How Well Do You Love?
Notes
Transcript
Passage- 1 John 4:7-13
Attention-
We are two-thirds of the way through 1 John
By the time we finish this morning we will have coverd 74 verses and we have 31 remaining...
I thought it would be wise to forgo the attention grabbing story and spend a few minutes reviewing where we have been before moving on.
Introduction-
Review
1 John 1…The person and work of Jesus as experienced by John
This is a reminder of his apostolic authority
vv5-10
This is John’s message
This is the GOSPEL
Chapter 2…How do we know that we are born again
vv 1-14 John gives some practical tests for our life
What do we love
What do we go out of our way to have
What are we willing to sin to get and what are we willing to step outside the will of God to obtian?
In contrast vv 16-23 What does the antichrist have to offer
Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life…this is what the antichrists are offering
Lies…deciet
He has NOTHING to offer
John then concludes in vv 24-29 If you are born again then that which you heard at the beginning will remain
Chapter 3
This is the preface to Johns main exhortation on God’s love
vv 1-10 If we would meditate regularly on the gift of God’s love in our lives (the Gospel) we would be moving towards greater purity in our lives.
In other words, how does this change my vertical relationship?
11-24 How does the gift of the gospel change my horizontal relationships
4:1-6…How does the gift of the Gospel change the message of my life?
What is the message of my life framed by?
Antichrist? (1-4)
Or the true Christ (5-6)
It is in this context that we come across the verse this epistle is so well known for.
4:7 “God is love”
And do people ever love to pull out this verse
This is often the only part of the verse quoted…much less any thought given to the context it is set in.
I want us to understand this truth correctly according to the context that John is using it in.
If I did an interview with the local TV station and they pulled out just a few sentences and twisted what I said I would not be happy.
How much more important is it that we give the Word of God that same respect?
Main truth-
John is commanding that we are to love everyone!
1 John 4:7:ff is concerned with what inspires our love?
Transition #1-
What is being taught? (Explain the passage and draw out the 1st century truth)
Beloved!!! This is one of the six times John uses this word.
The significance is that John is drawing back their attention…he
s getting their focus
Different preaches have different methods for keeping the congregations attention
Some its a clap before a “don't miss this”
Some walk outside the pulpit
Some use a dramatic pause
Some use a phrase like…friends, Brothers and sister, or so on
John uses Beloved…he is saying don’t miss this
What are we to not miss....“let us love one another”
This is one of the recurring themes of 1 John…not that God is love, although He is, but how we express the love that comes from Him into our earthly relationships
What kind of love?.......sacrificial love
The love of the Gospel
The love that compelled Jesus to allow Himself to be murdered on the cross
That is the command to us
That is how John is challenging his reader to love
Love with a love that knows... no... bounds
This is one of the tests of your relationship with God
Who/how do you love
John is saying that if you know God…really know Him…it will transform how you look at others
Conversely in verse 8…if you do not have that sacrificial love for others in your life it would appear that you really don’t truly know God.
Why???...”for God is love”
As we may already understand John is not saying that God is loving (although that is true)
John is not saying that one of the things God does for us is to love us (although that is true)
What John IS saying is that God IS love
All of His activities are loving
Go through His attributes and they are rooted in love
Love is the very essence of His being
Verse 9....How did God display that His essence is love?
He sent Jesus to the cross of Calvary
Catch this…for who?
Us, so that we might live through Him
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
We were the enemies of God and he loved us enough to send Jesus Christ to the Cross to reconcile us to Himself
Stay with me....to understand this in context is sooooo important
Verse 10...
Heres the point…this is what I’m driving at
It’s not about us loving God (although we need to)
The truth John is driving at is not focused on our love for God but God’s love towards us
In order to understand the love of God in the context of what John is writing we need to keep in focus that it is about us receiving God’s love.
How did God manifest His love to us?
Sending Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins
What is propitiation?
This is the truth that the perfect and holy love displayed by Jesus satisfied the perfect and holy justice and wrath of God
John uses this word earlier in 1 John 2:2
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
I hope your getting the connection…if not John lays it out for us in verse 11
Verse 11…Beloved!!! Don’t miss this…{clap, clap}
If this is how God loved us this is how we ought to love one another
Not other believers
This is how we are to love. Period.
