Living the Virtuous Life: Love (I John 4:7-21)
By Rev. Phil Barner
Many have heard that there are 7 deadly sins (pride, anger, envy, lust, sloth, gluttony, covetousness). Early in the life of the church they had to address the common Greek attitude toward sin. The general consensus was that sins were necessary flaws in human nature. Even the Greek “gods” all had such noticeable flaws. The early church came up with a list of 7 deadly sins from scripture that they saw as root sins for all the others.
A “Wizard of Id” comic strip showed a congregation with a great interest in a sermon on the 7 deadly sins. They wanted to make sure that they weren’t missing any. We tend to forget that there are also 7 Cardinal Virtues (love, faith, hope, justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude)..
There was a popular book, “The Book of Virtues”. It even resulted in a PBS television series. Then the author was found gambling heavily. There is not as much interest in virtues because they are harder to follow. As we see with the virtue of love if we want to be more like God we need to learn to love.
I. The Example of Love (vv.7-12)
Have you ever tried to copy something? How did it turn out? What if you make a copy of a copy of a copy? I suppose it depends on how good the copies are that you’re using. It’s always wisest to check the original. What the world calls love today is a pale imitation of the real thing. Just check the titles of some of the popular songs. You can easily replace the word lust for love in most cases without any change in meaning.
The command in (v. 7) is to love one another. This is the most common “one another” command in Scripture. Why? The rest of the verse tells us that this is the evidence of our relationship with God. Part of God’s very nature is love. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the attitude of many non-Christians. I get the impression that many who avoid Christianity use the excuse that they don’t want to become closed minded bigots.
The fact of the matter is that if we don’t love we don’t really know God. We may know a valuable creed or tradition but we don’t know God. Why not? What does it mean to know God? The more we know Him, the more we become like Him.
How has God exemplified Love? (v.9) reminds us that God showed His love for us by sending His Son Jesus into the world that we might live through Him. He loved us first with such an overwhelming, reckless love that doesn’t even make rational sense. He loved us while we were still enemies because of our sin. God showed us a self sacrificing love and people still mock Him for it.
Why does God love us so much? What does He get out of it? In response to God’s love we need to love one another. Why? (v.12) tells us that if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. Does this mean that God’s love is somehow incomplete? The King James Version says His love is “perfected in us”. That seems worse. Some could take that to mean that God’s love is imperfect. How can that be? If love is one sided is it complete?
We need to love back.
Do we best show our love for God by removing ourselves from the world and spending all of our time in prayer and Bible study? These things are important but I almost think that they are easier than what God commands. He commands us to love each other. If we don’t than we are disobedient. John and his brother James had been known as “sons of thunder”. He was ready to call down fire on a Samaritan village when he felt slighted by them. Now he’s remembered as the disciple that Jesus loved. What made the difference? Knowing God. When he wrote this letter he was in his later years. He wanted the church to follow the loving example of Jesus Christ. If we want to be more like God, we need to learn to love.
II. The Evidence of Love (vv. 13-18)
Every church thinks that they’re loving but how many actually greet new comers and talk to them when they visit? Less than we might think. How do we know if we’re truly loving? What’s the evidence? In (v.13) we’re told that we know because He has given us of His Spirit. How is the Holy Spirit evidence of our love?
I heard of a pastor who canceled the rest of a church worship service after a woman stood up and publicly criticized him. He said that the Spirit had left. The person who told me this had gotten the impression that the Holy Spirit is easily offended. I don’t agree. Although the Spirit can be grieved He is God. He is much bigger than we often give Him credit for being.
How is the Holy Spirit evidence of our love? We need to get used to listening to the Holy Spirit. It is He who empowers us and teaches us. It is He who is our evidence of love. In (v. 14) we are told that we testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. This was not just for the people of John’s day who had seen Jesus Christ in the flesh. How have we seen this? He’s at work in our lives. It is made obvious in (vv. 15 & 16) that this is more than an intellectual acknowledgement. How? We live in love. What does that mean?
What do people fear today? How does perfect love drive out fear? An example would be when we see a police car. If we have done nothing wrong we should have nothing to fear. He’s there for our protection, not our punishment. I realize that police are human and don’t always make the right decisions but God does. With His love in our hearts we have nothing to fear. Why not? What about fearing God? He deserves our respect and I’m convinced that too often we take Him far too casually. He’s far greater than many give Him credit for. If we ever think we have God all figured out then our God is too small.
Sometimes fear can be a simple matter of common sense. When a vicious dog is barking at me I am not going to declare, “I love you so I have nothing to fear!” That would be foolishness. But I’m also not going to be paralyzed by fear. I want to trust God instead. If the owner of the vicious dog is nearby I can be more confident in my approach, especially if I know him. I know the owner of all things, God. He says not to be afraid. I can love fearlessly because of His love at work through me.
How can we be “made perfect in love” (v.18)? This is not sinless perfection. It is to be the complete person that God wants us to be. If we want to be more like Jesus we need to learn to love.
III. The Reason to Love (vv. 19-21)
As a child I learned a chorus, “Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus.” Why? “Because He first loved me.” Why is that a reason to love? Isn’t there such a thing as unwanted affection? There’s also a song called, “Little Blue Man” in which the little guy kept telling a lady that he “wuved” her until she pushed him off a building. Then he finally said to her, “I don’t wuv you anymore.”.
How is the love of God different? Writer Philip Yancey says that, “There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more and there is nothing that we can do to make God love us less.” Do you believe that? Doesn’t that welcome abuse?
I truly believe that the love of God is far greater than we can ever fathom. Here’s the hard part. Jesus told us (John 13:34) to love one another in the same way that He loved us. How can we ever hope to accomplish that? His love is far greater than we can ever hope to match.
It’s one thing to love Christ because He first loved us. but to love our brother is a different story. According to this, if we say that we love God yet hate our brother than we’re liars. Why? Sad but true, loving God can be little more than an idealistic concept for many. Sure I love God, but I can’t see Him so that love can take any form that I want it to. God says to prove it by loving our brother. He even sends some people who are really hard to get along with.
One commentator wrote that there is no neutral term in Greek between love and hate. We’re not to merely tolerate each other. We need to truly love each other. It’s one thing to love an enemy, which Christ also commands. We expect them to act nasty. We can’t be surprised when sinners act ungodly. What’s harder to swallow is when Christians, who should know better, act the same way.
We need to show each other God’s love in practical ways. Love is a cardinal virtue. It’s a command of Christ that is mentioned often. Why then don’t we see it evidenced more? If I ever justify in myself hatred toward my brother, regardless of what they have done to me, then I’m showing hatred toward God. Then His love is not alive in me. Let’s choose to love instead. If we want to be more like God we need to learn to love.
