God is Love

Before we get into it, lets pray together for West Fork and for Sheffield: Our Father in heaven, be with us. Help us to abide in you and in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord and our God. We can do nothing apart from you, draw us near to you. Father, grant this to your servants: Fill us with hope, with faith, and love; may these overflow in love for our community. Be with Sheffield, begin to touch the hearts of her citizens, I pray especially for the teacher and staff at West Fork Schools. Fill them with overflowing joy this holiday season, even in spite of hard circumstances this Christmas. Put us in their path that we might be an encouragement and a help to them. I want to pray specifically for:

Elisha Payton

Kaitlyn Porter

Karina Prestidge

Onni Prestidge

Laura Schafer

Be with them and us, send workers into your harvest. Thank you for your Love and your Grace O God. Prepare us for your purposes and your glory. It is in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord we pray this, AMEN.

God is Love

God is love and we reflect the love he shows us

Lead up:

So far this Advent season we have explored hope and faith. Today we are going to be talking about love. We will look at it from 1 John. Love is the greatest of all of the virtues, it informs and strengthens all of the rest.

It has been a minute, but just over a year ago we looked at 1 Corinthians 13 together. From it we discussed the commands to love, to love God with all that we are, from that love we are to love one another with the love we have been shown, and then from those loves we are to love our neighbors and our enemies. In a similar train of thought we will be focusing in on the first two.

Today we are going to explore what it means that God is love. It is way more than we could possibly comprehend, but there is befit in trying. As we reach for comprehension we experience his love more and more fully. This love is sacrificial, it is communal, and it is courageous. As we consider how God manifested his love for us in the sending of his son and his atonement, we then can reflect his love toward one another and to our neighbors.

1 John 4:7–21 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. 20 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. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

God is love and we reflect the love he shows us

It is hard to separate this into 3 clear section. John has a way of mixing his points together so that they all bleed into and support one another. I find it to be beautiful in many ways, but it makes it difficult to simply walk through in a coherent way that isn’t very repetitive. So I am going to do my best to pull out the major points and examine them one at a time.

I have 3 points: First , God is Love. Second, He showed us what love is. Third, we reflect his love

First, God is love

God is love. This has got to be one of the more difficult and confusing statements in the Bible. To be clear God is love, this does not mean that love is God, nor does it mean that this is his sole attribute. It doesn’t mean his substance, whatever it means to be God, is solely made up of love. We know God has many attributes, such as holiness, righteousness, justice, power, sovereignty, ect. Yet, a part of that is love. If I were to take a stab at it, I would say that love, like existence, finds its true source in God. At the same time, God is one, all of his attributes interact and inform one another, this is true of his love as well. A.W. Tozer wrote this in his book, Knowledge of the Holy:

From God’s other known attributes we may learn much about His love. We can know, for instance, that because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and abashed.

Yet if we would know God and for other’s sake tell what we know, we must try to speak of His love. All Christians have tried, but none has ever done it very well. I can no more do justice to that awesome and wonder-filled theme than a child can grasp a star. Still, by reaching toward the star the child may call attention to it and even indicate the direction one must look to see it. So, as I stretch my heart toward the high, shining love of God, someone who has not before known about it may be encouraged to look up and have hope.

Understanding the difficulty of trying to understand what it means that God is love, I want to pause to say this, it is important. In fact, “God is love” is the center, the linch pin of everything in this passage and possibly this book. When all is done, everything will pass away, all that will remain is faith, hope, and love, but the greatest is love. This isn’t to say it is a god of any kind, but love will endure. This is because while hope and faith have God as their object, love finds its source in God himself.

As I have considered this passage this week, I can’t help but think we, as humans, have a problem when it comes to love. Human beings by nature, do not know or truly understand what love is. I don’t think we can. It must be a part of the Imago Dei which was broken at the fall. We still experience it, but it is a shadow of what True love is. John says in verse 18, “There is no fear in love.” Yet, what is the first thing Adam and Eve do? They hide, they cover their shame, they shift blame, they act in fear. Love is broken, overshadowed by fear.

All of this has a deep effect on us. We still long for True love and yet all we know is to settle for shadows and echos of it. There are moments when we see glimpses of it in the sacrificial love of a parent, or other circumstances of truly selfless love. This is why we have so much trouble identifying it. It is why we confuse affection for love, or simple commitment or connection. Our culture cannot distinguish infatuation or sexual attraction from love. This is a problem. It is why we struggle to comprehend the love of the cross. To be fair, Christians, those who have truly believed, we get it. It is why we believe, but our neighbors?

Ultimately, we can only come to understand what God’s love is, and what it means for us to love, by what God has done for us. He showed us what love is.

God is love and we reflect the love he shows us

First , God is Love.

Second, He showed us what love is…

God showed his love to us through the sending of his son so that we might live through him. There was nothing in humanity which deserves this sort of sacrificial love. We did not love God, but in Adam we were all his rebellious enemies. Even so, he has loved us and sent his son to take God’s wrath in our place. This is why he was born. In Jesus’s incarnation we see the loving act of a father sacrificing his son to save many and to bring them near to him. In Jesus’ coming we see the courageous love of a man who would lay down his life to save his enemies from certain doom.

