Understanding the Love of God

1 John 4:19-21

“We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”

The Reality of God’s Love (4:19)

The Response to God’s Love (4:20-21)

INTRODUCTION

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune. – Alan Watts

BODY

1. The Reality of God’s Love (4:19)

a. Verse 19, this is one of my favorite Bible verses and I am so happy to be preaching on this text. This verse helps us understand the meaning of the whole Biblical text. Everything starts from this simple statement. Everything we do, the reason we do it, starts with this verse.

b. Once we grasp the understanding of this verse, we can understand the purpose and reason for the Christian life. When we struggle in our Christian life, it is because of our faulty understanding of this premise. When we turn away from God, it is because we don’t exercise this truth.

c. With that said, we start in verse 19. John writes, we love, because He first loved us. Look at this statement. John is covering the reason we love God. John in the previous verses (16-18) told us that we have come to know the love of God. This is the most glorious statement in all the bible. This is John’s way of writing what Paul wrote in Romans 5:8-10.

d. This is the most important aspect of the Christian faith. Everything hinges upon this central point. If I had to ask you what part of this statement makes it so glorious what would you say? Why is it that we are not excited about the Gospel? Why is it that we go cold when we think of God?

e. We grow cold because we forget this verse. What is the reality of God’s love? The greatest truth to come out of the Bible is this simple point. Dr. Lloyd Jones writes, “God’s love is entirely unmoved by anything in us – by any merit or worthiness in us, or by anything that God has ever seen in us.” Do we understand what this means?

f. You might answer yes, I do understand what this means. Then where is the excitement in your emotions? How is it possible that we can take a statement like this and not marvel at our salvation? Have we grown cold to the truth of the Gospel? Is it just some old truth that we’ve heard and now we have lost a sense of what it means?

g. Well if you don’t understand completely what I am saying, let me tell you. The reason why we don’t marvel at statements like this is because we think that we have some merit of worthiness. What do I mean by this? Well, we think to ourselves that we are good people. We tell God, by our actions that we actually deserve our salvation. Well, after all, I am a good father. I am a good husband. I am a good wife, daughter, sister. I am a good child. I am even a good church member. I serve at church, I do things for others. I am sacrificial. And when we add this up, to some degree, without even thinking this, we think to ourselves, that God has loved us by way of response to who we are and what we’ve done. What we do so well is that we tell ourselves we are actually good people. We tell others that we are. We don’t like to paint ugly pictures of ourselves. We don’t like ugliness. When we do this, we lose the grandeur of the Gospel.

h. You see the reality is, you are a good father, husband, wife or whatever you are. You are. I am not saying you are not. But you are only good because of the grace of God. By the grace of God, because of His great love for you, you are these things. But these things are not reasons for you to think that you deserve your salvation.

i. The Bible teaches us the exact opposite. We all know this. We know our verses. We know our Romans 3:10, 23. We know that we are sinners. We know that apart from God, we are dead in our sins. But practically, we take much pride in our possessions, our professions, our families. As we gain more wealth and recognition in this world, we start to be deceived thinking, that God is glorified because I am saved. After all, I am a great person.

j. And this verse dispels this very idea that God loves us because of our ability, or our wealth, or our morality. It tells us, that God’s love for us started with Him. John is telling us that we could not love God because we were all dead in our sins. We could not love God because we were dead. But through His Son, He gave us life so that we might be raised from the dead and live to love God. This is the reality of God’s love. It is self-generated, self-moved, self-created. But the amazing part of the Gospel is that it doesn’t stop there. The greatness of the Gospel is found in the fact that the effect of God’s love is to create love in us. It is to cause us to love God in return.

k. One of the greatest things about the love of God that I have learned is that the love of God directs everything in the Christian life. Everything that happens in our lives should be centered on the love of God.

l. Now you might be wondering why I read that Chinese fable. I read it because this fable reminds us of God’s sovereignty through life. Because of the love of God, verse 18 tells us we have nothing to fear. God’s love causes us to not lose hope because of His love for us. But this fable has meaning because it reminds us, sometimes, we need something to happen in our lives to remind us, everything happens to cause us to love God more. Everything happens to cause us to thank God for who He is. This fable reminds us, that every situation is a reason for us to thank God.

