The Love of God and the Believer (2)

THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE BELIEVER

THE DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE

Introduction

How do you tell if someone loves you? Can we know that someone loves us because they say they love us? Do we know they love us when they give us flowers (or cookies)? So, how can we know that someone loves us?

This is an important question, not only concerning our relationship to God, but also to other human beings. We need to know that someone loves us, because without this knowledge our relationships with one another will always be in doubt.

Consider the relationship between a parent and a child. How does a child who constantly doubts the love of the parent develop? Scientists have studied the long-lasting effects of a lack of parental love in a child.

In a study of the impacts of this lack of parental love in 2013, we read this, “This study is the first time researchers have examined the effects of abuse and lack of parental affection across the human body's entire regulatory system, and found a strong biological link between negative early life experiences and poor health later in life.”

Other reports found that “‘toxic’ childhood stress has been linked to elevated cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and other physical conditions posing a significant health risk.” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201310/parental-warmth-is-crucial-child-s-well-being)

I ask again, is it important to be able to know whether someone loves us? For the health of a child, absolutely!

This is one example of the importance of knowing someone loves you. Our discussion this morning centers around knowing love. While psychologists and researchers are catching up, the Scriptures have long held the importance of and the need for love.

In Genesis chapters 1-2, God demonstrates His love for His creation by creating a wonderful planet in which to live, a variety of animals and plants for beauty and food. You can see God’s love demonstrated to Adam in particular with the creation of Eve.

Think about Adam and Eve’s relationship, one built on mutual love and openness. There is no fear in their relationship.

Consider Abraham’s love for Isaac in Gen. 22:2, or Jonathan’s love for David in 1 Sam. 19:1-10. We could offer many other examples from the Scriptures that help us to see that love is demonstrated.

How can we know that someone loves us? The Scriptures provide the answer: by actions, by how they treat us, how they communicate to us, and how they value us.

How do we know that God loves us? The Scriptures provide the answer: “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”

Or, to put it in Paul’s language, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

We are discussing the Love of God and the Believer, and our focus this morning is on the Demonstration of God’s Love.

In our sermon last Sunday we noted how one who loves is from God. They come from God, and as a result they love.

But as we asked a moment ago, How do we know that God is love? We know that God is love because He demonstrated His love. In order to love one another, we must live through Jesus. That is, Jesus is the means by which we are enabled to love one another.

We are going to see three points this morning: I. A Failure to Love Demonstrates a Separation from the God of Love, and II. The Demonstration of God’s Love Provides the Example for Believers to Follow, and III.

I. A FAILURE TO LOVE DEMONSTRATES A SEPARATION FROM THE GOD OF LOVE- 1 John 4:8

Just as love demonstrates that one is born of and knows God (4:7), a failure to love demonstrates that one does not know God.

Now, I say this demonstrates a separation from the God of love. John has been offering distinctions between God’s children and the children of the world, or between holiness and unrighteousness.

In chapter one John contrasts light with darkness. In chapter two John contrasts those who keep the commandments and those who do not. He also contrasts those who love with those who hate. He contrasts those who hold to Christ and those who reject Him. There are several other contrasts that John offers, but they all contrast God’s children with the children of the world.

I state this because John continues this contrast. Last week we discussed those who love come from God. John, continuing his letter, contrasts this with individuals who do not love.

This failure to love demonstrates a separation from God. We know that someone loves based upon their actions, what they do and how they communicate.

The one who loves does so because 1) they have been born of God (complete nature-transformation) and 2) they experience God’s love. The one who doe not love, though, does not know God. It demonstrates a separation from the source, the fountainhead of love.

John has discussed the qualities of an individual such as this in his letter. For example, in 2:15-17 he describes the self-centered focus of worldlings. John describes worldly individuals as hating their brothers, as failing to keep the commandments, as denying Christ. C. S. Lewis wrote about this self-centeredness and how it demonstrates a separation from the love of God when he wrote,

“If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions—if he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before—then I think we must suspect that his ‘conversion’ was largely imaginary; and after one’s original conversion, every time one thinks he has made an advance, that is the test to apply. Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ‘religion’ mean nothing unless they make our actual behaviour better...”—C. S. Lewis “Mere Christianity” 207

These individuals, as John has contrasted them, are knowledgeable. They knew the doctrines of the faith, they simply denied them. They denied them with their lives (hating rather than loving) and with their doctrine (denying Christ came in the flesh). They like their father the Devil (cf. John 8:44), who is the most knowledgable theologian of history. He simply lies with the truth. For example, Satan knew what God has instructed Adam to do, he simply warped it. In his temptation of Christ, he quoted Scripture, though erroneously.

A failure to love demonstrates a separation from God. How can John say this? Because God is love, and as such love is the natural outflow of His children.

