There’s an old story about a preacher who kept preaching the same message week after week. When he was finally questioned about it he replied “Well you haven’t started following this one yet.”
In fact that story has some grounding in History with the preacher in question being John Himself. The early Church Father Jerome records:
"When the blessed evangelist John, the apostle, had lived in Ephesus into his extreme old age and could hardly be carried to the meetings of the church by the disciples, and when in speaking he could no longer put together many words, he would not say anything else in the meetings but this: "Little children, love one another!"
When at last the disciples and brothers present got tired of hearing the same thing again and again, they said, "Master, why do you keep saying the same thing?" John replied with a saying worthy of him: ‘Because it is the Lord’s command, and it is enough if it is really done’ “(Jerome, Commentary on Galatians 6:10 AD 387-388”)
So if this morning’s message seems repetitive with some of the others I’ve preached from 1 John, I’m probably being faithful to His writing. For throughout the letter this strong theme of the necessity of Love is repeated over and over.
This morning as we revisit the subject of Love I’d like you to notice with me 4 truths about Christian Love.
1. Christian Love Comes From God
vv. 7-10 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins.
The source of our love is not ourselves, but God Himself. It says not only that love comes from God, but that He sent His Son into the world that we might live through him. As we experience his life we will naturally radiate His love for it says God IS love.
Not just that He has love or does love but that love is in fact defined by the nature of God. To live out that love we must first begin to grasp it. And when we grasp it we cannot help but live it out.
When we realize God loves us in spite of all we’ve done that doesn’t please Him, we’ll love others in spite of all they do that doesn’t please us. The Bible says God hates divorce—but if you’ve been through divorce, I want you to know God loves you. God is truth and He hates lies, but if you’ve lied God still loves you. If you’ve cruelly injured someone else with your words, God loves you. If you’ve cheated on your taxes, God loves you. If you’ve had an abortion, God loves you.
Because God is love nothing you’ve done could make him love you any less and nothing you could do could make him love you any more. If ever you doubt the depth of his love just think about the Love of Christ stretched out on a cross where he was nailed because he loved you so much he wanted to spend eternity with you.
The love of God that drove Him to offer His perfect Son is the love that as a Christian you are meant to have. You say, well I’m only human, I don’t have that kind of love. That’s right and that’s why this love can’t be a matter of a pastor’s guilt trip or a self help program, it has to be the real deal, flowing from Him, through you to the world around.
You see the Bible tells us love is the fruit of the life filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
ILLUSTRATION: How do you make an oak tree give apples? You can’t. A tree can only produce apples by being an apple tree. In the same way you can only produce Christian love by letting God’s love flow through you.
Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches, remain in me and you will bear much fruit. The fruit of love only comes about as we press in closer to Him. And when that fruit is lacking it’s not time to try harder to love, but time to press in closer to Him, confess your lack of love and ask Him to grow love in you.
2. Christian Love Reflects God
vv. 11-13 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
In the same way we cannot see the wind but we can see what the wind moves and in that way know its strength and direction, we cannot see God, but we can see what the love of God does in and through us.
What we are being told here is that we, the Church, the blood bought ransomed of God are to be the very image of God to the world. They should be able to look at us and see God.
Mahatma Ghandi, Hindu and leader of the Indian people famously remarked “I Love your Christ, but I do not love your Christians.” The stunning truth in this statement grieves the heart of God.
Are we reflecting an appropriate image of God as a church? If those still seeking the truth about Jesus were to look at us would they see the image of a Savior they would want to give their lives to? Not just in our sermons, songs and Sunday school lessons, but in our meetings and private conversations, in the thoughts we entertain and the looks we give does the love that drove Jesus to the cross abound?
Would the invisible God be made visible in us to those longing to see him?
If Jesus is Lord in a place and among a people, his love will be reflected there.
What about in our homes, in the workplace and our schools? Do others see in you the Jesus who died for them? If not why not?
You can’t manufacture this love, you can’t fake it. All you can do is confess the lack of it and press in hard to Jesus, the true vine and let the fruit of His love grow in you.
3.Christian Love Gives us Confidence Before God
vv. 16-18 And so 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. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We rely on His love both for salvation and as the supply of Love that we give to others—for the capacity of God’s love is endless. We are utterly dependent upon His love because in ourselves we aren’t capable of the love He expects us to show. When we are hurt, we want to hurt back. Grace is not our native language. But we need to give grace as much as we need to receive grace.
Because when we truly manifest the love of God we have confidence before him—why? Because we know that grace is real when we see it operating in us. If I can forgive one who has injured me then I know grace is real. If I still am not able to do that than #1 I have trouble really believing in grace and #2 I must question whether I have received grace.
Jesus told a story about a man who had been forgiven a great debt who begged to be forgiven and the lender forgave him, then the lender found him harassing a man who owed the borrower a much smaller debt and the lender rescinded his offer of forgiveness. Jesus told the story to let us know that because we have received such great love, we are expected to give great love.
Does the love that you have for your brothers and sisters give you confidence before God? Jesus in Luke chapter 6 when he was teaching about loving those who were undeserving of love said: For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:38) How will you be if on that great Day of judgment grace is measured out to you with the measure you have used?
If you would fear to face a God whose love extended only as far as yours, you need to confess your lack of love and press in close to Jesus to let the fruit of His love grow in you.
4. Christian Love Proves we Know God
vv. 19-21 We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Finally it comes once again to this simple point that reverberates like the beat of a bass drum throughout 1st John. If you know God you will love your brothers. If you do not love your brothers you don’t know God.
Jesus said whatever you have done to the least of these you have done unto him. He also said whatever you have not done to the least of these you have not done to me. To withhold love from any human being, most especially from Christian brothers and sisters is to withhold love from God.
Love is the great commandment, it motivates the great commission. Without Love we are not like Christ and therefore not Christian.
In 1 Corinthians 13 we get a picture of love’s importance.
1 Corinthians 13: 1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If 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 love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
It doesn’t matter if doctrine is perfect, If we have the most talented musicians on the face of the earth, If we have a prophetic word in the service twice a week. Or if have enough faith to see people healed out of wheelchairs, or if you speak in tongues every time you pray. if we lack love we are not the Church of Jesus Christ.
Paul goes on to describe what this love looks like:
Try replacing the word love or “it” with your own name
1 Corinthians 13: 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails.
Communion: 1 Corinthians 10 “Because there is one loaf we are one body”
Closing Song: I Love Him Because He first loved me.
