had not hear it before, because they had heard it over and over.
c. Illustration: There is a story about the Apostle John at the end of his life. He was the pastor at the church in Ephesus, and at this point he was so old that he could no longer walk. Sunday after Sunday they other elders would carry him in on a mat and set him in the middle of the assembly. From this mat he would teach. At one point he would just mutter the words "beloved love one another, beloved love one another!" This went on for several months. Finally one of the elders said to him, "Brother John that is a great message, but don’t you think we could hear something else." Then the old pastor looked at him and said "when we learn this lesson we will move on to the next one!"
3. John goes on to show us the opposite of love - hate. He said "not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous."
a. We are not to be like Cain "whom was of the wicked one..."
b. John’s point was not that Cain murdered and became a child of the Devil; rather, because Cain belonged to the evil one, his anger and jealousy drove him to murder.
c. John wanted his readers to understand the terrible results of refusing to love one another.
d. Lack of love can lead to anger, jealousy, hatred—and, finally, even to murder.—Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary
4. John asks the question "And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous."
a. Cain could not bear the contrast of his brother’s righteous actions with his own actions which were evil, and the first murder became a monument to self-love, as the cross was to become the demonstration of divine love. - New International Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM
b. Hatred is nothing more than selfish ambition and vain conceit.
c. James 4:1-2 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
5. John also tells us "Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you."
a. Keep in mind that when John talks about the world he is talking about that evil system which is opposed to God all that is good.
b. He is telling us to not be surprised is that evil world system hates us.
c. Cain was the model of the world which still displays the same ugly characteristics that he displayed (Stott, The Letter of John, Tyndale NT Commentaries, 144).
d. He is telling us to be different; to be set apart from the world.
B. The Great Commandment
1. Illustration: We give our different reports of the church in worship service attendance and Sunday school attendance and offerings. Wouldn’t it be something if we had a measurement or a chart that would say this week we were up in abounding love. We have increased by seventy percent in love over last week. What if we could measure love? It would tell us so much, because that is the key.
2. 1 Cor. 13:1-2 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging 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, but have not love, I am nothing.
3. Love is the determining factor of whether or not we know Christ.
4. Love is the first aspect of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5, because it is the most important.
5. Jesus said that people would know we are his disciples not because of:
a. How big our bible is
b. The cross we have hanging around our neck
c. The bumper sticker on our car
6. He said that people would know whether we are Christians by our love for one another.
Transition: Another thing that love does is...
II. It Distinguishes Whether We Have Been Transformed (14-15)
A. Because We Love
1. John says that love is the proof that our lives have truly been transformed.
2. He says "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren."
a. This verse begins dramatically with the pronoun "we" (Stott, 145).
b. He is talking about the Church.
c. "Let the world hate; we do not hate, but love" (Stott).
d. We are to be different; completely distinguishable from the world.
e. People should look at us and see something different.
3. John says that our love for one another is the proof that we have been transformed; from death to life.
a. Love for fellow believers proves that a believer has passed from the realm of death to the sphere of eternal life.
b. Their love does not earn them eternal life; instead, their love is evidence that they already have eternal life.
c. He is simply underscoring that because such love is already going on, we have a tangible sign of Christ’s...work in progress. (Burge, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: The Letters of John, 161).
4. On the other hand, John says "He who does not love his brother abides in death."
a. A person who has no love is still dead. This is the condition of all people by nature.
b. A person who does not have love shows that he or she has not passed from death to eternal life.
c. 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
d. If this is true, and we believe that it is, then the opposite is also true - if we have not been changed, if everything has not been made new, then we are not in Christ.
5. John then takes it a step further and says "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
a. Here John links hatred with murder.
b. However, John was not the first to make this connection. Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, ’You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ’Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ’You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.
c. In the heart there is no difference; to hate is to despise, to cut off from relationship, and murder is simply the fulfillment of that attitude. - Expositor’s Bible Commentary; Pradis CD Rom
B. Beyond Doubt
1. Illustration: The motor home has allowed us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels. A camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking over a fire, or hauling water from a stream. Now he can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line and electricity. One motor home I saw recently had a satellite dish attached on top. No more bother with dirt, no more smoke from the fire, no more drudgery of walking to the stream. Now it is possible to go camping and never have to go outside. We buy a motor home with the hope of seeing new places, of getting out into the world. Yet we deck it out with the same furnishings as in our living room. Thus nothing really changes. We may drive to a new place, set ourselves in new surrounding, but the newness goes unnoticed, for we’ve only carried along our old setting.
