LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE, Part 2
Warsaw Christian Church, (1/18/09)
Richard M. Bowman, Pastor
Text: 1 John 4:7-12
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
We began our study of Christian love (agape) last week. I mentioned three Greek words which we translate with the one English word, “love.” Eros is the Greek word used to describe romantic love. Philos is the Greek word used to describe love between friends and love within the family. Agape is the word used in the New Testament to define the love of God. We saw that divine love is that goodwill we express toward others, motivated by our love for Jesus Christ and informed by His commandments. We focused on the truth that in view of the fact that God is love it is imperative that we practice love in all our relationships. John says the one who does not love (agape) does not know God.
Today we begin with a common sense distinction between three aspects present in our human nature. We are rational beings who think and reason. We are also emotional beings who possess both positive and negative emotions. We are also beings who possess the power to make choices, usually described as the “will.” Thus, we humans think, we feel, and we make choices. Some of our choices are determined by how we feel, while others are determined by what we think, or a combination of the two.
Christian love centers in the will under the influence of reason. It has little to do with how we feel, at least initially. The mind has embraced the truth of Jesus, and our choices are governed by His commandments. Since we just completed a national election, we can use that as an example. Some people vote a certain way based on emotions planted in childhood. Others vote based on some attempt to understand the positions of the candidates. Their vote is based more on reason than emotion.
Agape centers in the will. It is choosing to act according to the teachings of Jesus even if our emotions and reason are trying hard to pull us in another direction. This aspect of love is seen most clearly in Jesus' command to love your enemies. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” (Matt. 5:44). "
Some read these words of Jesus and dismiss them as impossible. How can anyone love an enemy or desire blessings on those who curse you? How can anyone do good to those who hate you, and even persecute you? Jesus is not asking us to feel warm and fuzzy toward an enemy. That would be impossible. You naturally feel wary and distrustful of a real enemy. Your reason may tell you that you have a right to get even. We even have a saying, “I don’t get mad, I get even.” The idea that we have the right to wish bad things to happen to those who have hurt us is common. Revenge is built into our fallen DNA.
What is Jesus commanding in this verse? He is asking us to want good things to happen to our enemies. He is asking us to act towards them with goodness and to pray for them. And why should we do those things? Because our highest commitment is to Jesus Christ, and He has commanded us so to act. He is not asking us to “feel” anything but to act in positive ways toward those who have hurt us. Feelings are basically involuntary. Even God cannot command us to feel things we do not feel. If you hear of a tragic death of a child, you feel sad for the family. You can’t help it unless you are so hard-hearted that the suffering of others doesn’t move you.
Jesus is simply telling us to act with good will toward our enemies. He is telling us to act toward them in ways that will promote their happiness and to pray for them. Do we trust them? No, of course not. Do we want to be with them socially? Probably not. Your mind and your emotions may be screaming, REVENGE! However, because of your love for Jesus and for His commands you refrain from vengeance. Divine love has little to do with how we feel, and everything to do with how we choose to act. If vengeance is needed, we follow Paul’s advice and leave that to God: “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).
Let me be as plain as I can be. If you claim to be a Christian, every time you act in a way designed to hurt another person, you are acting against Christian love. You are rebelling against God and His Word. The heart that is not ruled by agape/love does not belong to God. Jesus said that no one can serve two masters. Only one master will finally dominate, and if that is not Jesus we are in trouble. If our master is self, pride, ego, pleasure, power, or vengeance that means agape has fallen by the wayside.
Jesus illustrated this principle in Matthew 21:28ff when a brief parable about two sons. Both were told by their father to work in the vineyard. One didn’t feel like it and refused. Later he apologized and did what his father asked. The second son said he would go and work in the vineyard, but he did not follow through. He said the right thing but did not act in the right way. The one who obeyed the father is the one who did not feel like working in the vineyard, but he did it anyway to please his father.
You will not feel like being kind to your enemies. If, however, you are a mature Christian you will not be driven by emotion, but by the word and will of God. The premier example of agape is Jesus Himself. His emotions rebelled against the idea of going to the cross. He prayed for the Father to remove this cup of suffering if possible. Yet He submitted to the Cross, not because He felt like it but because He knew it was the will of His Father. He also prayed for forgiveness for those who nailed Him to the Cross.
What motivates your behavior? Is it how you feel? Are you driven by emotion? Do your ideas about life motivate you? Are you the master of your ship, the captain of your soul? When your emotions and your clever reason are overpowered and you seek to promote goodwill in every situation, then the agape love of God has triumphed in your life. The test of whether or not divine love is motivating us is seen most clearly in how we relate to enemies.
There are those who don’t attend church because they don’t feel like it. A young man once said to me that he dropped out of church because the previous minister had committed a sin. I know of several persons over the years who dropped out of church because someone hurt their feelings. Should not our participation in Christ’s Church be motivated by our love for Him and for God’s people? Those who go through life driven by emotions and their own ideas about life are like a rudderless ship. We need to be able to say with Paul, that it is the love of Christ which compels me (2 Cor. 5:14). Those motivated by agape-love will find themselves in the center of God’s will. Those driven by their own feelings and their unsanctified reason are flying blindly through life.
How important is it that we practice agape love in all our relationships? It is difficult to overstate the importance. Sometimes people are asked, “Are you a born-again Christian?” The question makes no sense because it implies there are Christians who are not born again. Every genuine Christian has been born again, but what exactly does that mean? Some would stress that those who are born again have had some kind of ecstatic experience. They have felt the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Many do have such experiences, but that is not the mark of the new birth. Maybe just those who are trained in biblical theology are the favored ones. Yes, intelligence does play a role in defining and understanding Christian truth, but it is not the most significant mark of the new birth.
John defines the new birth in the first words of our text. “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” Those who have been born again through the Gospel of Jesus Christ are those who are ruled by divine love - - - agape. To be sure, no Christian manifests love without fail. True Christians are, however, persons who consistently manifest good will toward others, even enemies. Those who love are born of God, and, says John, they know God. The more the love of God fills our hearts, the closer we are to the Father.
Our expanded definition of agape/love now reads as follows: “Christian love is that behavior directed toward others motivated by our love for Jesus, and in harmony with His commands. It extends to our enemies as well as to friends. It does not seek retaliation but leaves that to God. It is the most important evidence of the new birth.
As I said last week, I don’t think we can afford to be unloving persons. We neglect this truth to our own peril. If we are not practicing agape/Christian love John says that our claim that we are Christians is a lie. Yes, it is still and forever true that we are saved by faith, not by the quality of our love. It is also a divinely revealed reality that true faith brings the Holy Spirit into our hearts, and wherever the Holy Spirit is present, love is present. Paul wrote in Romans 5:5: God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Faith is the root and love is the fruit of redemption. If the fruit is absent, the root is also absent. We will continue our exploration of this important topic next week.
