What is Love?

Introduction

Introduction as usual- introduce yourself, ask that people put their phones away

Are we ready for the school year to end? Ready for summer? That’s my favorite season of the year. I hate the cold.

Tonight, we are going to be in 1 John 4:7-12

We are going to talk about LOVE.

We use the word love to describe many things. We use it to describe our feelings towards our favorite things. Some examples are, “I LOVE Star Wars” or “I LOVE Twix candy bars.”

We also use it to describe our feelings towards significant others. An example of this is that I LOVE my wife. I’m using this word in this way to describe these goofy, bubbly feelings I have towards this woman I have devoted myself to.

As you may already know, love is something Jesus spoke adamantly about.

We now live in a world that is changing all the time because of technological advances and we are constantly being hit with information overload. And because of this, one of the many things that is changing is language and how it is used.

So for us Christians, whose God never changes and His Word is never changing in message, we need to make sure that we are not budging on what some of these words mean. We need to clarify our terms in terms of scripture in order to see the world through a biblical lends.

having said that, let’s look at the text and define for ourselves what love truly is.

So if you haven’t already, turn to 1 John 4. I am going to read the text, we’ll pray, and then jump in.

1 John 4:7–12 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.

God is Love v.7-8

Let’s read verse 7-8 one more time because I feel like the word love is said so many times in this passage. It’s easy to get lost in all the love here.

1 John 4:7–8 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.

John, speaking to fellow Christians, implores his audience to love others.

Love in the lends of scripture is not just a feeling, but rather, action. It is a choice made by an individual in the interest of someone else.

In 1 Corinthians 13 which is commonly known as the “love chapter of 1 Corinthians,” the apostle Paul puts it best in verses 4-7:

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

In other words, love is not about the self, but about others. Love does not insist on its own way. It insists on the wellbeing and good of anyone but one’s self

Love for others should be the mark of the Christian.

Because we live in a wicked and sinful world, love causes us to stand out amongst others.

To some people we stand out like a hang nail, but to others we stand out in a way that causes them to ask questions or develop curiosities about why we care so much for others.

They might wonder what is the source of this love? God.

God is the source of our love because He is love.

He is why we love because He first loved us!

But something I want to remind you all of with this is that while God is love, love is not God, meaning love does not always have God’s name on it

say more on how love is not God

While studying for this text, I found a quote from Warren Weirsbe who said, “It has accurately been said that “love does not define God, but God defines love.”

God is the standard for love, and His standard is to constantly seek the welfare of others. To serve people, fulfilling their needs both physical and spiritual, and like our Heavenly Father, we need to be constantly seeking to truly love people because THIS is true love

Application: Where does your love come from?

Love is Sacrificial v.9-10

Ever since the beginning of time, God has always sought to pour out love on His creation. When He created Man, His intentions were to dwell among His creation, but sin entered the world and separated the perfect God from His now tainted work.

This entrance of evil didn’t take Him by surprise though because it wasn’t Plan B, it was Plan A to send His Son to come and lay down His life to redeem His creation back to Himself.

Verse 9 of this passage points us towards something incredible about God’s love for us. Plan A, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, is the physical representation of God’s love for His creation.

Illustration: My wife, Marybeth, teaches freshmen Bible here at Grace Christian academy, and this semester she’s teaching an elective class where they do a deep dive into the gospel of John. This week, in honor of Easter this weekend, they are watching the Passion of the Christ. I don’t necessarily agree with some of the creative liberties they take with that movie and when one of your actors gets struck by lightning a couple times while filming you might want to rethink some things which is why I have never watched it myself. But Marybeth has been telling me how deeply disturbing and grieving it is to watch even a movie depiction of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. For the last couple days after school she calls me and I’m like hey what’s up baby! And she’s like hey. And I’m like how was your day?! and she just responds with “we’re watching the Passion of the Christ.” It is a burdensome thing to watch even a fake depiction of. And as I thought about this, I began to remember a verse we tend to often take for granted.

It’s written by the same author as 1 John but it frames God’s love shown through the cross perfectly. John 3:16

John 3:16 ESV

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

God truly sent His only Son to earth to be born of a virgin, be tempted in all ways we have been yet not sin, be wrongfully nailed to a cross that we should have been hung on, die a death we should have died, raise from the grave three days later defeating death, sin, and Satan, ushering in a new era, a new covenant, a new relationship with our God!

You look me in the eyes and tell me that’s not love!!

Love. God’s love is sacrificial.

God could have said, “this batch is messed up. I’ll just throw it away, and try again” but instead, He said, “I will redeem it. I will fix it by giving my Son, with whom I am well pleased, to restore it.”

This is the kind of love that we should be modeling, but we live in a world that wants to say, “ME, ME, ME! Look at ME!” every where we look. Every time you look at your phone everything is geared towards, “what do I want to look at? What do I want to hear? How can I make this about me?” Social media feeds into this more with specially tailored feeds that are built by algorithms made specifically to entertain YOU. Nowadays, everything is tailored to pleasing you!

I am not saying we need to drop technology as a whole or quit doing everything and go Amish, but what I am saying is that not everything needs to be about you.

Actually, a sign of spiritual maturity within a Christian is the increase of humility in one’s actions and words. And humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

And if we are to love others, that love shouldn’t only be when it’s convenient for you or what you want.

Real love is often hard. Love can look like forgiving someone who has not asked for forgiveness, love can look like praying for the people who persecute you (Matt. 5:44), love can look like calling someone out on sin in their life. And these are all things Jesus did, mind you.

I ask you what does your love look like? Is it sacrificial? Are you willing to go out of your way and burden yourself to help someone else in need?

Even in the context of romantic relationships, your love for someone else shouldn’t be geared towards what do I get out of this, but what do I have to give?

Application: What does your love look like?

Sacrificial Love Reflects Christ v.11-12

Paul says in verse 11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Our love should be rooted in His, and it should look like His

Then Paul says in verse 12, “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

“No one has ever seen God.” That tends to be the trip up for a lot of unbelievers. Many Atheist often say, “If I could just see God, then I will believe in Him.”

But Do you ever think if there were more Christians showing Christ’s love in their daily lives there would be less people making that excuse?

“If we love one another, God abides in us.” -People. will. see. Christ. in. us. as. we. live. out. the. Gospel.

Application: What comes from real love

Conclusion

Illustration: my fake airpods?