Bible Text: 1 John 4:7-21 | Preacher: Ray Galea | Series: What If We Really Believed? | God is Love and as a result he has sent his one and only Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. However, that love has not completed its work until it has cast our fear of punishment and resulted in love for others.
The love of God is the only aspect of Godâs character that the world still believes in. This means that we Christians must work harder at thinking about Godâs love from the Bible and not just imitate our culture. We must not allow the world to tell us what the love of God looks like. Instead, we must come to the Bible afresh, to learn what it says about Godâs love.
It is surprising to see just how much the word âloveâ is mentioned in the bible. In our passage alone, 1 John 4:7-21, the word âloveâ is mentioned 27 times. God must value âloveâ very much. But imagine there was no reference in the Bible to Godâs love for his people; what an oppressive god that would be!â Compare the Koranâof the 99 names given to Allah in the Koran, he is never referred to as âloveâ.
Letâs work our way through this passage and see what happens if we really believe that God is love.
1 John 4:7, âDear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from Godâ (NIV).
It is no surprise that âthe good bookâ has âthe golden ruleâ. Itâs something we have grown to expect the Bible to say. It would be a disappointment if the Bible said, âDear friends, let us rip one another off, for ripping off comes from God.â We take this for granted, but in many countries that have not had exposure to Biblical Christianity, children are in fact taught to hate. So we must never take for granted the value that our culture still has for âloveâ. But in our own self-obsessed culture, this mindset of love is becoming rarer.
Consider this first example. Many years ago a local womanânot a Christianâleft her husband of 35 years because he got seriously sick and she did not want to spend her remaining years caring for him. To make matters worse, she left him for the brother-in-law! But if Christianity isnât true, and there is no God who will judge, why would you stay? Loving in such an instance makes no sense and is illogical. If when youâre dead, youâre dead, and thatâs it, then the command to love is just not enough. There is no reason for such self-giving, self-sacrificial love. But notice that one of the chief marks of being born of God is love. 1 John 4:7-8:
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. (NIV)
In this letter, John addresses a situation where a group of church members have left the church to follow a different Jesus. And to those that remain, John the apostle offers three marks of those who are born of God, three tests by which you can tell whether a person is a true Christian: first there is the truth test concerning Jesus; second is the obedience test concerning Godâs commands; and third is the love test, especially concerning a personâs attitude to others, and particularly to other Christians.
Twice we are told in this passage that âGod is loveâ (1 John 4:8, 16). And a person canât be in a personal relationship with the God of love and not want to love.
We are most like God when we love one another. To be âungodlyââunlike Godâisnât just to be, for example, a consistent liar, compulsive thief, or serial adulterer. To be ungodly is to be loveless. To be ungodly is to be self-centered and self-loving person rather than an other-person centered and loving person.
We are told that God is love. You wouldnât get away with saying that any particular person âis loveâ. You couldnât say that Ray is love, or Matt is loveâyou could say âloveableâ, maybe. But it doesnât quite fit to say that any human âis loveâ in the Bible says that âGod is love.â
âGod is loveâ: it is only said of God. God and God alone âis loveâ. And you canât reverse the statement. Itâs not that âlove is Godâ. That would be idolatry. We are not to fall in love with love, but with God who is love.
Movies tend to push falling in love with love. Itâs nice, but you just canât build a marriage on it. When it comes to relationships, most Christians are more shaped by Hollywood than by the holy word.
In contrast with the story above is another one. A young Christian man in a church not far from here got engaged to his fiancĂ©. Soon afterwards, she was diagnosed with âMSââMultiple Sclerosis. She was diagnosed while the man was still free to break off the engagement: he hadnât yet made those promises to love her in sickness and in health. He decided to stay with her, and they got married. The MS developed so rapidly that she was soon bedridden. He left his job as a chartered accountant, giving up his career prospects to care for her for 10 years, and then she died. It was clear that this young Christian man knew that God is love.
So what does the slippery four letter word âloveâ means? If you go to the Macquarie Dictionary, it gives five definitions of love. If you close your Bible and go to our world, you are left with these five definitions. Love according to the world is defined as follows:
First, love is âa warm affection, attachment, liking or fondnessâ. Thatâs nice, but what happens when the feelings stop? One study found that 80% of couples lost the feeling of romantic love within two years of being married. The feelings alone donât get you very far.
Second, love is âa sexual affection, passion or desireâ. That sounds a lot like lust, doesnât it? And what happens when your coworker arouses you more than your spouse?
Third, love is âa sweetheart, a delightful person, pretty thingâ. But what happens when she stops being pretty and he stops being hunky. What happens when âloveâ becomes âlove handlesââstretch marks, excess weight, wrinkles?
Fourth, love is âno scoreâ as in tennis, a ânothingâ, a ânil state of gameâ when neither side has yet scored.
Or fifth, âlove is a temporary relationship between two people who have fallen in loveâ. That is indeed exactly the attitude of our world, but what about the marriage promises to forsake all others for as long as we both shall live?
From that definition of love, and if âGod is loveâ, then you would infer that God has warm romantic feelings, is sexually active, is cute, prefers temporary non-committed relationships, and plays tennis on Sundays.
