Reading: 1 John chapter 4 verses 7-16:
Ill:
• An elderly man stopped at a hearing aid centre and asked about prices.
• The salesman said “We have them from £25,000 down to £1.50,”
• “What’s the £25,000 one like?”
• The salesman said “Well it translates three languages.”
• “And what about the one for £1.50?”
• “It’s this button attached to a string,” said the salesman, pushing it across the counter.
• “How does it work?”
• “It doesn’t” replied the salesman said;
• “But if you put the button in your ear and the string in your pocket,
• You’ll be surprised how loud people talk!”
The apostle John wants his readers to emphasise something important to his readers:
• He will not shout loudly but he will repeat himself; until he is understood!
• In fact for the third time in this short letter John wants us to consider the subject of love!
• This does not mean John has run out of things to say;
• And has just resorted to repeating himself.
• It means……… that the Holy Spirit, who inspired John,
• Will present the subject once more, from a deeper point of view.
Ill:
• John’s letter has been called a spiritual staircase;
• Always revolving around the same centre.
• Through out this letter John keeps returning to his favourite three topics;
• Love, obedience and truth.
• His repetition is not laziness or lack of new things to say;
• In fact the opposite, each time he returns he is teaching us something new.
e.g.
In chapters one and two of this letter the emphasis is on ‘Fellowship’;
• A Christian who is in fellowship with God;
• Will naturally want fellowship with other Christians.
e.g.
In chapter 3 the emphasis has been ‘Sonship’;
• Because every Christian is ‘Born of God’ or ‘children of God’.
• Because we are ‘Of God’ we should be ‘Like God’.
• In chapters 1&2; love for other Christians is a matter of light or darkness;
• In chapter 3 love for other Christians is a matter of life or death.
Now in chapter 4 verses 7-16:
• Love for other Christians is actually the evidence that you are saved.
• That you know God!
• John is going to remind us again;
• That love is the most important ingredient of the Christians life.
• Love is part of the very being and nature of God.
• If we are united to God through faith in Christ, we share His nature.
• And since His nature is love,
• Love is the test of the reality of our spiritual life.
Ill:
• A navigator depends on a compass to help him determine his course.
• A compass always gives direction by pointing north.
• It is designed to respond to the magnetic field that is part of the earth's makeup.
• The compass is responsive to the nature of the earth.
So with Christian love:
• The nature of God is love.
• And a person who knows God and has been born of God will respond to God's nature.
• As a compass naturally points north,
• A Christian will naturally practice love because love is the nature of God.
Ill:
• A preacher was impressing upon his congregation;
• The difference between being ordered to love God’s word and actually doing it.
• He said suppose in England there is a law stating a woman must take care of her child.
• So, an inspector suddenly arrives one day at the home of a new mother.
• And he says “Are you taking care of your baby?
• The Law says you have to.”
• The woman, tenderly holding her baby, would reply,
• “I don’t need a law to make me take care of my baby.”
• Why? Because it is natural for her to love her baby!
• She feeds him, holds him, changes him, all because she loves him.
In the same way:
• It should be a natural thing for the Christian to love other people;
• And John will show us why in this passage.
THREE TIMES, IN THIS SECTION,
• John encourages us to love one another (verses 7, 11 & 12).
• He supports these admonitions by giving us three foundational facts about God.
(A). What God Is: "God Is Love" (vs 7-8):
“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.”
(1). Where love originates.
This is the third of three great expressions of God’s nature in John's writings:
• "God is spirit" (John’s Gospel chapter 4 verse 24);
• "God is light" (1 John chapter 1 verse 5);
• "God is love." (1 John chapter 5 verse 8);
• None of these is a complete revelation of God, of course,
• And we can get a wrong or in balanced view of God when we separate them.
Ill:
• Blind people who came a cross an elephant for the first time;
• Tail – rope / side – wall / leg – tree.
• None of these three descriptions of God’s nature is a complete revelation of God,
• But they do give us a great insight to the nature of God.
three expressions of Gods nature:
(A). GOD IS SPIRIT:
• God is spirit as to His essence;
• He is not flesh and blood. He has no physical body.
• By nature he is spirit,
• Because of that he is not limited by time and space the way His creatures are.
• Unlike us he will not grow old or deteriorate or even die.
• He is a spirit – quite unique ill: Names Jehovah means; “self-existent one”.
(B). GOD IS LIGHT.
• This refers to His holy nature.
• In the Bible, light is a symbol of holiness and darkness is a symbol of sin.
