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1 John 3:1-24
“Lavish Love Lavishly Shared”
Today our focus is on 1 John 3. We are not going to read the whole chapter because a lot of what John writes in chapter 3 is spoken about in other parts of the letter.
Topics like not being hypocrites and constantly turning away from sin. We have covered those.
This chapter also talks about prayer – which will come up when we look at chapter 5.
This leaves us in chapter 3 with the topic of love … specifically the love of God to us in Christ.
As we think about this love I’m going to start by making a statement.
Parents can be less than perfect … yet we know that they love us.
There will be times when our parents took us for granted, or they weren’t listening, or they were distracted.
Maybe they forgot us – literally forgot us.
Our parents may have said words which hurt, or were really discouraging.
There might be some very painful memories.
But, despite their failings we knew our parents loved us.
And as we look back we know they were trying to do the best they could.
Parents can be less than perfect … yet we know that they love us.
That is a dynamic we can agree upon.
If less than perfect parents can still express love … then what sort of love can we expect to receive from the perfect parent?
John answers that question in 1 John 3:1
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
It isn’t obvious in the translation but that first word … “See” … it is a command.
You have to see this. You don’t have a choice.
Not just glance … but really see … the love the Father has lavished, and keeps lavishing, upon us. Stop and see, because it is this love that makes you His children.
God is the ultimate parent … the ultimate Father. And our Father has lavished His love on us. When we read through the Gospel and letters of John we see that John loves to talk about the love of God.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
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.
1 John 4:9-10
God’s love … the agape – being willing to sacrifice all for others – love.
God’s agape love was given to the world.
… the world who thought they knew better than God.
… the world who took God’s perfect creation and ruined it.
… the world who set themselves up as God’s enemies.
The world …
It is so easy to point away from ourselves and say … hey that is the world.
But we … all of us … we were part of that “world”. We were destined to perish … to be eternally separated from God in the judgement of the lake of fire.
And now, even though we have been saved, we still struggle with the temptations of the world.
The world … us. That is who God loved.
Did He come to us because He saw something amazing and lovable in us.
Did He see us as stunningly faithful, and beautifully spiritual?
Did He rush to love us just in case someone else saw our loveable beauty and snatch us away?
Nope. Not even close. God looks at us and sees.
… darkness.
… sin.
… guilt.
… brokenness.
… worthlessness.
… a truckload of nothing except baggage.
That’s what we bring to the relationship.
We are not loved by God because we somehow express a love that is attractive to God. Quite the opposite.
We don’t deserve that love.
We didn’t earn that love.
If given the choice, we might not even show that love to ourselves.
Yet God loves us. Why? Because He did not want us to perish.
God loved us so much that He gave His Son
… to be in our place.
… to take our punishment.
… to be the atoning sacrifice.
This is God’s love.
God does not put us in a box … or only look at our past … or write us off. God’s love is not based on external appearances. It’s a love which will take us as we are.
Unconditional love which is given in all circumstance – even when we don't desire it or deserve it.
This is the love that God has lavished, and keeps lavishing, upon us.
A love that is poured out, and poured out, and poured out.
Lavish love that does not diminish with time.
Because that is what can happen to love, can’t it.
Sometimes the older love is, the less lavish it can become.
Over the years I have made many phone calls to couples in my congregation.
I’ll ring a couple who have been married for a few years and the wife, Emily, will answer.
“Hi Emily this is Allan, is Thomas available.”
Emily will walk over Thomas who is in his shed, and I’ll hear her say, “Darling, Allan is on the phone.”
“Thanks sweetheart for bringing the phone out.”
Then she passes the phone to him.
I’ll ring a couple who have been married for three or four decades.
The wife, Audrey, will answer the phone.
“Hi Audrey, This is Allan, is Henry home.”
Audrey will walk to Henry who is in his shed.
Henry!!!
WHAT!
“Allan’s on the phone.”
“Give it here.”
Older love can be less lavish. It happens to married couples. It happens in relationships of parents with their children.
Where, over the years, there is less time and less energy put into the relationship.
And parents can move from being loving to being insistent.
And guilt is used to manipulate.
And where old parents are left to fend for themselves in nursing homes.
The word “love” is thrown around – but it isn’t lavish love.
Old love can become less lavish. Except when God the Father is showing that love. No matter how long we have known God; God loves, and loves, and keeps on loving.
We will never perish.
