Let Us Love One Another

1 John 4:7-8 Let Us Love One Another Introduction: As we closed up our study last week we were speaking about people coming into contact with the living, loving God in 2013. If you recall, John was telling us that this (the love of God, the person of God) is shown by our love for one another. As we closed up our study last week I was expressing my conviction to be conformed to the biblical picture of Christianity. Sometimes we can see this as radical, or very impractical. Especially when we look at the radical self sacrificial giving of the early Church. Maybe even some of us have been hearing these studies on love and thinking, “I agree with the principle, but as far as changing my life around I don’t even know where to start” I would like to do two things this morning. I want to remind us of all the reasons John has given us to love one another, and then I want to show some practical ways to go about that. A lot of this will be review, but it is important review. 1. We are to Love. a. As I have said many times throughout this book, love is the distinguishing mark of God’s people. We should be known by our love. i. God is Love. 1. “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.” 2. As we saw last week, the scriptures don’t simply teach that God does love, or has loved, but that Love is part of his nature. a. When the scriptures tell us that God is love, they mean that love flows from or out of God and has God as it’s spring or source. b. God is our father, we are his children, therefore we ought to love one another. ii. God has loved 1. The greatest display of God’s love is seen in him giving his one and only son (Jesus Christ) over to death to save sinners from wrath and judgment. 2. Christ has himself loved us, willingly laying down his life for us. a. When John speaks of these two displays of God’s love he tells us that we ought to love each other in this same way. i. Because of the love that God has displayed for us and towards us, we are under obligation to love one another. iii. A few more reasons, that John gives us, to love. 1. Our love shines the light of God’s coming kingdom. (1:7-10) 2. Our Love gives us assurance that we have passed out of death into life (3:14). 3. Our love gives us assurance that God hears and answers whatever we ask of him (3:19-22). 4. Our love is the assurance that we have been born of God and know God (4:7). 5. Our love for one another completes the circuit of God’s love (4:12). a. I think its very obvious from the verses I just referenced that love is an essential part of the Christian life. b. “Mercy and generosity to the full range of human needs is such an essential mark of being a christian that (John) uses it as a test of true faith. Mercy and generosity are not optional or an addition to being a christian. Rather, a life poured out in deeds of mercy is the inevitable sign of true faith.” -Tim Keller c. Here’s the thing though, if I tell you to be merciful, then it isn’t mercy. If we are being merciful just because we have to be, or because we feel guilty, that isn’t mercy. i. Mercy is spontaneous, superabounding love which comes from an experience of the grace of God, The deeper the experience of the free grace of God, the more generous we must become. 2. Who are we to love? a. This was the question that the lawyer asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” or who is the one entitled to my help. Jesus made it very clear that our neighbor is anyone who is in need. b. Look around you? What are the needs you see in your family, in your church and in your community? c. The Order according to scripture. i. Family - “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” - 1 Timothy 5:8 1. The scripture is not calling us to take care of the poor to the neglect of our family. 2. The family unit, and the greater family are to be the first in line to the right of our help. Do you have siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, who need financial, physical help, you have a responsibility as a believer to tend to them ii. The Church - “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. - Galatians 6:9-10 iii. The Community -There are definitely huge needs within every community, and the scriptures do not ignore those needs. The Christian is to show mercy to anyone in need, as we have the opportunity and resources, but first and foremost our focus is to be to family, and the church. 3. How are we to love? a. Every Christian family (according to Luke 14) needs to have the poor into their home for meals. Every Christian family needs to have it’s own ministry of mercy. We must be careful not to rationalize away our responsibility nor to live in constant guilt before the shinning example of others. i. Each family should be praying together and discussing who the Lord is calling them to reach out to in love. ii. Only when the family has a specific ministry in view will sacrificial living be fruitful and healthy. Christians who reduce their lifestyle to begin projects to help the needy will find spiritual growth for themselves and their families. The purpose of the sacrifice will be clear. But it would be counterproductive for a family, apart from a specific calling or vision, to to change its living standard suddenly and drastically out of a sense of guilt and conviction, even from a study of the word. Again this is why we must seek the Lord’s direction for our ministries of mercy. b. I think it would be very hard to deny that the testimony of scripture is that Christians are to love both in word and in deed. John has already told us that we are to love in the same way that Christ has loved us, laying down his life for us. He has told us that we are to love in the same way that the Father has loved us, giving his one and only son for us. i. So we can conclude that we are to love sacrificially. To love like God is costly. ii. The call is to lay one’s life down for another. It is a lesser demand to help a brother in need. iii. We often consider ourselves ready to lay down our lives in one great, dramatic, heroic gesture; but for most of us, God calls us to lay down our lives piece by piece, little by little in small, but important ways every day. 1. So what are the needs you see on an everyday basis? a. What are the needs in your family? b. What are the needs in our church, both individual and corporate? Maybe the first step is meeting people and getting involved in their lives so that you know what their needs are? c. What are the needs of your neighbors? Single mothers needing help with meals, finances, cleaning their house and their kids, elderly people who need help with their yard work, homeless who need shelter, warm clothes, hygiene products, etc there are numerous needs all around us, we simply need to stop, look and listen. 2. As You reach out to those I need you may discover that you have a special calling that you had not known before. If God is truly calling you to a special ministry there will be three things to confirm that: a. A desire to do it. b. An ability to do it. c. And an opportunity to do it. iv. How much and how long? 1. What is the limit to this kind of love? a. “Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him”. - Psalm 41:1 i. "considers" means to give sustained attention to a subject and then to act wisely and successfully with regard to it.” -Keller ii. It would be helping someone to self-sufficiency. b. The only limit is the one that love itself imposes. When giving to a person, meeting their perceived or immediate need, does them harm instead of good - then the loving thing to do is to not give them what they ask for, but to give them what they really need instead. Conclusion: Why am I ringing this bell so hard and for so long... Well because John is; I’m just relaying what he taught and what the Bible teaches. But also, as your Pastor I want you to know the blessedness of giving. “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” -Acts 20:35 I want you to have the joy of assurance that you are God’s and he is your’s as you self sacrificially give to others as he did! I want you to have that witness that God is truly in you, and that it is seen because you love the way God loves!