2016-03-20 1 John 4:20-21 Loving God

Loving God 1 John 4:20­21 March 20th 2016 Intro Read text: 1 John 4:20­21 [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. → Pray Do not mistake my passion for having arriving. Do not mistake my zeal for judgment. But in the words of Paul, ​ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.​ Phil 3:13­14 Proposition Two approaches to loving God I. First Approach: Saying it [20] If anyone says, “I love God,” Have you ever heard someone say this? Have you ever said this? It's pretty common, really. Many people say I love God, in fact, it's quite easy to say. It’s easy because there are so many different ways to define both ​ God​ and ​ love​ . Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 1 What is ​ love​ ? Apparently, in the first century AD it was just as fashionable to use ​ love​ in some sort of metaphysical or emotional way, rather than the way the Bible defines it. A misunderstanding of ​ love​ is the first problem we see in this text. ​ More of this later. Who is ​ God​ ? Well, that big guy of course! This happens to be the second problem in our text, misunderstanding who God is. Simply saying, “the supreme being” is akin to saying not much of anything. When you say God, when your Priest says God, when your Yogi says God, when your Pastor says God, when your child says God… you all mean different things! Further, we have the complication of merely “saying it”. Husbands, how many times would you have to tell your wife “I thought of bringing you flowers,” to make her heart melt? You could do this everyday to no effect. It’s never only “the thought that counts”. Of course, it does start with a thought, but if it ends there it is no use. Only because this hypothetical person misunderstands ​ love​ and God​ can ​ he hate his brother​ , the next phrase. [20] If anyone says, “I love God,”​ and hates his brother, This prompts another couple of questions, What is ​ hate​ ? Who is my ​ brother​ ? We have 4 difficult concepts here in this seemingly simple passage, Love, God, Hate, Brother. First, what is ​ hate​ ? At the very least, given the context, it must be the opposite of whatever ​ love​ is. The English dictionary says “feel intense or passionate dislike for (someone)”. Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 2 John uses this word 5 times in 1 John, which is quite a bit, given the brevity of the book: 1 John 2:9, 11; 3:13, 15; and here, 4:20. As close as we get to a definition from John, is 3:15: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. This is like Jesus in Matthew 5:28 everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Ephesians 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, So ​ hate​ then, is the opposite of nourishing or cherishing. Hence, I think it is clear that here, ​ hate​ has its typical meaning of “intense or passionate dislike for someone”. Further, I would suggest that the text is suggesting this to be wrong whether it is an action that is carried out or whether it simply remains a “thought”. Who exactly is my ​ brother​ ? Leviticus 19:17­18 makes it clear that ​ brother​ and ​ neighbor​ refer the same class of people, namely, anyone. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. But more specifically, ​ brother​ usually refers to a fellow believer. Even in the passage above, ​ neighbor​ and ​ brother​ are both expected to be fellow Israelites, ​ sons of your own people​ . In 1 Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 3 John, ​ brother​ is used 14 times! In each case, it appears that the primary group in view is our brothers and sisters in Christ. Chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 helps clarify this, too: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. Children of the same father are brothers and sisters. [20] If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother,​ he is a liar; Note well, John does not say “this person means well, but they are a bit off course.” Neither does he refer to this person as well­intentioned. John minces no words, he calls this person a liar​ . Now that word may be trivialized in our culture, but that makes this statement no less bold. See, I suspect that when you read the word liar, you do not immediately think of the devil, but you ought to. This is exactly what Jesus says to the Pharisees in John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John knows this, he wrote it! Actually, John is giving a practical application of what Jesus said to the Pharisees by extending it to anyone who practices the same thing. Namely, making bold claims about how much we love God, how much we do for him, how great we are, etc., when we don’t actually prove it by our actions. Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 4 When we lie, when our actions demonstrate the opposite of our speech, we show our character to be the same as the devil’s. Can we grasp that? Do you realize that if it were not for the devil, there would be no such thing as falsehood, has half truths, as “white lies”, as lies. Now mind you, this hypothetical person would never accede to this designation. Anyone who says they love God won't also agree they are a liar simply because they have an issue with another person. And yet, this passage begs to differ. Don’t lie to your children. The little book ​ ApParent Privilege​ cites a study that notes: An extensive study of 272,400 teenagers conducted by USA Today Weekend Magazine found that 70 percent of teens identified their parents as the most important influence in their lives.​ ­p 18 When people in authority lie to those under them, it causes problems! In 1 John 2:22, we read Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. Coupling that with our present passage, we should understand that you can deny Christ in two ways. First, by your speech, which is common outside the Church, but second, by your actions, which is common inside the Church. Either way, the truth is not in you. Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 5 [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. And now we see the reason. Simply saying “I love God” is easy because it requires no real world justification. It requires no flesh and blood, no forgiveness, no mercy, no grace, no long­suffering or patience, no persistence. In short, no sweat. How hard is it to say that you love the only perfectly lovable being? In one sense, loving God ought to be the easiest thing anyone could ever do, if it were only God and you. For example, Jesus says in Matthew 5:46­47: For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Using the same argument, we can say that loving God in this narrowest sense should indeed be the easiest thing anyone can do. But that presupposes that you and God are the only two persons in the world. Nevermind the fact that it’s only easy for you to love Him, not the other way round, because you are still a rebellious jerk! The trouble is that God knows how problematic that is to begin with. He knows that loving someone you can't see is basically loving an idea, a concept, a completely cerebral and emotional exercise. Unless your concept of God is refined by the Word of God, you will also, in the end, only be loving your mutated idea of God, not the actual God. In ​ Orthodoxy​ , GK Chesterton hits the nail on the head when he says, “We are not altering the real to suit the ideal. We are altering Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 6 the ideal: it is easier.” Whether it’s ​ God​ , or ​ love​ , it’s easier for us to just change what they mean! In other words, easy believism prevails. Instead of keeping the mark high (“be holy as I am holy” 1 Pet 1:15), we lower it to just below wherever we are at, making ourselves winners! Unfortunately, this can only end badly when we stand before God and give an account for “every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36). On the other hand, those who do not merely say it, but do it, provide the second approach to loving God. II. Second Approach: Doing it [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: Note that it says ​ commandment​ ! It does NOT say suggestion, nor does it say good idea, nor does it say example, it says commandment​ ! By “​ him​ ”, John means Jesus. What is he referring to? Not to the general bent of the Bible, which does say this in various ways (think of Leviticus 19), but John says it this way to indicate that this is something that Jesus Christ said himself, while in the flesh, on this earth. John 13:34­35: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 7 people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Or, John 14:15: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. [21] And this commandment we have from him: ​ whoever loves God First, loving God actually is possible. Second, ​ love​ is not simply an idea, it’s not simply an emotion, it’s not simply some sort of metaphysical thing… in the words of DC Talk, “love is a verb”. In the words of 1 Corinthians 13:4­7, Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Or, in the words of Romans 13:8­10 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is doing what’s best for another person. Third, God is not whoever you think he is. God is wholly other than us and we only know him by his own revelation. Had he wished to remain hidden, he could have very easily, we would Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 8 stuck with figments of our own imagination. Yet, he chose to reveal himself and we have access to that in the Word of God. To the degree that your conception of God is refined by the Bible, it is accurate. To the degree that your conception of God is not refined by the Bible, it is inaccurate. I cringe when people say, “I just can’t believe that God could send people to Hell,” or referring to the OT, “I can’t see how God could wipe whole people groups off the face of the earth,” because these people don’t know who God is. When they say these things, they simply reveal that their conception of God is wrong! Their struggles may be real, but they’ve really failed to come to grips with the reality that God has revealed himself in the Bible, not in their heads! Friends, this has gone much too far, David Wells reports in ​ The Courage to be Protestant​ , In the United States, 80 percent believe that a person should arrive at his or her own beliefs independent of any external authority such as a church. Indeed, 60 percent say that since we all have God within us, churches are unnecessary. And in a generational slice that was made, 53 percent of boomers think it is more important to be alone and meditate than to worship with others. ­p 180 He says the reason is “​ that postmoderns trust direct experience but distrust what is mediated.​ ” (p 179). That’s bad news when “​ None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one.​ ” Romans 3:10­12. God is who he says he is in the Bible. Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 9 [21] And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God ​ must also love his brother. The way we love God is primarily by loving our ​ brother​ . This is indeed in line with the example of Christ, right? If God had merely said, “I love those people”, but done nothing about it, no one would know he even exists! Rather, he choose to break into history and reveal himself, culminating in sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to become one of us. The great condescension. The death and resurrection of our Lord which we celebrate at Easter, it’s the proof that God loves us. 1 John 4:19, ​ We love because he first loved us.​God has actually given us the ultimate example of what this means by sending Christ. And so we see that for us who say “I love God”, the burden of proof actually rests on our actions! There remains emblazoned in my mind, a prelude to a song from DC Talk (What If I Stumble), wherein Brennan Manning says, The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. Conclusion We’ve seen two approaches to Loving God, only 1 works. 1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. They ​ are not burdensome​ because it is the Spirit who is at work in and through us, if indeed we are his children. Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 10 A great many are praying for faith; they want extraordinary faith; they want​ remarkable faith. ​ They forget that love exceeds faith. The Charity spoken of in the above verses, is Love, the fruit of the Spirit, the great motive­power of life. What the Church of God needs today is love—more love to God and more love to our fellow­men. If we love God more, we will love our fellow­men more. There is no doubt about that. ​ Secret Power or the Secret of Success in Christian Life and Work​ , DL Moody You say you love God, now prove it, prove it Church. Jesse Griffin CC BY­SA 11