1 John (3.10-4.21)
His Love, Our Love
A sermon on 1 John 3:10-4:21 at Christ the King on 3/26/06
Prayer: Father, we come now to study your Word. Help us, by your Spirit, to understanding it. And help us, by your Spirit to apply it rightly to our lives. We ask this for the glory of Christ and the glory of His church. Amen.
Introduction: In his Autobiography, Mark Twain wrote, “Repetition is a mighty power in the domain of humor. If frequently used, nearly any precisely worded and unchanged formula will eventually compel laughter if it be gravely and earnestly repeated, at intervals, five or six times.”
Twain knew, from experience, from trial and success, the truth of this claim. In his second lecture of his first lecture tour of the United States, he began his talk “with a scheme so daring a nature,” as he put it, that he wondered how he “ever had the courage to carry it through.” He began his talk by reciting, in a level, colorless, monotonous voice a short story of no interest, and certainly no humor.
His first telling of the story was met with dead silence, as he anticipated. Fifteen hundred people stared at him with looks of sorrow, insult, resentment, and pity. Twain tried to look embarrassed. For a while he said nothing, but stood fumbling his hands, trying to appeal to his audience for sympathy.
Then, he began again. He told the same story in the same way. Again, he was met with looks of confusion and indignation. Twain paused and started up again. He told the same story in the same way for the third time. But this time, the reaction was quite different.
“All of a sudden,” Twain recalls, “the front row recognized [the joke of it] and broke into a laugh. It spread back, and back, and back, to the furthest verge of the place; then swept forward again, and then back again, and at the end of a minute the laughter was as universal and as thunderously noisy as a tempest.” Forty years after the fact, Twain wrote of that laughter, saying, “It was a heavenly sound to me.” And one of his colleagues called this whole idea and event, “a triumph of art.”[1]
The art of repetition can be used in a number of ways. It can, as Twain proved, be used to produce laughter. But the art of repetition can also be used to produce other results. And here in this lengthy passage of Scripture that was just read, repetition is used to produce in us not riotous laughter, but sober reflection, sober reflection on the theme of love.
Do you know how many times the word “love” is repeated in our text? It is repeated 39 times! That is, the words- love, loves, loved, and beloved- are used 39 times in this text, averaging more than one occurrence per verse.
Now, to put that into perspective, ‘love’ is address here more than in the first four books of the Bible put together, and more than in Isaiah and Jeremiah (those big books of prophecy), and more than the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke. In fact, our text (perhaps next to 1 Corinthians 13) is the most highly concentrated section on the theme of love in the whole of Scripture. So, if you are looking for love this morning (in the Bible, that is), it is here you will find it!
John loves love. He, of all the New Testament authors, loves to talk about this great theme. That is why some older Christian writers have called him, “The doctor of love,” or “the theologian of love.” Well, this morning, let us sit in his class, and see what this professor of passion, this doctor of love has to teach.
Now, John certainly says a lot about love, but he also doesn’t say much. What I mean is that he says a lot of the same thing over and over and over again (which is typical of how John writes). He uses many of the same words to express the same ideas. Which makes it easy to recognize his point, or to find a verse or two or three to summarize his thought. My favorite summary verse of this whole section of Scripture is 4:11. Look there with me. Here’s what today’s message is all about. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” So, do you see the two-point sermon John has laid before us? I hardly have to do any work today. He has done it all for me.
Point One: God has loved us. Point Two: We ought to love one another. It is that simple, at least that simple to say. To do, however I fear, is quite another matter.
God Has Loved Us
But a matter that John (I think) acknowledges himself. For that is why he builds us up (builds up our call to love) upon the sure foundation of God and His love. There are only a few “God is…” statements in the Bible, and John gives us three of the most memorable. In his Gospel, in John 4:24, he records Jesus’ words to the Samarian woman, “God is Spirit.” And here in First John, we are told, near the beginning (in 1:5) “God is light,” and now towards the end (both in 4:8 and in 4:16) “God is love.”
