Perfect Love

Today’s Reading from God’s Word

1 John 4:7–12 CSB

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.

Introduction

Have you ever thought about this?

God has never existed in isolation

He has always existed in the fullness of the reality of the Trinity:

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Father has never been without the Son, the Son never without the Father, and neither ever without the Spirit, the Spirit never without either.

It is in the likeness of God we were created. From the very beginning we were created in an exalted fashion… to be like God.

Genesis 1:26–27 CSB

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

“image” in Hebrew means “to carve out.”

“Let us carve out or shape and form him to be reflective of us.”

Created for Relationship

What does this look like? The image of God then is the capacity for personal relationships which come down to giving and receiving love.

Just as the Trinity by nature exists in fellowship and relationship … so we have been created with the capacity for relationship.

This is not true of anything else in creation.

No other creature did God make in his own image.

We may share biological features with animals — and even plants in cellular structure — but we are not like them.

We cannot ascend from them. (We do not come from apes)

From the very beginning we were made in the image of God — and we were made for something that nothing else in the creation was made for — relationships.

Think about it this way:

Only humans are self-conscious. We have the capacity to comprehend ourself.

We can appreciate beauty, feel emotion, be morally conscious, reason, and acquire wisdom.

And since this is the case, we have the ability to connect closely with other people — and especially relate to God.

We can love others and love God.

We are capable of a “personal relationship.”

And within that is fellowship, care, the sharing of thoughts, attitudes, and experiences that makes love the richest of all human experiences.

The human heart cries for love more than any other thing.

It’s the theme of just about every song you hear on the radio, or watch on TV.

It fills our books and poems.

We love to love and be loved. We long to find that perfect love.

1 John 4 - Perfect Love

In v. 7-21 John presents us with the theme of perfect love.

4:12 - His love is perfected in us.

4:17 - By this love is perfected with us.

4:18 - Perfect love casts out fear. …The one who fears is not perfected in love.

4 times in 3 verses he mentions perfected love.

This is what every human longs for — and no person will ever find outside of a relationship with God.

Today

We will define perfect love.

We’ll talk about how love is the essence of God.

How it was made known in the giving of Christ.

How we can make it known today.

Defining Perfect Love

Scripture speaks of many different types of love:

brotherly love.

unfeigned love (love w/o hypocrisy)

abounding love

serving or sacrificial love.

But here in 1 John 4, it is all about perfect love.

1 John 4:12 (NASB 2020)

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

Perfect means “complete or whole. to carry out something to the max.”

It can’t be added to or improved upon.

It has a completeness that can only come from God.

I believe it is defined in the middle verses of 1 Corinthians 13. (4-8a)

And so, here in 1 John, John is teaching us about the legacy of perfect love God has left for His children.

Let’s look at Romans 5.

Romans 5:5 (CSB)

5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

This was given to us on the day of our salvation.

And the fullest expression we can give back to God is our obedience to his commands, 1 John 5:3.

This love is not tied solely to emotion or sentimentality.

It is a love directly connected to knowing and obeying Christ.

Knowing Christ grants us that love.

Obeying Christ provides the way to enjoy the fullness of it.

By the way, this is the third time John has addressed love.

2:7-11 - love is the proof we are in fellowship with God. We belong to a church family.

3:10-14 - love is the evidence of our sonship. We are in the family of God Himself.

4:7-21 - the practice of love manifests the presence of God in us. God dwells in you.

Doctrinal Correctness is Not Sufficient Evidence of Conversion

True salvation demonstrates itself in love.

1 John 4:7 CSB

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:11 CSB

11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

1 John 4:21 CSB

21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

This is not physical love, or the love of friendship.

It is the love of will.

It is the highest and noblest.

It is the practice of our life.

It is a love grated to someone who needs to be loved, not someone who is attracting that love.

It is a love chosen out of the need for service and an opportunity for sacrifice.

4:7-8: Love is the Essence of God

Love is from God

1 John 4:7 (CSB)

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

God is Love

1 John 4:8 (CSB)

8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

We are to bear the reflection of God. We adorn His teaching. We are His children bearing his nature.

We manifest his light, life, and love.

God is the Source of our Love

Back to 4:7b:

1 John 4:7 (CSB)

7 …everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

To be born of someone means to share their nature.