This is how God showed his love for us. If we would have God’s love, we must accept it. He did the hard part and in his grace extended it to us as a gift, we need only accept it in faith. Love is perfected, meaning it finds it true fulfillment, its purpose, in us when we put our faith in Jesus. This means that we and whoever confesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God abides with him and he abides in God. So then, those who have put their confidence in God come to believe the love he has for us, and that we abide fully in him. By this is love perfected

Now when we say “perfected,” it does not mean “without flaw.” That is how we english speakers tend to use this word. The word here is “Telos.” This refers to the ultimate end for which something was created. God loves us and makes a home in us who believe so that we can walk in confidence and love for him and our brothers and sisters.

Because of God’s love, shown to us through the propitiation, the sacrifice of his Son in our place means we need not fear the judgment. There is no fear in love, instead perfect and fulfilled love casts out all fear. This is because fear has to do with judgment. God’s love means we need not fear the judgement. It has already happened. He poured his judgment for us upon his own son as a supreme act of love for us, to bring us near to him.

John tells us God manifested his love through the coming of Jesus and his atonement. Christmas is the time when we celebrate the coming of Jesus in light of the atonement. Without the atonement, his birth wouldn’t mean anything to us. We view his birth through the lens of love. We look on in wonder at the birth of the king of creation who took on human flesh, human weakness. True love sacrifices, it lays down its life for a friend. True love considers others as more important than itself. The Son of God, the eternal Word, did this first at Christmas, when he set aside some of the privilege of what is means to be God, not considering it something to be held onto, instead taking on the form of a servant. He became one of us, but he didn’t stop there.

He came so he could be one of us, to know us, to take our place and represent us before the throne of judgment. From the moment of his birth in the dirty stable he grew in wisdom and stature before God and men and then cared for his family working as a carpenter. Then when he was thirty, he began to teach, saying “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” He was here! The king, our redeemer had arrived. He wandered around Israel teaching people about the kingdom of God and telling his disciples about what he would do, why, and what it would mean when he was gone.

When the time was right, he surrendered to evil men who had grown angry at his teaching and fearful of what it might cause. They falsely accused him, and presented him to the Romans who crucified him knowing he was innocent. Don’t mistake me, I don’t blame those men, they represent us. Had this sinner been there, I would have been among them, so would you. However, this was all a part of God’s plan to manifest his love for us. This is because his son was meant to be a propitiation for us. He was to represent us as God placed all of his perfect, holy, and terrible justice upon him. We deserve God’s wrath, Jesus didn’t. Yet, because he took on what it means to be human, he could represent us; at the same time, because he is God, he could withstand it. Jesus died on the cross saying, “It is finished.” He completed it, he bore it all for us.

Listen, as John says, “if you do not know God, you do not know love.” Our world tells us love is about you, but it is wrong. If you would know what love is, you must first put your faith, your trust, your confidence in Jesus Christ. He is the clearest expression of true love. Until you know the love of Christ, you do not really know love. You may have seen and experienced shadows of it, you may have encountered affections, infatuation, and pleasurable moments with other people, but true love is found only in God through Jesus Christ. Would you believe today?

If you would put your faith in him, take a moment to pray and express this to him. If you do this, come and find me, I would love to talk with you. If anyone has questions or would simply like to talk, come find me.

I also want to point out a couple of things we see of love in what God has done for us.

First, it would seem, true love is sacrificial. It is not seeking to for its own good, but the good of others. God sought us out for our good. It pays the cost to connect with others.

It lays aside preference and desires for the sake of others. It puts down offense and grievance. It forgives.

Second, true love communal. God sacrificed, Jesus sacrificed, so that we could abide in him. It brings us to him that we may know him truly even as we are truly known.

True love brings other in, it brings people together instead of spreading them apart. For those who pursue “truth” at the expense of love, I have some questions about what they truly value. I don’t want to dispense with truth, but sometimes it seems like and infinite regress of divisions at the expense of true loving community.

Third, true love is courageous. Jesus put everything aside and took on what it means to be truly human to rescue us. Love casts out fear. This means true love is courageous. It rejects fear. When we are afraid, we hide. When we fear, we cannot know God. When we live in fear of the judgement, we cannot truly know his forgiveness.

Has anyone here struggled with fear of the judgment of God even after becoming a Christian? I remember when I was a new Christian, I was constantly waiting for God to drop the hammer on me for some of my sinful actions performed before I put my faith in Jesus, and even some of the ones I struggled with after becoming a Christian. I assumed I didn’t deserve peace because I had made mistakes. I had pastors tell me I had to forgive myself, but I just couldn’t figure out how to do that. It wasn’t until my wife called me out for my own arrogance that I finally realized my error. I was acting as if forgiving myself was more important than the forgiveness I was already given by God through Jesus Christ. I was determined to live in fear of the judgment even though God had shown his love for me through his Son. There is no fear in love. I could not continue to hold onto my sin and pretend I have not been loved in such a way. This actually was preventing me from loving others.