• God cannot sin because He is holy, pure, perfect.
• Therefore God is light and in him is no darkness.
• Ill: Holiness preacher.
• God’s book merely reflects him, who is holy, pure, perfect.
(C). GOD IS LOVE.
• Incredible as it may seem;
• John is the only person in the Bible to make the statement ‘God is love’.
• We take those words as the norm, most of us have grown up with them;
• Ill: Stickers & badges or sang songs with the content ‘God is love’.
Quote:
• These words of John are a revolutionary statement.
• Judaism can say; ‘God loves us’;
• But that is a different thing than saying ‘God is love’.
• To say ‘God is love’ means you understand God to be more than one person.
• You cannot be ‘love’ by yourself, because love is relational!
• As Christians we can say ‘God is love’.
• Because before the foundation of the word was the Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
• The eternal godhead in a perfect unified relationship with each other;
• Could experience love for love needs an object and love is relational.
• I guess it should be no surprise to us that it is John who records these words;
• It was him who has made much of the deity of Jesus Christ in his gospel.
Ill:
One day C. H. Spurgeon was walking through the English countryside with a friend.
• As they strolled along, the evangelist noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof.
• At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE.
• Spurgeon remarked to his companion;
• That he thought this was a rather inappropriate place for such a message.
• “Weather vanes are changeable,” he said, “but God’s love is constant.”
• “I don’t agree with you about those words, Charles,” replied his friend.
• “You misunderstood the meaning. That sign is indicating a truth:
• Regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love.”
(b). What love is.
• Simple answer is God!
• “God is love”.
• John does not say; “God loves”;
• Nor does John say; “God is loving”;
• John does say; “God is love”;
• Because it is his very nature, not just an activity he does ill: stick of rock.
• When we say that God is the "standard" for love,
• We mean that God's actions reveal to us what love is and how it reveals itself.
Note:
• This does not mean that all love is God;
• The Greek construction of the text will not allow such a meaning,
• And after all not all love is wholesome and pure;
• ill: An affair between two married people may produce true love but it is wrong love!
• So not all love is wholesome and pure;
• Which are both characteristics of God.
• So when we say that God is the "standard" for love,
• We mean that God's actions reveal to us what love is and how it reveals itself.
(c). How love develops.
Ill:
• A group of tourists asked an old man if any great men were born in this small town.
• "No. Only babies."
• No-one is born a great Christian, we are all born as babies;
• And we need to grow, to develop, to move from infancy to being mature.
Two things to help us grow:
(1). WE HAVE GOD’S NATURE (VERSE 7B):
“Everyone who loves has been born of God”.
• Every one that has been "born of God," that is “A child of God”. A genuine Christian.
• Automatically shares God's divine nature.
• Ill: Arlo, people say; “He looks just like his father!”
• I always respond; “Yep, he’s a handsome chap” just to embarrass them…….
• What is even worse for him than sharing my looks;
• Is that he shares my nature (at times he acts & behaves like me!)
Now since God is our heavenly Father and since his nature is "Love”:
• His children (Christians) ought to act & behave like their heavenly Father.
• Or as John puts it in verse 7: We ought to “Love one another”.
Quote: Clement of Alexandria (early Church writers):
• Who said in a startling phrase that the real Christian;
• “Practices being God”.
• In other words; man is made in the image and likeness of God
• ‘God is love’ therefore to practice love is to be godlike!
(B). WE KNOW GOD (VERSE 7C).
“Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
• In the Bible, the word ‘know’
• Hs a much deeper meaning than simply intellectual acquaintance or understanding.
Ill:
Tony Blair.
• In the Bible, the word ‘know’
• Hs a much deeper meaning than simply intellectual acquaintance or understanding.
• To know God means to be in a deep relationship to Him;
• And to share His life and enjoy His love.
• This knowing is not simply a matter of understanding facts;
• It is a matter of being in a relationship.
Ill:
• Tired of reading bedtime stories to his little sister, one ingenious teenager,
• Decided to record several of her favourite stories on tape.
• He told her, “Now you can hear your stories anytime you want. isn’t that great?”
• She looked at the machine for a moment and then replied, “No. it hasn’t got a lap.”
• The content was right.
• But the relational connection was missing.
So too for us as Christians:
• It has always to be more than knowledge, even good knowledge.
• To paraphrase verse 8:
"The person who does not have this divine kind of love has never entered into a personal, experiential knowledge of God.
What he knows is in his head, but it has never gotten into his heart."