If you have been born of God, the love of God will be demonstrated through you.

The One Who Does Not Love Does Not Know God

Now, 4:8a

1 John 4:8 (CSB)

8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

You can look at your life and see objective evidence or the presence of love.

4:8b

1 John 4:8 (CSB)

8 … God is love.

We does not define love , God defines love. Love is not confined to a human definition. Your view of love doesn’t define God.

How does God define love?

His kindness is given to all, His goodness pervades the world in which we live.

Matthew 5:45 CSB

45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

His compassion by exhibiting pity, tender-heartedness, and compassion by withholding judgment.

Every sinner should die at the first sin he/she commits.

But out of love and great patience he holds back.

And as He does, he provides warning after warning about his coming wrath. All his warnings are expressions of His love. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

And He extends the message of the gospel across the earth — giving each person the opportunity to know Him — and removing any excuse.

This is the all encompassing general, universal love of GOd for us. He is by nature a loving God.

So, back to v. 7

1 John 4:7 CSB

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

God is by nature love.

And since he is we are to love one another. We are in His fellowship and part of His family and since His presence is in our lives, we are to be characterized by love.

4:9-11:This Love was Made Known by Christ

4:9 - God’s love is seen in the gift of Christ

1 John 4:9 (CSB)

9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

God’s love became supremely visible in Christ.

So the emphasis here is that we should love others because of what we’ve seen God do in expressing his love.

This is the preeminent way God has shown his love…

God sent his one and only son.

No greater gift.

Sent him so that we might live through him becoming the recipients of eternal life.

4:10 - Through Jesus’ selfless sacrifice

1 John 4:10 (CSB)

10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

This was done through Jesus’ sacrifice, v. 10.

Not only have we been given love, we’ve been given the model of how our love is to function in selfless sacrifice.

Think of how Scripture goes into detail on Jesus’ selfless sacrifice:

Isaiah 53:6 CSB

6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Galatians 3:13 CSB

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

Since these things are true:

4:11 - We Have Been Called to this Love

1 John 4:11 CSB

11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

God dwells in us through His spirit — and through the word we’ve seen the model of this kind of love.

John 15:13 (CSB)

13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

This is a love about sacrifice.

And it’s probably our greatest challenge coming out of the culture we live.

Everything is about us.

Fix me. Make me happy. Keep me satisfied.

In so many ways it is not about Christ and not about others.

But we have seen the model. We have the example.

What does it mean to love someone else?

It means to make the sacrifice.

1 John 3:16 (CSB)

16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

We have to walk away from a life of selfishness.

We:

Love unconditionally. We have been called to love others without expecting anything in return.

Love in purity. Our love should be sincere, aimed at the well-being of others.

Initiate love. God loved us first, before we loved him. We should not wait for others to act, but take the initiative in showing love.

See others through God’s eyes. Every person is valuable in God’s sight. We express our love with compassion and understanding.

If we don’t we don’t know God.

Our duty to love is demanded by the vastness of the sacrifice of the Father in the giving of His son.

That love is our standard.

Ephesians 5:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, 2 and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

So we are to love one another because God is the source of love and we bear His nature having been flooded with that love. It is in our newly created nature to love.

4:12: Love is Our Testimony

1 John 4:12 (CSB)

12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.

No one has ever seen God.

So if no one has seen Him, how can they know of his power and glory if we don’t love one another?

In us, God is putting himself on display.

John 13:34–35 CSB

34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The unseen God becomes seen in the love of believers.

When we love as we should, when his love is perfected in us, we reveal that He abides in us.

When you love others it is proof of his indwelling presence and becomes the way you reveal that presence to others.

As We Close…

As a Christian, you have:

The capacity to love.

The example to love.

The responsibility to love.

This is how you prove you belong to God.

You express it in sacrificial service to others — and that’s how you bear witness to a world that is watching.

Love is the core of our Christian experience.

So, dear Christian friend, are you living with assurance? You can gain that assurance as you do an inventory on the:

Expressions of love in your life.

Sacrificial service on behalf of others.

And how much your love is seen, recognized, and known by the world around.

And if you’re outside of Christ, have you grabbed on to God’s love?

He sent his son to die for you.

Believe on him before it is too late.

How can we help?