PERFECTING LOVE
Text: I John 4:7 - 21
1 John 4:7-21 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (8) Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. (9) God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. (10) In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. (11) Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. (12) No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. (13) By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. (14) And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. (15) God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. (16) So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. (17) Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. (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 reached perfection in love. (19) We love because he first loved us. (20) Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. (21) The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also (NRSV).
All you have to do is listen to popular music and you will hear all kinds of viewpoints about what love is and how people look for it and are disgusted or heartbroken when love has disappointed them. Listen to some song titles in popular music about love… Tainted Love (Soft Cell), What’s Love Got To Do With It? (Tina Turner), You Give Love A Bad Name (Bon Jovi), Love Stinks (J Geils Band), Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places (Mickey Gilley). Way before these songs were ever recorded, love has been misunderstood and misrepresented. Today’s text tells us how love is about how genuine unconditional love is from God.
In our world today, we have a lot of misunderstanding about what genuine unconditional love is as so many try to find love apart from God. Without God’s love we are incomplete! The Gospel section of the lectionary (John 15:1- 8) helps us understand that apart from Jesus Christ we can do nothing. Jesus tells us that He is the Vine, God our Heavenly Father is the Vine grower and that we are the branches. Tying the Gospel portion of the lectionary (John 15:1 - 8) to today’s text (I John 4:7 -21) we can draw the conclusion that if we are detached from the life giving vine that we are incomplete, insecure, dissatisfied and spiritually starving.
Today we will explore insecure love, unrequited love, and perfecting love.
INSECURE LOVE
What is it like for those who have not experienced God’s love? Are they incomplete?
1) Fear: How many times did you run to your parents when something scared you?
One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, "Mommy, will you stay with me all night?" Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, "I can't dear. I have to sleep in Daddy's room." A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, "The big sissy!" http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/f/fear.htm Why do children want the comforting of their parents when they are scared? Every child wants to feel secure.
2) God shaped hole: Is there a God shaped hole in their lives? Do they suffer from separation anxiety? Saint Augustine ‘s (354 - 430) answer was yes. Augustine had tried to fill the God-shaped hole in his life. He tried to fill that God-shaped hole in his life with everything but God. In his quest he was lustful, ignorant and aimless. He was like a sailing ship on windless sea. He had separation anxiety looking for love in all the wrong places until he found fulfillment in God’s love when he at last concluded in his writing entitled Confessions he said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee”. How many are there who go on a quest looking to fill that God-shaped hole in their lives only to fill empty?
How many people in the world today operate on fear while looking for God’s love?
1) Counterfeit: How many spiritually blind people and have listened to the blind leaders who preyed on them only to fall in a ditch of doubt and despair? How many things are there in the commercial world that cater to some fear or insecurity with the promise that “their solution will fix it”? How many of them looked for counterfeit answers? How many fake telemarketing calls do you get a week where some pretender is trying to prey on your insecurity?
2) Merry-go-round existence: Can that not lead to a merry-go-round existence? Someone (Pastor Bob Botsford) succinctly describes the potential merry-go-round existence of many in one of his devotions where he describes a “restless existence”: “Well, I tried money, and I wasn’t happy, so I had an affair. That was painful, so I tried counseling. That didn’t work, so I tried meditation. That felt like a waste of time, so I buried myself in my career. That got money again, but I’m still not happy.” It’s aimless”. (Pastor Bob Botsford. Face to Fear. Rancho Sante Fe, California: Horizon Christian Fellowship, 2012, p. 126).. How could anyone in that situation ever feel complete? How can anyone who is detached from God experience His love?
UNREQUITED LOVE
What do we call it when we love someone who does not love us back?
1) Unrequited love: We call it unrequited love. What might that look like in a single picture? I just recently saw a picture on the internet where a man was getting down on his knee for what his gal might have thought was proposal until she saw that he was tying his shoe. Her holding her own forehead with her right hand was the part of the picture that leaves you to draw that conclusion. “Is God’s love for us an unrequited love?” I cannot help but to wonder how the rest of that evening went for that fellow. Was there a next date or was that the last date? Charlie brown once said, Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter like unrequited love. Streiker, L. D. (2000). Nelson’s big book of laughter: thousands of smiles from A to Z (electronic ed., p. 249). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.. Do we ever get careless with our love for God?
2) God took a chance on us: Someone (Thomas Lane Butts) once said, “God took a chance on love in both creation and redemption”. (Thomas Lane Butts. Tigers In The Dark. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978, pp. 107-108). Love can tear down walls. Love can build bridges. When love is not there, an emptiness is felt.
What does God do when His love is rejected? God loves us any way. God’s love for us is far beyond our ability to comprehend it! In his book The 10 Most Common Objections to Christianity, Alex McFarland bluntly puts it well when he mentions the depth and breadth of God’s love for us that is far beyond our comprehension: “To accomplish our salvation, the Creator allowed Himself to be murdered by His own creation.”(Alex. McFarland. The 10 Most Common Objections to Christianity, Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers, 2007, p. 198). There is truly no greater love than what Jesus Christ has for us because Jesus died for friends as well as enemies (see Romans 5:8 and John 15:13).
PERFECTING LOVE
Do we even know what it means to have the perfecting love of God? The Greek word for perfect (mentioned in I John 4:18) is “telios” which means to complete. Without God’s love we would be incomplete and fear judgment day. God wants all of us to have the blessed assurance of abiding in His love. Even unbelievers will want to renege on their unbelief on their judgment day so that they could possess that perfect love that gives believers assurance that they themselves are lacking! The fear of unbelievers has to do with punishment (I John 4:16 - 17).
God wants everyone to reach the ability to be perfected by His love! Does our love reflect God’s sacrificial love? Consider this next story.
During the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, sentenced a soldier to be shot for his crimes. The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier’s fiancée had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking. When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands. Cromwell’s heart was touched and he said, “Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. Curfew shall not ring tonight!” Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. [original source Our Daily Bread] Biblical Studies Press. God wants us to exhibit this kind of “perfecting” love---the kind that goes the distance because Jesus went the distance for friends and enemies on the cross for our salvation! What’s God’s love got to do with it? Everything because God does not want us to be incomplete, He wants us to abide in His love. Today’s text tells us that God also wants us to be contagious and extravagant in the ways that we love others in our words and actions in His Name as He has lavished His love on us!
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
