Live Out God’s Love

MPT: John reminded his readers that the father of Jesus is the God of love, who shows His love by sending Jesus, and that love is made complete when His people love one another.

INTRODUCTION

Let’s continue worshipping our Lord this morning. We are continuing our series of walking through 1 John together so if you have your Bibles, I ask that you go ahead and start making your way to 1 John 4:7-21. If you are unfamiliar with the Bible, 1 John is not that hard to find, flip all the way to the back to Revelation, then start working backward, you’ll run into Jude, 3 John, 2 John, then 1 John. If you did not bring a Bible that is okay, there is a copy in the pew in front of you, and if you do not own a Bible please, keep that Bible take it home with you, read it and learn about the God who loves you and desires a relationship with you. And, if you know someone who needs a Bible, please, take one give it to them as a gift, 1 John 4:7-21.

Last summer we went through the book of Proverbs together, and when I preached about money I confessed to you my love for guitars. Well, I’m here to make another confession, and that is my love of board games. Here is a photo of my board game closet. Now I know what you are thinking, Kevin, that closet isn’t very full, and you are right, but this photo isn’t totally accurate, I’d added probably close to 10 board games since this photo was taken, but this is the cleanest the closet will ever be which is why I’m using this photo. And if you’ve seen my office, you will see I have a whole shelf dedicated to my Star Wars trading card game. Now, my favorite board game is called Settlers of Catan. This game was introduced to Ariana and me over a decade ago, and ever since then I’ve been hooked. In fact, I love this board game so much that for the past 3 years, I have actually contracted to work with Catan Studio for the largest board game convention in the US called Gen Con. So as you see, I love this board game. Some of y’all are probably thinking that I’m weird or a geek, and you’d be right, but I’m sure most of you in here love your hobby or something you invest time and money in just as much as I love board games. But the love we have for our hobbies, is nothing compared to the love that God has shown us. Some of you in this room struggle understanding God’s love, and some of you wonder if God even loves you. But I’m here to tell you, not only does God love you, He desires for us to share His love with others. In today’s passage, John reminded his readers that the father of Jesus is the God of love, who shows His love by sending Jesus, and that love is made complete when His people love one another. So today we are going to see Three ways to live out God’s Love.

CONTEXT

As we continue to go through this book, I want to again remind everyone that this is a real letter, written by a real person, to a real audience, with real issues, at a real point in history. And we keep bringing that up because as Christians, we know that Scripture is God’s written revelation to us, and we hold it to the ultimate authority. Up to this point, we have gone through several themes in this epistle, the assurance of salvation, the importance of Christian fellowship, obeying God’s commands, not conforming to this world, antichrists, the problem of sin, testing the spirits and now we are on the topic of love. John’s purpose for this letter as a whole was to reassure believers about the truth of the gospel and to help them avoid the false teachings and harmful behaviors that had started to lead some people astray. In this particular passage, John is clarifying what true, Godly love is. So the first way to live out God’s love is to

REACT TO GOD’S LOVE

(V7): “Dear friends” John writes this to indicate the start of new topic. John is saying that we should love because love is from God, and those who truly love are from God and know God. Now, it is important to define what exactly this love John is talking about it is. John is referring to God’s love, which is an overflowing, sacrificial love for His image bearers. Remember, from the beginning, before the creation of the world, God was a father loving His Son in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and that love has overflowed into the creation of His image bearers. It’s important to note, that God did not need to create us in order to love, God created us because he has so much love He desired to share it. It is that love that John speaks of, and when we know that love, then, we know God.

(V8): We see here that John is flipping it, that the one who does not love this same way, does not know God. Now, our culture has it’s own definition of love. In fact, there it isn’t much of a definition at all. Our culture’s view of love is completely subjective and fluid, and is mostly tied to sexual desire. What our culture calls love, is actually what we call lust. And because lust has been adopted by our culture as love, the snowball keeps getting bigger and bigger, and culture just accepts anything you want as love. What you and I refer to as pedophiles, our culture calls minor attracted people, all in an attempt to normalize that behavior. And yet, we are the ones who are called disgusting for not affirming this “love”. True love, God’s love, is not an affirmation to love what you want. John says here at the end of verse 8 that God is love. It’s important to understand that this means more than God is loving, it means that God loves because it is his nature to love us, not because we are worthy of it, because we aren’t. His love is not dependent on what we are. One way to react to God’s love, is evaluate how you love others.

John makes it seem simple in verses 7 & 8. If you love well, then you know God, if you don’t love well, then you don’t know God. So, let me ask you, do you know God? Do you understand the sacrificial love He has for you? If you are sitting here today, chances are you have reacted to God’s love by accepting His son, Jesus Christ as your savior. But salvation doesn’t stop there. That sanctification process is continual. Reacting to God’s love is an ongoing mission. So I want you to think of who in your live you love well, and who in your life you admittedly don’t love as well. I’m sure the list of those you love well is long, but if you are like me, that second list is long too. So think about those people, write their names in your worship guide if you need to. But bring those people to your mind and ask yourself, why don’t I love them well? Is it because your relationship is strained over something that happened in the past? Do your personalities not match up well? Are you putting conditions on the way you love? God doesn’t put conditions on how He loves, regardless of where you are in your faith in Him, He loves you unconditionally and sacrificially. And John gives us the example of that in verses 9 & 10.

