Love As A Result of Love

Introduction

Well good morning again church. As I’m sure you have already grasped, we’re taking a break from the book of Esther this morning. Instead we’re gonna take a little bit of time to talk about love from the book of 1 John.

When it comes to Christians and how we ought to view and live out love, it can almost be like baseball terms. If you don’t know baseball in here or grew up playing it like I did, then the term 6-4-3 may not make any sense to you.

Or if I began to talk about a players RBI’s or OBP, or OPS, you’d maybe look at me a little funny. If you’re not a fan or don’t have a great knowledge of baseball then me saying to you that the Savannah Banana’s and banana ball aren’t real baseball, that might not make any real difference to you.

If you weren’t a fan of the band twenty one pilots and I began to nerd out to you with terms like Dema, Bishops, Clancy, or Breach…you’d have NO CLUE what I’m carrying on about. You’d have no idea what any of that means.

In a similar way, Christians know love and what it looks like to love one another because they know God! This is not to be understood in a self-righteous, elitist, prideful way. Rather, Christians are individuals that are redeemed by, marked by, and dedicated to love.

All because of our God…who IS love!

The title of my sermon is “Love As A Result of Love”. This sums up the main point of our text this morning, which is “Christians should love each other and their neighbor, given the example of love we experience and have been given in God sending His Son for us.”

We’ll approach our text in three sections: A Commandment, A Reasoning For the Commandment, and A Deduction.

A Commandment

We pick up in a section of Johns 1st letter where he was encouraging the children of God to love one another before he breaks off for a short few lines to exhort them to test the spirits. He wastes no time after verses 1-6 in chapter 4 in getting back to this topic of love.

We begin verse 7 with a commandment. “Beloved, let us love one another,”. He doesn’t write try, or should, or might. He writes “let us”. This is a commandment from John for Christians to love on another.

Love makes up so much of the Christian life. In how we interact with God, with those around us, with our families and friends, and with other Christians. Love should be what we’re known for.

Jesus proclaimed that it was the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:36–40 ““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

We hear this often. Why? What is the basis for John providing such a command? Because love is from God. We go much deeper into this in the next verse, but we ought to stop there just for a moment. We ought to love one another…because this “love” is from God. It’s given by God Himself.

If something is given to us from the Almighty Lord over all creation, don’t you think we should embrace it? And take it seriously?!

John’s basis for this command to love continues on here in verse 7…”whoever loves has been born of God and knows God”. Those who love are those who have been born again. Regeneration MUST precede love, for spiritually dead people can’t love anything!

John is writing to believers, for they are the only ones that CAN obey this command to love. I am not saying that people who aren’t born again can’t love. However, the truth is Christians are those who understand love in the most correct and robust way.

Because…LOVE IS FROM GOD! HE defines it. Christlike love is the only example of self-sacrifical, humble, God glorifying love that there is. And believers are to love one another this way.

Only those born of God and those who know God can most truly love one another. To know God is to know that God is love…which therefore leads the beloved Christian to love.

A Reasoning For The Commandment

After the commandment comes A Reasoning For The Commandment. We see two points of reason for the commandment to love in verse 7. The first point: to not love one another proves you don’t know God…BECAUSE God IS love. To be born again, which is what leads to knowing God, leads to loving one another.

The fruit of knowing God is love. Now, thats a big statement. I believe what we’ve see in many churches is a statement like that thrown out and then left there. Which in turn leaves “love” up for interpretation and gives space for all sorts of mess to come about.

Thankfully, John defines what exactly he means by commanding Christians to “love one another” in this letter and in these verses. What John has in mind is found in his reasoning for the commandment.

Look at the end of verse 8: God is love. This statement points us to a theological truth known as the simplicity of God. That is not to say that God is dumb or easy to understand, rather Kevin DeYoung defines it as “Every attribute of God is identical with his essence…God is a simple being without parts or pieces. His attributes do not stick to him; he is what they are.”

One of God’s attributes is love. As verse 8 shows us, this attribute is also what God is. This also includes God’s holiness, goodness, kindness, omniscience, etc. Heady stuff I know, but it’s crucial for us to think about God rightly.

Therefore, when we think about love we find its true definition in who God is. Our day and age is full of attempts to redefine love. Most often we may hear “love is what you make of it”, “love is acceptance and tolerance”, “love is an orientation”, or “I don’t know how to define it, but when I know it when I see it”.

Our definition of love is found in who God is and in His word. God is the starting point, not what mankind attempts to make up.

And this love that God showers upon us is tremendous, indescribable, and incredibly deep. Yet…make no mistake. Love is not God. Many times this is what people mean when they quote this verse. That love is the supreme ruler and savior of the universe.

No, God in His essence is love. He dictates what love means and YOU respond to it!

