“All you need is Love”
1st John 4: 7-21
It would be virtually impossible to determine the number of love songs that have been written across the years. Lionel Richie wrote endless love. The Bee Gees wrote how deep is your love? Whitney Houston sang I will always love you. Google says it cannot offer a number of love songs ever written because by the time you counted them the number would be completely obsolete. According to writers it is the one topic that everyone wants to hear-being sung about-never goes out of style-always matters. In fact the Beatles wrote that all you need is love. Nothing else.
But larger than all that the apostle Paul wrote that these three things matter. Faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. We find the word love mentioned over 500 times in the Scripture. And over 20 times in the passage we’re reading today.
First John 4:7-21
The word John uses over and over here is the word agape. And it is one of several words used in the Scripture to define love. One is eros. It is romantic love. The kind we talk about often at Valentine’s day. There is phileo. It is brotherly love. We join the words adelphos and phileo to form Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Then there is the word agape and that is what John uses here. Every single time. It is love that has no restraints. No conditions. Does not matter if someone loves us back. The writer John is believed to be the same one who gave us the gospel of John, one, two, three John and also the amazing book of Revelation. His insight, his death, his passion speaks to us through this passage. Look with me at what John has to say about real love.
First of all real love is always a copy of the father’s love for us. In life we should look for models, examples, mentors who can help us become better people. Once a month I meet with 12 other pastors in this area for three hours to pray together, study together and to hear the teaching of pastors whom I greatly respect. Pastors who have grown in areas where I am still lacking. Because none of us have arrived and we all need the example of others and we will all benefit from the example of other disciples/believers/teachers. To his we meet together each month, iron sharpens iron and we all become better leaders.
Now every one of us should be meeting with a group of believers on a regular basis. Their influence rubs off on us and ours on them and together we grow. It is what Jesus did for 3.5 years with the disciples and he still expects us to do the same. And this is why. There is a simple formula here in this 2nd point.
2nd, Real love is not complete until we give it away. Look at these 3 truths with me. (1) Real love begins with God. John reminds us in this passage that God is love. He defines God in three ways in this little book. God is love. God is light. God is spirit. These are not simply attributes of God. They actually defined who God is. And real love begins with God. Verse seven.
(2) Real love validates our relationship with God. Love is what makes our relationship with God legit. Verse 8.
(3) Real love is what God uses to connect with his people. Verse 9. This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only son that we might have life. You see for over 1500 years as the Old Testament was being written down we see God making connection with his people through his prophets.
• Hosea teaches us to love even when someone is unfaithful.
• Jonah teaches us about God’s love for us even when we run from him.
• Amos describes how he lived among a group of people who had no love for their neighbor and points out to us why we simply cannot live that way.
We then see a period of 400 years-a time between the OT and NT where no Scripture was written and suddenly Jesus breaks on the scene. Time shifts from BC to A.D. all because that was the day that love took over. God clearly determined that preaching was not enough; simple words would not suffice. It was time for Jesus because love is best displayed in a person.
John shows us an amazing truth here. God’s love was made complete when he connected with you and me. And not until. That’s what John says. Verse 12. That doesn’t mean his love was imperfect. It doesn’t mean it was flawed in any way. It simply means there was so much of it that it naturally overflowed into the creation of man. And when God created man it was not long before God said it is not good for man to be alone. And man said amen!
3. Real love produces real confidence. Verses 17-19. This is the truth. It is a difficult thing to show love for someone or to receive love from someone if we lack confidence. You see Satan uses having a lack of confidence to breed jealousy, envy, resentment, doubt-a whole host of negative emotions. A lack of confidence in any relationship can destroy a marriage, killer friendship; it can seriously hurt both parties in the relationship. Repeatedly I have heard believers say pastor there is this one thing that I am afraid of will come back to haunt me on Judgment Day. I am afraid because of this particular sin God might say depart from me I never knew you. The word judgment gives us a picture of the judge’s gavel coming down the bench-it’s the final word with nothing else left to be said. But let me tell you what the final word in all of this is... It is love. Here’s how I know... In this way, love is made complete so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement.
Now let me be clear. Anyone who does not have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ on judgment day should be afraid. Because no one will pass through heavens doors without it. But if you have that relationship with Christ you have absolutely no reason whatsoever to be afraid on that day. There are several reasons why. John tells us this in verse 18. There is no fear in love; instead perfect love drives out fear. Perfect love drives out fear. Then he tells us why. He says because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. But this is what John is saying. John is telling us we can have confidence on Judgment Day if we will choose now to live in love. Love God. Love people. Now the person who does not love his brother will often experience shame. Why? Because fear expects punishment. But if we love we can expect to receive love. Because mature love has no fear. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we’re supposed to approach the throne of God with boldness and confidence.
Bottom line. If you are afraid of Judgment Day you must stop and deal with one of these two areas. (1) Make certain you have truly committed your life to Christ. Do you know for certain your saved? There should be no question in this area. (2) Love God. Love your brother. When we fear judgment we are showing that God’s love is not reached maturity in us. We are not spiritually mature until we have learned to truly love. You may say well there some people I don’t even like, much less love. I love them in the Lord. You know what that means? To clarify there’s usually a problem. But we have differences with people right? We have differences with people we know. Family. Friends. Those we work with. We often see things in different ways. But hopefully we can still love them. We also have differences with people who we have chosen not to get to know. Let me give you a few examples.
• The man or woman we work with RC weekly who happens to be gay.
• The man or woman who claims to be an atheist. A non-believer.
• The man or woman who practices a different faith. Perhaps they are Muslim. Scientologists. Mormon.
You say, what pastor I don’t agree with that lifestyle. I don’t believe that a person should practice a gay lifestyle. I don’t believe people should be atheists. I think the Muslim faith is not biblical. We’ll guess what? These are individuals who have a soul and need to be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot alienate ourselves from them. Jesus said you are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Now let’s be honest. Some of us have lost our saltiness. We bash this, criticize bat, we argue, we debate, we even name call. If you claim to truly love your brother or sister who has a different belief then you let me ask you when was the last time you met them for coffee or for lunch? To know them better? Sprinkle of that assault on the relationship.
(4) Real love is always consistent. Verses 20-21. John is just plain blunt here. You cannot say that you truly love God into you learn to love your brother. If you want to know if you truly love God and ask yourself... Do I truly love those who are different than myself?
Speaking of grandchildren. We were weren’t we? This is the new love of my life. Here she is smiling. And then her one week old picture. Awww. Let’s do that together. Awwww.
Max Depree who wrote the book Leadership is an Art had a granddaughter. They names her Zoe, the Greek word for life. She was born prematurely and weighed one pound, seven ounces, so small that his wedding ring could slide up her arm to her shoulder. The doctor who first examined her told them that she had a 5 to 10 percent chance of living three days. When he and his wife scrubbed up for their first visit and saw Zoe her for the first time, in ICU, she had 3 IVs, a monitor on each side of her chest, and a respirator tube and a feeding tube in her mouth.
To complicate matters, Zoe’s father had run off a month before Zoe was born. Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse named Ruth gave me my instructions.
"For the next several months, at least, you’re the surrogate father. I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I want you to rub her body and her legs and arms with the tip of your finger. While you’re caressing her, you should tell her over and over how much you love her, because she has to be able to connect your voice to your touch." Zoe survived.
God knew that we also needed both his voice and his touch. So he gave us not only the Word but also his Son. And he gave us not only Jesus Christ but also his body, the church. God’s voice and touch say, "I love you."
