This probably comes as no surprise to you, but since covid-19 rearranged so many of our lives and schedules, we have changed how much time we spend looking at a screen, whether it's a tv, smartphone, laptop, or computer screen. As a country, we're spending a significant amount of time on these devices. With that increased usage comes an increase in our exposure to hateful and divisive behaviors. Anger, violence, and unrest that is posted to social media platforms only reflects the anger, violence, and unrest in our communities.
This being the day before our national recognition of Valentine day, a day when we are to express our love more so than we do the rest of the year, I thought we would talk about one of the greatest loves that we can experience. Today, let's talk about the unconditional love that only God can give. We can be sure of God's love.
PRAYER
With all of this unrest in our country, some people may wonder where God is in all of this. Others are tempted to question God's goodness. They might ask, “If God is so good, then how can He allow all of this anger and violence to exist? But just because there is human hatred and violence in our presence, this in no way negates God's goodness and love. You see, the world's concept of love can't compare with God's love.
I am referring to God's love that was on display when He gave His one and only Son to die on the cross for the sins of the world. We can't do anything to deserve God's love, but He loves us anyway. God's love abides forever, and He wants us to be sure of His love for us.
Today we will be using 1 John 4 for our focal passage. John has already spoken to us twice on the theme of love as we looked at his writings in chapters 2 and 3. Now he was dealing with the topic for the third time. Know this: when scripture addresses a matter even once, it is important, but when God inspires a biblical writer to address a topic repeatedly, we should really sit up and take notice. So, let's take notice once again to what God tells us about love.
1 John 4:7-10 – “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Love is the very nature of God. So, John writes, “Love is from God, and love comes from God because God is love.” Love is not just another characteristic of God among many. It’s God's very nature from which all the other attributes come. Everything that comes from God can be attributed to His love for us. So, if God judges, He judges in love. That doesn't mean God condones sin, but in love, He is exposed to that sin and sent His son to die for sin’s penalty.
Most all of us are familiar with John 3:16, that says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Here in verse 9 John is reminding us that God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we can know that God loves us. The origin of Love is God. Love began with God. So, Jesus is the manifestation of God's love. God showed his love toward us by sending His Son to pay our sin debt. How great is God's love? The answer to that is that God's love is seen in the value of the gift: God gave His one and only Son. And that is an extremely valuable gift.
So, God sent His Son as a demonstration of His love for us. The Greek word used in verse 9 for “only son” is the same word that was used to describe Abraham's offering up of his only son, Isaac. Let's go back in Scripture several hundred years and I will explain that.
In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham. He told Abraham to take his only son, Isaac, whom Abraham loved, to the land of Mariah and offer him as a burnt offering on the mountain to God. Abraham didn’t question God but obeyed God immediately. The story reaches its climax when Abraham, who had bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, raised his knife to the sky. It was not until then that God's angel called to Abraham, telling Abraham not to harm the boy. Abraham proved his reverent fear of God. God knew Abraham's heart and knew that Abraham would carry out God's order to sacrifice his son Isaac. Then, in a beautiful display of mercy and grace, God provided a ram to sacrifice in Isaac's place. God, out of His love, provided the sacrifice.
Do you see the similarities? God spared Abraham's son, but the difference is He didn’t spare His own Son on the cross. God willingly gave His Son to die in our place, and Jesus willingly took the punishment for our sins upon Himself. God didn't do this because we are lovable. By no means. He loved and sent His Son to rescue us, not because we are lovable, but because God is love. So, the greatness of God's love is seen in the costliness of His self-sacrifice for us who are completely undeserving. So now with all of that in mind John writes, “Let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
1 John 4:11 – “Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.”
We've already seen in 1 John 4:7 the command to love one another. John repeated that twice more here in verse 11 and then in verse 12. With this call to love comes great responsibility. We are to love others as God has loved us. That's a pretty tall order. Are we even capable of it? God has loved us with a changeless, self-sacrificing love. God still loves us in the same way today, as he seeks to display that love through us.
So we saw in verses 8-9, that God revealed His love when His Son, Jesus, became the sacrifice for our sins. He took away our sin, but He didn't just take away the bad. He gave to us as well. What did he give us? Jesus gave us life that we might live through Him. Now you’re asking, what does that mean?
That clearly means that we are to live in Him, which means we are to allow others to see His love in and through us. People should see Jesus's love shine from us without us saying a word. To love with God's love gives evidence that we have a relationship with the One who displays His love through us. Then, if we didn't understand the positive side of that, John States it negatively in verse 8. “The one who does not love, does not know God.”
Now that all sounds pretty and nice doesn't it? But here comes the test. Think about your relationships right now. Is there someone that you find difficult to love? Your instructions here are to ask God to help you love these individuals as He loves them. Again, that is a pretty tall order. But it is not something that we cannot accomplish. John goes al little deeper and says:
1 John 4:12 – 13 – “No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.”
John reminds us here that no one has ever seen God. So how do we know that God is around? Believers reveal God through the way they love one another. The very fact that we love one another serves as evidence that God remains in us. We embrace God's love, He comes to live in us, and His love pours out of us as we love others. So, when the world sees the mutual love between brothers and sisters in Christ, they see the display of God's love.
