Living in the Light of a God who is Love
1 John 4:7-5:5
God is Love (4:7-8, 16)
Because God is Love, He sent His Son as a Sacrifice for us (4:9-11)
Because God is Love, He sent His Spirit to Live in us (4:12-16)
God’s love in us produces Confidence and eliminates Fear (4:17-18)
God’s love in us produces Love and eliminates Hate (4:19-21)
God’s love in us produces Obedience and eliminates Sin (5:1-5)
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Intro
Good Morning.
As I was preparing for today’s message I ran across a great illustration to help us start out and better understand love and ourselves a bit better.
Scenario 1
Imagine for a moment you are on a cruise.
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Your enjoying life and a great vacation
But the cruise ship hits something and begins to sink.
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While everyone is heading to the life rafts, you grab a bottle of water and a bag of tail mix in your pocket and head to the life rafts. Nobody else knows you have these things.
So there you are in the life rafts, the ship has sunk and you are bobbing around in the open sea. Eventually you spot an island and start heading toward it. As you get closer you see the island is very barren.
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No green plants, no sign of drinkable water, just very rocky. As continue to row toward the island, another on the boat says, “Boy, I sure am thirsty.” What do you do? Do you say, here I have some water. Have some of mine.
Scenario 2
Now let me change things a little. Imagine the same scenario with your ship sinking and you having some water and trail mix, but as you get closer to this island,
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it appears lush and well-watered with trees producing fruit. Maybe you even see a waterfall in the distance. It is a veritable tropical paradise. And as you row toward the island, a person on the boat says, “Boy, I sure am thirsty.”
Does what you do change from the first scenario?
I think for most of us, that we would all be more likely to give our lifeboat mate some water in the second scenario. In fact you might be more generous and be willing to give some of your trail mix as well and offer it up to everyone saying, let’s celebrate, we found land!
If there is a difference between how you would respond, my question is why?
You are the same person in each scenario. I would argue that you aren’t any more or less moral or ethical of a person. What is the change that has occurred?
The only change is what you see before you. You have seen a tropical paradise that you are heading for and it has put a different perspective on what you have with you.
In Scenario 1, what you have could be the only water and food that anyone has forever.
In scenario 2, what you have pales in comparison to what you are heading for, so with that perspective you feel freer to give and help those in need.
I believe that anyone that is given these 2 scenarios would be more tempted in scenario 1 to be selfish and greedy and in scenario 2, we’d all be much more likely to be “selfless,” “generous” and “loving.”
It has nothing to do with us being a better person in one scenario over the other. It has everything to do with what you believe to be true about your future and what is ahead of you.
Illustration and opening from https://christthetruth.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/beloved-let-us-love/
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One of the over-arching arguments of this letter of John is God has loved us and shown us His love because He is Love! And it is because of who He is that He does the things He has done for us in the past and that He provides for us in the future, and when we focus on and understand these realities, they change our view and they enable you to truly love and experience a transformed life.
This is why John is trying to encourage the people not to believe the false teachings but to focus on and believe the truth of who God is and what He has done, because right beliefs really matter to our lives.
Transition
So turn with me to
1 John 4:7-5:5
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Today we are going to focus on God and His love and as we do, we are going to see how that changes 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.
Pray
Ok, so John talks about God’s love and he talks about how when we have truly seen and understood God’s love for us, the affect that should have on our lives and how we live.
And John begins by saying that
God is Love
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We see this in verse 8 and 16. God is Love.
Now it is important to understand what John did not say so we can truly understand this.
He didn’t say God is loving. While He most certainly is, that is not what is said. To say God is loving would be a character quality of God, and it certainly is, but that is not what he says.
He also doesn’t say love is God. Some people make the saying God is love to mean the opposite as well. And by that they mean that love is the greatest thing. Now while love is pretty great, love is not the greatest in itself. In fact, real love, I don’t believe can be experienced, apart from knowing God’s love.
And part of really knowing God’s love is knowing that God is love.
It is not just a character trait, it is his identity.
Must understand the Trinity
To truly understand this requires that we truly understand the Trinity. God is love and has been loving throughout eternity past among the members of the Trinity. And when we begin to understand the Trinity and the perfect love shared within the Trinity, then we can begin to understand and see the love that God has shown us. Because there was no need for God to create humans or anything. God was not lonely. He was in perfect fellowship within himself and experienced perfect love within Himself.
But because God IS love, that Love that was being experienced within the Trinity overflowed to the point that God wanted to share that Love for His glory. So He created. He created the universe and all that is in it and He created mankind to Love, not because He had to, but because God IS LOVE and sharing that love brings glory to God.
Transition
Now because there was no need to create us, and because God is love and He created us out of abundance of His love and for His glory, we see the most unbelievable demonstration of the fact that God is love when
He sent His Son as a Sacrifice for us
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1 John 4:9-10 - 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.
When we understand that God is love and that is seen in the Trinity and that He loves us by being willing to sacrifice His Son so we could experience that perfect love, our vision of things begins to change.
God is not a Tyrant – God is Love
Too often we have a view of God as a tyrant, someone who has created us for His own evil desires as some experiment. But that is not who God is. While we are created for His Glory, His glory is achieved as He loves us and as we are changed by His love and respond to His love.
He is not a tyrant. He is Love and that love has been clearly expressed through his willing sacrifice of His Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, for us.
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But it is not only through sending his Son as a sacrifice for us, but because God is love,
He sent His Spirit to Live in us
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1 John 4:12-13
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.
God not only made it possible to share in and experience His love for us through sacrifice, but He has given us His Spirit so we can begin to experience that love the moment we believe in and receive Jesus as our Savior and are given the Spirit to indwell us.