In our relationships, fear keeps us from communing with one another. It is true of all of us. It is true in our marriages. Why do we hide? Is it because we suspect that if we were truly known we would be rejected? Is it because you have tried and were rejected? Is it shame, like with Adam and Eve? What fear keeps you from opening up?

If I were being honest, I struggle a bit with feeling this. I tend to be a pretty open person, but this doesn’t mean I am not afraid. I have been rejected by loads of people for no clear reason other than I am a person they do not like. It hurts. The temptation to build walls to protect myself is tremendous, but what would that do? It would prevent my ability to commune with you and with God. Can you love me if you don’t know me, in my strengths and weakness?

Fourth, True Love is to be reflected. God showed us true love and this restored the likeness of God in us that we might be a reflection of his love to one another. This we will unpack further in my last point:

God is love and we reflect the love he shows us

My First point was, God is Love. My second was He showed us what love is.

Third and Finally: We reflect his love.

The apostle John appeals to his audience to love one another. He does this over and over again. This along with the importance of abiding in Christ are two of the major themes of this letter. Loving one another, true fellowship, in John’s mind, seems to be the true mark of those who belong to God through Jesus Christ his Son. In fact, he claims that “whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” In contrast, those who do not love, do not know him because God is love.

When we love one another we are a reflection of God’s love, we love because he first loved us. God is love and we were created in his image. Unfortunately, because of the corruption of sin, we are not good at love. As human beings we are broken by sin, this means we are incapable of true love on our own. However, for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, God abides in us by his Spirit. God is love and he begins to shine forth his love from us. By this we know that we abide in him, he has given us his Spirit and we testify that Jesus is the savior of the world.

Because we were loved so sacrificially and with so great a cost, it stands to reason we ought to love one another with a similar kind of love, a sacrificial, connecting, and courageous love. This would be a reflection of the kind of love we have been shown.

This means our love cannot be selfish. My love for you should not simply be for my happiness or pleasure, or whatever other ends. In love I should consider others as more important than myself, as Jesus did.

This means our love cannot be divisive. Love is communal, it connects, it unites. If I care about my opinions and preferences more than I care about you, it is not love. Love draws people in, it doesn’t shove them out.

This doesn’t mean love never disciplines. Even God disciplines those he loves, but the goal is always to win your brother, not to drive him away.

It means our love cannot be fearful.

Our culture confuses love on every front. I think, in some ways, in response to our culture, the church has grown confused about love too. We tend to think the greatest form of love is between husband and wife. We describe love as a choice and a commitment in response to our cultures flippant perspective on love. Yet, I cannot help but wonder if there wasn’t some collateral damage in this war, true friendship, fellowship. I think this is particularly true between men.

Jesus himself said this in John 15:13 “13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Don’t you think it is strange that he says friends? I have always thought it was strange. A friendship is an interesting relationship if you think about it. It is mutual, there is typically no hierarchy of authority, it is not a relationship built upon a prior commitment, though it can possess equal amounts of fervent loyalty.

I have seen marriages where there is no friendship between the spouses, it becomes something mechanical, a relationship of duty and convenience.

When John and Jesus tell us to love one another, it is with the same sort of friendship he showed us. It was sacrificial, he gave up wealth and took on poverty for us. He spent his life serving and teaching us, he laid down his life for us. He did this to bring us near to him that we may know him and be known by him. He acted courageously that he might banish our fear.

When we look around, do we have any friends like that? Have you ever experience love like that? No. The only place where we see true love is in God. Yet, he commands us to love one another as he loved us. So then how do we begin to love one another in this way?

I’ll be honest, I can’t honestly say I know for sure. I can see it, I can want it, but on a practical level it seems daunting. I can outline an ideal, a hope of the kind of love this church and this people ought to reflect, but how do we do it? Honestly, I don’t think it is something we DO. We reflect. It isn’t really our love, but Christ’s. We pass on the love we have been given to others.

We sacrifice. We lay ourselves down for one another.

We connect with one another.

We set aside our fear.

This is something we aim at knowing it is a target we may never hit, but regardless we aim again and again, because when all is said and done, these three things will remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.

God is love, we reflect the love he shows us

In Conclusion

God is love. All love comes from him. He is its beginning and its source.

God showed us his love through the sacrifice of his son; Jesus courageously giving up his life for his friends. All of this to bring us near to him that we might know God our Father and the one whom he sent, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Understanding this, we then reflect his love first toward one anther, then toward our neighbors and even to our enemies, because God first loved us. By this will the gambits of our enemy be thwarted. By this was Rome conquered. By this will this present darkness be flooded with light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Our Father, teach us more and more what it means that you are love. Remind us continually of the sacrifice of you son. Break down the walls in our hearts that we might meditate on you love without ceasing. Then, reflect you love from us into our community that we might be a light not hidden in fear under a basket, but shining brightly to your glory, honor, and praise. Fill us all with hope and joy, in Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN