A group of American tourists were taking a bus tour in Rome led by an English-speaking guide. Their first stop was a basilica in one of Rome’s big town squares, with several lanes of relentless Roman traffic. After they were all safely dropped off, the group climbed the steps for a quick tour of the church.
Then they spread out to board the bus, which was now parked across the street from the church. The frantic guide shouted for the group to stay together. He hollered out to them, “You cross one by one, they hit you one by one. But if you cross together, they think you will hurt the car! They won't hit you.” (Barbara Brokhoff, Grapes of Wrath or Grace, CSS Publishing, 1994, page 12; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s a pretty good reason to stay together. However, there are many more good reasons to stay together and love one another, even when it’s hard to love. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 John 4, 1 John 4, where the Bible gives us five good reasons to love, especially in times when you just don’t feel like it.
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (ESV)
The very essence of God is love itself. That means God could never stop loving you just as the sun could never stop shining.
Les and Leslie Parrott, in their book on Relationships, put it this way: “The sun only shines, just as God only loves. It is the nature of the sun to shine, to offer warmth and light. And it is the nature of God to love. We are free to get away from the sun – we can lock ourselves in a dark room – but we do not keep the sun from shining just because we put ourselves in a place where it cannot reach us.
“So it is with God’s love. We can reject it, but God keeps on loving us. No matter what our choices, God still loves. And because God loves us, a relationship with God is possible” (Les and Leslie Parrott, Relationships, Zondervan, 1998, p.172; www.PreachingToday.com)
You can know God personally, because God already knows and loves you. Please, don’t spurn that love. Instead, trust yourself to God’s love and get to know Him. Feel the warmth and light of His unconditional love. Then let that become reason number one to love others, who may or may not deserve it.
LOVE BECAUSE YOU KNOW THE GOD WHO IS LOVE.
Care for people, because you have experienced the God who cares. Show compassion, because you have a personal relationship with a compassionate Lord.
A couple of years ago (2017), Andy Armstrong was startled to see a man standing in his bedroom doorway in the middle of the night. Scared, he yelled for the man to get out of his house. By daybreak, he realized the disoriented man was lucky to be alive.
Armstrong was “dead tired” when he went to bed about 10 p.m. on a Friday night in March. He was exhausted from a weeklong work trip and desperate to get a good night's sleep. He was so tired, he forgot to lock the door on his house.
About 3:30 a.m. the light in his bedroom flipped on and Armstrong jolted awake. He caught a glimpse of a stranger who turned and padded down the hall.
“What are you doing here?” Armstrong yelled. “You need to get out of my house immediately.”
The stranger turned and said, “Oh, man, I'm sorry. I think I'm in the wrong house… I crashed my car.” His face was banged up and there was blood on his sleeves. “I don't know where I'm at,” he said.
Armstrong’s fear subsided and he asked the stranger, “Do you need help?”
“No,” the man said and walked out wearing Armstrong's shoes, leaving his own behind.
Armstrong immediately locked the door and called the police. It was then he noticed nearly every light in the house was on, along with the TV, and he found blood on the kitchen counter and a little bit on the floor.
Police found the man about 20 minutes later, walking through the neighborhood.
By daylight, it was clear what happened: The man blew through the stop sign at a T in the road, barreled through a yard and launched his car off a 35 to 40-foot embankment, clearing a span of open water on Lake Le Homme Dieu, before landing on the season's remaining ice.
The man, James Sundby, 38, had no drugs or alcohol in his system and he didn’t remember what happened. Alexandria Police Chief Rick Wyffels said, “He was cold and disoriented, but he walked away alive." (Mary Lynn Smith, “Surviving a crash, disoriented driver wanders into Minnesota home,” Star Tribune, 3-16-17; www.PreachingToday.com)
Sometimes, cold and disoriented people come crashing into our lives, bloody and bruised from life’s experiences. That’s the time to love them and bring them to the One you know from personal experience, who can heal and restore them.
First, love because you know God. Then second...
LOVE BECAUSE GOD LOVES YOU.
Care because the Lord cares for you. Show compassion, because God showed compassion for you.
1 John 4:9-10 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. 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. (ESV)
God sent His Son to satisfy the righteous requirements of His Law. God’s law demanded the death penalty for sin, but Christ paid that penalty on the cross when He died in our place for our sins. That’s how much God loved you even before you loved Him. Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us.” God didn’t wait for you to love Him first. No! He loved you first from an old rugged cross.
Michael Brown talks about a friend of his whose son dropped out of school in his mid-teens. He began associating with the wrong crowd, and his life was a mess.
One night, the boy staggered into his house at 3 a.m., completely drunk. His mother slipped out of bed and left her room. The father followed, assuming that his wife was in the kitchen, perhaps crying. Instead, he found her at her sons’ bedside, softly stroking his matted hair as he lay passed out drunk on the covers.
“What are you doing,” the father asked.
The mother answered, “He won’t let me love him when he’s awake.”
The mother stepped into her sons darkness with a love that existed even though he did not yet love her back. (Michael B. Brown, “God’s Man,” Men of Integrity, May/June 2002; www.PreachingToday.com)
Now, that’s the way God loved us. WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us. He loved us unconditionally, long before we ever loved Him.
1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (ESV)
God loved you first, so take the initiative to love others. Don’t wait for people to love you. Love them first whether or not they respond in kind.
1st, Love because you know God. 2nd, Love because God loves you. And 3rd...
LOVE BECAUSE GOD LIVES IN YOU AND YOU IN HIM.
Care for people, because God’s Spirit dwells in you. Show compassion, because the Lord abides in you and you in Him.
1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (ESV)
God is invisible, but our love makes Him visible to the world. God reveals His love through us; and in that way, His love comes to full completion. His love is fully realized. His love is perfected in us when we love one another.
It’s like the old song says, A bell isn’t a bell until you ring it. A song isn’t a song until you sing it. Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay. And love isn’t love until you give it away (Oscar Hammerstein). Love isn’t love until it expresses itself in tangible ways.
1 John 4:13-14 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (ESV)
How do we “see” the invisible God? How do we make him visible to the world and “testify that the Father has sent His Son? We do it when we love one another. That’s what Jesus prayed for on the eve of His crucifixion. He prayed that his followers would become “perfectly one,” so that the world [would] know that God sent Him (John 17:23).
In the days leading up to 9-11, fighting in Afghanistan between local groups and then the Taliban resulted in thousands of refugees pouring down into neighboring Peshawar, Pakistan. There they were squashed into tents and mud hovels in refugee camps in intense heat and poor sanitation. J. Dudley Woodberry and his wife Roberta were working in the refugee camps at the time. Woodbury describes what happened in the camps:
Conditions at one camp were harsher than at the others; so Roberta and her class took school supplies to the students so they had more than just blank slates with chalk. Another group of eight workers imported thousands of sandals for the children who ran around with bare feet on the rough parched ground. But they decided that they would also wash their feet as Jesus had. Woodberry’s daughter-in-law joined the group.
For a week they washed every foot with antibacterial soap, anointed with oil, and silently prayed for the child. Then they gave each of them new sandals, a quilt, and a shawl, plus a small bag of flour for every family. At first the sores, pus, pink eye, and dirt were revolting. But then Woodberry’s daughter-in-law felt a deep love as she silently prayed, “Dear Father, this little girl looks like she does not have anyone to care for her. Let my touch feel to her as if you are touching her. May she remember how you touched her this day, and may she seek after you hereafter. Thank you for those who seek you will find you.” Many children looked up and shyly smiled.
Sometime later, a teacher in one of the tents used for a refugee school asked her class, “Who are the best Muslims?” A girl raised her hand and replied, “the kafirs” (a term meaning unbelievers that is often used by Muslims for Christians). After the teacher recovered from her shock, she asked, “Why?” The young girl replied, “The Muslim fighters killed my father, but the kafirs washed my feet.” (Evelyne A. Reisacher, Joyful Witness in the Muslim World, Baker Academic, 2016, pgs. 112-113; www.PreacingToday.com)
When we love, even our enemies know that Jesus is real and lives in us. It’s the most powerful testimony we have, and it is motivating Muslims all over the world to follow Jesus today.
1 John 4:15-16 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (ESV)
God lives in those who confess His Son and live in love. In fact, those who live in love live in God.
Dr. John Stott put it this way: “When God created fish, he made them to live and thrive in water. Their gills are adapted to absorb oxygen from the water, and it is there they find their true identity, their true ‘freedom.’
“But suppose your little goldfish, swimming around in your little goldfish bowl, decided it wanted more ‘freedom’ and took a flying leap out of the bowl... If it landed on your carpet, then its bid for freedom would mean certain death.
“[Now], if fish were meant for water, what are people made for? What is the element we thrive in like fish thrive in water?
“The Bible says it is love. God made us for love like he made fish for water. He made us for love, because He is love, and we are created in His image. He gave us the capacity to love and to be loved, and when we get away from that, we’re like a fish out of water. Our very identity is found in loving God and loving others” (John Stott, “Freedom”, Preaching Today, Tape No. 102; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s especially true for the believer, who lives in the God who IS love.
So love, 1st of all, because you know God. 2nd, Love because God loves you. 3rd, Love because God lives in you and you in Him. Then 4th...
LOVE BECAUSE GOD HAS FORGIVEN YOU.
Care for people, because God will never condemn you. Show compassion, because you have nothing to fear on the day of judgment.
1 John 4:17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. (ESV)
God is love; and when we reflect that love, we can have confidence on judgment day!
1 John 4:18-19 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. We love because he first loved us. (ESV)
When you know that God loves you, you are free to love others. But when you fear condemnation, it’s hard to love and be loved. Love casts out fear, to be sure, but fear also casts out love.
So dear believing friend, don’t be afraid! God loves you and has forgiven you. As the Bible says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). So you can risk loving people, because God will never condemn you even if some people do.
David Prince talks about a family, who adopted an older child from an unspeakably horrific orphanage in another country. When they brought her home, one of the things they told her was that she was expected to clean her room every day. When she heard about that responsibility, she fixated on it and saw it as a way she would earn her family’s love. In other words, she isolated the responsibility and applied it to her existing frame of thinking that was shaped by life in the orphanage. Thus, every morning when her parents came in her room, it was immaculate and she would sit on the bed and would say, “My room is clean. Can I stay? Do you still love me?” Her words broke her new parents’ hearts.
Eventually, the girl learned that her parents loved her unconditionally and would never forsake her. She was no longer a visitor trying to earn her place in the family. She was an inseparable part of the family. When she realized that, she no longer feared being put out, even when her parents had to correct and discipline her. (David E. Prince, “How Biblical Application Really Works,” PreachingToday Skills Article, January 2018; www.PreachingToday.com)
Their love cast out her fear, and God’s love will do the same for you. As a believer in Christ, you are an inseparable part of His family. He will never condemn or disown you, so don’t be afraid to love!
Love because you know God, number 1. Number 2, love because God loves you. Number 3, love because God lives in you and you in Him. Number 4, love because God has forgiven you. And number 5...
LOVE BECAUSE YOU LOVE GOD.
Care for people, because you are committed to the Lord. Show compassion, because you have given yourself to Him.
1 John 4:20-21 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. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (ESV)
Loving God and loving people go hand in hand. You cannot love one without loving the other. So if you find it hard to love certain people, don’t love them for their sake; love them for God’s sake. Love them because you love Jesus!
Howard Hendricks, one of my professors at seminary, once sat on a plane that was delayed for takeoff. After a long wait, the passengers became more and more irritated. Hendricks noticed how gracious one of the flight attendants was as she spoke with them. After the plane finally took off, he told the flight attendant how amazed he was at her poise and self-control, and said he wanted to write a letter of commendation for her to the airline.
The stewardess replied that she didn't work for the airline company, but for Jesus Christ. She said that just before going to work she and her husband prayed together that she would be a good representative of Christ. (Lorne Sanny, “The Right Way to Respond to Authority,” Discipleship Journal, March/April 1982; www.PreachingToday.com)
She could love difficult people, because she loved Jesus and wanted to represent Him well. You do the same. Let your love for Jesus motivate you to love the difficult people in your life.
Love because you know God. Love because God loves you. Love because God lives in you and you in Him. Love because God has forgiven you, and love because you love God. In other words, love because of your relationship with God.
In Western Colorado there is a road called the Million Dollar Highway. How did it get its name? Some might say it cost a million dollars to build, since it runs through some very difficult terrain and at a high altitude. That’s not correct.
The real reason it's called the Million Dollar Highway is because waste material from the ore in gold mines was used as the bed for that highway, and not all the gold dust and nuggets were removed by the mining processes available at the time. As a result, there is a partial roadbed of gold that is probably worth a lot more than a million dollars. It is not the cost that gave it its name, but rather what is inside it.
The same is true with God’s command to love one another. Sure, it's costly sometimes, but its real value is what’s inside it – God Himself, the God who is love. (Leith Anderson, in the sermon How to Treat People, www.PreachingToday.com)
So love! Love even those who are difficult to love, because there you find God Himself!
