Believe 21: Love
April 12, 2015
1 John 4:7-21
In her famous song, Tina Turner said “love is nothing more than a second hand emotion.” Of course, the Beatles told us, “all you need is love.” While Elvis said, “love me tender.” Of course, the best love song of all time is by Elvis, “Can’t help falling in love.” That was my first dance with Debbie!
We are now in week 21 of Believe. WOW! We’ve entered the home stretch. If you remember, the series is based on thinking like Jesus, acting like Jesus, which leads us to be more like Jesus. In these final 10 weeks, we will be looking at the Fruit of the Spirit. So, let’s get moving . .
George Wald was a scientist who was intrigued with how the eye works. He is most remembered for is studies on how vitamin A impacts our vision. His research was so important and highly thought of, he shared in winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1967.
He accomplished a great deal in his life. But when speaking of his Nobel Prize, he made this statement:
“What one really needs is not the Nobel prize, but love. How do you think one gets to be a Nobel Prize winner? Wanting love, that’s how. Wanting it so bad one works all the time. He works and works and ends up as a Nobel Prize winner. It’s a consolation prize. What matters is love.”
That’s a powerful statement by Wald. Now, of course, not every Nobel prize winner had the same view as Walk. Donald Miller recently wrote a book called Scary Close. In the book, he wrote, “What if some of the most successful people in the world got that way because their success was fueled by a misappropriated need for love?”
That’s what I think George Wald was saying. What we want is love. We just don’t know how to find it. But sadly, for so many people the message they’ve received, especially the message they’ve experienced is that love is conditional.
We think we will find love through our performance, or personality or our looks. We learn over time, that’s not the way it works.
So we work long hours. We work the room. We work out. We work in hopes of finding love. Why? Because this is what we have learned. Human love is conditional. Our first thoughts when something goes wrong, or when we have a disagreement is that the one who loves us is going to walk out on us.
There was a guy who whispered to his girl friend, “I love you.” She couldn’t accept the wonderful words, so she leaned in close and asked, “Why?” Being caught off guard, the guy stammered and stuttered and the moment was lost. We want to be loved unconditionally, yet at the same time, we want to know why someone would love us.
Maybe that’s why it’s so difficult for us to accept the heart of God’s message ~ For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
God loves us. Is that so difficult to accept? For so many of us, yes it is. We struggle because we claim we aren’t worthy to be loved. We don’t deserve God’s love, we aren’t good enough, we’ve too many bad things, we’ve hurt people, we’ve sinned . . . over and over and over again.
We believe we are the scum of the earth. Nobody should love us. We are to be pitied, thrown away, thrown into the big trash heap outside of Jerusalem, the place called Gehenna. Yet, God sent Jesus into this world not for His sake, but for our sake. He left the place of perfection to live and suffer and die, not for His sake, but for yours and mine. Then He shattered the hold death has on us, and gives us eternal life. In fact, He gives us this life right here and right now, in this world.
But we have to believe Jesus is who He says He is . . . AND we need to believe that God really, really, really loves us!
Each day as we live our lives, Jesus loves us unconditionally and sacrificially, and He offers continual and ongoing forgiveness. Part of what makes this so difficult is the fact that Jesus then asks us, His followers, to do the same . . . to offer the same unconditional and sacrificial love and forgiveness in all of our relationships.
That’s not always easy. But that’s the call of Jesus. This often separates the true followers from the phonies and wanna-bees. We are called to love, because God loved us and in fact commands us to go into the world and love others.
Listen to these words from the Apostle John in 1 John —
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
19 We love because He first loved us.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
I don’t hear God saying I will love you . . .
. . . If you do good, I’ll love you.
. . . If you don’t sin, I’ll love you.
. . . If you go to church 8 times a week, I’ll love you.
. . . If you give more of your money, I’ll love you.
. . . If you serve more, I’ll love you.
Bottom line, God loves you! It’s that simple and that profound!
That’s not who God is.
We think if we obey all of the rules, then God will love us. Maybe it was that way when you were growing up. If you obeyed, you were loved, if you didn’t you did not experience love. Sometimes that continues on in life. We then begin to think “If I obey, and follow the rules, then God will love me.
But that is not God. The word which is used over and over again in the Greek is the word AGAPE. It’s a word which describes love. The word is so different in Greek, that scholars believe the word – agape – was a Christian invention. Agape was almost non-existent before the New Testament was written.
So, a new definition of love was needed. We learn that God’s love, His agape love is unconditional love. Agape love comes from God and is God’s decision to love us unconditionally and sacrificially. No strings attached. God loves you.
The really cool thing is that God loves us in spite of us. God knows we don’t have our act together. He knows we sin. But we have this declaration from Paul in Romans 5:8, proclaiming — God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Did you hear that? Christ died for us! We just celebrated that last week at Good Friday! Jesus suffered on the cross for you and me. He didn’t need to. He could have called down legions of angels who probably were wanting Him to cry out “Abba, Father, send the angels! Rescue me!” But Jesus didn’t! Why? Because He loves you so much, He was willing to die on that cross, so you wouldn’t have to. Tell me . . . is that not love?
You see, God pours His love into us. Just as parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles pour their love into a young child. The hope is that this helpless child will receive amazing unconditional love. They don’t expect the child to love them as much as they love the child. The main concern is not that the child loves them as much as they love the child, but they want to see the child grow up and deliver that same healthy love to their spouse, to their children, to their neighbor . . . and whenever they are delivering that healthy love to others it is a reminder — it’s evidence of the unconditional love given to the child. It’s the same with God’s love.
You and I did nothing to merit God’s love. But God loves us because that’s who He is. John very simply tells us God is love (1 John 4:8).
Three simple words. A subject, verb and direct object. God is love. Not just any kind of love. Agape love. He chooses to love us because He can do nothing other than who and what He is.
Understand there are 2 other words for love in Greek, philos and eros. Philos is more of a brotherly love, and eros is the love between husband and wife. In this passage, between verse 7 and 21, the word love is used 27 times, and every time it is AGAPE love. John wants us to know God’s love for us is sacrificial and He wants our love to be the same.
We can say we love. And we can love . . . until somebody hurts us. We love . . . until somebody leaves us. We love . . . until we find someone better to love.
But God cannot love you more than He loves you now. We think if we did more He would love us more. We think if we had not done something, He would love us more.
But we are wrong. You cannot do anything that will cause God to love you more. You also can’t do anything which would cause Him to love you less. God’s love is an active love. “For God so loved the world that He gave…” God’s love is a verb. It is active. It is dynamic and powerful.
When we really experience God’s love, it should change us. It’s really difficult to give love when you’ve never received it. If you don’t know love, how can you give it?
John’s point is — — you will give the kind of love you have received. Receive conditional love and you will give conditional love. Receive unconditional love and you will learn to give unconditional love. Not perfectly. At least not on this side of heaven. But you can learn to give a love that is unlike the love the world gives.
The early church did. There was a guy named Tertullian. He was a church leader who lived in North Africa in the late 100's. He was a prolific writer about the Christian faith. As he was writing to non-believers, he wrote ~
But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. They say, “See, how they love one another . . . See, how they are ready even to die for one another.”
People who love. People who would die for each other. Even the pagans could see that something had gotten into these people. That something was God’s love.
Once they experienced the power of God’s love, the people were changed. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if His church was known by their love?
Brennan Manning said, “God loves you unconditionally, as you are, not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be.”
George Wald was correct. What we want is love. What matters is love. You can stop working for it. Just receive it. Let his love mark you with this message: God loves you. Period.