But God gives his own definition for love in 1 John 4:9:
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. (NIV)
Godâs love is seen in his ultimate giftâGodâs one and only Son. Where do you see Godâs love? You see it in creation, when God sends the rain on both the just and the unjust alike. You see it in the love of a mother for her baby. You see it in the sacrificial love for the poor and sick.
But climactically, in its purest and ultimate sense, you see it in Jesus, who was sent into this world so that we might live. Jesus left his home of heaven to come to this wretched earth and then tasted hell so that we could share heaven with him. Jesus forfeited the privileges of his perfect relationship with his Father so that we would share eternity with him.
Love does not begin with us. We are not born with love in our hearts. Love begins with God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And love begins not with a warm feeling, but with a heart-wrenching act on the part of God. 1 John 4:10:
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (NIV)
God wanted us to live with him so much that he was prepared to have his Son die for us.
Alan Jones the AM radio presenter years ago was talking about the sadness of a prison guard who was jabbed with a blood filled syringe by a prisoner. The prisoner who did it was HIV positive and had filled the syringe with his own blood, and died several years ago. The prison guard, who was just doing his duty when he was injured, also died of AIDS. He was only 25 years old when he died. Before he died, the young prison officer expressed his wish to live, and his desire to get married and have children. Alan Jones remarked, âThis may be a Christian country but not one of us would want to take his place.â
Alan Jones was wrong on two counts. First, this is not a Christian country. We are a country with some Christian people in it and a Christian heritage that is fading away. And second, yes, there was someone prepared to take his placeâthe one who bears the name âJesus Christâ. But itâs true that it was no Aussie who was prepared to do it. For it is not in modern day post-Christian Australia that God provided a substitute for sin, but two thousand years ago on a grubby Judean cross.
Notice whatâs not being said. It doesnât say, âLove one another and maybe God will love youâ. It doesnât say, âLove God and maybe God will love you back.â 1 John 4:10 says this:
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (NIV)
The seventeenth century philosopher Spinoza wrongly said, âHe that loves God does not demand that God should love us in returnâ. How wrong is that! We only love God because he first loved us. I love only because he first loved me.
When Jesus the Son of God atoned for our sins, he broke all the rules. He loved us, his enemies, and he died not for his sins but for ours. He incurred on the cross the penalty for our sins. Jesus took our punishment so that he can forgive us and give us life.
Six times John calls us his beloved. We are the loved ones.
As Protestants we rightly talk about Christâs death âonce and for allâ. When it comes to paying for all our sins, the price has been paid in full at the cross. Jesusâ payment for our sins by his atoning death is now finished. But Godâs love has not finished its job until two things happen. The first is that we have confidence on the day of judgement. 1 John 4:17-18:
This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement: In this world we are like Jesus. 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. (NIV)
Godâs love has not completed its work until every person in Christ has no fear of punishment. God not only wants to save us, but he wants us to know we are saved. The love of God in Jesusâ death finds its conclusion in our assurance. The world hears the word of a coming judgement day and trembles or is offended. We hear the word judgement day and rejoice. We see it as a positive thing because we know how the verdict will go.
In December, judgement day is coming for every HSC student. Many live in fear because this judgement is based on their performance. But we are looking forward to Godâs judgement day because Jesus has already sat the exam in our place. He did this by his obedient life, death, and resurrection. We got top marks, 100%, because he did! We have nothing to fear.
When John says that âthe one who fears is not made perfect in loveâ, he is saying that the one who fears has not let Godâs love finish off its work in them. God is committed to flushing out every fear in your soul. Let God love you and set you free. Once you rely on that love, it cries out for you to love others. 1 John 4:19-21:
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (NIV)
Jesus said there are only two great commandments: that we love God with all our heart and that we love our neighbours as ourselves. There could have been only one great commandment. That is, God could have kept all the love for himself. God could have required all the love to be vertical, towards him. But he didnât. Or alternatively, God could have expected you to love others without first being loved. God could have required love of us without telling us of his love for us. But he didnât do this either. God wanted the vertical âtop-downâ love to empower the horizontal, âus-outwardâ love. What God did was to tie your love for others with your love for him. âAnyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.â
And, it must be said, we must not just love our brothers and sister in Christ, but our neighbor who may not be our brother or sister, or even our enemies.
Love is the greatest argument for Jesus. A Christian teacher who works in a state school tells this story: she was known to be Christian, and a gay teacher in her English department  said to her, âthe moment I knew you were a Christian I started building a wall between us.â But as she got to know her, things changed. The way this Christian spoke of Jesus in personal categories, and while the Christian woman still held her ground, the way she spoke in a loving and gentle way, produced a true friendship with the gay teacher. The result was that the lesbian teacher said to her, âDoes your church have a class to explain Christianity. I would like to come.â So in the midst of a heated national debate on marriage, a woman in a same-sex relationship wants to know about Jesus. Why? Because the love of God in Christ Jesus not only saved a Christian sister but also transformed her to be like her God in the way she spoke and loved.