God is love- What a remarkable statement! What a profound truth! What a thought to dwell upon and to build upon. We might say, “So and so is a very loving person.” But what is said here is different than that. John is not saying that ‘love’ is a quality God possesses; rather he is saying ‘love’ is the essence of God’s divine being.[2]
The other morning as I was doing my daily devotions, joined (as usual these days) with my two early bird daughters, I opened my Bible to 1 John 4:8 and I had my four-year-old, Lily, sound out and read aloud three words, G-o-d i-s l-o-v-e. So, with precision phonics she said, “God is love.” “That’s right,” I said, “Very good. “God is love.”
Now, at first that little reading exercise pleased me very much, both academically and spiritually. Yet, it didn’t take long for a strange sinking feeling to overwhelm my soul. My conscience, my dear, precious, sensitive conscience (molded I hope by the whole counsel of Scripture) convicted me that I needed to clarify this concept of God as love. So, convinced that it was necessary to define better both God and His love, I quickly rectified the situation and had my daughter recite that entire Westminster Confession of Faith (in Latin). No, what I did was I clarified what she read about God by teaching her about God’s holiness and our sinfulness and then the love of God shown in the sending of Jesus Christ, His Son.
Now, you may think I’m a nutcase. Or you may think I was a bit overbearing or overprotective. And perhaps I was to a certain extent. But, you know what, I think that just as it is okay to be overprotective with my daughter’s purity of body, so too is it okay to be overprotective with her purity of mind. I want my children to know who God is. I want the picture to be as big and as clear as possible.
It is that same burden of conscience that compels me to clarify for you this same concept. For I don’t have to tell you that there is a great difference between how people today define God’s love and how the apostle John defines it. Today’s concept of a loving God or a God whose very essence is love is that He cannot and will not judge anything or anyone. Love equals tolerance. So, “God is love” means to many in our culture, and to some in the church, God is tolerant, tolerant of most moral choices and lifestyles, and tolerant of all or almost all theological perspectives. This is the god of the flower children fully blossomed!
Our text, however, defines God and His love quite differently. God’s essence finds definition in His actions. Do you see how John fills in this picture? He teaches us that God’s love is demonstrated in Christ, in Christ’s incarnation and in Christ’s crucifixion. 4:8 is where we find the phrase, “God is love.” But look at its immediate context! Starting with v.8, we read, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [v.9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, [how?] that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [v.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.” So, when we think or speak those great words, “God is love” we ought never to do so without the thought of this essence being explained and illustrated in the life and death of Christ.
God is love and God has loved, He has loved us in Christ. That’s the foundation, the only foundation, the best foundation, the surest foundation of our love, of genuine Christian love towards others. That’s point one: God (who is love) has loved. And here’s point two: We ought also to love. God has loved us; thus, we should love others.
We Should Love Others
Now, there is obviously a lot said in this lengthy passage about Christian love. So, let me make it as easy as possible for you to remember and to apply what is taught. There are three aspects of Christian love. First, Christian love is orthodox. Second, Christian love is active. And third, Christian love is assuring.
Christian Love is Orthodox
Let’s start with the ‘orthodoxy’ of Christian love. Months ago, when I first divided up the text of 1 John into various preaching units, as I came to the end of chapter three, I thought that that would be a good place to stop this sermon. However, as I read on past 4:1-6 (where there is no mention of love) into v.7 and until v.21, I realized that John did not separate his call to Christian love from his call to Christian orthodoxy, and so neither should we.
Just look with me for a moment at how John interconnects these two themes. In the middle of his talk on love, he addresses orthodoxy (right thinking about Jesus). Glance at 3:23! Do you see what is said there? John writes, “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ.” Now, move your eyes down to 4:15. There we find, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” Finally, look to the middle of our passage, 4:1-6.
