Love ‘25

Bible Passage: 1 John 4:7-12

INTRO

“Soma Church exists to love the body of Christ and equip them to do the work of ministry here, near and far, all for the glory of God.”

I wanna pretend for a moment that the building we are in this morning is not a church but a school house and I am not your pastor but your english teacher.

Now pretend that the bell has just rung, I quiet the class and tell you that this morning we have an english pop quiz.

The quiz is one free response with one prompt, you have unlimited time to answer but this quiz is worth 50% of your grade for the semester.

Here’s the prompt: Define Love.

If I had to guess the type of answers we would get, I bet that they would probably sound something like…

Attraction to another person. A deep feeling of affection. Life long commitment to someone very important to you.

While none of those answers are bad they are not correct.

Those things are outcomes of love not love itself.

We are in the final week of our yearly Advent study where we look back in remembrance to the moment that our savior came to the earth and forward in faith to the day that He will return.

And every Advent season we look into 4 themes: Hope, Joy, Peace and today as you might have already guessed… Love

So what is love?

If it is none of the things that we have already said, what is it?

What is this thing that Jesus talked so much about and the Bible calls the christian to put on more than anything else?

You see, love is not a feeling, emotion or action but rather a person.

1 John 4:8 ESV

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God is the definition and the standard of love.

God does not produce love rather, He is love. It is inseparable from His nature. It is part of what makes God, God.

God is love in the same way fire is hot. It is not possible to have cold fire. It is impossible for God to not be love.

So if God Himself is love and we are called to be people of love then we must immerse ourselves in Him and His love.

To give love, you must receive love.

BODY

So how do we do this?

Lets look at 1 John 4 and see

Before we dive in I think it is helpful to note that the purpose of this letter from the Apostle John was to give christians signs to look for in their lives that point to true conversion.

Something that the Bible also calls fruit.

And he did this because not unlike today, there were lots of christians at that time who struggled to know or to fully accept that God had saved them from their sin.

One of these evidences that John points the readers to is love.

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 gives an imperative or command to his readers to love one another.

This means that those of us who belong to God’s church through faith in Christ are obligated and called to love each other.

In fact Jesus says in John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

John goes a step further in verse 7 to say that if someone does not love that they don’t know God. because to know God is to know love himself. And to know love means that you will give love.

I wanna ask us this Christmas season, how are we doing with this?

As we step into family functions, parties and busyness that require us to be stretched thin and around people we may not always enjoy, are we still striving to be people of love?

As I am preparing for this message this morning, If I am being honest with you all, I am thinking about all of the Christmas gathering we have and the people that we will see and not all of them are particularly easy for me to love. Jaedyn Joke

The thought of going out of my way to pursue people I don’t necessarily care for sounds like a lot of work and at times just feels dishonest.

While it may require a lot of emotional and spiritual work, it is the most true think I can do because I am filled with the person of love Himself.

Love should come out of me.

I wanna challenge our church with a thought this Christmas…

What if you extending love to someone who feels unlovable is the means of grace God uses to woo and save someone who doesn’t know Him?

To do this, we have to immerse ourselves in the love of God. Because we cannot love unless we have first received love…

So let us remind ourselves of this love together.

1 John 4:9–10 ESV

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.

This love of God was made manifest or shown or displayed.

This is the heart of the advent season that we remember that God not only tells us of His love but has shown it to us.

His love has been physically close to you as the person you are sitting by and is even closer now for those who have faith in Him.

And this love that brought God to the earth also led him to die for you.

That is something that we say often but when is the last time that we truly considered why that is so significant?

Romans 5:6–7 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—

How many of you are offering to take on the punishment of a rapist or a murderer?

How many of you are excited to love your spouse when they sin against or just get on your nerves?

Now multiply those things by 1 million and that is what Jesus died for.

A group of people who asked for Barrabas to be freed and Jesus to be killed on a cross.

And while He did, he looked out with the eyes of love and said, “Forgive them.”

I’d like to speak to the person for a moment who thinks that they are unlovable…

There is no chasm to wide or height to great for the love of God to get to you. And you do not get to decide who the love of God belongs to, that is His choice. and He gives it freely to those who place their faith in Him.

CLOSING

What if this Christmas we made it all about love.

Sitting in the glory of God’s love. Remembering what we are celebrating and what it means.

Extending it to others no matter how difficult it may be.

1 John 4:11–12 ESV

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.

You have the opportunity to display God to a lost and dying world.

You may not be the best talker or illustrator but I know that if you have Him, you can love. And if you can love, then there really is no limit to what God can do in and through you.