Listen to this contrast offered by J. Hebert Kane between the Christians and the pagans,

“The early Christians began where Jesus told them to begin—by loving one another. Harnarck lists ten different areas in which early Christian philanthropy manifested itself: alms in general, support of teachers and officials, support of widows and orphans, support of the sick and infirm, the care of prisoners and convicts in the mines, the care of poor people needing burial, the care of slaves, providing disaster relief, furnishing employment and, finally, extending hospitality.

All of this was, of course, in stark contrast to the pagan practices of the day. Plato suggested that allowing the poor to die shortened their misery. Cicero advised charity only for those who would use it wisely. Roman society cared nothing for orphans, allowing them to be reared for prostitution. Slaves were regarded as goods and chattels and were bought and sold as such. Christian compassion was not restricted to Christian circles. It was offered indiscriminately to all classes and conditions of men.”—J. Herbert Kane, A Concise History of the Christian World Mission 25

A Failure to Love Demonstrates a Separation from God, much like a vacuum, separated from its power source, cannot clean, an individual separated from God cannot love, because God is love.

II. THE DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE PROVIDES THE EXAMPLE FOR BELIEVERS TO FOLLOW- 1 John 4:9a

We come to the greatest display of love in the history of human existence. I should expand that to its eternal perspective, because God is eternal and His love is eternal.

Consider Scripture passages such as Jer. 31:3, “The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Or, as Paul writes to the Ephesian church (1:4, 5), “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…He predestined us to adoption.” This language, this timeless language reflects the eternal nature of God.

God is love. Yet we must ask the question, “How do we know?” We know that a parent loves a child because of the warmth and the tender care the parent shows (i.e., demonstrates).

But we should spend some time examining this manifested love. God demonstrated, manifested His love by sending His only begotten Son into the world. This calls to mind John 3:16, one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible for its beautiful, loving depth. [GREEN TAB]

God loved the world so much that He sent Messiah Jesus to die in our place, taking the punishment for our sins that we deserved, and by simply believing this we can be saved and live with Him eternally. This is good news (gospel, euangellion)! And like John, we must never fail to relish in the love of God.

But as God demonstrated His love by sending Christ, He also provided an example. John will bring this idea up again later on in our epistle, but it is connected with our present passage. God is love and provides the example of how we are to love.

A failure to love demonstrates separation from God, and the demonstration of God’s love provides the example for the believer, and now we will end our time by focusing on how believers can love: through Christ.

III. THE DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE DEMANDS BELIEVERS LIVE THROUGH CHRIST- 1 John 4:9b

God sent His son, Jesus, to take our place. God demonstrated His love, He saved us through grace, why? So that we might live through Him.

Now, we began this idea with the word abide in 2:28. This recalls Jesus’ teaching back in John 15:1-5. [ORANGE TAB] Consider the picture of the vine and the branches.

The branch, in and of itself, is useless. But the branch, when connected to the vine, bears fruit. If it does not bear fruit, it is pruned to bring forth fruit, and if it does produce fruit, it is pruned to produce more fruit.

The production of fruit, though, depends upon the branch’s connection to the vine. This is a perfect illustration of what it means to live through Him, it is an abiding, a branch simply living in the vine, Jesus Christ. We must love one another through Christ. We abide in the vine, and the vine produces love through us.

We have not referenced the phrase Back to the Basics in a while, but this is a basic of following Jesus Christ: loving one another through Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION AND APPLICATIONS

The Love of God and the Believer is remarkably practical. It changes the way we experience God (i.e., God is love and we enjoy and relish that love) as well as how we relate to others (i.e., through love by Christ).

A failure to love demonstrates a separation from God. So, in applying this to our lives, we can ask ourselves, Am I loving?

What actions have I demonstrated to illustrate that I know God? You can also ask yourself, “What do I think about God’s love to me?” You see, how you view God’s love to you will naturally affect your love (or, lack thereof) to others.

Another applicational thought we need to consider is the example God has provided us. When, as believers, we condition our love on anything, we are not loving. When God, from eternity past, planned our salvation, it was not stipulated on anything.

We have absolutely nothing to offer to God. Have you ever thought about that? God is completely, fully, and eternally satisfied within His triune self. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that will increase God’s happiness that you or I or any human begin can provide. He simply loves, selflessly, fully, and demonstrably.

Our applicational question, then, is do we extend this love to others? Do we love on the basis of what he or she or they can do for me? Of course, this is not love but an exchange of desires or wants. It is a bargain, not a demonstration of love.

Do we love other people? Do we extend our resources on the basis of how they will use it? Now, I do not believe that we should blindly throw money to everyone we meet. There is a biblical responsibility to work if able (2 Thess. 3:10-11). But this does not excuse us from extending the love of Christ in tangible ways.

The final applicational thought concerns our doing love. Are we abiding in Christ, like the branch does in the vine? Or do we, in a dependence upon self, strive to love?

Abiding does not absolve us from personal responsibility to love, it simply empowers us to love.

The Demonstration of God’s love helps us distinguish the children of the world from the children of God. It offers to us the example for us to follow. It calls us to abide in Christ for the ability to love one another.