Everyone
CONTEXT
In light of 4:1-6 how are we to respond to false teachers?
LOVE
We reject their teaching and grieve over the error in their beliefs and affections but we choose to love.
Do you see how the context of this passage dictates and changes how we ought to understand “God is love” as John intended it?
4:1....Beloved test the spirits
4:7....Beloved love everyone
4:11…Beloved love everyone the same way that God loved you
Context makes such a huge difference
Transition #2-
How do we understand this in our context? (Bridge 1st century truth to today)
Now that we are done with the easy part lets get to the real work...
How this fits our context and how we apply this to our lives
Think through those who have let you down…this is in a sense the relational context John is in
There were those who professed Christ and are now teaching a false Gospel in John’s church
I am sure there are people in your lives who have let you down.
Let you down Spiritually
Morally
Relationally
Is there a pastor who at one point said or did something that let you down
Or someone else in church leadership
A prominent professing believer
They have moral failure or renounce their faith
What about other believers who don’t live up to your expectations?
That person doesn’t ACT like a christian
They don’t tithe
They don’t read the right version
They don’t carry a paper Bible to church…they read off their phone!!!
He doesn’t dress the part
She wears pants
Their kids do this
They don’t do that
And the list could go on and on
Family relationships are ripe with opportunities to be let down
With your spouse
Parents
Siblings
And on and on
How long do we need to keep loving?
I ask because it gets hard sometimes to love...
How long do I keep loving those who let me down?
In Matthew 18:21 Peter ask a somewhat similar question about forgiveness
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Jesus response is Matthew 18:22
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
I would say that John is giving the same response to how often do we love?
If I am to forgive someone 490 times you know what going to happen at some point?
Im going to lose track
We are to forgive without record
I am proposing that John is paralleling Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness with our love
Love without record
Don’t love on a timetable
Just love
Love that person as long as God will love you?
Now practically there may be situations where verbal and physical abuse are present and for safety reasons you may remove yourself from that situation but it doesn’t mean that you get to stop loving that soul
OK, that's a tall order but we can do that
Especially if they feel the same way about me and we never talk…right
That is not sacrificial love that is not the love of God
God’s love sought us out
Even while we were sinners God was pursuing us
I think there is a Biblical truth that if God put someone into our lives He did so for a purpose and if that person lets us down in some way that doesn’t nullify God’s purpose in that relationship
What it does is give us an opportunity to display the love of God to them by never letting go of them in the same way God never lets go of us.
Because honestly, what if God loved you the way you love those that hate you
Or what if God loved you how you love those who let you down?
Transition #3-
How do we live this out in our context? (Application of the biblical truth to us personally)
How should this change my thinking. (Mental understanding and/or reasoning?)
In order for us to love the way that God loves us we need to fill our mind with the truths of how God loves us...
Philippians 2:1-8
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
This was God’s mind toward you before you came to an understanding of you sin and accepted Christ.
When you were still His enemy
This is to be our mindset about those in our circle of influence
How should this change my heart? (What do I love?)
As I apply the biblical love of God to those in my circle of influence my heart will not only want to be pleasing to God... my heart will desire the best for those who let me down
Love is another test of my Christianity
vv 12-13
This is
Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth,
And the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight,
O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
When I take a moment and love that person enough to understand that their initial response is most likely driven by a deeper issue…then I can understand that its not necessarily that person that is opposing me or letting me down... it’ sin
The deceitfulness of sin is powerful and it is but by the grace of God I don’t let EVERYONE down
How should this change my whole being? (Behavioral change)
When I get my thoughs and affections aligned with this biblical perspective of love then I can fulfill what Jesus taught in Matthew 5:38-48
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Conclusion
Review-
Why do we love?
It must be based on God’s love for us
He is to be the example by which we love others
By which we love who?
Believers? No everyone
False teachers…yes
Those who walk away from the faith…yes
Those who hate us…yes
Those who let us down…yes
It’s the same answer to the parabel of the good Samaritan…who is your neighbor
EVERYONE
How often do we love…always
Do not love on a timetable
Just love
Closing song-
139- Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know Him