Title: “Learning to Love” Script: I Jn. 4:7-12
Type: Expository Series Where: GNBC 7-28-24
Intro: The church father, Jerome, said that when the apostle John was in his extreme old age, he was so weak that he had to be carried into the church meetings. At the end of the meeting he would be helped to his feet to give a word of exhortation to the church. Invariably, he would repeat, “Little children, let us love one another.” The disciples began to grow weary of the same words every time, and they finally asked him why he always said the same thing over and over. He replied, “Because it is the Lord’s commandment, and if this only is done, it is enough” (cited by John Stott, The Epistles of John, p. 49) The world we are living in affords us Christians many opportunities to respond in love. The world needs to see our love on display. And, our Savior Himself said that it would be evidence to the world of our commitment to Him (Jn. 13:35). So with this in mind, we need to learn the importance of loving.
Prop: In I Jn. 4:7-11, the author gives us 3 Important Principles for Learning to Love.
BG: 1. W/o a doubt this section of John’s letter is focused on love. 11x the word or a variant of the word is used in only 5 verses. 2. What our world needs to see…what we need to practice as Christians… is love. 3.
Prop: Let’s look at I Jn. 4:7-11 to realize 3 Important Principles for Learning to Love.
I. God is Love, So We Can Love Each Other. Vv.7-8
A. God is the Source of all Love and it is a Part of His Very Nature.
1.Notice how John begins this section of his letter.
a. The Greek word for “love” or its variants are used as I said previously, 11x in 5 verses. That is too obvious for any of us to miss. Christianity is to be a religion of love. Illust: Some of you may be thinking, “But Chris, I remember the quote from last week’s sermon, where you said nearly every cult and false religion wants to emphasize love at some expense. How is this any different?”
b. Illust: We are all familiar with the expression: “Practice what you preach!” Interestingly, the Aged apostle does just that as he begins this portion of his letter. “Beloved, let us love…” (v.7 and again in v. 11) In urging his readers to love one another he begins by assuring them of his own love for them.” (Stott, p.163)
2. Love is an essential Character Quality of God, and it is entirely rooted in His Nature.
a. Illust: Author Susan Hunt wrote the following: “A friend gave me a plaque that proclaims: "Grandmothers are antique little girls." I don't know what the originator had in mind, but my spin is that the longer we live, the more we return to the simplicity of childhood. I am convinced that things are not as complicated as I made them when I was a young woman. I am in my sixties, so I tried out my life-gets-simpler theory on one of my spiritual mothers who is in her nineties. Her response was, “When I was a little girl I learned that God is love.” I waited for more, but she just smiled. She was done — she had said it all. As conservative Evangelicals we love doctrine and the complexity of the nature of God and Biblical Theology, however, every one of us needs to be enraptured with the simplicity and magnitude of the statement: “God is love!”
b. Look at both verse 7 & 8, John makes his case for why we are to love one another as believers. He states that it is based in God’s very nature. In fact, he states this 2x. In v. 7 he declares that “love comes from God” and then in v. 8 he states: “because God is love”. So, not only is God the source of all love, He is love in His inmost being!
B. God is the Source of Love. (Let’s explore this truth further.)
1. Love is God’s Very Nature.
a. Please note the way I stated that point. “Love is God’s very nature.” I did not say that “Love is an essential aspect of God’s nature…” I did not state that “Love is one of the important attributes that make up the nature of God.” Rather, I said: “Love is God’s very nature.” So, like I previously stated, “Not only is God love, but He is love in His inmost being.” The NT declares 4 statements of what God is in substance and nature. 1. He is Spirit (Jn. 4:24). 2. He is light (I Jn. 1:5). 3. He is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). And, of course, we are told He is love (v.8)! I find it interesting, the Gnostic heretics John denounced so vehemently NEVER taught that God WAS love! (W/o knowing the love of God, one only has the harsh legalism of Islam with no hope of relationship.)
b. v.7a gives us causation. “For/ Because” demonstrates a direct link between ones loving and ones ability to love and ones practicing that love. This isn’t simply conceptual, Christian, this is intensely practical and God expects that we practice love!
