The Act of Biblical Love

Main Scripture: John 3:16-21

Support Scripture: Romans 5:8, Lamentations 3:22-23, 1 John 4:9-10

Intro 

Last week, we talked about biblical love, and for the past 4-8 weeks, we were talking about God’s relationship with us and our relationship. 

When we focus on our relationship with God and grow our vertical love and understanding, it will help us love our neighbor on this side of heaven. 

So we can focus on the Kingdom of God and help spread the gospel to everyone. 

But before we learn how we can love our neighbor properly, we must understand the biblical definition of love. We know the world may have a wrong view of love, but we as Christians may also have the wrong one as well. 

Remember last week. Our biblical definition of love is the decision to compassionately, righteously, and responsibly seek the well-being of another person.

So it is important if we call ourselves followers of Jesus that we understand the biblical definition of love and not only know it, but we put it into action! 

Context

We all know the famous verse John 3:16. This verse is well-known around the world today. 

So we must understand when John says, ‘God so loved the world” that includes all ppl, not just believers. 

God’s love is not sentimentality. 

Love is traditionally viewed as referring to the cross. 

Then, after that, the next phrase is that God’s love is linked to His giving of Christ to die for sins. 

Then, of course, we read, “Whoever believes in Him” is better translated “all who believe” or “everyone who believes” so that the death of Christ is for the purpose of providing escape from destruction and eternal life. 

When you get to verse 17, the Father’s heart is not initially predisposed to condemnation. 

The Son was “sent” by the Father. Being sent by the Father marks out a mission as the central focus of Christ.

In the book of John, being saved or having salvation is not a common term. 

One’s eternal destiny is determined on earth, ot in heaven. 

So in verse 18, anyone who believes in Jesus is not judged or condemned in the future judgment.

Anyone who does not believe has been judged already here and now. 

So now that we have a better understanding of this. This shows Jesus is the light that has come into the world. Darkness is the place of hiding where evil deeds are done, either by non-Christians or disobedient Christians. 

Light is the place of openness and exposure. The unbeliever hates the light and totally avoids it. 

But for us as believers, that does not mean we can’t hate the light either. We read this in James 4:4 when they persist in their sins. They must also come to the light because no one is over the Word of God. 

Another example of this is King David. He tried to hide his sins after he committed adultery and murder. 

So for the unbeliever who comes to faith, he or she can be instead one who practices the truth and then comes to the light for fellowship with Christ. 

In this scripture in context, it shows us that an obedient Christian can have his deeds become evident because it is a part of God’s character. The biblical love is His character over all. And it is not just for believers, it is for non-believers, so they can see the light! 

Which leads to our first point

1. Biblical Love is God’s Character

Read Lamatations 3:22-23

Lamentations is a book of lament, and these five chapters in the book are five poems of lament. 

The author here is unknown, but some scholars believe it is Jeremiah; however, we know that this is a sad time for the author. 

It is a poetic expression of the pain of sin’s consequences. But it is also a reminder of God’s kingdom that even though sin brings pain and tears, God is always ready to show mercy when we repent and return to Him, and that is just His character in general! 

So do you know the song” Great is thy faithfulness”? Verse 23 is where it comes from. 

The lyrics are a testimony to the constancy of God’s love and mercy for His people. 

First, it shows that the Lord is faithful. His character is unchanging, and He keeps His promises! 

So even though His people rejected Him, God remains faithful to His covenant with them. 

So that means His mercies are new every morning! 

His steadfast love never ceases, even when in the face of Judah’s unfaithfulness and the resulting “day of the Lord”. This type of love will bring restoration to the repentant heart. 

This also shows that God is merciful because He knew what He would do through His Son! Which is what we need. 

But look at verse 18 (read it), Jeremiah confessed that His hope was lost. Have you ever felt that hope was lost in your life before? But when you just go down three verses, He declares that he has hope? Why is that? Where did he find this hope now? 

Hope returned when He took control of his mind and turned his thoughts in a Kingdom direction! 

If our focus is so much on the world, even as Christians, it can look like we have lost hope. But when we have a Kingdom mindset, we place our hope in a God who is faithful and whose love is perfect, because He never changes. 

Now, imagine how we display biblical love. We may know someone in our family, a person we know that is not a believer, they are going through something because of their sin, or even think differently, do we lose hope on them? And because we lose hope, we put them in a box or we become little them? Is that biblical love? 

Or can we show them we have hope by not only preaching the gospel, but our actions show it to so MAYBE they come to Christ. Even if it takes years, God did not lose hope or be unfaithful; why should we do that to others so they have a chance for Jesus? 

That is why understanding biblical love is a part of God’s character, and we as followers of Jesus with the Holy Spirit must display Him everywhere we go! 

Which leads to our second point

2. Biblical Love is an Action for Everyone

In our main scripture, it tells us that “For God so loved”. This does not mean that God approved the conduct of men. God hates wickedness, but He still desires the relationship of those who are sinful. An example of this is a parent may love his or her child and desire his or her welfare, and yet be strongly opposed to the conduct of that child. 

