Fearless Love

Intro

Read 1 John 4:7-5:5

1 John 4:7–5:5 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 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. 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. 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. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Dr. David Platt had a great analogy of how John makes his argument. It’s not linear: point A-Point B. But rather he makes more like a circular argument.

Think of a spiral staircase or a path up a mountain. The topic of the argument is love.

What is Love? v.8

GOD IS LOVE

His state of being is love.

Unfortunately, this gets misconstrued by some who try to say that God supports “all kinds of love.” And that just is not the case.

While God is love, God is also holy, righteous, and just.

God supports the love that HE created which allows for a romantic love between one man and one woman under the covenant of marriage and the unconditional love for all people through Jesus. God isn’t calling you to love another man’s wife or another woman’s husband! He’s also not calling you, or anyone else for that matter, to love someone of the same gender!

God is love and therefore cannot be present with hate. God’s love pushes hate right out of our bodies. You cannot claim to be a Christian and have hate in your heart. That means hate towards that family member who did you wrong all those years ago. That means you can’t hate that person who was promoted over you. That means you can’t hate those people who God created a different skin color than you.

You cannot hate any individual and claim Christ has saved you.

However, love does create hate. For example, I love my children. Therefore, I hate when they mess up or disobey. In the same manner, God loves us so much that he hates when we sin. Now he doesn’t hate US when we sin. He hates that we choose to sin. In his love, he hates our sin.

God wants to love you where you are. You don’t

Fearless Love v.18

“Perfect love casts out all fear”

When Jesus came into the world, he demonstrated the perfect example of love. John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

The greatest act of love that had ever been commited was Jesus laying down his perfect, sinless life in exchange for our sins. If we want to see an example of the “perfect love” that John is referencing here, we can look at Jesus.

Now, if we are to emulate that love that Jesus gave to us, we need to look at what Jesus went through. Jesus had to face some fears to go to the cross. What are some of our fears when it comes to following Jesus obediently?

-Rejection -Ignorance -Pride -Injury/Death

It’s interesting how every single one of these fears were faced by Jesus heading to the cross. He was rejected. His knowledge was challenged. He laid all his pride down. He was beaten and ultimately killed for us. And yet the perfect love from the Father cast out every one of those fears and he completed his task.

The apostles faced the same fears, and yet, they never stopped sharing. Why? Because the perfect love of the Father radiated through them and cast out every fear.

So we need to look our fears in the face and remind them who our God is and embrace the perfect love that Jesus gave to us.

Romans 8:31 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

No fear can hold us back!

Why We Love? v.19

Because HE first loved us!

Jesus’ death and resurrection gave us the ability and capacity to love in the same manner that he loved.

Because of his faithful and obedient love for us that we didn’t deserve, we can now pass that same unconditional love on to anyone REGARDLESS of who they are!

Isaiah 45:22 (ESV)

“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!

For I am God, and there is no other.

God desires all the world to be saved! We must show his love to all that we can!

What is stopping you from showing God’s love to your neighbor? Examine your heart this morning. Is God’s love there? If it is, how are you going to allow that to propel you to love another this week?

The Overcomer vv.4-5

This world is crazy. Lies and truths are being reversed. As previously mentioned, the Word of God is being misconstrued to justify sins.

The world hates Christians. The world hates righteousness. The world is going to stand against us at every turn. The world is going to throw us curveballs.

John 16:33 ESV

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Jesus said that we don’t have to worry about the nonsense of the world! HE has overcome the world. As Christians, the world may come for us, but it won’t throw us off course. We can remain in hot pursuit of the Lord regardless what comes our way. There is nothing we should fear for the Lord is with us.

Closing