Be Like God

Love ONE another

because love comes from God

1 John 4:7 NIV

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7–8 NIV

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Dear Friends

Let us love one another

The new commandment, that is not that new. Love one another. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

How many times does are we told to do this by God? How many times has John reminded us that if we love God then we have to love others. This passage to me is truly the climax of 1 John. John’s love chapter vs which is Paul’s love chapter. But the message is so similar. If we belong to God, then we are people who are characterized by love for God and love for each other.

John really wants to focus on the true source of love which is God. Remember one of the main themes of 1 John is that we may know that we belong to God. And I think is where he drives the point home that if we belong to God we love.

Love Comes from God Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

We know there are people who love who do are not saved, but what if love of any kind is a small part of the image of God that we were all made in.

Genesis 1:26–27 NIV

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:20

Yes there is more to being made in the image of God.

Authority, creativity, love. But our ability to love comes from God. So, every human has the ability to love, but John here is talking about more than kind, compassion, or even attraction, he is talking about a different kind of love. The agape love of God. Unconditional, self-sacrificing, laying down your life for each other kind of love. I think you would call it a lifestyle of love. The love that God has for us.

This statement in is more challenging than you might think as you read through these verses. Obviously, we know from our own experience with God and the rest of the Bible that love is a sign of God, but here we are told two important characteristics of love. 1. If you don’t love, you don’t know God. 2. God is love.

This statement in is more challenging than you might think as you read through these verses. Obviously, we know from our own experience with God and the rest of the Bible that love is a sign of God, but here we are told two important characteristics of love. 1. If you don’t love, you don’t know God. 2. God is love.

No love = not knowing God

As I said before, I really believe John is talking about a lifestyle of love. Better yet, a life characterized by love. A life that when people describe you they describe you as loving, caring, kind and compassionate. And that is exactly true because that is the life of a disciple. Someone who loves like God loves because they know God. Not just know about God, but have a true relationship with Him and are becoming more and more like him every day.

But I think there is also an aspect in our daily lives here. When we are unloving even though we know God intimately, we can probably look at our relationship with God and find it is lacking in some way. Maybe we are not spending enough time with Him. Maybe we are ignoring him. Who knows, but I have learned clearly in my life, that when I am grumpy, unloving, not nice or kind, it is almost always because my focus has been removed from my relationship with God, and become more about my self.

Having times where we are not loving does not mean we do not know God. Because we all have moments of failure and John has reminded us throughout this letter that we can know we belong to God because we are his children when we believe and trust in Jesus, but the amount we are loving or not loving acts as a great measuring stick of our intimacy with God.

Why Because God is love

God is love.

We take this for granted a lot. But think about that God is love. It does not say as many in the world have changed it to say which is love is God. It clearly says God is love.

Now love is not all God is. He is truth, the answer, creator, judge and many other things. But God is love.

Love is his identity. It is who he is. It is what he does. Love is part of everything he does, because if it was not, then he could not be love.

So what does a lifestyle of love look like? Let’s read on.

True discipleship is becoming like your teacher. It is studying how they do things. How they live. who they are, and then becoming like them from the inside out. Not acting like them, but becoming like them. Do you see the difference?

Acting like someone is trying to do something someone else does. To appear to be like them. When I was a kid, I acted like Michael Jordan. I pretended to fly through the air and dunk the ball. I watched him on TV and did what I saw him do. But I only acted.

To become like Michael Jordan, I would have had to do something totally different. I would have had to get to know him. I would have had to follow him around, to practice, how he ate, how he slept, what he read, what he believed. Then I would have had to choose to put out the same effort as him. Then I could have been like him. Except for the jumping through the roof, dunking, clutch shots, etc. because I was not him.

But here is the cool thing that John has been telling us about God and our relationship with him. If we belong to God, if we know God, then God lives in us and therefore we can be exactly like him. Now I am not saying we become God. What I am saying is we have the spirit of God living in us. Changing us, making us a new creation something brand new. A child of God.

1 John 4:9–11 NIV

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

God showed us how to love.

1 John 4:9 NIV

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

1 John

1God showed us how to love.

Through a gift.

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus is Love

He sent his son to that we might live through him. His perfect example of love is the gift of his son. Jesus came to earth as the ultimate act of love. Of course the perfect moment of love was at the cross where he gave his life for us. But did you ever realize that eery moment of Jesus’ life on earth was the example of love. It is one of the ways we can know that Jesus is God. Jesus is love. Every action he took was love. Every one he healed was love. Every message he preached was love. Every time he corrected someone it was love.

Jesus showed us what a life of love looks like. Yes he is God, but he is also human. He could be love because of his deep love and relationship with his father. He is love, and it is only through him that we can live in love.

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Live through Jesus

Did you catch that part? He sent his one and only son that we might live through him. We can’t do it on our own. We need him. But once again God does the work. We can live, we can love, because we live in him.

Check out verse 10 again.

1 John 4:10 NIV

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Love is not from us. Love is from God. We can only love because he loved us. We can only be like him because he sent his son to pay the ultimate price for our sins. Because he loves us.

An atoning sacrifice. He died for us. He took our place in death. He took our punishment. He washed us white as snow. He gave himself for us. He loved us.

Brothers and sisters. That is LOVE. Not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice.

When we realize all that God’s love for us entails, than of course verse 11.

1 John 4:11 NIV

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

DUH! How can we not love one another. How can we not lay down our lives at the feet of the cross. And if we have given ourselves totally to God through Jesus, then how can we do anything but love others the way he did.

Lay down our lives. Give ourselves to them. Love one another.

Be like God

1 John 4:10 NIV

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

If we know God intimately then we have no choice but to be love. If we belong to God, then we have to be love.

12

True discipleship is becoming like your teacher. It is studying how they do things. How they live. who they are, and then becoming like them from the inside out. Not acting like them, but becoming like them. Do you see the difference?

1 John 4:11 NIV

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John

Acting like someone is trying to do something someone else does. To appear to be like them. When I was a kid, I acted like Michael Jordan. I pretended to fly through the air and dunk the ball. I watched him on TV and did what I saw him do. But I only acted.

To become like Michael Jordan, I would have had to do something totally different. I would have had to get to know him. I would have had to follow him around, to practice, how he ate, how he slept, what he read, what he believed. Then I would have had to choose to put out the same effort as him. Then I could have been like him. Except for the jumping through the roof, dunking, clutch shots, etc. because I was not him.

But here is the cool thing that John has been telling us about God and our relationship with him. If we belong to God, if we know God, then God lives in us and therefore we can be exactly like him. Now I am not saying we become God. What I am saying is we have the spirit of God living in us. Changing us, making us a new creation something brand new. A child of God. If we are a child of God, then we are born of God and know God and then we become LOVE. How cool is that.

But it starts with accepting the ultimate gift of love which is Jesus. Then getting to know him. If you don’t know him, and you are ready to get to meet him, then I encourage you to pray this prayer with me right now. Maybe you would like someone to pray with you or you just need some time in prayer today. I encourage you to come forward after the service and talk to one of our prayer team.

Homework: Spend some intimate time with God this week getting to know Him then...

Love one another