What is Love?

Intro

Love has become a topic that many people are divided on. The world often defines it as a feeling, like butterflies in your stomach and fireworks going off in your head. They say you fall in love, that it can just happen by accident. Others will say that love is love, that each person gets to define what love is for themselves and who they can love, and how they can love. With so many people weighing in on what love is, how do we as Christians navigate the noise to know what love is? We need to go to God’s Word to find the answers. The reason we turn to His Word is because all of it is breathed out by Him, it is inspired by Him (2 Timothy 3:16). It’s not just a book written by men, each man who was a part of it was carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). This means that the Bible is truly from God. He has revealed to us what is true and right in His Word, so today we are going to dive into it to discover what true love is.

Love is from God

1 John 4:7 “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

John has just finished encouraging the recipients of this letter to discern between false teachers and true teachers. As he urges them to be careful and discerning he changes the topic to the outworking of their theology.

He begins this command with a term of endearment. John loves, cares for, and wants the best for these people. He says that they ought to love one another, why? Love is from God, meaning God is the source of genuine love between Christians. John is telling them that if they have been born of God, brought into His family through the revelation of Jesus Christ, then they should love. For someone to claim they know God, they must demonstrate this through brotherly affection toward other followers of Christ. When we love other people, it shows outwardly what has taken place in us. Before we knew God, we were selfish people, so even the “loving and kind” things we did were motivated by our selfishness, whether seeking to gain the upper hand, or fear of man, or self preservation, or people pleasing, etc. When we demonstrate love for others, it shows that we are a new creation, we have been transformed and regenerated by the work of God in Christ. This genuine love is directed towards God, Christ, and His children for their benefit. It fulfills God’s law and accomplishes His revealed will for our lives. Jesus said all of the law could be summed up in loving God and loving our neighbor. John tells us that when we love, we have been born of God and know Him. Now, this does not mean that anyone who shows love towards another is born again. This fact alone, apart from faith in Jesus Christ does not save a person, rather what John is arguing is that someone who claims faith in Jesus should show love because love is from God. If someone has a relationship with God, their lives will be proof of that.

1 John 4:8 “8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

John continues to make this point by saying that anyone who does not love, does not know God. The reason for this is that God is love. John does not say that love is God, or that God is loving, rather He says that God is love. Love is not merely an attribute of who God is, it is an essential element of his character that molds all that He does. God created lovingly, sustains lovingly, is sovereign lovingly. What great hope this should give to us. All that God does and allows on this earth is an act of His love towards us. All the sin, the suffering, the darkness in this world is working for our benefit because God is love. At times we will not understand this, but it is faith in this truth that can bring us through some of the darkest of times. God is love. It is because God is love that John says that someone who doe snot love does not know God. People can know all about God, but if they do not love they do not have a personal knowledge or experience of the God who is love. If someone has experienced the love of God, it will change their lives. So if someone’s life is not changed by His love, they do not know Him personally. Some may have a knowledge of God as powerful, but they seem Him as cruel because of the evil in the world. Some may even see Him as just and jealous for our affection, but they do not know Him fully apart from His love. The defining mark of the family of God is love. Those who know Him love others.

Love is demonstrated by God

1 John 4:9 “9 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.”

God revealed His love in this way. This is the most prominent, greatest, highest act of love. God has been loving to creation from the beginning, as we already saw because God is love, so all that He does is defined by love, but He made known to us the depth, the intensity, the magnitude of His love by this. Sending His only Son into the world. God the Father sent God the Son to the world. We are all called sons and daughters of God when we put our faith in Christ, but John shows us the prominence of Jesus by declaring He is God’s only Son by nature and not adoption. Jesus has always been and will always be God’s Son. This is why this act is so amazing, God offered up His only Son so that we might live. Jesus came and lived that we might have life. He came to give us life abundant. Through Jesus we are made new, we are given a new heart with new desires. We are no longer separated from God but can have communion with Him. We no longer need fear punishment but can look forward to life everlasting with God.

