The Greek writer Lucian who lived from 120-200 A.D. made an observation about Christians. He said, “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first [leader, Jesus], has put it into their heads that they are brethren.”(1) Lucian said that Christians “spare nothing.” To “spare nothing” when helping others in need is an indication of something called unconditional love. I’ve entitled this message “True Love,” and unconditional love is what we are going to take a look at this morning.
Love is an extraordinary gift from God, and it’s the source of the Lord’s presence within His creation known as man and woman. It is a gift meant to unite creature and Creator, but the creature, or mankind, has distorted the meaning of love and separated himself from the God of love. Some of the distortions about love, are that love is purely physical, or that love is only a temporary state. But, as we are going to see this morning, these interpretations about love are way off base.
The Origin of Love (vv. 7-8)
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
John begins by telling us that love comes from God, and the person who does not love, does not know God. We cannot begin to understand this statement until love is first defined. So, what is love? Webster defines love as a strong liking for someone or something, or a passionate affection for another person.(2) But we read in verse 7 that love is from God, a being who is not of this world. Notice that Webster’s definition of love involves objects of the world, using the word “person” or “something.” The problem with a human definition of love is that people tend to view the world only with the eye instead of through the spirit. We must remember that love is of God; therefore, a human definition will often fall short in describing love.
In Modern English “love” is one single word that encompasses many different meanings, creating misunderstandings in communicating godly love. We need to take a look at the original New Testament Greek in order to understand what type of love John is talking about. In Greek, words for love include storge, philia, eros, and agape. Each of these words has a distinct meaning. Storge, for example, is the love between family members. Philia is a friendship between kindred spirits. Eros, which is not even found in the New Testament, is sexual desire. This is where we get the English word “erotic” by the way. Agape is godly love, or unconditional love. As one person put it, “Eros is all take; philia is give-and-take; agape is all give.”(3)
All throughout our main passage, all references to love are the Greek word agape. The love spoken of in 1 John 4:7-21 is the unconditional kind; it is “all give.” The Christian psychologist M. Scott Peck tells us concerning love that it is “the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing . . . another’s spiritual growth.”(4) If we have the love that is from God – this thing called agape – then we will willingly extend ourselves to reach out and help others.
The Sacrifice of Love (vv. 9-11)
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, 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 propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Right here, John presents the ultimate example of godly love. Christ’s death on the cross for you and me is the greatest love that anyone could express. Jesus tells us in the gospel of John, chapter 15, verse 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” The sacrifice of one’s own life for another human being is the greatest act of love, or agape that can be shown.
Now, a person doesn’t have to literally sacrifice their life in order to lay it down. Laying down one’s life for a brother or sister can be done through servanthood. It can be dedicating one’s time to help someone in need, or lending a listening ear when you really don’t feel like it. It has been said, “Sacrificial love is not loss, but gain . . . In its true meaning, sacrificial love is natural and spiritual increase. It is the gradual giving of the lower for the higher, the lesser for the better, and the least for the most.”(5) Agape is humbling oneself to sacrifice and serve others, and in return one will gain everything.
Verse 10 tells us “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” We need to understand that sacrificial love expects nothing in return. God showed love toward us, but He did not expect to receive our love in return. Of course, He desires it; but the Lord doesn’t force us to love Him. He gives us choice in the matter. We need to be as the little four year old girl who, hugging a doll in each arm, looked up at her mother and said, “Mama, I love them and love them and love them, but they never love me back.”(6) We should love others even if they don’t love us back. Amen?
God Seen Through Us (vv. 12-15)
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been 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 testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
“No one has seen God at any time” (v. 12). “Art Linkletter saw a small boy drawing a picture. He inquired, ‘What are you drawing?’ The small boy replied, ‘A picture of God.’ Linkletter told the boy that no one knows what God looks like, to which the boy confidently replied, ‘They will when I get through’.”(7)
We are told that no one has seen God; and yet, the Scripture implies that is there a way that people can see Him? Have you heard the hymn Let Others See Jesus in You? One verse says, “While passing through this world of sin, and others your life shall view; be clean and pure without, within, let others see Jesus in you.” There is actually a way for a person to see God and His Son, Jesus Christ. “How?” you might ask. Oswald Chambers, in his famous devotional My Utmost for His Highest, says that God “is the source of love, and [He] expects His children to be channels of love to others.”(8) According to verses 12-15, God can be seen within a person who becomes a channel of love; who extends unconditional love unto others.
In John 14:23, Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” The Holy Spirit, who comes to reside within, is our assurance that both the Father and the Son abide within, and can be seen “in” and “through” our lives. In John 15:7-8, Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you . . . by this My Father is glorified.” In other words, if the words of Christ abide within us, and we obey them and live them out, then God will be seen through our faith-filled actions, which will glory the Father; and the Holy Spirit is the one who will help us understand how to bring honor to both the Father and the Son, according to John 16:14.