And as we grow in our knowledge of the Lord and His great love, we learn to rely on and trust in the Lord even more and our life changes.
As His Love grows in us we experience continual transformation from the life of slavery to sin that we were caught up in to a life more like Christ’s.
Transition
And John tells us as he goes on in this section that
God’s Love in us produces Confidence and eliminates Fear
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1 John 4:17-18
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 we recognize that God is truly a God who IS Love and experience God’s love in greater ways we will see continual transformation in our life as we live more confidently with greater peace and less fear.
God back to the illustration I began with.
When we can see how great and Loving God really is, it helps us to live and act with confidence no longer worrying about things as much in the present, but anticipating our future.
It is like seeing the tropical paradise we are headed to.
You’re thirsty? I’ve got water to give!
You’re in need? I can sacrifice now to meet your needs because I have a Father who loves me and really does give good gifts. I can trust Him fully to meet my needs and I know that I have so much more awaiting me as an inheritance!
As I grow in relationship with the Lord, I am not fearing seeing the Lord, but have great confidence, not in myself, but in Him who is loving and has changed me as is apparent in the actions that I find myself doing, like sacrificing, and giving to others, etc.
That comes from the Spirit of God in my, not from my own fleshly desires.
For those without relationship and Love of Father – No confidence, only fear
But for the one here who does not have a relationship with God, we have only our selfish, sinful flesh to rely on. That won’t produce a godly confidence in your life, but as the author of Hebrews says,
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“only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Hebrews 10:27)
Be asking yourself – what do I believe about God?
Do I believe He is Love?
Do I believe He demonstrated that Love for my through the Sacrifice of Jesus?
Do I believe that Jesus is my only hope of salvation?
If you do, you can receive Him, and experience His great Love through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and live with confidence and less fear.
For those with no growth
And for those who have trusted the Lord as Savior, but are not growing in that relationship, but continue to live as mere infants, you are going to be like the one Paul describes in
Ephesians 4:4
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As an infant “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
You will never experience the confidence of your salvation and the life comes from recognizing fully the God who is Love.
So when we grow in our recognition of the God who is Love, we live in greater confidence of our life with less fear or worry.
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But as we grow in our recognition of our God who is Love, we also see that
God’s love in us produces Love and eliminates Hate
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1 John 4:19-21
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.
When we recognize that God is Love and that He has loved us so sacrificially, we are able to truly love others.
Now this love that we are able to express is a Holy, Godly love.
We too often think of love as a feeling and not what it really should be, a commitment and act of our will, even in the face of not desiring to act in that way in our flesh.
It is what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13, the verses you often hear at a wedding, but are really given in the context of the church. He says in
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
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4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Real, holy and godly love is an active love that
is kind when it would feel better to be Harsh.
I not rude when it would feel better to let a person have it verbally
Does not bring out the list of things that have been done but already forgiven.
Real and holy love requires the strength of the Lord to willfully love others when it is far easier to just love yourself.
But to love that way requires knowing God’s love deeply because that is what enables us to Love our enemies and not Hate others.
We can only do that as we keep a view to the eternity we have been given, the paradise we are heading for with all that we have been given.
When we have that view, it is then that we see things with the proper perspective and can truly love others, sharing with them the things we have.
When we are not loving others, the reality is, is that we are not truly understanding the love we have been given and we are not truly loving the Lord either.
When we experience and Know God’s Love and that He is Love, we will love others and while we will still hate the evil things that people do, we will recognize that they do them because they have not experienced God’s Love and do not know the God who IS love yet, and it helps us to respond to them with the love of God sharing with them the good news of salvation!
Transition
So we see that as we grow in our relationship with the Lord, knowing Him more and more and experiencing His love and recognizing that He is Love, we will live in confidence of our eternity, grow in Love of others, and finally, we see that
God’s love in us produces Obedience and eliminates Sin
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1 John 5:1-5
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.
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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.
When we know God and that He truly is a God who is Love, obedience to His word will not be a burden, but a joy, knowing that He has given us His word out of who He is – Love – and that it is for our good to live the very best life we can.
Conclusion
How are you living your life?
Are you living in light of Who God really is? A God who IS Love? A God who has made available to us a life of fullness and completeness in a paradise that has no suffering or pain?
Or are you living in the life boat of life believing the lies of Satan that this is as good as it gets and you better hang on to what you have, your bottle of water and trail mix, because hoarding that is going to help you survive a little longer.
Is that the life you are living? A life to survive?
Don’t you want to really live?
If you do, then live in light of the God who is Love by experiencing His great love by believing in receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior.
John just told us that the only one who overcomes the world is he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
And when you put your trust in Him, believing in Him, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, God’s indwelling presence in you that will strengthen you to live and to continually grow in your knowledge of the God who is love, so that you don’t just survive until the end of this physical life, but that you truly live fully now and eternally in His presence in the future.
Sin may have caused the ship of this world and society to be sinking, but God has sent a Rescue through His Son, and He is bringing us to the paradise of being in His presence!
I want to close with the words of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah and through Jesus’ own words in Revelation.
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Isaiah 55:1-2
1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
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Revelation 21:6-7
Jesus says
"It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
If you want to live now and forever more, receive Christ by confessing that belief in Him as the Lord, the one who died for you and rose again from the dead.
And if you have already received Him and yet have been believing lies about Who God really is, repent, open your eyes to the truth, follow the leading of the Spirit and grow in your knowledge of Him through His word, through prayer, through fellowship and through worship so you can stop living in the shadow of lies and start living in the light of the God who really is Love.
Let’s pray.