Ill:
• A large quantity of radioactive material was stolen from a hospital.
• When the hospital administrator notified the police, he said:
"Please warn the thief that he is carrying death with him,
And that the radioactive material cannot be successfully hidden.
As long as he has it in his possession, it is affecting him disastrously!"
• A person who claims he knows God and is in union with Him;
• Must be contaminated by him!
• Only God’s contamination is not poisonous but health-giving, it is love.
• A Christian ought to become what God is, and "God is love."
(b). What God Did: "He Sent His Son" (vs 9-11):
“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.”
Two things to note:
(1). It is a limitless love.
• It is a love that holds nothing back.
• God was willing to give his one and only son:
• The ultimate sacrifice he only had one son and he was willing to give him up!
• Wow! I’m amazed.
• I only have one son and given the choice between saving you or him;
• He wins every time! The decision isn’t even a close one, he wins!
Because God’s love is far greater than human love,
• It is not self-centred, but all embracing;
• God was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice!
• He communicated his love not only in. words but in deeds.
• True love is never static or inactive.
Ill:
• A monk who lived in medieval times, announced to the people;
• That he would be preaching next Sunday evening on “The Love of God.”
• The following Sunday evening the congregation gathered.
• It was the end of the day and the light no longer came in through the cathedral windows,
• In the darkness of the altar,
• The monk lighted a candle and carried it to the crucifix.
• First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns,
• Next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound.
• In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the chancel.
• There was nothing else to say!
“God demonstrated his love for us while we were still enemies”….he sent Jesus!
Ill:
• When I first met people from Charminster Chapel;
• I was living in my home city of Coventry.
• During World War II, Winston Churchill was forced to make a painful choice.
• The British secret service had broken the Nazi code and they informed Churchill;
• That the Germans were going to bomb Coventry.
• That left Churchill with two alternatives:
(1) To evacuate the citizens and save hundreds of lives at the expense of indicating to the Germans that the code was broken; or
(2) To take no action, which would kill hundreds but keep the information flowing and possibly save many more lives.
Churchill had to make a painful choice:
• History records for us that he opted for the second course of action.
• He allowed 100’s of innocent people in the city of Coventry to be killed.
• So that ultimately he might save many more lives.
• A sacrifice was made, so that others might live.
Now in a far greater way:
• God had a choice.
• Humanity or Jesus!
• Wages of sin is death!
• Someone had to pay!
Note:
• This is the only place in the epistle:
• Where Jesus is called God's ‘One and only’ or ‘only-begotten Son’.
• The title literally means "unique, the only one of its kind."
• The fact that God sent His Son into the world is one evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ.
• Babies are not sent into the world-from some other place;
• They are born into the world.
• As the perfect man, Jesus was born into the world,
• But as the eternal Son, He was sent into the world.
• But the sending of Christ into the world,
• And His death on the cross, were not prompted by man's love for God.
• They were prompted by His love for man.
• The world's attitude toward God is anything but love!
(2). It was a purposeful love.
Two purposes are given for Christ's death on the cross:
• (1). That we might live through Him (verse 9)
• (2). That He might be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (verse 10).
The death of Jesus Christ:
• Was not an accident;
• It was an appointment.
• He did not die as a weak martyr,
• But as a mighty conqueror.
Verse 9: Jesus Christ died that we might live "through Him":
• It is something of a paradox that Christ had to die so that we may live!
• But that is so true of Jesus in so many ways.
Quote: Gregory of Nazianzus, A.D. 381:
• “Who was Jesus
• He began His ministry by being hungry, yet He is the Bread of Life.
• Jesus ended His earthly ministry by being thirsty, yet He is the Living Water.
• Jesus was weary, yet He is our rest.
• Jesus paid tribute, yet He is the King.
• Jesus was accused of having a demon, yet He cast out demons.
• Jesus wept, yet He wipes away our tears.
• Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver, yet He redeemed the world.
• Jesus was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, yet He is the Good Shepherd.
• Jesus died, yet by His death He destroyed the power of death.”
Verse 10: The death of Christ is described as an "atoning sacrifice."
• John has used this word before (chapter 2 verse 2),
• It simply means that Jesus death has satisfied God’s holy law. A price was paid!
Quote: A.H. Strong
“God requires satisfaction because He is holiness,
but He makes satisfaction because He is love.”
Ill:
• Think of the human race aboard a hijacked jet-liner flying through time.
• God himself directed its takeoff from the divine control-tower.
