The Church - God's way of showing his love today

 The Church - God's way of showing his love today 1 John 4: 7-21 The main theme of John's first letter, as he reflects back over the years that he spent being with Jesus closely following, observing, and listening to him, is that of love. For here John is keen to stress that, because of God's love for us, if we know the reality of the salvation bought for humanity by Christ on the cross, then we're now his children. And, as we read in verse 7 of our passage, the evidence that we are his children is that we also love one another. Well, that sounds fine. And I guess that such a sentiment would resonate with most people today, both those within and those without the Christian Church. Which begs the question that if John is specifically talking to those who like himself were in Christ, is there not something different about this 'love' which he's speaking of, something that puts it on a higher level than simple, ordinary love? So that we wonder, what exactly is the nature of this love that we're to show? Well Verse 7 also tells us that "love comes from God" the one who, John goes onto say in verse 8, "Is love". God is love then, everything about him is love, which means, in other words, that God doesn't just act in loving ways, but rather that all that he is and does is love, he never stops being, love. And this, then, is the pattern for the love that we're expected to show to each other, we who are brothers and sisters in Christ, this love of God. Love which, John tells us in verse 9, God has shown by sending "his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him". Because "this is love: (he goes on to say) not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." And this love of God, we find, has several unique features: Firstly, it involves taking the initiative. You see God sent his Son we're told. He didn't wait around for someone to ask him to do so before he sent him. He didn't have to be persuaded to behave in this way. Rather he acted in love because it's his nature to love ... because as we've noted "love comes from God". It's as if this love which we're speaking about is naturally overflowing from Him to us out of his fullness. And in fact, as we read through our bibles, we find that this has always been the case. God, in his love, has always taken the initiative. For instance, right at the beginning of our Bibles, in Genesis Chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, we read that it was when "the earth was formless and empty" that "God created". And when, after he'd scattered humanity throughout the earth because of their rebellion at the time of the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11, he chose one man called Abram to be the Father of a nation who'd be his people. And hundreds of years later, when this people became enslaved in Egypt, God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, telling him of his plans to rescue them. Just a few examples then of God's loving initiative taking. And we could think of so many more, I'm sure. For example, Josephs being sent to Egypt in the first place, God's sending of the Prophets, the story of Esther, the list goes on. God took the initiative each time just as He did supremely of course when He sent his son, Jesus Christ, to be the means by which our sins are forgiven. And at what a price! Because the second feature of God's love, as described by John, is that it is sacrificial. You see God, the creator of all things, is three persons united in a relationship of love from eternity, being Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is how it had always been. And yet we're told in John chapter 3 and verse 16 that his love for the world was so great that he gave his one and only Son. In other words, God was prepared to break this bond of love. Something that finally happened as Christ hung on the cross and the sins of humanity fell on him blocking out the way to the Father, and leaving him alone and desolate for the very first time, as he cried out, as Matthew tells us in Matthew chapter 27 verse 46: "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" - which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And why did God make this sacrifice? To rescue someone worthy of it from a fate worse than death? No, it was to save a wretched creature from this same fate, that is eternal separation from God. A creature that didn't in any way whatsoever deserve to be saved. And, of course, that creature that we're talking about is humanity. It is you and me! Because the third feature of God's love for us is that it is love which is absolutely and totally undeserved. When we show love to others then, generally speaking, we're responding to something in them, or about them, which automatically draws out our sympathy for them. We feel that they deserve our concern, our loving actions. Like those appeals that we often see which show us the awful plight of people who we're able to identify with as we see children and adults alike suffering from disasters, natural or man-made. We're able to put ourselves into their position ... and rightly we respond to them. However, God's love isn't like this. It isn't a love that's drawn out of him by us. On the contrary it's a love that's totally undeserved. In fact, we deserve the opposite we deserve rejection and condemnation. So, it isn't a love that in anyway depends on what we are but rather on what he is. Such that to be true to himself he can do no other than love us. What a thought, eh! Maybe you're familiar with the Lord of the Rings books by J. R. R. Tolkien popularised by the films of the books made some years ago now. In the stories there's a character called Gollum, a foul creature who's been corrupted and changed over the years and who becomes even worse as the story unfolds. You forget that he was once a person because it's difficult to see any trace of goodness in him. He repels you; he makes your skin crawl. You certainly wouldn't like to meet him on a dark night. Well, surely, the gulf between the Holy creator God and unredeemed humanity must be far, far greater than this. And yet he looks at us, and he loves us! I suspect that at times we Christians can be in danger of diminishing the enormity of our salvation, of taking the fact that we are Christians somewhat for granted. We perhaps might rather glibly say, or hear someone else say, "Oh yes I'm a Christian", or "Yes I'm born again". Whereas surely, if anything, when we make such a declaration our words should be almost whispered, spoken with an attitude of awe and wonder, echoing the sentiments of Charles Wesley when he writes in his famous hymn: "Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?" It's been rightly said that: "the measure of the love of God is not so much a measure of the distance from heaven to earth as it is a measure of the distance from the throne to the cross". And then the final characteristic of God's love, according to