A quick recap. When we accept Christ as our personal Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. In that, we now possess the fruit of that spirit. One of those fruits is love. As a Christian, love is the fruit of God's indwelling Spirit. God is perfect in His love. He Lacks nothing. But God's love is made complete when that love flows through us. God has chosen to use His people as channels of His love. So, we are to present ourselves to Him daily as instruments of His continual love. When we love others, we cooperate with God's redemptive plan for the world, so that others can be sure of God's love for them.
Let me ask you. If you plan on going to a particular church and you see the church members fighting and quarreling among each other, is that a church you would want to attend? (Please don’t say yes.) On the other hand, if you see a church and the people are loving and caring and show a genuine love toward one another, is that a church you would like to attend and be part of? I rest my case.
And here's the thing. Putting God's love on display is to be a continuous, ongoing activity. Now we will all have to admit that there are times when it is hard to love, especially when we feel that we have been wronged or hurt by someone. It is in those moments, in our humanity, that the last thing we want to do is express forgiveness and extend acts of kindness to that person. But God has commanded us to love, and what God commands, He makes possible. Can we do it? Yes, we can! So, we are to love, not for our sake, but for the sake of Christ.
And the key to loving others is in loving God. The more we love God, the more of God's love will flow out of us toward others.
Picture it as a garden hose attached to the outdoor faucet of a house. When the faucet is turned on, the water flows. The hose doesn't produce the water. It is only the conduit for the water to flow freely. In ourselves, we might find it difficult to love, especially to love unconditionally, as God loves. But when we are attached to Him, when we remain in Christ as we said last Sunday, His love flows freely through us.
And I will commend all of you for your demonstration of your love of one another. I see you constantly encouraging others. Writing notes, making phone calls, giving of your time, and just spending time with one another. That lets others know that you truly care. And remember what I have always said. If you want to make an impact on our society and community, then just care.
Our lives ought to be characterized by daily acts of kindness. We should serve in order to share Christ's sacrifice that gave us salvation. To love others is to seek their highest good. God's love doesn't just seek to meet needs, but it aims to meet those needs in the name of Christ. Let me give you a biblical example.
In the gospel of Mark 2, there is a clear example of loving service with gospel intent. You might remember the story. Four men carried a paralyzed man on a mat to meet Jesus, believing Jesus was able to heal the man. But when they arrived, the crowd’s size made it impossible for the men to get their friend to Jesus.
But they refused to give up. They would not be denied. Their love for their friend compelled them to go the extra mile. They had that man's highest good at heart. The men climbed to the top of the house, removed the roof, and lowered their friend before Jesus. And Jesus, who is love, not only healed the man but also forgave his sins. What a beautiful example of tangible acts of kindness. What a glorious example of seeking someone's highest good.
I am going to commend our group that handles the ministry of our community clothes closet. They took inventory of the visible needs of people in our community. They begin collecting clothes because we saw the need mainly of children in the elementary schools who didn't have proper clothes to even come to school. They met those needs. Again, another example of seeking someone's highest good.
1 John 4:19-21 – “We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.”
John didn't leave any gray areas here, did he? Nor did he sugarcoat his words. “If anyone says I love God and yet hates his brother or sister he is a liar.” Then to further stress that truth, John said, “For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
The statements strike to the core of the issue. Of course, some would say it's easier to love God because He first loved us. But John argued just the opposite. Logically, it's easier to show love to people who are visibly present, rather than God, who is an invisible spirit. So here is the issue. A failure to love people whom we can see is a failure to love God whom we cannot see, and a failure to love is hate.
It gets down to this, we live out our love for God when we choose to love other people. Love overcomes hate. There is so much hate in our world today that it is vitally important that Christians love one another. But our love should not stop with other Christians. Hard love needs to go out into the world and seek to win the lost to Christ.
Jesus came in human flesh because He loved us. He gave His life out of love for the lost, and we are to follow His example. We, too, are to love the sinner. We are to love the down cast and broken. We are to love the weak and lonely. We are to love the sick and needy. We are to love the least of these as Jesus said.
So to be sure of God's love, there is something we must do. How can we be sure of God's love for us? Commit yourself to love like Jesus, who unselfishly gave His life for others. Try to keep in mind and love like the four men who did whatever it took to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus. practice love like the Good Samaritan who willingly gave to meet the needs of a stranger. This is the kind of love that changes the world.
By showing our love for one another it will help others to be sure of God's love for them.
Maybe you have never felt God's love. If you have not, it's because you have never asked Jesus Christ, God's son, to come into your life.
Why not do that now? Stuff your pride under the chair and take that first step toward Jesus. You'll be glad you did. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart and guide your life from this day forward.
