God is Love

Introduction

John is known as the Apostle of love in many Christian circles, and whether that is a fair label or not, he certainly talks a lot about Christian love in his first epistle. As one of the three marks of the Christian, love is certainly vital as he continues to explore what a genuine Christian looks like as opposed to the hypocrites and anti-Christs that have become so prevalent in the world. They will indeed know we are Christian by our love. But what is the nature of this love? How does it work itself out in our lives? And how does it relate to the importance of doctrine that we’ve seen John give the teachings of Christ. In our text tonight, John take the familiar phrase “God is love” and expounds on it to reveal the beautiful treasure trove of love that is open to every Christian.

God is Love (Love is defined by God, not the other way around)

One of the most famous and yet most misunderstood characteristics about God is his love.For many, the phrase “God is love” is the only part of Scripture they know, and they use it to challenge clear biblical ethics and beliefs. They act like these three words, taken completely out of context, can cancel out anything else that Scripture says about God. So before we understand what this text is saying to John’s original readers and to us, we need to understand what these three words mean.

God’s character of Relationship

First, lets look at a small grammatical detail that has significance in this passage. Verse 8 tells us that God is love, it doesn’t say love is God. In grammatical language, “God” is the subject and “Love” is the predicate. The predicate completes a description of the subject, not the other way around. If I say “Reuben is my son” ‘Reuben’ is the subject and ‘my son’ tells you something about that subject. If I said, “my son is Reuben” then the subject would be “my son” and the sentence is telling some something about my son by giving you more information about him, namely that his name is Reuben.

In our text, the idea of God is being completed by the idea that he is love, and this is very important. If it was “love is God” the sentence would be calling love, as a concept, God. This is how many people take this very to mean. They think that Love is God, that the concept of love as they understand it is the basic description of what it means to be God when really this is telling us that God has the nature of being love, and therefore love can only be defined by what God is. In other Words, God is not defined by Love as a concept, love is defined by God as a person.

When we ready that God is love, what John’s telling us is that God is the master of relationship. Rather than telling us to put God in the box of what we consider “love” it means that God is the one we go to to learn and experience love. Think of it like this, love doesn’t define God, God defines love. And this is important because it has a majour implication to how we practice love in the Christian life.

God’s Character of Light

It also important to notice that this isn’t the first time God was defined by a characteristic in this book. Before John said God was love he said that God was light in 1:5. These two statement cover a lot of what John is saying about God and hos it relates to the Christian life. Remember that there are three characteristics of a true Christian communicated in this letter: right doctrine, faithful obedience, and sacrificial love for the saints. The statement that God is light informs us of these first two characteristics. Because God is light, he has shown us who he is through the coming of Christ, resulting in a correct understanding of doctrine relating to the Gospel, and he has shown us how to live by exposing the darkness of sin. Light naturally exposes darkness. So the statement that God is love will inform us about the nature of love and it’s nonnegotiable place in the Christian life.

Propitiation: The Climactic Act of Love

So how do we define love? How can we know what it is, so that we may understand what John means when he says that God is love? Well, if God is love than it would make sense that, in order to know what love is you should look at the actions of the one whose character defines love. If you want to know what good swimming is, you watch a race with Michael Phelps. If you want to know what good cinematography is, you watch a film by Spielberg or Nolan. If you want to know what good music is you stay as far away from modern pop and country as possible and listen to artists you know are good and talented. if you want to learn something, you copy the techniques, habits, and philosophies of someone who is skilled in the thing you want to learn. That is the basis of teaching. So, if you want to learn what God is, where better to go than to watch the loving action of God, who is love.

And of course, the greatest act of love was also the greatest act of God, the redemption of millions of sinners through the death and resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ. The sacrifice, the humiliation, the compassion, the empathy, and gracious giving that is crystal clear in the example of Jesus putting off the image of his divine glory to embrace the rags of humanity while still fully God, how he humbled himself to die naked on a cross in pain and under the wrath of God for our sins. That is the greatest and most perfect example of what love looks like, at least the kind of love that God expects Christians to treat each other with.

