Today’s message will concludes this sermon series on the attributes of God. In this series we had only skimmed the surface. There is so much more about the qualities of God, but we cover those things every time we open and read His word. God’s word, the Bible is His revelation of Himself to us.
Today we conclude with what is arguably one of the more well know qualities of God, and that being His love. Yet the world would be quick to quote the last part of 1 John 1:8 which is “God is love” and in doing so they justify all their immoral lifestyles and conduct. As we will see, the world cannot know what true love is because they do not know God.
1 John 4:7–16
Gregory Jones tells a true story of forgiveness and this kind of love in his book, “Embodying Forgiveness.” A Turkish officer raided and looted an Armenian home. He killed the aged parents and gave the daughters to the soldiers, keeping the eldest daughter for himself. Sometime later she escaped and trained as a nurse. As time passed, she found herself nursing in a ward of Turkish officers. One night, by the light of a lantern, she saw the face of this officer. He was so gravely ill that without exceptional nursing he would die. The days passed, and he recovered. One day, the doctor stood by the bed with her and said to him, “But for her devotion to you, you would be dead.” He looked at her and said, “We have met before, haven’t we?” “Yes,” she said, “we have met before.” “Why didn’t you kill me?” he asked. She replied, “I am a follower of Him who said ‘Love your enemies.” [1]
This woman understood the concept of God’s love. God’s love is unconditional, and is not based on our merits. Paul understood this when he wrote:
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
As sinners, we were enemies with God. Yet God loved us enough, in spite of our offenses to Him, to save us from our sins. When we discuss the love of God, it is the hardest to define. That is one reason why I left this attribute of God till last. All of God’s attributes are wrapped up in His love. Even God’s justice and God’s wrath are wrapped up in God’s love.
We cannot separate God into parts and do with one attribute one thing, and with another attribute, do another thing. All that God has determined, all that God does, all that God says, expresses all that God is. So when God redeems a man in love, or damns another man in justice, He’s not contradicting Himself, but justice and love are working together in the unitary Being of God.
In our passage today, we must put it into context of the whole of John’s letter. John is instructing the churches clarifying the message he has given before, and also giving the assurance of their faith. Numerous times John mentions what does it mean to know God. For example:
1 John 2:3–4 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
1 John 3:24b We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
1 John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
John is writing these things to assure his readers of their salvation:
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
So to know God is to obey God’s commandments, to experience His Spirit within us and to love as God loves.
Let’s go back and look at love. It is interesting to note that John is fond of that word “love” for he uses it, in its various forms,
43 times in this little letter of 5 chapters.
1 John 4:7–8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
“Wow I must know God because I love people(well, most people).” Herein is the problem, do we love as God loves? Let’s look for a moment at the phrase people love to quote: “for God is love.” We must understand what this is saying and not saying, taking the in whole of Scripture. “God is love” does not mean “Love is God.” Love does not define God, rather God defines what love truly is. It also means much more than God is a loving God. God loves because it is His very nature to love. And to know God is to love as He loves.
Now to understand God, we need to understand love - Remember God defines love, not the other way around. The world has no concept of true divine love, because the world does not know God.
The Greek had many words for love. "Erán" or "éros in Greek mean a passionate love, a love that desires the other for oneself., it is selfish love, sensual and impulsive. From this Greek word is where we get our words “erotic” and “ecstasy.” The word is not found in at all in the NT.
"Philein" or "philos" means solicitous love. Entails obligation, meaning “I love you if you love me.” And generally means friendship or fondness. Forms of this Greek word is found some 25 times in the NT.
"Agapé" or "agapán" means a self-sacrificing love. Often described as “divine love.” Always seeking the good of the object of it’s love. Unconditional love. Early pre-Biblical Greek – it meant love that made a distinction, by choice. Not based on emotions or feelings. It was the love of a higher for a lower. Not the other way around. Found in the NT 137 times as a verb, 116 times as a noun. 62 times it has been translated as “beloved” and always when referring to Christian brethren. KJV sometimes translates agapé as “charity.”
Paul gives a short essay on agape love in 1 Corinthians 13:
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails …
This kind of love is only a love God can love and only by those who know God. John goes on to define that love
1 John 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
God manifested – or showed or demonstrated His love. God sent His one and only Son, Jesus. That through Him we might live.
John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
And eternal life. And the very essence of eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus. Jesus defines what it means to have eternal life in his prayer. recorded by john the night before He went to the cross:
John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Knowing Jesus is life. Here again the Greek had two different words for "to know." One was a book or academic knowledge, the the other word was for experiential or intimate knowledge and that is the word here. We have many people who have an academic knowledge of Jesus but are as lost as they can be. To have life is to have an intimate, personal knowledge of Jesus.
We see people without Christ, we see dead men walking. These are people without life. Without Christ, there is no life, no true life. Now John defines agape love in real terms.
1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
God’s love was not in response to anything man has done. Man has certainly not loved God. If fact, we were enemies of God. If the truth be known, we hated God. Yet, God loved us in spite of all of that: “but that He loved us.” But that God loved us. God is wrathful and loving at the same time – how does that work? You cannot separate God’s wrath from His love.
We are sinners. We offend a most holy God. We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are by nature sinners. As sinners, the penalty of sin is death. And as such, we deserve the wrath of God to come down on us. But because God does love us, God sent Jesus to satisfy His wrath; “and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
God sent Jesus to die. That 50 cent theological word “propitiation,” some Bible translations may say “atoning sacrifice.” What it means is that God’s wrath was satisfied through a sacrifice. A payment had to be made to take away sin, to take away the rightful wrath of God.
Hebrews 9:22 … and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Can you see what God’s love is all about. It is all about what Jesus did for us on the cross. You cannot consider God’s love apart from the cross. When you see the cross, you see God’s love. “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23) God’s wrath must be satisfied, but because of His love, He paid the price Himself.
People who reject that love, God will respect that decision because of His love. God will forever separate them from Himself. That place of separation is called Hell. But for those of us who have accepted that love, John makes practical application:
1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
That word “ought to” is a weak word in the English. The Greek is "opheilo" meaning to have debt, and obligation, to owe. We must love one another. John is writing to the church here. We must love the brethren. We must love one another. To experience God’s love, we must express it ourselves. Over and over in the letter of 1 John, he stresses the need to love the brethren. Loving those in the church. Jesus commands it as well.
John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
And what does the world see?
John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
But the church today is full of bitterness and backbiting. Where is the love of God? Would we be out of line to ask the question to those that are bickering with one another, do they know God?
1 John 4:12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
When we love one another with God’s love if He abides, or lives within us. In this way we truly experience the love of God is when we do love one another.
1 John 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
It is only by the Spirit of God that we can truly love. Again, Jesus said as much:
John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
And 4 verses later Jesus says:
John 15:9–10 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
If we abide in Jesus’ love, then His love will flow through us to others. With the Spirit of God within us we can, with John, testify the following:
1 John 4:14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Herein is the love of God. He sent Jesus.
1 John 4:16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Jesus is that Love of God for us.
The question this morning is “Have you experienced the love of God?” Has the love of God flowed through you? To know God is to obey God and to love like God. This is only possible by accepting what God did for us by sending Jesus. Jesus is the way, is the truth, and is the life (John 14:6). We can come to know God the Father by knowing the Son. Jesus said “if you have seen me you have seen the Father" (John 14:9).
Do you know Jesus? Do you really know Him
[1] --Jones, L. Gregory, Embodying Forgiveness: a Theological analysis, p.265-266. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell. www.freshministry.net/illustrations/data/LOVE.htm#END
