More Reasons to Love One Another

1 John 4:7–21 NASB95

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we 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 seen God at any time; 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 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the 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 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in 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, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

INTRO: Have you ever found it necessary to repeat yourself? There are all sorts of reasons we might have to repeat ourselves… sometimes it is because the other person did not hear us… maybe their hearing aid was not in or we might have mumbled. I saw a comic where a husband says to his pastor, “My wife says I don’t listen to her… or something like that.”

As a dad, I find that I repeat myself often to my kids. There are a number of reasons for this, but one reason is so they have a consistent refutation of some of the nonsense that the world pushes on them. But my kids aren’t the only ones who need truth repeated to them. I need it and you need it. Otherwise, we can lose sight of what is important and drift into a worldly way of thinking.

This is not novel, however. We see the apostle Paul tell the church at Philippi,

Philippians 3:1 NASB95

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

John evidently agrees. You know, John seems to be obsessed with love. In his Gospel recording, he refers to himself as the “one whom Jesus loved”. And sometimes if we’re just casually reading through Scripture we can come across a topic that we’ve already studied and we glaze over.

This is a mistake. You see, when we see a repeated topic or theme, there is almost always another aspect that we get to discover. And when it comes to the topic of love, we ought to consider how often love is misrepresented or perverted in our culture. We use the word love flippantly at times, “I love football, I love the Fall, etc.” and yet, even when we are serious it comes out the same way, “I love my wife, I love God.”

And so as we open up God’s Word to the 4th chapter of John and read the familiar words, “let us love one another”, we must ask what point John wants us to see that differs from what we studied a few weeks ago. The last message which was entitled, Love One Another, dealt with what Christian love looks like in contrast to what the world says.

This week, we will look not so much at expressions of love, but rather the “why” or the reason for the command to love.

So, maybe you know that you ought to love, and how to express that love; Today I pray that you are motivated to love as we walk through More Reasons to Love One Another, which is the title of the message. If you picked up a bulletin, please make use of the sermon guide as we learn together.

Some of you opened it up and saw 4 points instead of the normal 3… hey, I was out last week- gotta make up that ground somehow!

Let’s jump in. We love one another because:

God is the Source of Love (7-8)

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Because love is from God, that means (and this is gonna blow your mind) - it means that it is NOT from us. I am not the source of love, and neither are you. Look, it’s easy to overlook this, but let’s lean in and see if we can better grasp this.

First, we must note that John is writing to Christians, and here in v. 7 he calls them “beloved” which means ‘one who is loved”. Now, it would be wrong to say that non-Christians cannot express love in some sense. We see unbelievers sacrifice for their kids, act in caring for others, etc.

But, TRUE love, as we learned a few weeks ago, is borne out of love for God. IF we are really expressing love, then we are doing so in the context of love for God- we desire that others know Him and be reconciled to Him. It means that we tell truth about life and sin and redemption.

With that understanding, let’s highlight a few truths that are borne out of the reality that God is the source of love:

Christian Love looks different than worldly love.

God defines what love is. God is love, but love is not God. The apostle Paul deals with this in 1 Cor. 13. We won’t take time to examine that this morning, but I encourage you to refresh your understanding of how God defines love.

Christian love is God’s work in you.

God is the source, so love that is expressed in your life comes from God. We understand that love is a fruit of the Spirit. (Gal. 5) In fact, Paul lists it first among the fruits in Galatians, and in his letter to the Corinthian church, he tells them that love is paramount in expressing our faith.

Christian love will not run out.

When we consider that God is the source of love, and He is infinite, then it becomes clear that His love will never be exhausted. Therefore, if God is in us, our expression of love is enduring. We don’t have to ration it out, for we can be as generous in love as the source allows!

Listen- as John says in v. 11, if God so loved you and me, then we have motivation to love one another. God is the source of love. Another reason that we love one another is because:

The Gospel is the Story of Love (9-11)

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Christian, you and I are the recipients and beneficiaries of the greatest love ever demonstrated.

So often I think we take for granted the Good News of Jesus Christ… I don’t know if we forget or if we just miss how big of a deal it really is. I blame this partly on our affluence.

We really are a rich nation…and because of this, we tend to feel entitled and do not value things.

ILL: I remember the first year going to Haiti and seeing what it really means to be poor. One of my favorite memories was that when I preached to the gathered church… under a tarp which was stretched from a shack to an old wall, wooden, backless benches were packed. A chicken walked the aisle as I preached with an interpreter about how God so loves us, that He meets us at our point of greatest need to rescue and redeem us. 3 people responded at the invitation.