God’s Love in Us

This is where verse 11 takes us. If God loved us in such a way, we also aught to love one another in the same way. Why? As nice as the idea of paying it forward sounds, what makes it the necessary response to Divine love? Verse 12 tell us something interesting. No one has ever seen God. While God has revealed himself to many people throughout history, John tells us both here and in his gospel that no one has ever seen God in his full glory. Moses saw a glimpse of the back God’s glory, as it were, and even that was not an actual view of the full glory of God. In a vision, Isaiah saw the Lord seated on his throne and even the angelic beings in his presence cover their faces with two of their wings. No one has been in the true, full glory of God’s presence except one person. Only one person has been in the full glory of God in his full presence. Who is it? The incarnate Jesus Christ. Gospel of John 1:18 says,

English Standard Version Chapter 1

18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Jesus, as God in human form, has brought the revelation and presence of God to us. He is called Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” He is God in the flesh, and he has brought the presence of God into the lives and hearts of his people. 1 John 4:12,

1 John 4:12 ESV

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

How does God abide in us? Vs 13

1 John 4:13 ESV

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

No one has seen God, but they have seen you

So although no one has seen the true, full glory of God in its most magnificent form, not even angels, God himself has come to reveal him to us. Jesus came and died for his people so that the Holy Spirit may be given to teach us the language of God’s character, the language of sacrificial love. Love is not a vague concept, it’s not raw attraction of sexual fulfilment, it’s not even the family ties and loyalties that we have. Love, in its fullest sense, is how we experience the character and presence of God through the Holy Spirit dwelling in his.

In short, John is saying that no one has seen God, but they have seen you. You, if you are one of his, have the third person of the Trinity dwelling in you. You walk around with God and those who encounter you, in some mysterious way, encounter God who is dwelling in you. How do they encounter God? Through his love working through you. So we see that love is not just the way Christians are commanded to live, it is part of another responsibility Christian’s have. Showing God to the world just as Christ showed God to us. Revelation passed from Christ to us, and we are called to take that revelation to the world. This is true of the preaching and dissemination of the Word, but it is also true of the practice of holy love that displays the presence of God. No one has seen God, but you have seen Christ by faith, and others see you.

The Testimony of the Gospel and the Direct Connection to Love

The testimony of the Gospel and Christian love have a direct connection. One cannot truly have one without the other. To preach the Gospel without love is to deny it’s core tenant, and to preach love without correct doctrine is to lie about God, and therefore to lie about love. Verses 15-16 say,

1 John 4:15–16 ESV

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 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.

So we have characteristics that people who have the presence of God abiding in them have. First, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God. That is, whoever confesses the doctrinal truths intrinsic in the Gospel, especially those that have to do with the person and work of Jesus Christ. Second, whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. That is, those who take the clear implications of the Gospel abides in Christ, and therefore abides in God the father through Christ. Hearing the Gospel leads to faith, faith leads to love for God and for others. It is an unbreakable chain that must remain whole in a Christians life.

God’s Love, not Ours, is perfected in us

Also consider this, if God’s presence is in you and his love is therefore displayed through you, it is not your love that you offer to your brothers and sister in Christ, it is his. If you deprive your brothers and sisters in Christ of love, you are depriving them of a means they are meant to receive the love of God. God shows his great love climactically in Christ, but that climax of love is not a high moment that fades, it is the glorious beginning of God’s display of love, a display that is meant to continue through you. You are a dispenser of the love of God, do you realize that? You aren’t called to love others with flawed, human love, but with the divine love of God who abides in you. Are you generous with that love? Do you not want other Christians to know the love of God more? Don’t you want your spiritual family to experience more of God? God has built his church for this very purpose.

Conclusion

Christian love is not just a nice thing to have, it is how we display God as those being made into the image of Christ by the indwelling Spirit. It is how God reveals himself continuously through us, by love. Love that is informed by and looks like the love of Christ. Love that is self-sacrificial, love that puts the needs of the brethren above ourselves, love that sees our possessions as blessings that should be used to generously bless the children of God. Love that is solidly based on the fact that we are saved by and have recieved the Love of Christ through his work on the cross. We know we are in God because his Spirit dwells in us. We know God dwells in us because we hold to the truth of God’s Word, we know we are in God because his love is shown through us. Don’t let that love sit idly in you, you were not given that love to keep it to yourself. Meditate on the love Christ showed to you, and see how you may bless the lives of your fellow Christian to the praise of his great glory.