Then we use the word “the world,” which means all of mankind, not just believers. His love is for the world. 5 things from this

1. All the world was in ruin and exposed to the wrath of God. 

2. All men were in a hopeless condition. 

3. God gave His son. Man had no claim on Him; it was a gift, an undeserved gift. 

4. He gave them up to the extreme sufferings of death on the cross. 

5. It was for all the world. 

This gift is for everyone, even for those whom we do not like. 

Next, “he gave,” This was a free gift. Man had no claim, and when there was no eye to pity or to arm to save, it pleased God to give His Son into the hands of men to die in their stead. 

This is the true definition of love. This was the mere movement of love; the expression of eternal compassion, and of a desire that sinners should not perish forever. 

“His only-begotten Son.” This is the highest expression of love of which we can conceive. This shows the depth of the love of God, that He was willing to give His only Son into the hands of sinful men that He might be slain, and thus redeem them from eternal sorrow. 

That is all from one verse! 

But when we continue reading, we see multiple things. We see “men loved darkness,” which darkness shows the emblem of ignorance, error, superstition-whatever is opposite to truth. Men are said to love darkness more than they do light when they are better pleased with error than truth, with sin than holiness. 

But verse 21 says that “He that doeth truth” Means those who do right, or He that obeys the truth. Truth is opposed to error and to evil. The sinner acts from falsehood and error. The good man acts according to truth. The sinner believes a lie- that God will not punish, or that there is no God, or that there is no eternity and no hell. The Christian believes all these and acts as if they were true. There is a difference. 

But how can a sinner, an unbeliever, change into a believer, a follower, a lover of truth? It starts with Jesus, the free gift. And how do we show this free gift? By showing God’s love in action.

Yes, we must speak truth, but we must also display truth! With that, restoration with the Father comes in! It all started with God sending His son, and now God uses people to bring people back to Him! 

You may know the truth, you may know the Bible and read it, but are you displaying it? 

This led to our final point.

3. Let the Holy Spirit Lead You to Love Biblically

Read 1 John 4:7-12

Here, John is demonstrating fellowship with God and showing how Christians love each other. 

If love is from God, then there is no option! We must love one another v.7

Since God is love, an absence of love in your life reveals an absence of fellowship with God. It indicates that you do not know Him like you claim you do (v.8) 

The pull of God’s love at work in your heart will always point you to other brothers and sisters who need love. 

John gives us a clear definition of love in the Bible and how we, as believers, should act on this with the help of the Holy Spirit. 

1. Love is visible. Invisible love is no love at all. 

2. Love is an act of the Will: God sent His Son. To love someone requires a decision to act on His behalf. 

3. Love is sacrificial. It cost God His one and only Son. He did not throw His leftovers. He saw our deepest need and gave of Himself. Meaning if you profess love without also embracing inconvenience and being willing to give up your rights, you do not understand God’s love. 

4. Love serves the unlovable. We must remember that we, as well, rebel against the King of the universe. And it only takes one time. But nevertheless, He set His love on us. You are going to love people who won’t respond in kindness. But they need your love nonetheless. 

5. Love addresses sin. You can’t ignore sin in the body of Christ. Only Jesus can atone for our sin. But we must, with humility and love, help those caught in it. Some are good at pointing at nonbelievers for their sin, but stay quiet for their brothers and sisters in Christ's sin. We should act sin to the nonbeliever, but we must also do so to our brothers and sisters in sin, we must do that as well, cause it is love. 

And other people will see that. (Remember David's sin in the adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband? The prophet Nathan confronted the King to repent for that. What happens if he didn’t? That is what we must do for our brothers and sisters in Christ.) 

The importance of Kingdom friendship is not only that you two build the Kingdom, but also helping each other if one falls short and gets back to the Kingdom's purpose! We need each other for that out of love and humility! 

An example is this. You can’t see the win, but you can see its effects. People can’t see God, but they should see the love of God operating through you! 

We want to show people that God is real, but if they can’t see the love, especially to others and to our brothers and sisters, how will they believe in a God that you do not see and have TRUE faith. 

When we love the way God loves, we will have intimate fellowship with the Father through His Spirit, which we read in v.13 (read) 

Bring it to the Cross.

I think we need to end tonight with Romans 5:7-8. (Read). On Memorial Day, we honor the sacrifices of people who died so that others might live. We remember these heroes for the service they have done. It’s rare for someone to lay his life down for others. It shows courage, love, and is worthy of honor. 

But God’s love is even bigger and more worthy of recognition than this. Jesus died, but not just for friends, but God proved His own love for us by dying for us while we were His enemies! He came to earth as a gift from the Father, lived the life we could not live, died the death we should have died, and rose from the grave so we might be with Him. God proved His own love for us by dying for us while we were His enemies. 

It’s as if He says to unbelievers, “I know you’re rebelling against me. But I still love you so much that I will go to the cross for you! The world has never seen a love like this! 

And that is key for us, we must show others this kind of love! Through the Holy Spirit, it also gives people a reason to come to the light. And that is the love we show to each other and to unbelievers! 

When we show people the act of biblical love, then maybe, they will open their hearts, repent, and return to the Father and let Him restore them for the Kingdom! But it all starts with you.