C. (Which leads us to;) God’s True Children Will Unavoidably Display His Nature. Vv.7-8
1. It is Only Natural that a Child Display some of his/her father’s characteristics.
a. Illust: We have jokingly remarked that our newest grandchild, Anastasia Zahari, looks like a miniature version of her father, Luke. Physical attributes are strikingly similar for such an early age. Often common to resemble one parent or the other. However, what I find even more interesting is how children, grandchildren can also act out or seemingly take on certain personality tendencies or characteristics of relatives they have never even met.
b. John is saying that in this passage. He is saying that a Christian will be like his/her Father. If you are born again YOU WILL love. When one places his/her faith in Christ, it is transformative! The Holy Spirit indwells us when we repent and believe in Christ, and we begin this process of becoming more and more like our Savior.
2. There is an equally harsh warning in this passage.
a. The negative of what we have said is also true. If we do not love then we are not related to the Father. Our Christianity must not remain simply philosophical and cerebral. It must get down into the activity of our daily living. It must be practical. It must be personal.
b. Listen, when John says that “God is love, he doesn’t mean that this is one of His many activities. Rather, John means that all of His activities are loving activities.” God’s mercy is loving but so also is His judgment. As believers, we are to attempt to perfect Christ’s love in every area of our lives so that when people see us they see Christ.
C. Applic: 1st important principle about love: “We love others Because God is Love.”
II. God Demonstrated His Love By Sending His Son. Vv. 9-10
A. God Sent His Son Purposely.
1. God’s Love was Manifested Purposely.
a. V. 9 is nothing more than John 3:16 being restated. Since John wrote Jn. 3:16 its ok that he quotes it here! This was and is the supreme act of love that the world has ever known.
b. Illust: C. S. Lewis states that God can only be love if He is triune: All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that ‘God is love.’ But they seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love.2 And, we might add, if He were not love He could not be personal. It is precisely on the question of love that the Islamic doctrine of Allah founders along with the Islamic doctrine of humanity. Only a God who is triune can be personal and, therefore, love. Human love cannot possibly reflect the nature of God unless God is a Trinity of persons in union and communion. (R. Letham, Ligonier, 5-24-2004)
2. God’s Love Was Manifested as a Propitiation.
a. Get ready, dear one, we are now moving out from the shoreline of faith to the deep waters of theology. The purpose of the Father sending His Son to us is so that He might be a blessing to us, so that we might receive life thru Him. This is the ingressive force of God. Before there was any hope or chance of us expressing a love response to God, He manifested it to us when “He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sin…”
b. What does this word “propitiation” mean? We don’t use it in common English. It is a very hard word to understand in English. Sometimes translations aren’t easy. Illust: Take the Czech word: - prozvonit. This beautiful word means: “to call another person’s mobile phone, allowing it to ring only once, thus provoking the other person to return the call, thus saving the caller from having to spend any money.” Anger is the response of a perfectly loving God when sin is committed against Him and others. God sent His Son to die for us. (Barry Cooper, Ligonier, 6-16-20) As amazingly incomprehensible the incarnation of Christ is, I would argue that the atonement is the preeminent manifestation of that love. Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29), He turned God’s wrath away so we might live in Him (v.9), In order to be that atoning sacrifice for sin (v.10) He she His blood (1:7; 2;2).
B. Sent Him Passionately v. 9
1. That we might live thru Him.
a. Passionate people are vigorous. Passionate people expressive. They can be fervent, fierce, or even fiery. But everyone agrees on one thing…they are alive! You don’t have to take a passionate person’s pulse to determine whether or not there’s life! There are a lot of people that we sometimes wonder if the old ticker is still pumping…Not passionate people!
b. Think about this verse. The purpose of His being sent was so that we might receive life thru Him! It was His initiative. It was our need. The Bible tells us that “We were dead in our trespasses and sins…” (Eph. 2:1) You might argue, but Chris, how did Christ’s coming and dying help me, when I wasn’t even born until two millennia later? Illust: Think about how many of you donate blood. Most of the time that donation will help a future patient, someone who doesn’t even have a need now. Most likely someone you don’t even know. That sacrifice of time, and some pain, and yes, of your own life blood, will in fact sustain the life of the recipient. Friend, Christ’s sacrifice didn’t just sustain life, it infused life into the repentant sinner!
2. Christ was Sent Proactively
a. The greatness of God’s love, manifest in the nature of His gift and its purpose is seen in us, its beneficiaries for God gave His Son for undeserving sinners. Often I will talk to people about their need for the Lord. Most people don’t have to be convinced of their sinful condition. They know they have failed. Failures have marked their lives and they think it has determined their futures and destinies. Sometimes I will have a man or woman express to me, “Chris, I cannot come to Christ, because I have failed so miserably. I have sinned in x,y, z. How could He possibly love me?” O dear one, have I got good news for you! Join the club! He came knowing what our condition would be and He still came for you and me!
b. Christ came for you and me and died for us before we had even been conceived.
