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There’s
an old story about a church that hired a new preacher. The first Sunday
he announced his text: I John 4:11 -- “Dear friends, since God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another.” It was a great sermon and the
board and congregation were pleased with their choice. The next Sunday,
the pastor rose to speak. He announced his text: “Dear friends, since
God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” and proceeded to preach
the same sermon as the last week, word for word. The people were a bit
surprised, but they were willing to give the new preacher the benefit
of the doubt, “Maybe he isn’t aware that he repeated himself.” The third
Sunday came. Everybody waited with anticipation for the pastor to announce
his text: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought also to love
one another” and began to preach exactly the same sermon as the last two
weeks. Well, that was too much and the chairman of the church board stood
up, “Preacher, what gives? You keep preaching the same sermon week after
week.” “Well,” the young man replied “you haven’t started doing this one
yet, when you do, I’ll give you another.”
I’m not sure that is a true story, but in fact, it 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 four 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. Whoever does not love does
not know God, because God is love. 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent
his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
The source of our love is not in us, 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,
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.
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 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.
The Bible tells us love is the fruit of the life filled with God’s Holy
Spirit.
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; you are the branches. If you remain in me
and I in you, you will bear much fruit” (John 15:5). The fruit of love
only comes about as we live closer to Him. 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.
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us
and his love is made complete in us. We 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 Gandhi, a 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 Bible studies, 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. In 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. There 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 then: #1 I have trouble really believing
in grace, or #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. If 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. And
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 1 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
to 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:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 love, I am nothing. If I
give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but
have not love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
It doesn’t
matter if doctrine is perfect, if we have
the most talented musicians on the face of the earth, if we have the most
compelling preaching from the pulpit every week. It doesn’t matter if
we 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)
Love is patient, love
is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians
13: 4-8).
Now, this would be the point
where I am supposed to say, “If you have read that and find that you don’t
measure up to God’s standard of love, then you need to try harder.” But that
would be exactly the wrong point. Because Christian love is not sourced in
us, trying harder won’t help. I will only lead to failure and more guilt feelings.
If you’ve looked at the standard of love and found that you do not measure
up (as I have found that I do not), then my appeal to you is: Draw closer
to Christ. Get to know him better in prayer and study and then allow his Holy
Spirit to love others through you.
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