The adventure of new life in Christ begins when the comfortable patterns of the old life are left behind.
2. Unless there is change in our lives there is no transformation.
3. It doesn’t matter:
a. How often you go to church
b. How much money you give
c. How much you read the bible
4. What really matters is:
a. A change of mind
b. A change of attitude
c. A change of heart
5. Unless we show love for our brothers and sister in Christ there is no transformation.
a. Unless there is love in our lives we are still dead spiritually.
b. Unless there is love in our lives there we have not been renewed by the power of the Spirit.
c. Jn. 13:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Transition: Yet another thing that love does is...
III. It Distinguishes Whether We Are Following Christ (16-18)
A. By This We Know Love
1. The question we need to ask ourselves is what is love?
a. The Greek word that John uses here is the word agape, which means "a selfless and sacrificial love; a love of the mind, of the reason, of the will as well as of the heart and affections. -- Practical Word Studies in the New Testament
b. It is the love that goes so far...
c. That it loves a person even if he does not deserve to be loved. —Practical Word Studies in the New Testament
d. That it loves the person who is utterly unworthy of being loved.
e. That it is compelled to sacrifice itself for its enemies
2. John tells us in verse 16, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us."
a. We know what agape is by Christ himself demonstrated it for us.
b. He showed us this love not because we earned it, or did something to make us worthy of it.
c. He showed it to us simply because He loved us.
3. Jesus showed us this love by:
a. Coming to earth and becoming like one of us.
b. Coming to earth and submitting himself to the horrible death of the cross.
c. Coming to earth and thus giving up all of his rights and privileges as the Son of God.
4. John tells us "And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
a. We are to do this not simply because that is what Jesus did, but because that is what Jesus revealed to be the demand of agape love.
b. Love is denial of self for another’s gain. It is doing what Jesus himself would do. - Expositor’s Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:1 John
5. Hate and love are direct opposites of one another.
a. Hatred is negative, seeks the other person’s harm, and leads to activity against them.
b. Love is positive, seeks the other person’s good, and leads to activity for them, even if it requires self-sacrifice (Stott, 146).
6. John tells us that love, like faith, is something we have to put into practice. He says "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
a. Love with words may be genuine enough, but is not fulfilled in actions.
b. Love with the tongue consists of hypocritical utterances with no truth in it.
c. I believe that the Apostle John would agree with the old saying "actions speak louder than words."
B. Love of Christ
1. Illustration: A newspaper columnist named George Crane told once of a woman who was full of hatred toward her husband. Someone counseled the woman to act as if she really loved her husband, to tell him how much he meant to her, to praise him for every decent trait, to be kind, considerate, and generous whenever possible. Then, when she’d fully convinced him of her undying love, she’d make her move and file for divorce. With revenge in her eyes she said, "That’s perfect, I’ll do it." And so she did...but guess what happened...the more she demonstrated sacrificial love toward her husband, the more she began to actually love him, and at the end of a few months divorce was the furthest thing from her mind.
2. Showing the kind of love that Jesus displayed changes things.
a. It can soften the hardest of hearts.
b. It can change the meanest of dispositions.
c. It can change a person’s life
3. However, be careful; the person it changes just might be you!
4. The kind of love that Jesus demonstrated means being willing to lay down your wants and desires.
a. It might mean putting up with that song you don’t like because it ministers to someone else.
b. It might mean putting up with something you think is distasteful or out of place in order to bring someone into church.
c. It means willingly giving up your rights to benefit someone else.
5. This is the kind of love that Jesus showed, and it is the kind of love that we must show if we are to truly be His disciples.
Conclusion
1. Love is:
a. The thing that distinguishes the child of God.
b. That which shows we have been transformed.
c. That which proves we are following Christ.
2. Let me ask you this question: If you were arrested today for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