C. Applic: 2nd important principle about love: God demonstrated His love by sending His Son.
III. God Expects us to Love One Another. V.11-12
A. God’s Love for Us Supplies the Motive and Power for His People to Love One Another
1. Notice the “If then Statement” that John begins this verse with,
a. A hypotheses followed by a conclusion is called an If-then statement or a conditional statement. Hypotheses followed by a conclusion is called an If-then statement or a conditional statement. The hypothesis of what John is saying here is: “If God has loved us in the way I have previously discussed…THEN the conditional statement is: We ought to love one another.
b. Christian, what John is saying here is “The historical manifestation of Jesus Christ not only assures us of God’s love for us, it also lays upon us the obligation we have to love one another.” Assurance requires an obligation and obedience to the obligation ensures assurance.
2. Seeing the love of Christ on display changes the focus of our lives to love others.
a. John Stott writes that “No one who has been to the cross and seen God’s immeasurable and unmerited love displayed there can ever go back to a life of selfishness.” (Stott, p. 163) At its heart, biblical love is a commitment, and thus it may be commanded. But it is not a commitment without feeling, but a caring commitment. In other words, biblical love involves delight, not just duty. Also, this caring commitment is not just an attitude, but an action: it shows itself in deeds. Those deeds often require self-sacrifice, seen supremely in Jesus’ going to the cross
b. Implicit in what John is saying here is that we must love those who may not be especially lovable or easy to love. Maybe you have a spouse that is self-centered and difficult to live with. Maybe a coworker or a teammate… Maybe your parents (or your children!) were very difficult to deal with. Does John tell us here to do what is so popular in our culture (Even Christian culture!) and just cut those people off? No! John says, “Beloved, if God so loved you, you also ought to love that difficult mate, coworker, parent, child. Illust: Elizabeth was a woman I knew in Columbia, SC. A bit older than my parents. Tough businesswoman, very godly. Estranged from her husband for years due to his alcoholism and behavior. He had no Christian testimony. She really believed in I Peter 3:1-2 that her quiet and chaste life could win Jimmy to Christ. Period of 10 years back and forth. Hot and cold. When they were in their early 70’s he was back at home doing yard work together. She was running the mower and got too close and ran over Jimmy’s toes! Elizabeth immediately jumped off the mower to help Jimmy, and well, the mower went around and got the back of her foot! This couple that had been off and on for 40 years were on the way to the ER together! In the ER they got to laughing about the event so much that they committed to the marriage! It cost him three toes and her a heel…but hey, it worked! Marriage Counseling by Riding Mower! No, rather, love by a choice of the will!
B. God’s Love in Christ is not only a Historical Reality, it is a Present Fact. V.12
1.We See John’s 3rd Principle for Love in this Passage. Notice how John begins this verse. The God Who is and has loved is today seen in and through our love. Notice how similar this verse is to The Gospel of John 1:18 “No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten God Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” God the Father is Spirit and He is invisible. Even if He were to be visible, no human being couldn’t look on Him and live. (Ex. 35:20) The only way we know God is because in His Son, He has explained the Father. So, if you and I know people who want to talk about being “very spiritual” or “knowing God”, but do not have Christ as their Savior, then they are deceived and deluded at best and destined for damnation apart from Christ. How then do people see the Father today? In our loving actions towards others. Why? Because if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.” This is really reciprocal! We love others because of His love in us. His love in us, imparted by the HS being demonstrated to others, makes God known to them.
2. Illust – Most people have never heard the incredible story of the humble Catholic Priest from Killarney, who rose to become a Monsignor in the Vatican during the dark days of WWII, when Rome was occupied by the German Gestapo. Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Kappler was head of The Gestapo. During the years of the occupation, Father Hugh O’Flaherty was credited with smuggling over 6500 Allied Soldiers and Jews out from under the occupiers. Became an incredible game of cat and mouse with O’Flaherty being called “Rome’s Pimpernel”. On many occasions Kappler tried to have the priest killed. Finally, in 1945, Rome was liberated and Kappler was arrested as a war criminal. At the war tribunals Kappler was given the most harsh sentence one could be given under Italian Law. Life imprisonment with 4 yrs of solitary confinement. For the next 10 years only 1 person visited Kappler. Every month, O’Flaherty visited the man who repeatedly vowed and attempted to kill him! In time Kappler made a profession of faith and was baptized by his former nemesis, the priest.
C. Applic:
