Why We Love
Notes
Transcript
Why We Love
Why We Love
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.
The late Billy Graham is Quoted with saying, “Have you ever seen God? I haven’t. Yet, I have never seen the wind, but I see the effects of the wind.”
What was Billy Graham getting at with this? Think about it, How could the effects of the wind be seen? It can bring a gentle breeze when you need it most. It can move masses of clouds to bring cover on a sunny day when you can’t get out of the sun. It moves rain from falling down to being to torrentially pouring sideways. It can rustle the leaves in fall and even cause a tree to be stripped barren from those same leaves. It can push the waves from sea to shore. It can fill the sails of boats that drive along on the open sea without as much as a motor to aid the progress. The effects of the wind can be splendid mercies we see as seasons change… And yet it can be more.
The effects of the wind that we see can blowing millions of swarms of locust across regions of desolate country only to ravish the land from any harvest. The effects of the wind can be seen with fury when hurricanes bare down on a battered coastline. We can see it when the wind whips up homes and leaves a path of destruction behind it.
The wind can be what some are praying for while others are praying against… and yet all we can see is the effects of the wind. We do not see the oxygen around us move on a molecular level, yet it is constantly moving around us. But we only see the effects of the wind. Imagine for a moment that you were only ever able to see the destruction that wind can cause. You would be afraid every time to felt it begin to blow. You would warn everyone that danger is coming and you would run for shelter.
But what if you only ever experienced the blessings of a cool breeze on a hot day, or the shade that came from above as the wind blew clouds to shelter you from the heat of the day. You would long for the winds to pick and look forward to change in seasons because of you tangible experience with the wind, it is a blessing.
The reality is that both are equally as true. The effects of the wind can be a cause for warning and also at times be a source of blessings.
The text we have before us today are meant to encourage us to know that we are being animated by the wind , if you will., the unseen God. That we are part of the effects that others will only see, while never truly understanding this wind… Only it is obvious I am talking about God I hope, as I will refer to this analogy much today.
People cannot see God, but his works are all around us and the effects of our Almighty God and Father, are being seen by those who have yet to come and know him. Will they see the blessings or curses, the delight or destruction? Will we as his children come to know that we are part of a greater story that is meant to declare the true force that drives everything in life along, like leaves blowing in the breeze, we are being watched by those who cannot explain the wind of life that is God in control of all.
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.
By this we know… Again John is telling us how to be sure of what we have come to know about God, and us. We abide in God and he in us. But that is just as unseen as the wind.
We cannot look inside of peoples beings, and we cannot see God, so how are we to know? John is pointing us to the effects of the wind as it were… We do not know because of what is invisible, but rather because of what becomes visible as an effect of the Cause. Well what does John say that effect is?
If we love one another. This is what can be seen, because clearly God cannot be seen, since he is Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and truth. So, since no one has seen God, how are we supposed to get people who don’t know God to believe that he exists?
We may be quick to answer, “Preach the Gospel and let the Spirit do the work.” And that is not wrong certainly, it is up to the will of God whom he would reveal himself to, and preaching the gospel is a means that God has ordained for that to happen. Yet there seems to be more instruction for the believer from the Apostle John here.
He is not saying, “Let the wind blow and trust that it will do its job”… We do not need instruction for that, it will do that no matter what we do. So what are we being instructed in? We are getting instructions in looking at the effects of the wind to be sure it is truly God working and not something else.
When the world observes Christians loving each other like Jesus loved us, they will become more open to hearing the gospel. It is as if they can see the effects the wind, wind in which they may have only ever heard would destroy them, and they now notice is a comfort they have not known.
We can show the world God by loving one another
We can show the world God by loving one another
It is as simple as that. We are part of the effects of the wind that others will see even though they cannot see the wind. And this, by the way is not because we have done some work within ourselves. So John goes on to say that we abide in God, because he has given us of his Spirit.
See, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer that enables us to be brothers and sister to each other, as it it is what makes us Children of our Father in Heaven.
The question is, “When does the Holy Spirit come to dwell in the life of a believer?”
Scripture is very clear that is happens at the moment of conversion. We cannot believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit later, some time down the road after our conversion. Yet some teach this in the church to this day.
Martyn Lloyd Jones calls this “an utter impossibility” that is “utterly unscriptural”.
The Holy Spirit comes to indwell believers at the moment of conversion. At that moment we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, and the universal church.
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Notice that the Holy Spirit is the agent of baptism, not the one in whom we are immersed. We are baptized with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. That baptism is an indwelling within the believer that makes them now a part of something they were not a part of before.
