1 John 4:7-12
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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. 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. 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.
1John 4:7-12
Lets pray:
You know how many times the word “love” was used in these few verses we just read? 12! Do you know what the significance of the number 12 is in the Bible? Think about it… ‘12’. I don’t know what the significance of the number “12” is in the Bible. You hear some preachers giving numbers and stuff and their significance so I just wanted to do it to.
You know how many times the word “love” was used in these few verses we just read? 12! Do you know what the significance of the number 12 is in the Bible? Think about it… ‘12’. I don’t know what the significance of the number “12” is in the Bible. You hear some preachers giving numbers and stuff and their significance so I just wanted to do it to.
I do know that we just read 6 sentences and the word “LOVE” was mentioned 12 times though…and that makes it significant. Im thinking this section of Scripture should be titled something like “God Is Love!”
15 times John calls the Christians in this church body “children”. 19 times he calls them “children” when we read 2nd and 3rd John.
the Gospel of John has “LOVE” in it 59 times.
You have to explain things to children sometimes don’t you? I mean, it’s never enough just to say, “do this”, “do that”. They always ask “why” don’t they? “Go to bed!”.... “why?” “Clean your room” “Brush your teeth”… “why?” Because you’ll never get a date if you don’t, no one will ever want to talk to you unless your 6 feet away, because it’s nasty…etc. But they always ask “why” and you always have to explain things to them don’t you? Please…just agree so I feel better about my parenting.
In 1,2, and 3rd John the word “LOVE” is used 56 times. 1 John alone has the word “LOVE” 49 times. 1 John Chapter 4 has the word “LOVE” 28 times and these 6 verses has the word “LOVE” 12 times.
In 1,2, and 3rd John the word “LOVE” is used 56 times. 1 John alone has the word “LOVE” 33 times and these 6 verses has the word “LOVE” 12 times.
In 1,2, and 3rd John the word “LOVE” is used 56 times. 1 John alone has the word “LOVE” 49 times. 1 John Chapter 4 has the word “LOVE” 28 times and these 6 verses has the word “LOVE” 12 times.
In 1, 2, and 3rd John the word “LOVE” is used 56 times.
This is what John knows. He knows he has to explain some things to his little children who he addresses here as his “beloved”.
1 John alone has the word “LOVE” 49 times. ( In all of his epistles, John used “love” 87.5% in 1 John)
Beloved: A person dearly loved and cherished; sometimes preferred above all others and treated with partiality.
1 John Chapter 4 has the word “LOVE” 28 times (In 1 John he used the word “love” over 57% in chapter 4)
Sounds like your kid doesn’t it?
and these 6 verses have the word “LOVE” 12 times. (of all the times he used the word “love” in chapter 4 he used it nearly 43% in these 6 verses)
If only he would need to tell us once and not explain. If we only understood.
Look at verse 7...
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
If we could only understand this one thing he wouldn’t need to say anything past the 4th word of this verse.
“Beloved, let us love”.
If we understood the depths of who God is and what He has done for us perfectly he would have never written the next 5 sentences.
If we understood the depths of who God is and what He has done for us perfectly he would have never written the next 5 sentences.
Love, this agapé love, is not from man…it is from God. This love is a strong, non-sexual affection and regard for a person and their good as understood by God’s moral character (this is why it is from God and not from man. It is God’s character). This kind of love is characterized by willingly giving up your own rights or privileges for another person’s behalf. Again, man didn’t come up with this kind of love. This love comes from God.
We are selfish people.
He is selfless
Before we came to know Christ we were so selfish. We weren’t about to give up our rights, our privileges for someone else…especially not for someone who hated us.
Of course there are people who don’t know Christ that love people. Hitler loved his dog but does that mean he was born of God? NO! (Expound)
and if we did come across as giving up our rights and privileges for someone else we did it so we would look good or feel good about ourselves. We didn’t do it because of this type of selfless love.
So when you find yourself truly loving your brother, your Christian brother, like this…thank God that you have been born of God and that you know God.
Look at verse 8
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Anyone who does not love…the context here is loving the brothers specifically and we will see that clearly in verse 12 but as we have been preaching through this we saw in chapters 2 and 3 it is talking about love for the brothers and sisters in Christ.
quick recap: John is writing this to remind them of his apostolic authority and not to listen to the false teachers that have been teaching them false doctrine and not living according to the apostolic teachings (you can go back and read 1:1-4…he is saying, “listen to me, listen to us, we saw him, we heard him, we walked with him…trust us…not them”.
So, to that point John is telling the brothers here concerning the false teachers that it doesnt matter what they “say”…if they don’t love the brothers they DO NOT KNOW GOD. Why? Because God IS LOVE!
If someone is truly born of God, they will have in them the seed of God (3:9).
You can say “I am a Christian” but if you DO NOT LOVE THE BROTHERS you DO NOT KNOW GOD! Why? Because GOD IS LOVE!
If you are truly born of God and He is your Father, then guess what…you will walk like your Father. Just like you walk like your earthly father and have some of his characteristics…you will walk like Christ if you are born of God (2:5-6)
If you want to know if you are TRULY a Christian or if you are deceived then READ AND STUDY THIS Epistle.
And I want to say a few more things about these THREE WORDS: God is love.
We have to tread lightly here okay? We can’t get confused on what this is saying.
When it comes to the Attributes of God:
His Justice
His Mercy
His Grace
His Wrath
His Love, etc.
What we find ourselves doing if we don’t diligently study who He is as revealed in HIs Word…we start building an idol. We start building an idol in our own image. Literally, we build a god (little ‘g’) that looks like us but to the MAX.
Since the text is talking about love lets look at this:
If you had a horrible dad growing up your “love” line might be ‘here’ and what you think would be a ton of ‘love’ would be ‘here’.
If I had a great dad growing up who loved the mess out of me, my starting point of “love” is ‘here’…a lot higher from your starting point.
So then you and I start thinking about God’s “love” and we just push it up to the MAX from our own understanding that comes from our own individual backgrounds.
To you, God’s love is “here” but to me God’s love is “here”.
See what we have done? We have two different god’s now. You have yours and your’e good with that amount of love because that would be awesome to have a father that loved you that much.
I created my god because to me “that amount of love” would be awesome based on what I had growing up. Im good with it.
We have misunderstood what the Bible is telling us about God. Its not that God has a lot of love, He does, but that isn’t what it is saying. It is saying that God IS LOVE!
Another point to make on these three words: God IS love.
Contrary to what many of us heard growing up…God did not make mankind because He wanted someone to love him. God does not NEED people to love him! God is revealed in Scripture as the holy Trinity: three persons in ONE GOD. Our finite minds can’t completely wrap our minds around this but we believe it because it is what the Scriptures teach us about God. Because God is triune, he has been loved and has loved for all eternity. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, the Spirit loves the Son, the Spirit loves the Father and on and on it goes.
God was and is completely satisfied in Himself.
To think that God created humans because He needed/wanted someone to love him is a man centered religion. It puts you paramount.
God, in his NATURE IS LOVE. So what does that mean…it means that when we feel that God isn’t loving…when we feel that God doesn’t love us…we are attacking His Nature. We are assaulting his essence.
We then distort God’s free grace into what Bonhoeffer calls “cheap grace”. Because we don’t truly believe God IS LOVE we turn it into a conditional love. This happens when we have an idol called ‘god’. That idol has A LOT of love but that love could end if I don’t perform, if I don’t prove my worth to Him.
This is a miserable “little ‘g’ god” to worship isn’t it. If you have ever worshiped “this god”, that doesn’t exist by the way, you are always worried if you are good enough…are you going to make it… “I dont know.. we’ll see in the end”. See, you say, “we’ll see in the end” because it depends on you and your worth, your efforts, your works.
IF this is you I want to tell you right now, that is not Christianity. Your faith is in yourself and not in Christ. Your faith is in your works and not in Christ’s work. Repent and put your faith in Christ alone.
Be careful because you become what you worship. The people John is writing against wrote these brothers off. The false teachers left them and didn’t want to have anything to do with the brothers anymore (2:19).
Check this out: When the “god” you worship is a “god” that saves you based on your works or ends the relationship when you don’t perform then guess what you will do?
You will love those who perform for you and keep in step with you
And you will write off those who you deem have crossed the line one too many times…or just crossed the line too far.
You worship a “god” that says, “thats enough, the relationship is over” and you will find yourself doing the same thing to brothers and sisters in Christ.
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.
Psalm
You become what you worship. Theology, the study of God, matters.
Verse 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.
What a perfect verse for Christmas time!
The love of God was revealed (manifest). HOW? How was God’s love revealed?
By sending his one and only Son into the world!
Sounds like doesn’t it.