(V9-10): Does this sound familiar? Sounds a lot like John 3:16. John says here that this love was revealed to us, so not just simply told, but this love is revealed to us in human flesh, in Jesus Christ. God showed the ultimate act of love by sending His one and only begotten son to live the full human experience, from conception to death, and to live that out perfectly. Because we are all sinners and deserve an eternity experiencing God’s wrath, Jesus took on all of our sin and died the death that we deserve on the cross. He rose three days later defeating sin and death and those who put their faith in Him will not endure an eternity of God’s wrath, but an eternity in God’s love. The good news of Jesus is that love that was revealed to us in verse 9, and John said so that we might live through Him. What does it mean to live through Christ? It means being born of God and truly knowing Him — experiencing His sacrificial love and sharing that love with others. It means enjoying fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as well as with one another. It means confessing your sins and receiving His forgiveness, living with confidence in His return, and walking in victory over sin! If you are reading out of the ESV, NASB, NKJV or KJV, in verse 10 you see the word propitiation, and that word refers to Jesus’ atoning work by dying on the cross. That word is used three other times in the New Testament, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness (Rom 3:25) Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Heb 2:17) He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2). So after you have evaluated how you love others, you can react to God’s love by learning how to live sacrificially.

This whole book, is God’s love letter to us, and all of it points to the atoning sacrifice that Christ made for us. So reading Scripture is a great place to start to learn how to live sacrificially. Study the life of Jesus. How else did He live sacrificially? For one, He sacrificed His time. He searched for disciples that were some of the most unlikely to be disciples. And He didn’t just teach them, they did life together. They ate together and spent time together. Jesus sacrificed a lot of His time working with these 12 men, to train them to take over His ministry. You can be doing the same thing. Start discipling others in your life. Take the sacrificial time to teach someone and to show them how a mature Christ follower lives. Sacrifice your time by serving the church. Use your spiritual gifts to serve. Also in Scripture we see the sacrifice of resources. In Acts chapter 2 after Peter gives his sermon and 3000 are saved, they immediately start helping each other out. So if you have guitars or board games, help a brother out. Many of you gave for our clothing drive and for our blessing box and that is so appreciated. Let’s stay committed by keeping that blessing box full, that’s a great way to sacrifice resources. So learn to live sacrificially.

The second way to live out God’s love is to

REFLECT GOD’S LOVE

(V11): Because God showed us the ultimate act of love, we who don’t deserve it, we should be like God and love His special creation. Because God is love by nature, and He revealed that love through the work of Jesus Christ, the phrase “we also” means that we, as Christians—born of God and reflecting our Father’s character—are called to show that same love by loving one another. As we are made in the image and likeness of God, and since God is love, therefore, to be like God we must love like God.

(V12): Let’s clear this up a bit. We recently finished the book of Exodus, where clearly we see God revealing Himself to Moses. But remember, in Exodus chapter 24 when Moses went up the mountain, he could only see beneath God’s feet. And in Chapter 34 Moses went up again, and when he came back down the glory of the Lord was so strong that Moses’ face was shining. So yes, God revealed Himself like that in the Old Testament, but it was never His full glory. That is what John means by “no one as ever seen God”, because no one has seen God’s full glory because of sin. Because of our sin, we cannot see God for who He is. Instead, we can see God by how Christians are loving one another. Which is only made possible by what John says in verse 13.

(V13): We as believers get to abide in God, and He in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in us is evident when we accurately reflect God’s love by loving others the way He loves us. Now, that doesn’t mean when you fail at this from time to time then you aren’t saved. But what does the Holy Spirit in us do? He convicts us and guides us to correct our behavior. So as you reflect the love of God, you should stand out as a follower of Christ.

We are under the new covenant. God no longer reveals Himself like He did in the Old Testament, and Jesus is currently at the right hand of the Father while we await His return. What we have is the written Word of God, the written revelation of God. We hold Scripture to the ultimate authority because it is. We should not take that lightly. We need to be different. We need to stand out, in a good way for the sake of the Gospel. I mentioned the board game convention earlier. A couple of years ago I met a guy and we started talking. One thing we do at these conventions is ask each other what our real jobs are because most of us working this convention are doing it as a contractor. So I told him that I was a pastor and he was shocked. He said I didn’t seem like a pastor, I actually get that quite often actually, I asked him why and he said it’s because I’m nice. He said usually pastors are grumpy and mean. So God opened a door wide open for me to explain to him why I’m nice. That my goal is for my life to reflect Christ, and that means being a loving person because Christ loves me so much He died for me. So we had a good conversation. He didn’t accept Christ but a seed has been planted. But that is what I’m talking about, we need to be the hands and feet of Christ. Standing out as a follower of Christ also means extending grace to those who you don’t think deserve it. Because we have have grace extended to us when we don’t deserve it. Even before we came to Christ, God showed us grace. The fact that we are all here today is proof of that. Extend grace to nonbelievers so they can see the love of God through you. Extend grace to your faith family, and even your pastors. Even though we are saved, we still sin and we still need grace.