That being said there is clearly more “fillings” of the Holy Spirit throughout scripture, and there are giftings that the Holy Spirit brings to a believer, but these are different from Baptism by the Spirit at the moment of conversion. To think that anyone could abide in God and God in them apart from the baptism of the Spirit and regeneration, salvation coming, is completely ridiculous.
But before we too far from the context of what John is talking about to us here, let us look at verses 13-15 together.
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.
Please notice the Trinity making an appearance again in scripture. We have been given the Spirit and testify that God has sent the Son. I need to make a point to show us the trinity every time we see within the same thought, the biblical writers are proclaiming a work that God does in 3 persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But look at verse 14… Here we have what John Stott calls, “The essence of the gospel”
The Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world
The Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world
There is no gospel preaching that does not in some way contain this teaching. That God the father sent Jesus, God the Son to be the Savior of the world.
God did not send Jesus to be anything less than the Savior of the world. He is not just a man who could do miracles and taught a better and more moralistic way of life. He wasn’t just some good teacher, or even a special prophet that had a following.
Jesus Christ is savior of the world, and he is Lord… He is my Lord and savior and I pray he is yours as well.
But what does world mean here? Does this mean that Jesus saves everyone no matter what? NO! This verse means that God provided a way of salvation for the world in Jesus Christ.
Again to Quote John Stott, “the world” means all sinful people that are estranged from God and under the dominion of the evil one.
Literally people from all over the world, have and will continue to receive Jesus as their Savior. I’ve heard it said this way, “regardless of race, regardless of face, regardless of place, Jesus came to save sinners.” Big sinners and little sinners, rich sinners and poor sinners, open sinners and secret sinners, it doesn’t matter… Because Jesus came to save sinners…
We spend far too much time debating who those sinners are that Jesus is saving, and not enough time proclaiming the Gospel and the glory of God, and calling sinners to come hear that message. And that message is important to get right. So in verse 15 confession is highlighted...
Notice WHOEVER confesses… It really doesn’t matter who we think should confess, because anyone who truly does will be saved. But notice the word confesses.
Confession, “that Jesus is the Son of God”, means confession of the full deity of Christ. Making the right confession is what true salvation is all about. That is what John means when he is saying God abides in him and he in God; they are truly saved.
And please remember that John wrote this letter to give assurances to the church because of how the false teachers were trying to come in and teach contrary to the gospel. This confession was not something that those false teachers were willing to do. Right belief about who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us on the cross is essential to salvation.
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.
There is much that we see from these scriptures that help us understand WHY WE LOVE
1 - It is proof that God dwells in us and we dwell in him
2 - It is a demonstration of perfected love, in that we are being sanctified by this love and transformed by our relation to God.
3 - that we have boldness before God on the day of judgement.
4 - because he first loved us and enabled us to partake in this love.
But to make it simple, Why do we Love?
Because God is love, and first loved us - that is why we love
Because God is love, and first loved us - that is why we love
Now I could break apart these verses, and do an exegetical study, and deliver an expository address, showing little parts, but I think in some ways that would miss the greater context to these verses that so many fail to see. These verses are rich with theology. They help us understand so much about God, and yet I have to address how much we miss it when we see these verses used by themselves.
Here is what I mean. When the Bible says, “perfect love casts out fear”, that is not meant to be some general rule - ‘Whenever you are afraid, just read that’. If you have been looking at it this way, please hear me gently say, you may have missed it. This verse is talking about a specific aspect of fear.
Fear that comes from judgement. And not judgement from people but judgement from the Holy Judge that is God the creator in all his majesty.
John wants us as God’s children to have confidence that we may stand on the day of judgement. Because we have been saved by rightly confessing Jesus in his deity as our savior who was sent by the Father and we have been baptized by the Spirit into this family that is the church. It is all founded on Jesus Christ, our solid rock! Because as he - Jesus is, so also are we in this world.
The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 4
Though not like Christ in the completeness of our obedience, believers are like Him in our basic orientation, and stand out as He did by contrast with the world at large
We are not perfect as Jesus was perfect, yet we are one with him in a distinct way that looks different to the rest of the world.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Listen to the Words Jesus is praying for his followers here and recognize that we are not of this world just as he is not, because we have been made new because of his work that the Spirit applied to our dead hearts, and so God made us alive. As he is, so also are we in this world. How beautiful to know truth.