Read along with me, starting in v.1: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
In 1665, the Great Plague broke out in London. In just one week, twelve thousand people were dead. The city was in terrible turmoil, as within weeks the dead out numbered the living. It was so bad that gravediggers “could not keep pace with the rising tide of corpses they had to bury. In the end, they simply stacked up” the bodies outside the homes of those stricken.[3] Now, as you can imagine, England’s best doctors scrambled for a cure, and they quickly (and, as it proved, hastily) pronounced their professional opinion.
The renowned College of Physicians announced that it was the city air that was the culprit. It was something in the air that was the cause of this plague. Well, based then upon this expert opinion, Londoners did one of two things. Some immediately retreated to their homes, and sealed up every door, widow, and chimney. Others immediately deserted their city homes and fled to the country and its fresh and safe air. Now, of course, whose people who fled the city to the country (who were infected) carried the disease, thus sadly causing the plague to spread like the wind (by not by the wind). This error in medical judgment proved to be quite deadly. For later it was discovered that the cause of the plague was bacteria, thousands of these little one-celled organisms that infected fleas, which in turn infected rats, which in turn infected humans.
Now, thankfully so, medical error in our day and age (and region of the world) is simply not tolerated. But sadly theological error is. Theological error is acceptable. We don’t sue doctors of theology if what they teach is false. We rarely take away a pastor’s position if his words are slightly unorthodox. And I do believe (for better or for worse) we no longer burn heretics. Why? Well, because heresy is not a big a deal to us. Cancer and AIDS are far worse. Aren’t they? Or are they?
I am of the opinion that there is nothing so deadly in all the world as theological error. And there is nothing so unloving as theological error. In fact, it is better to tie a milestone around your neck than to teach a child that Jesus is not the Son of God or to teach that Jesus has not come in the flesh to die for our sins. Theological error is far more deadly than medical error, for theological error can cause the lost of both the body and the soul.
So don’t be confused by the pop stars or the pop philosophers who sound so broad-minded and so humble and so loving when the talk about Jesus, and saying something like, “Well, I have nothing but the highest regard for Him. He was indeed a great moral teacher and an outstanding man. And while I don’t necessary embrace these notions, these superstitious views that he was the Son of God and that He rose from the dead and what have you, that doesn’t mean I reject His ethic of love. No. The Golden Rule is my rule. I seek to treat others as I would like them to treat me.”
Well, that sounds quite nice, doesn’t it? Tolerance without truth so easily tantalizes. But the Word of God thunders against such triviality, saying to us today, “There is nothing loving about theological error. The wrong view of Jesus is a deadly plague, a plague that will paralyze the wit and slay the soul.” As we see in this text before us, God has joined together right belief and right conduct.[4] And what He has joined together let no one put asunder.
Christian Love is Active
So, Christian love is, first and foremost and foundationally, orthodox. One cannot have a right love towards others unless one also has a right perspective on Jesus. In this relativistic world we live in, that is the first aspect of Christian love I want us to see and understand and embrace.
Now, the second aspect is this: Christian love is active. Look at 3:23. Here’s the perfect transition verse. “And this is his commandment [God’s commandment], that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ [you see, Christian love is orthodox] and love one another, just as he has commanded us [ah, Christian love is also active]. Christian love is not just in the head. No, it shows itself to others. Look at how John says it. Look at 3:18. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” We are to love in truth. And we are to love in deed.
I won’t re-read the beginning of our passage (3:10-18), but I want you to look there with me. Allow me to quickly and simply summarize what is being taught and illustrated here. Cain and Christ are the two persons paraded before us. On one hand, we have Cain whose attitude of hatred results in his actions of murder. On the other hand, we have Christ whose attitude of love results in His actions of self-sacrifice.