Folks, He stepped down from His throne in heaven into His creation to offer Himself as the substitute sacrifice which would not only offer forgiveness, but would satisfy the demands of justice so that we could be freed from the penalty of sin.

From the baby born in Bethlehem to the bloody cross on Calvary to the return of Christ that we await, The Gospel is the story of love- not our love for God, but His love for us!

Hallelujah! God really loves us! And we aren’t waiting around to see if that’s so, He has already demonstrated it!

So whether we are singing Away In A Manger or Old Rugged Cross, we sing of the story of God’s love for us.

As recipients of this love, our gratitude and wonder ought to compel us to express this love to others!

We love because God is the source of Love and the Gospel is the story of love. The third reason to love one another is because:

The Church is the Conduit for Love (12-16)

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John makes a very simple argument here: God is spirit. We cannot see God and this is nothing new. Throughout the Old Testament, God would reveal Himself in various ways- In the days of Abraham, God’s messengers came and spoke the promises of God. In the days of Moses, God revealed Himself in pillars of cloud and light, Prophets would receive God’s Word through visions and would speak for Him, etc.

The perfect revelation of God would only come in the person of Jesus Christ. And, like today, some of the false teachers in Ephesus claimed to be able to see and commune directly with God, but John explains that this is not how it works.

Jesus’ public ministry lasted about three years. Since His ascension to heaven (Acts 1), the church has been commissioned to be the hands and feet of Christ.

Church, we have the invisible spirit of God in us! Therefore, It is in us and through us that God’s love is made evident to the world. The church is now the visible testimony of God’s love to the world!

One commentator put it this way: “Christ’s physical presence is no longer with us in this world, but if people want to see Jesus, they should be able to meet him in the churches. They should encounter his love in the love that we Christians have for one another.”

Oh, what an awesome privilege! We get to share in the Good News of Jesus! We get to be the shoulder of Christ that comforts the hurting, the mouth of Christ as we speak His truth, and the feet of Christ as we take the Gospel to the world so that others can receive rescue and hope!

Romans 10:14–15 NASB95

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

It is the love of Christ working in us that spurs us to this great mission! We love because God is the source of love, the Gospel is the story of love, and the church is the conduit of love. Finally, we love because:

Assurance is the Hope of Love (17-21)

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Because God abides in us and His love is expressed through us, we get the benefit of His love being made complete in us. Here’s what that means: We can have such confidence that we belong to God that we do not fear death or judgment.

The Christian life should be marked with joy- the joy of knowing that we are loved by God! Believers have been adopted into God’s family and we have confidence that when we stand before God it will not be as those who are unbelievers. Unbelievers will stand in fear and trembling as they await the full cup of God’s wrath.

You see, John explains that perfect love (mature love) casts out fear. It evicts it. Fear involves punishment, but Jesus has already taken the punishment that was due us. So then, as we love one another, it becomes clear that we are not of this world, but rather that we are abiding in Christ.

This gives us an assurance and confidence that when we stand before God, we will not stand there like a scolded dog, but like a child of God. We will stand joyously as we await the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

When we love one another, we demonstrate both God’s love for us and our love for God. We see this love and know that it is from God, that it tells the story of the Gospel, that it is being used to convey God’s love for humanity, and we know that we are His.

In a bookend of sorts, we see here one final appeal to the church: If you do not love your brother whom you can see, you cannot love God whom you cannot see.

IOW, if you cannot see the worth of one another who are made in the very image of God; especially those who have the spirit of God living in them and His name written on them- you will not see the worth of God.

If you cannot see the value of another’s life because you are too wrapped up with some hurt or some sort of identity politics, then you will not value a God that you cannot see. So, then Christian- if you love God, you must love your neighbor.

So what?

Friends, do you have the Spirit of God in you? If you have not surrendered your life to Christ, I pray that this morning you have heard of a God who loves you and desires to rescue you from sin and restore you in the Lord. I invite you in our final song to come forward and ask God to forgive you and transform you.

If you need to come and pray - to repent of sin or to ask God’s help in loving your brother or sister in Christ, don’t ignore that prompting; you won’t be alone- one of our deacons will meet you at the altar to pray with you.

Discuss: What is the difference between saying “God is love” versus “love is god”?

Discuss: Do you fear death? How does love cast out fear?

Discuss: Where do you see the love of God made visible in your life?