Cornerstone Seminary Chapel

Introduction: Good morning, my name is James Watson and I’m a pastor here in Vallejo. But like you I’m also a Seminary student. I’m a Th.M. student at the Master’s Seminary. So I fully sympathize with everything that goes in to being a student. My prayer today is that this message will simply be an encouragement to you as you pursue God’s calling on your life.

Before we dive into God’s Word, let’s pray.

Transition to the Text: Turn with me in your bible to 1 John 4:7-19. Today I’d like to talk about love and specially how God defines love in His Word.

The language of 1 John matches so closely the language of the Gospel of John that it is almost unanimously accepted that one person wrote both.

John walked with Jesus on earth for at least 3 years. We get three years, because John records three passovers.

In the Gospel of John, John allows almost all of his theology to come through the very words of Jesus in conversation and his sermons. And in the letters of John, John’s theology most closely matches that of Jesus’ own words.

Why? Because John wasn’t making any of this up. He believed with His whole heart, soul, mind and strength that Jesus was:

The Word of God.

God in the flesh.

The Propitiation for our Sins

The risen and victorious Savior.

But as with our day, after many years in the church, people began questioning what it meant to be a Christian. They began compromising on certain doctrines of faith. Which lead to councils and creeds.

But in the background, perhaps no debate is more significant, particularly for our day, than the definition of love.

Love is a widely misunderstood concept. And in our passage today, John challenges us that:

Big Idea: We need to let God define Love in His Word.

So let’s read.

Read:1 John 4:7-19

1 John 4:7–19 (ESV)

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

19 We love because he first loved us.

John gives a clear definition of what love is.

1. God through John provides the example that defines love.

Explanation: So if you were to go on dictionary.com and type in “love” it would give you three definitions.

1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.

3. sexual passion or desire.

One of the things you’ll immediately notice about these 3 definitions is the idea that love is a feeling.

And if you were to look at Hollywood you would get a similar impression of what love is. It’s a feeling. Feelings can grow and feelings can fade away.

But is that what love is?

Not if you take God at His Word.

There are 2 words often translated as love in the OT. (חֶסֶד) Covenant Faithfulness. (אהב) Generic love

Both of these words are not feeling words. And that’s why a jewish Rabbi might tell you today that Hebrew has no concept of love. Because it’s not about feeling but action. In fact they feel that the idea of Romantic love from or too God is somewhat irreverent. Their relationship with God is one of duty and reverence.

The world tells you that if you don’t feel it, it’s not love. This is not what the Bible teaches.

Now in the NT we also have two words for love.

ἀγάπη - Love

φιλέω - Brotherly love

ἀγάπη is the one most associated with God’s covenant faithfulness. We might talk about this as unconditional love.

φιλέω is often associated with brotherly love. Philadelphia. Which is ironic because if you’ve ever met an eagles fan, they aren’t very loving.

But I digress.

Now in our passage John seeks to define ἀγάπη with an example. The example.

John defines love by pointing to the cross and telling us the Gospel;.

This is love. First of all, God loved you before you loved Him. Before you were worthy of His love. While you were still a sinner marred by the sin that separates you from God. He loved you and made a way for your to be worthy of that love not by your good works, but by Christ’s work on the cross.

This is love, God sent Jesus to be a propitiation for our sins.

Propitiation is a big word that people tend to argue about it. I believe this word means the satisfaction of the debt and the abatement of God’s wrath. Since we could not do either of those things on our own, this word implies the need for a substitute. Jesus didn’t just die for the sins of His people. His death was the punishment and satisfaction for those sins that abated God’s wrath on us.

So immediately we see that love is about sacrifice. And the utlimate expression of that sacrifice is the Gospel.

Jesus didn’t need to die. We needed Him to die. So He did it.

Now almost universally in the Bible, love is tied to action. The idea that love is a feelings is foreign to Scripture.

Jesus wasn’t just saying, I love you. He was saying this is how I love you.

And to to go to the most famous, and misunderstood verse in the Bible,

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

This verse is not talking about the quantity of God’s love but the specificity in God’s demonstration of that love. That’s not to say that our translations get it wrong.

The “so” goes back to old english and carries the meaning of “thus.” Early english speakers would have known that what John was saying is that “God loved the world in this way....”

Because as we’re about to see, God’s love doesn’t go up and down. It’s not more for one thing than another.

The cross is the greatest example of what love is. The Gospel is the definition of God’s love. We have a sin problem that we can’t deal with on our own. So God sent His son to die on the cross to propitiate our sin so that might have a relationship with Him and eternal life based on Jesus’ righteousness.

So John defines love as action, with the example of the cross.

And then says, in essence go and do likewise.

I mean if Jesus was willing to put the needs of His people above His own, the least we can do is put someone else’s needs before our own.

Oh and now, God is using His people to love the world (the elect) through sacrificely sharing the Gospel. And I’m not talking about just being nice to people. Or giving them money. We don’t love people into the Kingdom. We love people by pointing them to the entrance into the Kingdom. The Cross.

Sacrifice our money for the sake of the Gospel.

Sacrificing our time for the sake of the Gospel.

Sacrificing our grudges for the sake of the Gospel. Forgiving others as you have been forgiven.

Now the idea of perfected love is not that we love perfectly. The idea is that when we do for others what God has done for us (and them if they are among His children), the circle of love has been complete…perfected.

So the degree to which we live out the Gospel and follow Jesus’ example of love as He has loved us....

2. That Love serves as the evidence that we are in Him. (1 John 4:13-16)

Explanation: So love is not a feeling but a response to the love that God has shown to us at the cross.