We all know what is said in John 3:16, but look with me at what is said in 1 John 3:16. Look what is said about our Lord. “By this we know love, that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” So, one expression of Christ-like love (as opposed to Cain-like hatred) is self-sacrifice. Then, the other expression of Christ-like love is compassion, practical concern, consideration, and care for others. This is what is taught in v.17. “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”
Perhaps you remember from the 1980’s, that magical era of rock music, the song entitled, “Everybody loves somebody sometime.”[5] The melody of that song was as captivating as its lyrics. But, may it not be that captivating to us, to us who profess faith in Christ. For it is not to be the lyrics of our lives, to love somebody sometime. Even Charles Manson, even Hitler, even Nero loved somebody sometime! No, the gospel teaches us that we, like our Lord, are to love everybody all the time, even our enemies, even those least lovely, even and especially those who can give us nothing in return. And we are especially to look out of the needs (the physical and financial needs) of our brothers and sisters in Christ.[6]
Jesus has sacrificed His life for us. He has given His life so that we might live. So, likewise, we should sacrifice for others. We should give our lives and our time and our resources. In the last line of Isaac Watt’s classic hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, he writes, “Were the whole realm of nature mine/That were an offering far too small/Love so amazing, so divine/Demands my heart, my life, my all.” And that’s right: Love so amazing (Chirst’s love, which is so amazing) demands my heart, my life, my all,”- my all for all and to all. “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, [4:20] he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
Sometimes I think we equate Christian love with mysticism or emotionalism. That is, we think when we experience some feeling of what we deem to be the divine, that that is the essence of love. But, that is not how Scripture talks about love. Love for God is as concrete as Jesus’ commandment to the young rich ruler, where He said, “Sell all that you have and give to the poor … and then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). Love is not merely a mystical vision or warm words, “but practical down-to-earth actions.”[7] It is, as David Jackman points out, “the modern equivalent of washing one another’s feet.”[8]
In 4:12, John talks about a “perfected” love. C.H. Dodd understands this perfection in the sense of completion. Using the image of a triangle (and children, listen up here, this is in your bulletin insert) he explains it in this way. “The energy of love discharges itself along lines which form a triangle, whose points are God, self, and neighbor.”[9] Perfect love, perfect Christian love is love in action, God’s love in action through us towards others.
Christian Love is Assuring
So, Christian love is orthodox. Christian love is active. And finally, Christian love is assuring. Francis Shaeffer called love, love in action (the kind of love we have been talking about), “the ultimate apologetic,” that is, he believed the love shown between Christians and the love shown by Christians towards non-Christians was the best way for the world to recognize the reality of Christianity. Now, I agree. Such love is certainly that. It is “the ultimate apologetic” for unbelievers. But, such love is also ‘the ultimate assurance’ for believers, the assurance of God’s love.
Now, there are at least twelve verses in our text that make this last point, this point about assurance. Allow me to highlight one verse and another brief section. First, look at 3:14. It reads, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, [How? How do we know] because we love the brothers.” In other words, we know we are saved in the here and now because we love others in the here and now.
Second, look at 4:16-18. “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
So, we know we are saved in the present if we love in the present; but also (as these verses point out), we know we shall be saved in future (at the day of judgment) because we love right now.
When I was in college, there was a campus group that had a banner that read, No Fear. It was one of those borrowed slogans from some sports company that finds a reference in the Bible. I think when most of us think of the slogan “no fear” or even this verse that is comes from (4:18), “There is no fear in love,” we think true love conquers all earthly phobias. That is, if I have perfect love I will not fear the opinion of others, or I will not fear the unknown or I will not fear public speaking or tall buildings, or perhaps clowns or blimps or whatever other phobias we possess. But the context of our passage is clear that love casts out fear of the final judgment. If we are walking in love towards our neighbor, then we ought not to fear what will happen when Christ returns or when we die.
If you were here for the wonderful Missions Sunday we had last week, and you were able to attend the Adult Sunday School, you heard Jacob Reynolds talk about how the Irish Bible Institute, of which he is the principal, seeks to develop head, heart, and hands. In a slightly different order, that is a good summary of what John is doing here.