The atoning sacrifice has been made.
We will have eternal life because of the love of God through Jesus.
That is the lavish love of the Father. A love which keeps giving us the assurance that we are God’s children.
That is the love which is ours when we confess that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour.
And when we have been the recipients of such love it will transform the way we live our daily lives. John gives us a very specific example of that transformation in action.
We are reading from 1 John 3:16
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.
There it is again. A concise summary of the lavish love of God.
We keep reading
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
The lavish love of God to us will result in us laying down our lives for other believers.
When we read these words our mind most likely will make a connection to the events of the cross.
We think about the events which lead up to the crucifixion … especially the beatings, and injustice, and mocking and cursing … we think about these things and say, “Jesus has given an example of what it means to lay down my life”.
Or we might focus on the cross itself … the horrendous agony which Jesus went through and yet still being able to pray, “Father forgive them” … that is laying down one’s life.
Is this what we need to do to show that the love of Jesus is real in our lives? To be beaten … without responding in anger.
To be martyrs … and make a death sacrifice. To lay down our lives?
Possibly. But more than likely … no. Let’s keep reading.
1 John 3:16-18
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
Nothing about death. No mention of the ultimate sacrifice. Instead, the focus is to have an ongoing willingness to share from the abundance God has given us.
When you do that … then you are laying down your life.
It isn’t that one off event that ends your life. It’s a daily, repeatable, practical action.
Laying down our lives means having an ongoing mindset to give-up part of ourselves for others. A very literal translation of vs.17 reads “If anyone sees a brother or sister in need and shuts their compassion how can the love of God remain in them?”
A compassion that stops and sees the needs.
A compassion that wants to look beyond the surface to the truth of the matter.
A compassion that doesn’t just label, and categorise, and pigeon-hole.
A compassion which working towards action.
It is a compassion which takes the lavish love which God has shown us … and then show that lavish love to those in the family of God.
When I was much younger and still living at home my Mum would bake cakes. I would “help”. My help would involve waiting for all the ingredients to be mixed and put into the baking tray – then I would help by lick out the mixing bowl.
The problem I had was that my Mum wouldn’t leave very much cake mix in the bowl because – well because I thought she was being stingy.
When I was older and still living at home Mum wanted a cake made. She had to go to work so she asked me to bake the cake. Which meant that I now get to choose how much cake mix is “left” in the bowl. It was quite a lavish amount
… maybe a quarter of the batter.
… actually it was more like half.
Which I ate all by myself – and really enjoyed because then I wasn’t lactose free and gluten free.
The cake was cooked, and cut ready to serve.
When it was time to serve the cake the flaw in the plan revealed itself. If you eat half of the cake mix by yourself before you make the cake then you don’t actually make enough cake for everyone to have a piece.
When we confess Jesus as Saviour we continue to be shown the lavish love of the Father.
And we can take that lavish love and just look after ourselves.
Lavishly using our resources for ourselves.
Lavishly building our kingdom.
We see the material needs of others … and we have the material needs to help. But we are too focused on leaving as much cake-mix in the bowl for ourselves.
We have shut our compassion.
We can do that … and there are those who are children of God who live that way.
BUT
… when brothers and sisters in Christ see this attitude.
They will look and they will be asking “how can the love of God be in that person”?
They are not doubting you will be saved.
But they are wondering “How can someone who knows the lavish love of God also be a person who holds back their compassion?”
The big issue that John wants his readers to wrestle with is that they know that they have eternal life.
Here is one test you can take.
If we are people who allow the lavish love which the Father has shown us and turn it into compassion-driven practical care for our fellow believers – this is the action of one who knows they have eternal life.
But if we are people who keep shutting our compassion when people are in need then maybe we need to stop and ask ourselves, “Have I really understood the extent of the lavish love that the Father has shown to me?”
And even when we are sure we know we have eternal life
… we know the lavish love.
Even when we have this hope we also keep remembering that older love can sometimes become less lavish.
Where we kind of start taking the need to show others love for granted … and where we might even have fallen into the place of selfishly keeping that lavish love for ourselves and not being so lavish to others.
When we see this attitude taking place we turn back again to the Father and remind ourselves of just how lavish His love is for us. And we use that reminder to adjust our attitude.
Lavish love, lavishly shared. That is how those who know they have eternal life live.
Lavish love, lavishly shared. That is how we live when we know we have eternal life.
Prayer
