How God’s Love Is Made Perfect: 1 John 4:7-12
The People of God: Studies in 1 John November 13, 2005
Intro:
Have you ever felt perfectly loved? Like you were free to be completely yourself, without hiding or pretending, without fear, just totally able to be yourself and to discover yourself and to share your thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams? Have you ever seen love that was made perfect?
God’s love is made perfect in us. And when we say “us”, we do not mean as a bunch of individuals, but rather in our relationships together. God’s love is made perfect in our relationships to one another. How does that sound to you? Impossible? Too far from the reality of your experience of church to make any sense? Or maybe intriguing, inviting, or challenging… It is an incredible statement, if you really stop to digest it. And it is where the passage of 1 John that we are going to look at today ends. Being the people of God means that God’s love is made perfect in us.
This morning’s message is in two parts. In the first part, I am going to walk us through a passage in 1 John, and in the second part Kelly Wiens is going to walk us through one very practical way that we can begin to put into practice that which we are commanded.
1 John 4:7-12 (NRSV)
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Love, Again…
After talking about testing the spirits, John returns to his main theme: love. This little section tells us three critical things: 1. God is love; 2. God’s love is revealed in Jesus; and 3. God’s love is now made perfect in us.
God Is Love (vs 7-8):
“7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” These last three words challenge a lot of false ideas about who God is. Sometimes, for a large variety of reasons, our ideas about who God is get messed up. We sometimes see Him as cruel, sometimes as a harsh judge, sometimes as arbitrary in how He blesses some and destroys others, sometimes as a benign, powerless, grandfatherly figure, sometimes as an all-powerful Santa Clause. Sometimes, especially when our lives seem out of control or our world seems especially difficult, our perception of God gets messed up. John’s assertion here is critical – “God is love.” Every bit, every action, every part of God is love.
I think one of the reasons we miss that at times is because we focus on the circumstances more than on our character, and God does the opposite. I’ve said this many times before, but I will say it again: God cares more about who we are than about the circumstances we are in. Lots of times, from our perspective, we look at a situation in our lives that is hard or painful and we think that if God is loving, He should do something about that situation. He should heal that sickness, He should change that person who is making our lives difficult, He should make that hard decision for us. We even do that on a global scale, and ask “If God is love, then why is there so much suffering in the world.” It is the wrong emphasis – yes God is love, and the most loving thing He can do is mold us into people whose character is full of love.
Some of you have been learning about worshiping God through pottery – and perhaps that image will make this more clear. The end result is a beautiful, useful bowl or cup or dish or pot. But to get it there, not all the things you do to the clay are particularly comfortable. I’m sure that spinning on a pottery wheel wouldn’t feel particularly nice. Cutting excess clay off wouldn’t feel gentle. Removing the whole piece, smushing it together, and starting from scratch would feel harsh. And then it goes into the furnace at temperatures of 2000F. All are necessary for the end goal, of a beautiful piece of art.
God is love, and the most loving thing He can do is mold us into people whose character is full of love.
How We See That Love (vs 9):
John next tells us how we see that God is love: “9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” Sounds a lot like John 3:16, doesn’t it? The greatest revelation of the love of God is the sacrifice of Jesus, and the result being that we might live. We are going to focus on this as we walk through the advent season leading up to Christmas, so I won’t elaborate any more on that today.
That Love Made Perfect (vs 11-12):
“11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
The result of us knowing the love of God through Jesus has to be that we now love one another. And when we do, John tells us this fascinating thing: “his love is perfected in us.” That is amazing to reflect on – that our relationships with one another are so highly important to God that His word would teach that in those relationships of love between you and I, here and now, God’s love is made perfect.
That both astounds me, and raises the bar for the extent of my love.
It is not ok for us to be lazy in our relationships. It is not ok for us to be judgmental. It is not ok for us to place ourselves or our own needs ahead of the needs of one another. It is not ok for us to gossip or discourage. It is not ok for us to stand by and say nothing when someone is doing the wrong thing. It is not ok to be in community with one another and not love one another deeply and with integrity and honesty and lifelong commitment.
Praise God, it is not up to you and I to love like God in our own strength: “God lives in us…” and as we cooperate with Him we see the perfection of God’s love in our relationships.
Maybe you’ve never thought about it like this, but it is pretty clear from John that our relationships of love with one another are so important, so central, that only in them is the love of God made “perfect”. That calls us to a high standard!
Putting Love Into Practice:
As a church, it is our job to both teach truths like these and to make a way and a structure to put these kind of truths into action. There are a whole lot of ways we do that here at Laurier: our family groups are the most important place where we attempt to build relationships that shape us and allow us to love one another deeply and see the love of God made perfect – so if you are not involved in one of those you need to be! We do it through our giving, of time and money, and of ensuring that those gifts honor God by expressing His love to one another. We do it through all of our various ministries, all of which are designed to grow us in our love for God, one another, and those outside the Kingdom of God.
This morning we want to introduce you to one more, critical, way for us to love one another. For each of us, there are times in our lives when what we need most is to love and be loved in a one-on-one relationship. We need a personal, face-to-face, one-to-one relationship wherein we can see and live the love of God. And so as pastors and elders we see the importance of facilitating those types of relationships, and I believe that God has shared an idea with Kelly Wiens about how we can create that kind of structure and ministry, and how we can make sure that we see “the love of God made perfect through us.” (invite Kelly)