(V14-15): Again, John expressed that he was a witness to God’s act of love in Jesus. And when we acknowledge this act of perfect love, the Gospel, we are changed. We don’t love others because we feel guilty or pressured—we love because we’re glad and grateful for the Gospel. We love out of our relationship with Jesus, the One who’s poured out His love on us. So after you stand out as a follower of Christ you should take advantage of Gospel opportunities.

When people notice that you are different, lean in to that, get them to ask questions and explain what makes you so different. Share the Gospel, and then go into what about the Gospel that drives you. Share about the love of Christ and that you strive to love like Him. When people ask you why you are being gracious, explain it to them. Don’t be shy about it. The most loving thing you can do for anyone is tell them about Jesus.

The third way to live out God’s love is to

REMAIN IN GOD’S LOVE

(V16): How do we know this love God has for us? We saw in verse 13 that He lovingly gave us the gift of His spirt to dwell in us. In 14 & 15 we see the gift of His Son He lovingly gave us. If you are truly a Christian, you will boldly proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God who came in the flesh. And you’ll show it by the way you love others, by humbly confessing your sin, and by allowing God to transform every part of your life.

(V17-18): We see that John appears to be building up to these verses, almost like they are the climax. We see in verse 13 the possession of the Holy Spirit, verse 15 the confessing of the son, and 16 remaining in God and His love. All of this brings God’s love to it’s intended goal, perfect purpose in our lives. That purpose is to stand confidently before God on judgement day, and do so with absolutely no fear. This is possible because for those in Christ, when judgement day comes and we stand before God, He will see us as He sees His perfect Son, and God’s love will be perfected in us. So as you remain in God’s love, remember to be confident as a child of God. I want you to understand, this confidence has nothing to do with you or me. It has nothing to do with our works. Now, don’t me wrong, I’m not saying we don’t have to work at it. As we remain in God’s love and His love in us, we should have a desire for good works, not out of selfish ambition or vanity, but out of service to God and His kingdom. This confidence comes only from knowing and understand God’s love, and the promise we have in Christ. That promise is that one day He will return to establish His kingdom on earth, and all believers will be resurrected and will live in the new kingdom, free from sin and death in the presence of our beautiful savior. I mentioned the guy I met at the board game convention a couple of years ago. I saw him this year and he came up and gave me a big hug and said “how’s my favorite priest?” Clearly he doesn’t much about the church. But later we were sitting and chatting and I asked him how we was really doing. He started how it seems like a lot of things in his life are falling apart and nothing is stable for him. I showed him some empathy and then asked if I could share what helps me. I went into how when things in my life seem like they are falling apart, I focus on the bigger picture, and for me, it’s knowing that God loves me and cares for me, and my hope isn’t in what our life is here, but I have a hope that one day I will be in God’s presence. I urged him to consider that hope. That’s another seed planted in his life and I’m prayerful that he will repent and follow Christ.

(V19-20): The origin of love only comes from God. As He has loved us first, His love remains in us and we in it, and just like the Father’s love for His son from the beginning overflowed into the creation of us, we should allow God’s love in us overflow onto others. If we don’t love others like we should, then we don’t understand God’s love like we should. And if we can’t love those who we can see, and touch, then how can we be expected to love God who is unseen?

(V21): This verse should sound familiar, Matthew 22:37-39. Jesus gave this as a command, not a suggestion or recommendation, but a command. John is reinforcing this command in this letter.

As you are confident being a child of God, another way to remain in God’s love is to love God back. All throughout this passage, we see John say that the one who loves remains in God, and God in Him. We should love God back. This should not be a one way street, although often it is. But the way we love God back is by loving others, by following Jesus’ command in Matthew 22, to love our neighbors as ourselves. God has plenty of love to share, He won’t run out, so step out of your comfort zone and show love to someone you haven’t before. God wants us to extend His love to others. Who in your life have you seen be an example of God’s love? How can you react to, reflect, and remain in God’s love?

The praise and worship team are going to come back up, and we are going to have a time of invitation. If you are a believer in this room, I hope that today’s passage encourages you, and helps you understand God’s love more, and that you take the time to be intentional about sharing that love with others. If you aren’t a believer in this room, I want to plead, and urge you to accept God’s love. Because He does love you, so much so that He sent His son to die for you because He wants a relationship with you. Like I said, we are going to have a time of invitation, if you are struggling and need prayer, or you are ready to accept Christ as your savior, I’ll be down front however you need to respond this morning.