John, is that it isn't something that's hidden away so that we have to seek it out. Instead, it is upfront and obvious, there for all to see. As it always has been. In Psalm 19 King David talks about God's revelation of himself to the world, saying: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." And again "There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." In other words, he is saying that God's Self is clearly revealed for all to see; and so, therefore, is his love, which as we've seen is ultimately what God's Self is. And, what is more (verse 9 of our passage): "God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only son." And today the fact of the incarnation and much more the cross still stands, tall and clear, as a permanent reminder of that love, an open invitation to all people to accept Christ's sacrifice as the sole means by which our sins are forgiven. John, then, was able to grasp something of the immensity of God's love. But it wasn't just head knowledge that he had. He'd in fact experienced this love first-hand such that in chapter 1 verse 18 of his gospel he tells us: "No one has ever seen God but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known." You see he recognised that God's love, this unique quality of love that we've been looking at, was demonstrated clearly by the man Jesus as he lived out his life amongst the people of this world. Because he saw that Jesus always took the initiative. That he went and he called his twelve special disciples, that he healed the sick, and sometimes, when he met people, it was as if he'd arranged those meetings beforehand. For example, when he met the Samaritan woman by the well in John chapter 4 he knew everything about her and was able to meet her deepest needs. And, as a result, she said to the people she met: "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did." And then too John recognised the sacrificial nature of Jesus' ministry as he gave up his glory and subjected himself to baptism at the hands of the Baptist. As he ate and shared his life with the poor and the outcasts. As he took off his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, got down on his hands and knees and, using a bowl of water, washed his disciples' feet. And then as he made the ultimate sacrifice, when he hung and died on the cross. John, too, would have been very aware, as he experienced Jesus' love, just how undeserving he, and everyone else, was of it. Repeatedly Jesus' followers misunderstood him. They fought amongst themselves, especially John and his brother James. They tried to distract him from his mission, they failed to stay awake with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. And when things got tough, and Judas and the mob arrived to arrest Jesus, they ran away saving themselves, not lifting a finger to help as he was condemned and crucified. Yet Jesus had nothing but love for them. Something that John couldn't have helped but notice, as the Lord openly went around the country healing, teaching, challenging, encouraging, pointing people to his Father, dying and rising again. Then meeting again for a time with his disciples, before returning to his place in the Godhead. This then is the love of God, the love shown by God to fallen humanity. The love that he reveals to the world through his Son Jesus Christ. Because, as we saw from the gospel of John chapter 1 verse 18, the incarnation of Jesus was nothing less than the visible manifestation of the invisible God ... as Paul says to the Colossians, chapter 1 and verse 15: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." But now, in verse 12 of our passage, we read that: "If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us". In other words, we find that, amazingly, it is God's will that this same love which he revealed through Christ his Son, is now to be revealed to the world through his Church. Through the way that you and I, brothers and sisters in Christ, live together. So that when people ask us about Jesus we should simply be able to say to them, "Why not come with us to church, when we're able to meet again, and you'll meet him there". Because as people see the love that we in the church clearly have and show for one another, then they should see and experience Jesus' love for themselves at first hand. As a result, the question we have to ask ourselves is do we love this way? Do we take the initiative in the way that we love each other? Do we make a point of discovering each other's needs? Are we prepared to get alongside each other and help, whatever the cost might be to ourselves? And what about those who we find it difficult to get on with, who sometimes make life difficult for us, do we do all that we can to show them that we love them, forgetting any past or present difficulties? Can the outside world look at us and see a group of people whose great love for each other is there for all to see, challenging them to seek to love in the same way? Tough questions! Which perhaps, if we're honest, beg the further question: How can we, realistically, hope to be like this? Well, of course if it were up to us to love like this, there's no doubt that we'd fail. But the wonderful thing is that it isn't about our love. Rather it's about God's love. Because it's to be God's love that's to shine through us. God remember is love, that's what he is. It isn't something he can switch on and off, as so often is the case for us. He acts lovingly because he can do no other. It is his nature to do so. And this, amazingly, is what he intends for his Church, we who are the body of Christ. He wants us to act lovingly because we can now do no other, because he is now living in union with us, influencing our attitudes and our behaviour. Paul sums this up well when he tells the Galatian Christians in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20: "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God". And this is why John can say here in verse 8 of our passage: "Whoever does not love does not know God". Oh, it is true of course that we'll never fully love as we ought to in this life. But then that's because we're sinners, and "if we say we have no sin then we deceive ourselves" (chapter 1 verse 8 of John's letter). However, the truth of the matter is, says John, that the more we love the more God's love will take over our personalities and the more will our love for him, and for each other, grow. The more will our confidence in Him grow, the more will our fears regarding our own inabilities be driven out. What confidence, then, we as part of the body of Christ can have! What joys in the Lord we can anticipate! And so, finally, to repeat John's words, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God." Let's determine today, relying on His strength, to live, as individual Christians and as the Church, in the way that our Lord has recreated us to live. And then surely he will bless us and his name will be glorified in and through even us. Amen