He is seeking to develop our heads (telling us Christian love is orthodox), and develop our hands (telling us Christian love is action), and develop our hearts (telling us Christian love is assuring)- that if we think in love and walk in love our hearts can be reassured of God’s love [see 1:19-21].
Conclusion: There is an old story about the aged apostle John that is relayed to us from the writings of Jerome, who was of one of the early Church Fathers. Jerome tells us that when John was very old he grew so weak that he was unable to speak or unable to speak very much. And thus, he no longer preached, that is, he no longer gave the sermon to the congregation in Ephesus. Instead, he arranged that someone would pick him up at his residence and carry him to the service.
Now, when he arrived (so the story goes) he would content himself with one simple word of exhortation. Each and every time the church met, he would say to God’s people, “Little children, love one another” [repeat three times]. Now, when the church grew a bit tied of this same message, someone finally asked John why he so frequently repeated the same words over and over again. To which he replied, “I say what I say because it is the Lord’s command, and if this is all you do, it is enough.’”[10]
My brothers and sisters in Christ, the defining mark of Christianity is love- love that is orthodox, love that is active, and love that is assuring. And if this is all you do, love with your head and with your heart and with your hands, well then that is indeed enough. Let us pray.
Prayer: Do help us, O Lord, to love. Help us to love in accordance with your Word. Always sent before our eyes the example of Christ, so that we might follow in His path of sacrifice and service. We ask this in His name. Amen.
Benediction: God is love; and God has indeed loved us in Christ. May we therefore love one another! Amen.
If you were here for the wonderful missions Sunday we had last week, and you were able to attend the Adult Sunday School, you heard Jacob Reynolds talk about how the Irish Bible Institute, of which he is the principal, seeks to develop head, heart, and hands. In a slightly different order, that is a good summary of what John is doing here. He is seeking to develop our head (telling us Christian love is orthodoxy), and develop our hands (telling us Christian love is action), and develop our heart (telling us Christian love is assuring)- that if we think in love and walk in love our hearts can be reassured of God’s love (1:19-21).
· Do you possess the Spirit (3:24)? What does it mean to posses the Spirit? How do you know you have been given the Holy Spirit (“has been given to us”)? You believe in Jesus (3:23) You have the “anointing” (2:27): discern truth from error; You live in holiness (the holy Spirit makes you holy), as v.24 says, “you keep God’s commandments.” Your heart doesn't condemn you (3:19-21)
o Are you convinced of sin?
o Do you see the fruits of the Spirit, especially the fruit of love?
· Illustration: Toronto Blessing: Evidence of the Spirit? I could take the slaying in the spirit if when they get up the live in the Spirit (Lucas’s remarks); the evidence of the Spirit in the NT is first and foremost godly living!
10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 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. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
· “Confidence and prayer are connected…. It is a general truth taught in Scripture that God does not listen to the ungodly….” (Calvin, 67)
1 John 3:10 - 4:21 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 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. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Dear Pastor O'Donnell,
Yesterday, I was having dinner with a very dear friend of mine. In fact, Linda is the person who really helped me to come to Christ. We got into a discussion regarding her next door neighbor Lisa. Lisa is a very strong believer, but Linda has come to find out that she is heavily influenced by a Preacher named Benny Hinn (sp?). Neither Linda or I know very much about him, except that what we hear is not good. Lisa believes that she has the gift of prophecy, and has recently been inviting Linda to a Prophecy Conference in the city. Linda doesn't want to go (the Holy Spirit working inside), but she also doesn't want to alienate Lisa to the point that they cannot converse. This got me thinking about all that we have been learning in 1John, and how to apply it. I know that we are supposed to stay away from false teachers, but what about people who are being mislead by those teachers? What would you suggest to someone in Linda's position? I feel bad because I really didn't know what to say to her about all this.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for all your teaching.
Cathy
What are the two reasons we should love others?