This is part of the reasoning why we as believers ought to love one another…because God is love. We are to emulate the one who saved us.

The second point of reason here is that the love of God was made visible and known to us. We’re not only told that we love one another because God is love but also because the love of God has been made clear…in God sending His only Son into the world.

So not only are you given a deep theological truth to provide the reason that you should love your neighbor and fellow Christian, you’re also provided with the Gospel. The love of God was made evident to us in the sending of His Son into the world so that we might live, forever, eternally, through Him, Jesus Christ!

John takes this even one step further. He doesn’t end with “so that we might live through Him”…but provides the how we might live through Him.

1 John 4:10 “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.” God loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement of our sins, therefore we live through Christ by faith in His finished work on the cross.

Love is defined by the fact that God loved us and sent His Son to die for us…NOT that we first loved God! You see, our standards of love are in response to what someone does.

David Allen in his commentary points this out, that our love in and of ourselves is a response to something. “I love her because she’s beautiful”, “I love football because its fun”, “I love him because he’s funny” (Allen).

That is NOT love as God has exemplified and defined it. Allen says “God loves me because He is He, NOT because I am I”. He says “The sun shines on the earth not because the earth is the earth…but that the sun is the sun!” (Allen).

If you are a Christian, God DOES NOT love you because of anything He sees in you. Rather, God loves you out of the riches of His love and grace toward you. You are a sinner. You are only saved because GOD IS GRACIOUS, KIND, and MERCIFUL!

You did not love God, God loved you. He regenerated you…THEN you loved God! And as a result, those around you.

Love is most clearly seen in the Son, Jesus Christ, being the propitiation for our sins. This word propitiation has in view the appeasing or turning away of wrath. In other words, Christ is the atoning sacrifice for us.

Our sins anger God before we are in Christ. His wrath is stored up against us because of our disobedience against the holy one. That is why we need an atoning sacrifice on our behalf, from the only Son of God who is perfectly holy in every way. That the Son may absorb the full wrath of God for our sin.

THIS is love…that God would send His only Son to pour out His own wrath upon Him…to save sinners like you and like me. Christ took our place.

Beloved…this is love!

A Deduction

We began this section of John’s letter with a command to love, he then provided a reasoning for that commandment, and now we end this section with a deduction. John takes the first several lines in this section and through deductive reasoning gives us the logical response to the love we experience in Christ.

One of the things I’ve realized as a parent is that toddlers seem to lack deductive reasoning. Like if we tell our daughter “no more shows today” that would logically lead one to understand that I shouldn’t ask for anymore shows today…its done. Not Shiloh!

Or if we tell her that she’s had enough sweets, deductive reasoning would come to the logical conclusion that since I’ve had plenty of cookies and juice today, I don’t need anymore. That’s not how it works for our little girl most of the time.

Church…we often act like toddlers. We receive the benefits of the propitiation of our sins, we’re thankful for the price the Lord paid on our behalf, we praise the Lord for what He’s done for us and yet give no mind to what the Lord commands of us.

I’m not suggesting we must do anything to be saved…salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. But we cannot neglect that Christ has called us to lay down our lives, pick up our cross, and follow Him!

The Gospel, the Good News of what Christ has done for us is recieved only by faith. And it changes us from the inside out! This by the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration (born again) and sanctification (being made more like Christ).

That is the call of verses 11 and 12 here. If verses 9 and 10 show us the way in which God has loved us, then we should love each other…in this same way!

1 John 3:16 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” He here is Christ. He laid down our lives for us…therefore THIS is our standard of love! If our God, our Creator, the Almighty One has so loved us, we ought to imitate Him in how we love one another.

God is reflected in us in us loving one another. This is how the world knows we are His disciples…how we love each other! Our love for another and for our neighbor point people to the Lord. And His love is completed in us if we love one another. His love’s intended purpose is fulfilled if we love each other (Jobes).

And how should we live out this love? After the example of Christ! Love is not selfish, it is selfless, just like Christ. Loving one another puts the needs of another above your own. It is others focused and not self centered. It is laying your life down for each other…to serve the greater good of another person…ALL FOR THE LORD’S GLORY!

Conclusion

This is the call from the apostle John here. Christian, you are to love as a result of love. Out of the example of love from God in Christ that has been showered upon you and from which you experience salvation, satisfaction, and peace. From that place, love one another.

For the non-Christian this morning…according to Scripture you’ve never experienced true love…for it is only found in Christ. Please, repent of your sins and trust in Christ alone for your salvation today.

PRAY

I want to encourage you at this time to respond to the Lord because of the riches of love, mercy, and grace that He has toward you in Christ. If for you that looks like worshipping in your pew or coming to the altar to pray…please be sure to do so right now, however the Lord leads you.