But please don’t miss it, at the heart of these verses is not one verse that says, “love casts out fear”, as some sort of pithy Christianesse saying. This is not the new modern churches way to help people who fear or do a topical word study on love or fear… There is a context here that will produce a humble boldness before the throne of God that is future oriented… This humble confidence and boldness will be such a reality, that it will in a very practical sense, it will calm our worried fearful hearts down to a place of rest. Yet, we must hear the Apostle John, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit declaring to us this truth in context with a vivid imagination in order to see it.
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.
What is the fear he is talking about here? Fear that has to do with what?
Judgement coming from God against our sinful world.
If we do not understand this, we will simply apply this verse to everyone anytime they are fearful in this life. And so we get a lot of teaching to makes for proud arrogant believers who are being told they they can do anything they want to do, because God loves them and they are so valuable that Jesus had to die to get them. And because of their value the price was so costly. And when they face giants in this life they must not be fearful to go on that next big business venture, or to not be fearful of what people will think of them, because if they know how loved they are it will cast out fear. You can be powerful like Jesus was, you can usher in the kingdom of God because, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. You are more than a conquerer, the head and not the tail… so don’t fear.. Remember Joshua...
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
These modern false teachers will point you to these kind of verses and connect them all together to tell you that YOU can do anything with God, because of what was said to Mary...
37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
They will tickle our ears with the kind of teaching that makes US, the most important person in the room at any moment because
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
So do not let fear control you… but Love will cast it out… Because God has a greater destiny for you and your breakthrough is coming!
Do you not see the blasphemy happening here? Do you not see the twisting together of different scriptures and the distraction away from us learning of who God is and what we are, that will really lead us to rest?
It is simple… Here is 1 John 4 we are talking about fear that comes from knowing that a day of judgement is coming on the earth, and many will fear that day, but for us who know that we belong to him… Because we have been given of his Spirit, because we testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, because we confess rightly that Jesus is the son of God in a real way he is the divine Lord, because God abides in us and we in him… BY this, by ALL of this Love is perfected with us, and we then have confidence for the day of judgement. Because we also know that we are like him as we are not of this world any longer.
ALL this awareness of the love of God casts out fear… Because fear has to do with PUNISHMENT.... not our insecurities, but punishment that will be coming from a Holy God of Wrath on a sinful world.
And in that context, whoever fears… fears they will stand under his judgement; fear that they haven’t done enough; fear that they cannot escape it… for those kind of people who do not understand the gospel, they do not know the truth, they have not been perfected by love.
Listen you are not Joshua that is taking the promised land for the nation of Israel… But you do see a true and better Joshua usher us into a true land of rest for a new nation that is his Church… He was bold and courageous when he went to the cross to defeat death, hell and the grave for us.
And you are not Mary, being asked to trust the Lord with the miraculous birth unlike any that has happened in the history of the world. But when we met Jesus we can look back at that story and see that with God nothing is impossible, and he will not be stopped at redeeming his creation.
And once we are in fact redeemed from the world and given new life that is applied to our hearts by His Spirit, we know truth… truth that tells us he is with us. And so when we face death, and persecution we can have confidence that if “God is for us who can be against us?” No man can! We Belong to him and have nothing to fear.
And if you are hearing all this and an affection in your heart is rising… A passion for God, to know him more, to stand for him in this dark world… A desire that is connected to a longing of being with him eternally… That affection is called love… And John makes sure we don’t get it confused with anything else in this life that we feel responsible for… He tells us a truth that has sustained men for thousands of years...
19 We love because he first loved us.
This is a simple truth, but it points to the effects of the wind, which we cannot see. There is an effect that comes from a cause. This is important in order to get it right.
“God does not love because of our works, He loves because of His love” - Martin Luther
“God does not love because of our works, He loves because of His love” - Martin Luther
Listen, love did not originate from us. Our Love is a response to Calvary, it is a response to knowing your Savior who did not count his own life as worth more than your eternity.
The only reason you love and have this great affection that rises from your heart is because you are a recipient of God’s love, and you are now made new in him. We need to be enamored with his great love with which he loved us. Listen to Spurgeon talk of this amazing love for us as believers...
“What is it we have been talking about? It is God’s love to us. Get that thought into your head for a minute: “God loves me” - not merely bears with me, thinks of me, feeds me, but loves me. Oh, it is a very sweet thing to feel that we have the love of a dear wife, or a kind husband; and there is much love in the sweetness of a fond child, or a tender mother; but to think that God loves me, this is infinitely better!