God Equals Love (v. 16)
16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
This verse says that “God is love.” We also read this back in verse 8. This was the favorite verse of my voice teacher back in college. His name was J. P. Jardine and he loved to talk about the significance of agape love. Jardine – as the students called him – once told me about a woman who helped him understand something about the statement “God is love.” He said this: “When I was in high school in Douglas, Georgia I had a dear Christian lady who taught my algebra class. One day she said to us, ‘Do you know that there is an algebraic equation in the Bible?’ We – at least I – looked at her in astonishment!”
Well, he had a good reason for his astonishment. His teacher was referring to 1 John 4:16. So, allow me to take a moment and share the insight that his algebra teacher gave him concerning the statement “God is love” being an algebraic equation. If you see the problem “x is y,” this is a statement of equality. It would be represented as “x = y.” If you flip the equation to read “y = x,” it still holds the same value. Now, if you take the expression “God is love,” it could be represented as “God = love.” Flip this statement and you get “love = God.” True agape love “is God.” This means that an individual who demonstrates the love of God unto others is simultaneously abiding in God, because “God is love” and “love is God.” He is also serving as the hands and feet of Jesus, and reflecting the very “face of love.”
No Fear in Love (vv. 17-18)
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in 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, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
In these verses, John basically said that if we demonstrate love and have love in our heart then we need not be afraid in the day of judgement, because there is no fear in love. Why? In his book called The Greatest Thing in the World, Henry Drummond sheds some light on these verses.
He says, “Do you remember the profound statement or remark that Paul makes elsewhere: ‘Love is the fulfilling of the law’ (Galatians 5:14). Did you ever think what he meant by that? In those days men were working the passage to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they manufactured out of them. Christ came and said, ‘I show you a more simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously fulfill the whole law’.”(9) Drummond tells us that if we love, then we won’t break any laws; and if we don’t break any laws, then we have nothing to fear in the way of punishment.
When he says, “If you love, you will unconsciously fulfill the whole law,” he was referring to Matthew 22:37-40. In these verses, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” Demonstrating our love for God and others, not only glorifies the Lord and leads to others coming to faith in Christ, but it also benefits us. You see, when the love of God abides within, it leads to living boldly and having the assurance that, through our faith in Christ, we no longer have to fear facing God’s wrath in the day of judgement.
Love Others as God Loved Us (vv. 19-21)
19 We love Him because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
In verse 19, John said, “We love Him because He first loved us.” In other words, we should love God, because God loves us. C. S. Lewis once said, “On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him.”(10) But let us not forget that love is a two-way street.
Verse 19 can also be applied to love for our fellow man. This verse could be read as “We love [others] because He first loved us.” Verses 19-21 together reveal that if we do not love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and even the lost, then we don’t really love God at all. We must show love, because we are loved. And even if we don’t feel like loving, we should love people anyway. The Christian psychologist M. Scott Peck says, “Real love often occurs in a context in which the feeling of love is lacking, when we act lovingly despite the fact that we don’t feel loving.”(11) If we are supposed to love at all times then our love has to be unconditional.
Time of Reflection
In briefly looking at three of the Greek words for love again, we learned that “eros (sexual desire) is all take; philia (brotherly love) is give-and-take; and agape (unconditional love) is all give.” According to the ancient philosopher Plato, eros and philia are based on the condition of the object loved, and are practiced only when the object loved has something that the lover needs.(12) Eros and philia – and even storge – are conditional types of love, but agape is unconditional; and the Bible teaches us that if God’s love is truly within us, then we will love others no matter what – no strings attached.
In looking at this passage we have come to find out that the human definition of love is way off base. If we want to be as close to our Lord and Savior as possible, then we need to clothe ourselves with the kind of love revealed by John. We need to love people unconditionally; and every single day, we need to jump at the opportunity to show someone love any chance we get.
I want to close with a quote by Henry Drummond. He says, “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”(13)
If you do not understand this love that the Scripture speaks about, or if you have never known the love of Jesus Christ, then let me encourage you that today can be that day. In John 3:16-17, we read, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” If you wish to partake of God’s love and receive the gift of His love, which is eternal life through His Son, then you must believe in Jesus Christ, repent of your sins, and confess Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life.
NOTES
(1) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 225.
(2) Webster’s New Dictionary (New York: Russel, Geddes, and Grosset, 1990), 323.
(3) Curtis Vaughn, 1,2,3, John: A Study Guide (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970), 103.
(4) M. Scott. Peck, The Road Less Traveled (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 82.
(5) Starr Daily, Faith, Hope, and Love (St. Paul: Mcalester Park, 1958), 113.
(6) Green, 224.
(7) Ibid. 168.
(8) Oswald Chambers, Mt Utmost for His Highest (New Jersey: Barbour and Company, 1963), 28.
(9) Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World (Old Tappan: Flemming H. Revell).
(10) Green, 170.
(11) Peck, 88.
(12) Emil Brunner, Faith, Hope, and Love (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1956), 63.
(13) Drummond.