And this love that we put into action becomes the evidence that we are actually Christians.

We can know we are Christians by our love specifically for other Christians but also in sharing the Gospel and calling people outside of Christ to repentance and faith.

Because part of loving someone is the willingness to tell them the truth.

John goes on to say, that love means telling people that the Father sent Jesus to be the savior of the world. Evangelism is an act of love.

And the confession that Jesus is the Son of God is a loving statement.

So it’s loving to share the Gospel. It’s loving to tell people that they are sinners in need of a savior. It’s loving to tell someone that without Christ their destiny is hell. It’s loving to tell a person of another religion that they worship a false God.

It’s also loving to tell a Christian who is acting like a jerk that he or she is not reflecting the sacrificial love of Christ. Love serves as evidence that you have and continue to daily embrace the Gospel.

It’s unloving to withhold the Gospel from people who are perishing.

Application: What is the evidence of your relationship with God?

It’s about reverence for God. And duty in following His commands.

It’s your action in following the example of Jesus sacrificing for the sake of His people.

And finally, we come to the idea that God is love. Now John says this twice.

But I want us to notice something. It does not say that God feels love towards others. It does not even say that God is a loving God. God is the embodiment of love. And how was that love expressed? At the cross.

For us that event was 2,000 years ago, and it’s hard for us to wrap our minds around an event that was long over. Yet all of history centers around the death burial and resurrection of Jesus.

The evidence that God is love is His actions towards us at the cross of Jesus. Jesus paying the penalty of our sins and being our substitute so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him.

That is love. Action. Sacrifice. God.

3. Love leads to confidence and not fear. (1 John 17-19)

Explanation: A proper understanding of love helps us to see that for the Christian, there is nothing to fear in this life.

Too many people go through life afraid. And even if they are a Christian, they still fear that God will eventually turn their back on them.

The cross is the evidence that God loves you when we come in humility, repentance and faith.

Illustration: I had a thought not too long ago regarding why it’s so hard to pray to God in the midst of our sin.

We sin, we mess up and then think we can just come into His presence like nothing happened?

Well not exactly, it’s appropriate to confess and repent of our sin, but God is not waiting for you to come and beg for His mercy. The mercy was already given.

What happens when we fail to pray after sin because we are afraid of God’s wrath is that we misunderstand God’s love. And we do it like this. By fearing to come to God after we sin, we wrongly think that it was our good words that would have led to our being accepted in the first place. I didn’t sin today, therefore God will accept me. I sinned today, I need to make up for it. You see what I’m saying?

All of those sins were paid for at the cross. You are accepted not based on your ability to not sin but what Christ did for you on the cross.

And that reminder of the Gospel daily should motivate you to be killing sin in your life.

Again, the Gospel defines love.

Too many people think that one day they will stand before God and give an account for all that they have done and God will weigh the good and the bad. And if the good outweighs the bad, you get in.

Wrong. One question will be answered. Are you in Christ? And it won’t asked of you, it will be answered for you.

God will already know. So this whole idea of love is so that you will know.

God wants you to be confident of your standing with Him. So He tells you that one of the ways you can be confident is to look at how you love like Christ loves you.

Is your life characterized by the sacrificial love of Christ? The more it is, the more confident you will be.

But if you are selfish, mean spirited, angry, entitled, etc… You should be afraid.

As men who are training for ministry or perhaps who are already in ministry, you will be called by God to love people that are difficult to love. There will be people who don’t like you for no reason. There are people who mistreat and abuse you. You will be tempted to withhold love. Whenever that happens, we remember that Jesus died for people that murdered Him.

Now I hold to limited atonement so no it wasn’t everyone, but the centurian’s confession came after he took part in the murder of Jesus.

Look at what Paul was doing before Christ knocked him off His horse.

You never know where your act of love in pointing people to the cross will lead.

Application: And perhaps the greatest truth we can share is:

Love is a choice. It’s a choice to follow the example of Jesus and be a living sacrifice each and every day.

Response: Do you love like Christ has loved you?

Summation:Big Idea: We need to let God DEFINE Love in His WORD.

1. God provides the EXAMPLE that defines love. (1 John 4:10-12)

2. Love in us is EVIDENCE that we are in Him. (1 John 4:13-16)

3. Love leads to CONFIDENCE and not fear. (1 John 17-19)

Now you are all in Seminary. Which means that you are active in a local church. Your pastor has evaluated your life and ministry and determined that you are fit for ministry. The seminary has accepted that testimony and accepted you into their program.

Maybe you are in your first year, or maybe you are taking the slow 10 year route. But I know that there is the possibility that you might have made it through all of that and may even be sitting in this room having never truly embraced the Gospel by faith. That you might still be outside of the family of God. No I don’t want you to doubt your salvation. God wants you to be confident. But if you know you have not embraced the Gospel, Let today be the day that you embrace the Gospel.

Let today be the day that you acknowledge and repent of your sin still separates you from God. Come to the foot of the cross and embrace and believe that Jesus is your savior and Lord. Acknowledge that there is salvation in no one else. And be made new today.

But even if you have been a Christian your whole life, we never move beyond the Gospel as it reminds us of God’s love for us. It reminds us that

1 John 4:19 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us.

The gospel gives us the example we are to follow in our lives and in our relationship with God and others.

One final thought before we close. In the Bible, the command is to love and the example is given. You will not be held responsible for how others love you, only how you love others.

God chose to love us, even when we didn’t deserve it. Even when we had nothing to offer Him.

Go and do likewise.

Let’s pray.