Who is it that loves you? God, the maker of heaven and earth, the Almighty, All in all, does He love me? Even He? If all men, and all angels, and all the living creatures that are before the throne loved me, it were nothing to this - the Infinite Loves me!
And who is it that He loves? ME. The text says, “us”. “We love him because he first loved us.” But this is the personal point - He loves me, an insignificant nobody, full of sin - who deserved to be in hell; who loves him so little in return - God loves ME.”
What can we really say about this verse except that to know the depths of its truth, it will change us and we will become like that of whatever is caught up in the wind and blown about to his glory, showing the rest of the world the unseen God, that is love, by our very changed lives, which was not something we did, but something he has done.
Listen to the story of William Tyndale, as 1 John 4:19 was his favorite verse in all of scripture.
At the age of 30, Tyndale was a private tutor of a 6 yr old named Harry Walsh, son of a knight of Gloucestershire, in little Sodbury. Later in life Harry Walsh recounted with vivid memory the night that Tyndale informed him he was leaving little Sodbury. Turning in the Greek New Testament to 1 John 4, Tyndale began to read, translating into English, for young Harry. When he came to 1 John 4:19, Tyndale reminded Harry that theses words were the pearly gates through which he would enter the Kingdom.
“Why must you go?” Asked Harry sadly.
“Because it is time the people have the Bible in their own language,” Tyndale replied.
Tyndale was about to embark on a work for which he is justly famous: the Translation of the New Testament into English, along with the Pentateuch and Jonah.
Years later on an October morning in 1536, Harry Walsh sat by the dinning room fire with a faraway look in his eyes. He had just heard the news that his dear childhood tutor, William Tyndale, had been strangled and burned for his faith. Taking his wife by her arm, he led her across the room where they both stood in reverent silence before the text upon the wall: “We love him because he first loved us.”
If God is unseen and his loves is first given to us, like the unseen winds around us, what must we make of this, as Tyndale did? To what would an appropriate response be? Shouldn’t our love then show the majesty of the wind that picked us up?! Tyndale went to death translating scripture for the sake of his brothers and sisters , he left his job and served with his giftings… But long before he completed his Work he loved little Harry Walsh and taught him by serving him. He was a representation of the blessings of the wind in this life that is God unseen that the world wants to rage against. the impression it left was unstoppable in the mind of that young man, so much so that over400 years later you are still hearing it from his own perspective.
What are we to do with knowledge of God? How should it effect 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.
It is so simple brothers and sisters in Christ. IF you love God, who first loved you… Like the effects of the wind it will be seen, by your loving of each other.
You cannot say, “I love God”, and hate your brother...
You cannot say, “I love God”, and then slander your brothers and sister because they do not agree with your political views, and they do not act according to laws in the land you live the way you think they should.
You cannot say, “I love God”, and divorce your spouse, because they don’t make you happy, or even because they were unfaithful to you… Because you have been unfaithful to the Love that God gave you first.
You cannot say, “I love God”, but I con’t need to like you, or put up with you, and show you care, we can simply co-exist in the same place without ever really demonstrating care or acknowledging each other.
LIAR! You do not love God. You cannot Love God who you cannot see if you don’t love your brothers and sisters who you do see.
You cannot say I am being blown by the unseen wind, “I love God” - If you are clearly not moving in dramatic ways by that unseen force, “whoever loves God MUST love his brother.”
The MUST is emphatic… YOU MUST LOVE YOUR BROTHER. It does not matter what they have done to you. It does not matter how they have disagreed with you. DO you both belong the family because the Spirit applied the work of Christ to your dead lifeless heart when you were once an enemy of God?
Do you both confess the Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Divine Lord, the propitiation for our sins, the Savior of the world for us sinners?
Do you both no longer fear the day of judgement because the love of God abides in you and you abide in God?
Then as the affects of the wind demonstrate the unseen wind, Go love your brothers and sisters. Allow your life to be a visible representation of the unseen God that is love. Allow your words to point others to the Savior of the world, the only hope for sinners. And spend your life bringing unity to the family you have been graciously adopted into, rather than allowing your words to divide based on the affairs of this life.
Today let us pray and repent of all the ways in which we have been unwittingly used by the enemy to cause our lives look like the only aspect of the wind is a destructive force. That we would be Salt and Light and not spice and heat… That we would fiercely protect the family that was established by the blood of Christ and spill blood by severing off parts of the body we do not care for. Let us pray that the tension we feel in our hearts will come to the surface as sin we can repent of, and be forgiven of. And then lets us act in visible ways to show Love in a world full of fear and doubt. Let’s pray!