- God loved us
- Assurance of faith
Introduction: Repetition (Twain)- chapter 28
· Our passage is full of repetition, not for the sake of humor, but for the sake of emphasis and encouragement
· Three contrasts: righteousness and sin (3:4-10), love and hate (vv.11-18) and truth and error (4:1-6)
· Love is the theme (Beloved, loved, love, and loves mentioned 39x/nowhere in the Bible is there a higher concentration)
o Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (4:11)
o Whoever loves God must also love his brother (4:21)
o God’s love is the foundation of our love, so let’s look there first…
God is Love
· “God is light” (1:5), “God is Spirit” (4:24), “God is love” (4:8)
· Illustration: Reading the Bible in the mornings/more and more teaching my daughters to read and listen to the Bible/so I turned to 1 John 4, “God is love.” G-o-d is l-o-v-e/but then I thought how confusing this could be if not put in the right context… Today, “God is love” is almost always taken out of context, out of the context of the Bible
· “John is not identifying a quality which God possesses; he is making a statement about the essence of God’s being” (Jackman, 118)
· How do people today define God’s love? (Tolerance/lenience)- Flower children- “God is love” (Barton, 61 or 63)
· How does John define God’s love? How is His love demonstrated? (In the Incarnation and the Cross)
o Sent His only Son into the world (v.9)
o Sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (v.10)- Illustration: PCA booklet, 29
o Sent His Son to be the Savior of the world (v.14)
Christians are ‘Love’
· Once the foundation is place (God is love), we can build (we are love)- e.g., 4:11, 19, et al.
· Illustration: “Couples often debate about who loved whom first, but John makes clear that when it comes to a person’s relationship with God, there’s no question about who made the first move” – God is the “great initiator” (Barton, 95)
· The “Beloved” are to “love”
Three aspects of Christian love
(1) Christian Love is Orthodox (it is inseparable from holding a right view of Jesus)- 4:1-6
· Illustration: The Great Plague (the doctor’s being wrong), wrong thinking leads to wrong living (Phillips, 124)
· Illustration: Intolerance of truth: Intolerance can actually virtuous. “Wilberforce was intolerant of slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. was intolerant of segregation. Doctors are intolerant of germs. Engineers are intolerant of mathematical error” (Barton, 102)
· The inseparatablity of faith and love/behavior and belief: See Galatians 5:6; cf. Eph 1:5; Col 1:4; 1 Thess 1:3; 1 Tim 1:3-5
o “When we put these two commandments together, we find the great truth that the Christian life depends on right belief and right conduct combined. We cannot have the one without the other. There can be no such thing as a Christian theology without a Christian ethic; and equally there can be no such thing as a Christian ethic without a Christian theology. Our belief is not real belief unless it issues in action; and our action has neither sanction nor dynamic unless it is based on belief” (Barclay, 88)
(2) Christian Love is Active (it is demonstrated not merely nor mostly but emotion but by action)
· Negative example: Cain and Abel (the point is obvious: Cain didn’t love his brother)
o “Philo (a Jewish contemporary of Paul), for example, wrote four works on Cain” (in Burge, 160)
o “Love between Christian brothers suggests hatred between brothers as its contrast” (Boice, 92)
o The story of Cain (see Jackman, 98-99)
o “The action is the outcome of the attitude” (Jackman, 100)
o Why do unbelievers hate the godly? (We are either the fragrance of life or death)
§ Alcibiades, “Socrates, I hate you, because every time I meet you you show me what I am” (in Barclay, 85)
· Positive example: Christ
o “On the one hand, hate originates with the devil and indicates the existence of a bond with him. It expresses itself in jealousy and ends in murder. On the other hand, love originates in God and indicates the existence of a bond with God. It expresses itself in self-sacrifice and in many practical demonstrations of concern for those in need” (Boice, 92)
o Similar to what Paul does in Philippians 2:1-11
o “When I survey that wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died/Were the whole realm of nature mine/That were an offering far too small/Love so amazing, so divine/Demands my heart, my life, my all” (Isaac Watts)
o Judson’s last words, “Think much on the love of Christ” (see Phillips)
· Christians:
o “Everybody loves somebody sometime” (Boice, 91)- we are called to love everybody all the time!
