Go Out in Love

As he is, so also are we in this world

1 John 4:16–19 ESV

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. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

God is Love

God is:

Patient & kind

Does not envy or boast

Is not arrogant or rude

Does not insist on his own way

Is not irritable or resentful

Does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth

Bears all things, Believes all things, Hopes all things, Endures all things.

God is Love

Question: When you think about God, is he like this?

We Have Come to Know This Love

1 John 4:16 ESV

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.

“We have come to know” because the love of God is not obvious to the natural person.

When we talk of love, particularly in this age that we are living in, love has to do with following “my heart”, whatever makes me feel good, safe, satisfied.

God’s version of love is the complete opposite. It’s self sacrificing.

So how do we come to “know” this love?

Head knowledge

Heart knowledge (Rom 5:5)

English Standard Version Chapter 5

and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Also, e.g. Jesus’ baptism

Nothing we have to do to get this - it is the gift of God through Holy Spirit

Practical knowledge

Question: Hearing all this, what do you think it means to “Abide (or dwell) in love”?

We Love Because He First Loved Us

My definition of abiding in love:

Knowing God loves me

Living sacrificially

God’s love is not meant to be contained. He didn’t contain it - he expressed in Jesus

And now we get to that extraordinary statement - as he is, so are we in this world. Just as God did not contain his love within the trinitarian community but spread it abroad into OUR hearts, so too, we are made to express and spread the love of God.

1 John as these series of statements about the love of God being perfected:

1 John 2:5 ESV

but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:

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.

1 John 4:17 ESV

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

Love triangle explanation - God’s love is made complete when it flows between Him, me and others.

Said another way, just as Jesus was the Love of God in person, we are now God’s expression of love in the world!

Amazing right! But what if I don’t feel like it?

Link to Mel’s communion - the other side of the story.

Sometimes it feels like we’ve run out of love.

When we don’t feel loving we might:

Try harder

Retreat & isolate ourselves

Distract ourselves from the emptiness

We start to think that the main problem is whatever it is that’s going on in our life. I’m too busy, there’s too many needs, the work is never done, he or she is never grateful. “Going out in love” feels like just another task that’s too hard.

The real problem though, when I’m feeling like that, is in here. I’ve forgotten that God loves me. I probably still know it up here (head), but my heart is living in a different reality.

What we need, and this is my call to you today, is a fresh experience of God’s love by the Holy Spirit. It means humbling ourselves and asking him to reveal Himself to us again.

When we know. Experientially “KNOW” in our hearts that God loves us, we are changed and empowered to go out in love. We love because he first loved us.

My prayer today is that each of us will KNOW the self-sacrificial, reckless, extravagent love of God. The love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, for and about you.