Game shows are making their comeback these days. All America is tuning in to Regis to see who will be the next millionaire. The biggest game show in my growing up years was Match Game. The contestants had to fill in the blank to a sentence missing a word. They had to guess how the celebrity panel would fill in the blank and match their word. My sermon title this morning is a take off on Match Game. Knowing that I’m a big Beatles fan and knowing that we’re in the midst of a sermon series call “the greatest of these”, how would you finish the sentence “All you need is...”?
Did you choose the word love? Is that your final answer? Well let me give you one more try since we believe in grace. Reread verse 16 and apply the rule of logic if A=B and B=C, then A=C. If all you need is love, and God is love, then all you need is God. John was the disciple that Jesus loved. He talked about the love of Jesus more than any other Biblical author, but I’m sure if John was playing Match Game, he would have said, “all you need is God, for God is love. Know and rely on the love God has for us.”
The catch phrase “all you need is love” does have its roots in Scripture, as anyone can tell by reading John’s writings, or the summary of the Law. But the world has borrowed this Biblical truth and corrupted it. The world teaches us to love one another, but they ignore the first command, which is to love God.
John says you can love without experiencing God’s love first and relying on that love. You can’t experience lasting intimacy and true love with others, unless you experience and know the love of God. Experiencing and living in the love of God is what gives us all the energy to serve and love others. Without loving God first, all our love for others becomes idolatry, because we’ve set them above our Maker. Whenever we set a human relationship above our Creator, we’ve set it up to crash and fail.
So the key for successful Christian living is experiencing the love of God. Or to put it another way, the key is living in God’s love. This morning we want to reflect together on verse 16 of I John 4. “We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him.”
The language that John uses is here is very reminiscent of Jesus words in the gospel of John chapter 15. Jesus was leaving soon, but he used the illustration of the vine and the branches to give comfort to his disciples. He said I am the vine and you are the branches, remain in me, or as the KJV says, abide in me. He said, “Just as the Father loves me, so do I love you. Now remain in that love.”
According to Jesus and according to John the key to successful Christian living is abiding in the love God has for us. Our Bible study has been discussing the concept of abiding in Christ. The author of the book we’re reading suggests that the key successful Christian living is “abiding.” The next natural question for our group has been “o.k. now how do you abide.”
Abiding is a term that is hard to get a handle on. Does abiding mean that every waking moment we should be meditating on the nature of God? Does it mean we have to become monks and dedicate the majority of our day to prayer and worship? Does it mean we should meet daily with other Christians as New Testament believers did? Does it mean we should pray 3 hours every morning as Martin Luther did? How do you abide in Christ when you’re in a business meeting, or working on the computer, or vacuuming the carpet, or sitting in a math class? What does it mean to abide or remain in Christ’s love?
I don’t think Jesus and John were trying to create a great mystery here that we are supposed to solve. I think we have made it much more complicated than they ever intended it. John used a very simple illustration here to make a simple, but profound point. He said, “Live in” God or God’s love. Jesus said, “Abide or remain” in me.
Most of us, if not all of us, know what it mean to live somewhere or in a home. When we live in our homes we simply stay in and reside the safety and the confines of that home. That home provides protection, that home is where we are nourished. That home is where we entertain friends and family and enjoy fellowship and the love of human relationships.
Living in a home is both a passive and an active experience. The roof and walls provide the protection during storms, and to be safe we just remain in that house. But we can run away from home and we have to make a conscious decision to come home to be with our family. We have to actively clean and maintain our home, unless we have maid service I suppose. But even then we have to pay for it. To enjoy all the benefits of our home, we have to actively live in and remain in that dwelling.
Jesus wasn’t trying to confuse us when He said, “abide in me.” John wasn’t trying to confuse us when he said, “live in love, the love of God.” John was saying that if Jesus is your Lord, then you have been filled with the Spirit of God, and God now lives in you, and you live in Him. Enjoy all the benefits that are yours because of this vital relationship. You are connected with God as tightly and as intimately as any earthly example can illustrate (e.g. vine & branches). Now live in the reality of that relationship, enjoy it, and maintain it or remain in God’s house.
We abide in Christ by being here this morning with the people of God, the bride of Christ, worshipping the Lord of hosts. When we ignore opportunities to gather in Christ’s name with two or three others, we ignore a means of grace. In a sense we are moving out of the safety of God’s house. We are out there on our own, breaking away from the warm confines of our home.
We abide in Christ whenever we take the sacraments, as we will in just a few short moments. When we ignore the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper or refuse God’s command to be baptized, we ignore a means of grace, and we miss an opportunity to abide, or remain in Christ.
We abide in Christ whenever we go to work or do chores around the house, or study in school as unto the Lord. All our work and even our play can be a sacred offering to the Lord, done with joy, sweat, and thanksgiving. We abide in Christ whenever we do our tasks “heartily, as unto the Lord.”
Abiding in Christ means that we can turn to him any moment of the day in any situation and cast any concern or care before him. Whenever we get anxious or carry our own burden too long, we are moving out of the protection of God’s house, and setting ourselves up as the Master of our own destiny. God wants to carry every burden, so matter how big or small. He wasn’t joking when he said, “be anxious in nothing.”
When you abide in Christ there is no anxiety, no fear, no phobia, and no addiction that God can’t help you overcome. John says that “perfect love drives out fear.” All addictions and phobias have their root in anxiety and fear. Only the perfect love of God can drive away all our worries and cares. Only turning to and abiding in the perfect love of God, can save us not only from hell and death, but also save us from the hell and stress of trying to make it on our own.
There are sadly many homeless people in Atlanta and this world. They have to face the weather and the elements without a roof, without resources. Their lives are hard and their lifespan in shorter than the average citizen. But what is even a sadder situation is the millions of spiritually homeless people and the even the many many Christians we leave the home that God has provided, and try to do it on their own.
Jesus said, “remain in me, abide in me, live in my love. Remember that I am in you and will never leave you or forsake you. Now walk boldly and confidently in this world as children of the King. Taking the truth of I John 4:16, the rules of logic, and applying them to I Cor. 13 let us conclude and prepare for the Lord’s Supper with these words of comfort:
If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not God, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not God, I am nothing. If I give all my possessions to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not God, I gain nothing.
God is patient. God is kind. God is not envious, rude, boastful, or proud. God is not self-seeking or easily angered. He keeps no record his children’s wrongs. God does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes. He never gives up on his children. God never fails for God is love.