o “Clement of Alexandria said in a startling phrase that the real Christian ‘practices being God’” (in Barclay, 97)
o Perfected love: triangle (God/Self/Others)- “The energy of love discharges itself along lines which form a triangle, whose points are God, self, and neighbor” (C.H. Dodds, in Burge, 189)
o Lay down our lives/help those in need materially (cf. James 2, 5 and Luke 10; 6th Commandment lesson; “follow…sell or give”- the Rich Young Ruler (Mk 10)/Lazarus (Luke 15)
o “And again that means not just mystical visions, or wonderful warming words, but practical down-to-earth actions, the modern equivalent of washing one another’s feet, see John 13 (Jackman, 123)
(3) Christian Love is Assuring (assuring to the believer, giving him/her confidence)
· Love is “the ultimate apologetic” to the unbelieving world (Francis Shaeffer), but also the ultimate assurance to the believer (see Jackman, 123)
· “Our confidence in Christ does not make us lazy, negligent, or careless, but on the contrary it awakens us, urges us on, and makes us active in living righteous lives and doing good. There is no self-confidence to compare with this” (Ulrich Zwingli)
· This confidence is not cockiness or glibness (Barton, 79)
· Do you possess the Spirit (3:24)? What does it mean to posses the Spirit? How do you know you have been given the Holy Spirit (“has been given to us”)? You believe in Jesus (3:23) You have the “anointing” (2:27): discern truth from error; You live in holiness (the holy Spirit makes you holy), as v.24 says, “you keep God’s commandments.” Your heart doesn't condemn you (3:19-21)
o Are you convinced of sin?
o Do you see the fruits of the Spirit, especially the fruit of love?
· Illustration: Toronto Blessing: Evidence of the Spirit? I could take the slaying in the spirit if when they get up the live in the Spirit (Lucas’s remarks); the evidence of the Spirit in the NT is first and foremost godly living!
· Head/Hands/Heart (IBI): we can be sure we have the Spirit in our hearts if our hands work in love for others (vice versa)
· “Confidence and prayer are connected…. It is a general truth taught in Scripture that God does not listen to the ungodly….” (Calvin, 67)
· Love casts out fear (not of talking in public or etc) of final judgment
o Believers trembled at the thought of the future judgment, we don’t
o But, we should and shouldn’t
Conclusion: “Jerome [commenting on Galatians 6:10] tells us that when the aged apostle John became so weak that he could no longer preach, he used to be carried into the congregation at Ephesus and content himself with a word of exhortation. ‘Little children,’ he would always say, ‘love one another.’ And when his hearers grew tied of this message, and asked him why he so frequently repeated it, he responded, ‘Because it is the Lord’s command, and if this is all you do, it is enough’” (in Jackman 11, quoted in Plummer, p.xxxv.)
· Repetition!
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[1] All quotes from Twain, Autobiography, chapter 28.
[2] Jackman, 118.
[3] See Phillips, 124.
[4] “When we put these two commandments together, we find the great truth that the Christian life depends on right belief and right conduct combined. We cannot have the one without the other. There can be no such thing as a Christian theology without a Christian ethic; and equally there can be no such thing as a Christian ethic without a Christian theology. Our belief is not real belief unless it issues in action; and our action has neither sanction nor dynamic unless it is based on belief” (Barclay, 88).
[5] Mentioned in Boice, 91.
[6] John’s stress here is in line with Paul says in Galatians 6:10. He writes, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
[7] Jackman, 123.
[8] Jackman, 123.
[9] C.H. Dodd in Burge, 189.
[10] In Jackman 11, quoted in Plummer, p.xxxv.