For the Love of God
1 John 4:7-5:5
Slide
Intro
What do you think of when you hear the word love?
Maybe you think of puppy love.
When I think of that, I get a picture of Marcia Brady walking through her back yard in a daze because she is in “love.”
Maybe you think of your spouse and the love that you share.
Maybe you think of a loyal dog, how he loves you.
Today we are going to talk about the love of God and the ways that affects us when we have received His love and are growing in His love.
We are continuing on in our series in 1 John today and we will be reading
1 John 4:7-5:5
Slide
To give you a quick overview, John has written this letter to a group of Christians whom he has had relationship with perhaps as their pastor, but certainly as a teacher in the past.
His purpose is 2 fold.
To Refute the false teachers who have left the fellowship and are seeking to lead this group of believers astray and
To encourage these believers in the faith and help them continue to grow so they will not be led astray.
This text today repeats some of the same things that were talked about in the message Pastor Andy preached, but now the Apostle tells us a bit more about God’s love for us and what that love produces in us.
So let’s read our text and see what we can learn and know about the Lord and His work in and through us.
1 John 4:7-5:5
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Ok,
I want to begin today and take a look at how John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
describes God’s love for us,
tells us how we receive that love, and
tells us what that love will produce in our lives as growing Christians.
First, we see that John tells us that
God’s Love for us is Sacrificial
Slide
1 John 4:9
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
Two weeks ago, on Easter we talked about John 3:16
John 3:16
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (from New International Version)
His love for us made Him willing to sacrifice beyond all we can imagine by sending His one and only son into the world.
He gave up the glory of heaven to live in this sin stained world and then submitted to a brutal death, because of His love for us.
Listen to a very early creed of the church, and how this describes God’s sacrifice.
Philippians 2:6-8
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross!
I am not sure that we will ever fully grasp that.
President to Prisoner of War - Illustration
Try to imagine for a moment being the president of the United States, and have all the benefits of the office of president, and to be commander in chief, but having a love for those soldiers you lead, you give up the comfort of your lifestyle, sell everything you have, give it to the poor, enlist in the army to the very front lines, so you can experience all that they do.
Then to save your fellow soldiers under attack, you offer yourself as a ransom to save their lives. The enemy takes you and tortures you on video, and humiliates you, and cuts your head off.
Whatever all that is, Christ did more, He gave up more, he suffered more, He sacrificed more, all because He loves you.
We understand love by a willingness to put someone else ahead of ourselves.
God did that beyond measure for us.
God’s love for us is sacrificial beyond our imagination.
But even more than his sacrifice for us, I am blown away by the fact that
God’s Love for us is Undeserved
Slide
1 John 4:10
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God love for us is not just returning some favor to us.
We did not do anything nice for God and He is loving us in return.
We did not love God first, so He is now loving us.
In fact, not only did we not do anything nice to God nor did we love Him, but we sinned against him and were in fact “God’s enemies” as Romans 5:10 tells us.
We were “by nature objects of His wrath” (Ephesians 2:3)
But Ephesians 2:4-5 goes on to say
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.
We were completely undeserving of God’s love.
We are unworthy.
Now this is vitally important for us to know.
But to understand that we are completely unworthy of God’s love, is not the same thing as being worthless.
Being unworthy and being worthless are not the same thing.
There are many people in our society that struggle with feelings of worthlessness.
Satan would like nothing better than for you to feel worthless.
Maybe you are here today and you have done some pretty awful things in your past, or maybe even your recent past.
Maybe you have had an adulterous relationship.
Maybe you have been in prison and deserved to be there because of your actions
Maybe you have participated in an abortion in the past.
Maybe you were raised in the church and turned your back
on your parents,
your upbringing, and
even the church, the body of Christ.
But beyond feeling undeserving of God’s love or anyone’s love, you feel completely worthless, and have lost hope.
Do not believe that lie of Satan.
You are not worthless.
You are not worthless because you were created with inherent value to God, because you bear His image.
If you are sitting here today, you are not beyond hope.
You are not worthless.
You definitely are unworthy of God’s love, like we all are, but you are not worthless.
If you remember the parable of the Prodigal son, a man’s son asked for his inheritance to go off on his own.
Listen, he was basically saying,
Dad, I wish you were dead
I don’t need you.
I just want your money.
Well, he went off on his own, with his father’s money
Found out life is not what he thought
Came to his senses and came back to his father with a repentant heart.
Luke 15:21-24
21 "The son said to him, ’Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 "But the father said to his servants, ’Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’
The son recognized his unworthiness, but the father determined his worth.
God the Father has determined your worth.
Art Auctions - Illustration
Pictures that I am not particularly fond of .
That doesn’t make them worthless.
What someone is willing to pay for them determines how much they are worth.
Our Heavenly Father has made us worthy by paying a price for us that is beyond imagination and we did not deserve it in the least.
That is the kind of love God has for you, sacrificial and undeserved.
One of my favorite verse of the whole Bible is Romans 5:8
Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Well, how is it that we can experience that love?
John tells us that
When we Receive God’s Son, we receive God’s Love
Slide
1 John 4:13-16
13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
In his gospel account, John tells us
John 1:12-13
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
If you are here today and have never experienced the love of God, it is probably because you have never received Jesus Christ as your Savior, by believing in Him, by trusting Him with your eternity.
Jesus says in
Revelation 3:20
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
I am certain that there are people here today that need to experience the love of the Lord by receiving Jesus as Savior.
My encouragement to you today is to not wait another moment before receiving God’s love that He offers through His Son.
I am going to stop right now and give you an opportunity to do what John says here, Acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God.
When I do a baptism, this is the confession people make.
I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and I have receive Him as my Savior.
Acknowledge that to Lord right now with me in prayer.
Pray
John not only talks about God’s love in these verses and how we receive and experience God’s love, but He also talks about what God’s love produces in us.
First, we see that.
God’s Love for Us Produces Love for One Another
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John hits the point about loving one another over and over again through this letter.
1 John 4:7-8, 11-12, 19-21
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love …
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us...
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
We saw it last week in the message pastor Andy gave and we see it again this week.
Now John is refuting some of the things these false teachers where teaching and doing.
They claimed to know God.
They may have even claimed to have seen God.
They probably also claimed to love these people they were trying to lead astray.
John is telling them they do not love them.
If they did love them, they would not be trying to lead them away from a relationship with God.
To John this proved that these people not only did not love them, but that they did not know God.
Here is a guy who has seen God in the flesh.
A guy who did know God.
He walked with Jesus
And he sees these people saying otherwise
Talking about their love of God
And yet denying that Jesus is the Christ, God in the flesh.
Recall how John started out this letter.
1 John 1:1-3
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard,
Now, I think this gives a bit of insight into John’s discourse and why he is so dogmatic.
These men could not possibly know God and teach the opposite of what John and the rest of the apostles were teaching.
They had to be liars being controlled by Satan.
At the same time, as John is talking about love and speaking much about these false teachers not really loving those John is writing to, there is a lot here for us as well.
I am not going to spend too long on this, because Andy talked much about this last week, but our love for each other has got to be more than just words out of our mouths, it has to be flowing from the Love of God within us to produce actions based upon truth.
This however, is not instantaneous. It is a process of God’s transforming power in our lives.
As we grow in our understanding of God’s love and as we continually receive God’s love through the process of sanctification, His love will produce a deeper love for others within us.
How is your love for others?
This doesn’t mean doing just what someone wants.
This means a willingness to be self sacrificing.
Andy and I were talking about this a bit this week and sometimes the language we use doesn’t completely capture what we are talking about or our meaning.
Being self sacrificing is something that requires great strength.
It is not a sign of weakness.
Jesus was never weak in character, but was self sacrificing for the greater good of mankind as well as men as individuals.
As we rely on God’s love, he will strengthen us to love others in a self sacrificing way.
God’s love in us not only produces love for others, but
God’s love for us produces Confidence without fear
Slide
1 John 4:16-18
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
As God’s love enables us to love others, it will bring about a confidence in us because there will be external evidence of God working through us that helps us to know and be assured of our salvation.
It is a confidence and assurance based upon God’s work, not our own, but is evidenced through us.
There are many people that approach death with fear.
There are even some Christians who approach death with fear.
We do not need to be afraid.
As God’s love continues to grow in us, we can have greater confidence because we know and rely more on God than ourselves.
But this is a growth process.
We do need to ask ourselves the hard questions sometimes, as in
How is my love for others?
If I am not acting loving toward others, what is the issue?
If I am acting loving toward some of my brothers and sisters in Christ, why not all?
It may be an issue of growth in knowing Christ better.
Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is for this.
He says
Ephesians 1:15-17
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
They were loving the saints. But Paul’s prayer is that continue to grow in knowing Christ better and loving the saints more.
That is growth in Christ.
Finally,
God’s love for us produces obedience to His commands.
Slide
1 John 5:1-5
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
As God’s love continues to work in us, we realize that everything God wants us to do is because He loves us and wants the very best for us. Knowing this, feeling this, experiencing this love of God, will continue to help us live in obedience to His commands.
Conclusion
Listen, love for one another, confidence without fear, and obedience to His Commands, are all interconnected.
It starts with receiving the Son as Savior.
But we need to be growing in His love as we follow His leading in
Loving others
So we can be more assured of His work and confident in his promises
And we can walk in obedience to Him.
It is here that a life of joy is experienced.
So are you experiencing the Love of God?
Is it apparent in your love for others, the confidence of your faith, your obedience to His commands?
If not, then you either need to receive the Son, or you need to growing in your knowledge of Him.
Listen, this is hard sometimes.
God is the one who grows you… you don’t grow yourself, but you do have responsibility in taking the steps of growth God places in front of you.
When I mention small group Bible studies do you think to yourself, that is something I know I should do, but I can’t find the time.
When I talk about baptism, do you think, yeah, I know that is what the Bible teaches but I don’t want to do that because I might be embarrassed.
God is seeking to grow you through those things, but you are refusing to allow Him to grow you.
You will never experience God’s love more fully than when you are taking the steps He places in front of you by the power of the Holy Spirit He has given you.
1 John 5:3
3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome
Experience God’s love today but letting his love lead you in obedience.
Let’s pray