1 John 4:10 “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’s love toward us was not prompted by us, but was self kindled and determined by Himself. He was the motive and reason for showing us love. He did not need us to be complete, but because of who He is, He showed us love. He did not show us love because we were deserving of it. We were His enemies, we hated Him. We did not desire Him in the slightest though He is worthy of all love, praise, and adoration. Though we were in sin, He was not deterred away because His motive for loving us came from within Himself. The love He shows is not determined by the object of His love, but by Himself. Praise God for this truth! We all were unworthy of love. If it were not for the character of God, none of us would ever receive genuine love. God’s love did not just show us kindness out of what was convenient, He gave us His best. He gave His only Son, He gave of Himself. He did this for you, He did this for me. This is love, that God became a man, both fully God and fully man. This God man became the propitiation for our sins. This means that Jesus satisfied God’s wrath towards our sin by living the perfect life that we could not live - a spotless substitute, and died the death we deserved - atoning for our sins. He earned the righteousness we could not and He died the death we deserve but overcame it. Only one who is fully God and fully man could ever do this. The incarnation, Emmanuel - God with us, has done this, which is love. God’s love did not overlook our sin, but dealt with it. Real love deals with sin. Through faith, we no longer have a sin debt we owe, and now we have a righteous standing before God. Not only this, but God is working in us now, sanctifying us to produce in us active obedience - righteousness. One day we will be made righteous and no longer deal with sin at all or any of its effects. This is the love of God made known through the incarnation. This is the greatest act of love that each of us is invited to not only know about, but to experience. Through this act of love we are brought into fellowship with the God who is love. Marvel at the love of God made known to us.

Love is a blessing

1 John 4:11 “11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Now John brings it full circle, this is the love we have been shown. If your heart has been touched by this love, how can you help but loving others. We learn from God that love makes the first move. God initiated love with us, and so we should move towards others in love first. We do not need to, nor should we wait for others to love us. Our tendency should be to show love first. We also learn from God that love goes to even those who hate or revile us. Love is not conditioned by the person, it is required by God’s character. If God who knew no sin loved us who are sinful, surely we who are sinful can also loves those who are sinful. God also showed us that love goes to those who are not like us. God is infinite, eternal, holy, we are finite, mortal, unholy, yet He moved towards us. If God can move beyond that perceived distance, we can surely move past differences between us and fellow humans. The differences separating us from God are far greater that the difference between me and any person. They may speak a different language, look different, have different preferences, hobbies, job, upbringing, etc, but it is nothing compared to the difference between God and I. May we move towards people even when they are different from us. God shows us that love is not always convenient and it is often costly to the one loving. Love takes time, it can take money, it takes energy. Love may require us to sacrifice things that we hold near and dear. God gave up His Son. The love that we show will be in proportion with our appreciation of God’s love to us. Jesus said that those who love little have been forgiven of little. When He said this, He was not saying that some people are worse off than others, but that our understanding of our need for forgiveness will directly impact how we love others. If it was not for God, we would not experience love. If we are puffed up in self righteous, we will have little gratitude for the love we have been shown, and therefore will love little.

For those who are have trusted in Jesus, who have experienced the love of God made manifest, we ought to love others.

1 John 4:12 “12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

John seems to take a slight shift here, saying that God has not been seen. John says this because it is through our love that God is known and seen. When we show love to others we are yet again reminded of God’s love for us and that He is near. Love is from God, so when we love, He is working in and through us. The watching world also sees God in us when we love one another. The world defines loves as a feeling and happiness, so when we sacrifice and care for one another in such ways, we stand out. This give sus opportunity to speak of the great love of God made known to the world through the coming of Jesus Christ. When we love, God is in us, He is near. That is why it is a blessing to love, because God is near.

Perfected. God’s love is made complete in us. This does not mean that it was lacking before we show it, but rather when we experience and respond to the gospel with love for our family in Christ, God’s love finds its fullest expression on earth. God’s love has a reverberating effect that will continue for all of eternity.

Love comes from God. Love is motivated by God. Love is a blessing from God. May we be partakers in the love of God.

Today I’m going to close with this prayer from Ephesians 3:14–21 “14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”