• The initiator of all evil, whom we call the Devil, Managed to get a boarding pass.
• When the plane reached its cruising altitude,
• The Devil produced his weapons, threatened the pilot,
• And took control of the aircraft and all its passengers.
• Thus the plane hopped on fearfully through history;
• From airport to airport.
• Until it was caught on the tarmac at Jerusalem,
• An outpost of the Roman empire, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
• Where the Son of God offered himself as sole hostage;
• In exchange for the passengers and crew.
NOW IN VIEW OF GOD’S LOVE FOR US:
• John writes that we ought to love one another!
• Notice how John puts it in verse 7:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God”
• Human love is a response to divine love.
• We love because God loved us.
• We did not deserve his love, but we are the grateful recipients of that love!
• So too the people we come into contact with.
• We might not naturally want to show love towards certain people;
• But our love is a reflection of God’s love, it is to be all embracing.
Quote:
“For God so loved the world, not just a few,
The wise and great, the noble and the true,
Or those of favoured class or rank or hue.
God loved the world. Do you?”
Quote:
• In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote,
• "Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbour act as if you did.
• As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets.
• When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.
• If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more.
• If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."
Love is our responsibility:
• If we claim to know God we can’t do anything but love, ‘cause God is love.
• So important is this truth that John repeats this command in verse 11:
• Only in this verse he gives it yet another spin;
• This time he presents it as a privilege as well as a responsibility:
• "Since God so loved us, we ought to love one another".
• Once we realise what God did for us through Christ on the cross,
• Our normal response ought to be a deeper love towards Him;
• And a deeper desire to love one another.
• The more we understand the meaning of the Cross,
• The greater will be our love for Christ and the- greater our concern for one another.
(3) What God Is Doing: "God lives In Us"
(verses 12-16)
“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 Saviour 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.”
(1). We are indwelt:
• At our conversion God did something in us!
• He did not just make us students and require us to study his book.
• He did not make us spectators that are watching a deeply moving event.
• We are actual participants in the great drama of God's love!
Ill:
• Described the Church as a football match;
• 22 players running around like mad, whilst the crowd sit back and watch on.
• He did not make us spectators but actual participants;
• We are required to get involved and demonstrate love.
• We are indwelt by his spirit;
• That we might become the instruments that demonstrate God’s love!
(2). We are a visual picture:
Ill:
In order to save money,
• A college drama class purchased only a few scripts of a play;
• And cut them up into the separate parts.
• The director gave each. player his individual part in order
• And then started to rehearse the play.
• But nothing went right.
• After an hour of -missed cues and mangled sequences, the cast gave up.
• At that point, the director sat the actors all on the stage and said:
• "Look, I'm going to read the entire play to you, so don't any of you say a word."
• He read the entire script aloud, and when he was finished,
• One of the actors said: "So' that's what it was all about!"
• And when they understood the entire story,
• They were able to fit their parts together and have a successful rehearsal.
When you read verses 12-16, you feel like saying, "So that's what it's all about!"
• John tells us that the invisible God;
• Has made himself visible in his Son Jesus Christ.
• When he took upon Himself a human body,
• He was able to reveal God to us ill: “image of the invisible God”.
• But Jesus is no longer here on earth.,
• How, then, does God reveal Himself to the world?
• The answer is simple; He reveals Himself through the lives of His children.
• Men cannot see God, but they can see us.
Quote:
“The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
Are read by more than a few,
But the one that is most read and commented on
Is the gospel according to you.
You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day
By the things that you do and the words that you say,
Men read what you write, whether faithless or true
Say, what is the gospel according to you?
Do men read His truth and His love in your life,
Or has yours been too full of malice and strife?
Does your life speak of evil, or does it ring true?
Say, what is the gospel according to you?”
• God reveals Himself to the world;
• Through the lives of His children.
Notice: the repetition of one particular word in these verses:
• The little word ‘lives’ or ‘abide’ or ‘dwell’.
• It is used six times in these four verses (vs 12-16).
• This is the key to finding the desire and the power to love one another;
• Does it remind you of another Bible passage – John chapter 15!
Ill:
John chapter 15.
• Without him – nothing!
• With him – fruit – fruit of the spirit is LOVE!
The life of a Christian who abides in God's love is a potent witness for God in the world.
• Men cannot see God,
• But they can see His love moving us to deeds of helpfulness and kindness.
• If we abide in His love, we must share this love with others.
• Whenever we share this love, it is proof in our own hearts that we are abiding in Christ.