When it says, “so that we might live”…we “might” be tempted to see that as a type of begging, like a hopefulness on God’s part. As if God is sending HIs Son hoping we will live through him. But this would be a wrong understanding.
This is a verb used here meaning “to be or become alive in a transcendent manner; especially as characteristic of resurrected life, or life without sin or with sin subjugated.
God sent His Son to pay a price for his people.
Here’s a little Spurgeon for you, “Jesus Christ has not come into the world to be sought for, but to seek that which is lost. It all begins with Him!
Look at the next verse, John makes it VERY CLEAR…don’t believe me…remember chapter 1:1-4!
Look at the next verse, John makes it VERY CLEAR…don’t believe me…remember chapter 1:1-4!
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.
And for your DAILY DOSE, here is Spurgeon again, “Oh, never dream that He began to love you when you began to love Him! Oh, no! But it was because He loved you hard and fast, when you were reveling in your sin, that His love put its arms around you, lifted you out of your sin, and made you what you are!”
GOD shows His love to those who DO NOT love Him!
This is not a reciprocating thing here. It is not that God sent His Son “hoping” some of us would love Him and if they did then He would love them back.
The initiative in our salvation belongs to God. That is crazy love. That He loved us when we did not love him and did not want to love him.
And in this verse is that word again that we talked about a few months ago, “propitiation”.
Christs’ death on the cross was the propitiation for our sins.
Propitiation: The means of appeasing wrath and gaining the good will of an offended person; especially with respect to sacrifices for appeasing angered deities. That is the definition of that word.
On the cross, Christ appeased the wrath of God that we had stored up for ourselves. On the cross, Jesus Christ PAID for us. We have been BOUGHT and PAID FOR.
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Who came seeking who? Christ came after us! Why? Because God is love and he revealed that Love to us by sending HIs Son to pay for our sins…NOT BECAUSE we were seeking Him, and NOT because WE LOVED HIM…but because HE LOVED US!
Lets look at these last two verses
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.
What is John saying here? He is saying “practice what you preach”. You talk about God being love…you say you “love” the brothers…THEN PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH! Because remember, if you don’t practice love, especially for other professing Christians, then you DO NOT KNOW HIM! He’s not joking guys…this is serious.
We can’t go out writing off other believers because they don’t hold to the same theology like us…because they don’t worship like us, because they don’t dress like us. We can encourage them, we can challenge them, we can try to spur them on but we CAN NOT write them off and murder them in our hearts like the false teachers did with this congregation John is writing to.
Most likely John is referring specifically to a leader of these false teachings named Cerinthus.
Cool history of John and Cerinthus…i dont have time to go over this morning…i mean, I do but Im sure you dont so ask me later and we can talk about it.
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also out to love one another”…the ending of this passage sounds a lot like the way it started doesn’t it?
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God”
IF we are truly HIS Children then we will want to be like our FATHER. He loved us, even when we didn’t love Him....if we are truly HIs we will love others even when they might not love us.
Why is that?
Because “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us”.
Christ’s physical body is not here anymore but the body of Christ is! Did you hear that? The physical body of Christ is no longer here. It was in a tomb and three days later he was resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Father. Christ’s physical body is no longer here but the body of Christ is still here today and the gates of hell will not prevail against it!
The world, our nation, our city, our community, whee we work, where we go to school can see Christ today when they see his church loving one another.
Do you see how important it is to love the brothers?
You say you want people to come to know Christ?
You say you have love in your heart?
So do you love the brothers?
“All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” ()
We all have fallen short at loving our brothers and sisters. We have to recognize it and repent of it.
Christ loved us when we didn’t love him and that is a love that no man can understand. That is a love out of this world. That is why John tells us that when we love others in a selfless way then you know that you have been born of God because that love is from God…you can’t muster up that kind of love.
Christ came to pay a price for wretched sinful people. He appeased the wrath of God for those He died for. While we were still sinners Christ died for us…IF you are here this morning and don’t know Christ I pray you turn to him and live. Repent of your sins and put your faith in Christ Alone and no one else, not even yourself. Trust in Christs’ work on your behalf.
For those of us who have put our faith in Christ Alone, let us be the body of Christ in our community and show them Christ by our love for one another. Not just our love for us sitting in here but for all the brothers and sisters in Christ.
Oh, never dream that He began to love you when you began to love Him! Oh, no! But it was because He loved you hard and fast, when you were reveling in your sin, that His love put its arms around you, lifted you out of your sin, and made you what you are! - Spurgeon