m. I thought this fable was helpful because it reminded me how precious the people in my life are. We all need a reminder, sometimes a painful reminder how good God is for giving us the people in our lives. People who have come and gone, everyone who we have come to meet is precious, especially the people who are still with us. When we see how good God is in his love for us, this is what changes people. His love for me, His grace to me is not because I did something well or because I deserved it. Rather, it is because He loves us first.

n. This is the greatest gift in this world. It is to know the love of God, and not only to know it, but to understand it. When we correctly understand the love of God, it causes us to action. This is why John writes verse 20-21.

2. The Response to God’s Love (4:20-21)

a. Verse 20-21, John goes over the response to God’s love. This is the purpose of God’s love. It is to create love in us so that we might love God and others. Remember, the first part of the equation is, “we love God because He first loved us.” The first part is to know God’s love for you. Then it is to respond in love for Him. Lastly, John’s point is, if you love Him, then you will love others. The reason John writes verse 20-21 is to help us understand that loving God is not just words. We must always understand that the Bible was given to us to mimic Christ. It is to grow us to Christ likeness. This is why John writes, if you say that you love God, if you say that you understand His love for you, then this is how you will live.

b. When you read verse 20, it’s interesting how John writes this verse. He says, if someone says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. This is interesting that John writes this way because this is very difficult. We have to always remember that the love of Christ. If God truly loved us not because we deserved it, John is telling us, that we must love our brothers not because they deserve it, but because we love them despite who they are and what they did. If we love our brothers because they do things for us, or because they are nice people, or because they are generous to the church, you are missing the point. We are called to love our brothers not because they deserve it, but because that’s what Christ did. The purpose of God’s love is to create the love of God in us. It is to teach us to love others the way Christ loved us. This is why John writes, if you say you love God, and you hate your brother, the love of God is not in you and you are a liar.

c. This idea of loving God and being a liar goes back to 1:6, where John wrote if we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. John continues this point in 2:4 by expanding this idea to say that if you say you have come to know Him and do not keep His commandments, you are a liar, and the truth is not in you.

d. What does it mean to keep His commandments? It is to love your brother (John 13:34-35). John writes in 1 John 3:10 by saying that the children of God and devil are obvious, those who don’t practice righteousness are not of God or the one who does not love his brother. John is saying that those who don’t love their brother is not a child of God. How can this be true? It would be impossible to be a child of God if John closed verse 20. But he writes, the one who hates his brother is a liar because if you can’t love your brother whom you see, you can’t love God who you can’t see.

e. Again, everything hinges on verse 19. If you understand the love of God truly, then you will love your brother. You must rid yourself of this idea that you are good enough to deserve someone’s love. If we think this way, we will think that others need to earn my love as well. Afterall, I earned my way to receive love because of my accomplishments. But John is saying the opposite. We must learn to love others not because they deserve it, but because that is what Christ did.

f. I believe that verse 20 cannot be understood without the idea of thanksgiving. This is why I thought this fable of the Chinese farmer is helpful. If we are thankful to God, if we are thankful for the people that God has brought into our lives, then we will learn to love them. We end up hating our brother and sisters because we forget how precious people are and how amazing that we have come to know these people. Every person in your life is incredibly special and it’s all because of God’s grace. If we learn to give thanks instead of being angry, then we will truly experience the love of God and learn to love others.

g. The reason I love verse 20 is because of how practical it is. John is not telling us the love of God is some lofty aloof virtue. Rather, he tells us it is practical because he explains it in relationships. When we think about it, it’s evident in our relationships with people. One of the things I tell my kids is “I ask them, how do you show mommy and daddy you love them? And they respond by saying, “by obeying mommy and daddy.” You see, John is simply reminding us, that loving someone is practical. It is not just theoretical.

h. It’s true in our marriages as well. If we just tell our husbands and wives that we love them and show them nothing, how will they ever know? Will they know just by the words we say? No. Truth is always accompanied by experience. This is exactly what Christ did. Jesus didn’t just say I am the Messiah, I am God. Believe me because I said it. No, He showed everyone that He was God. This is why John writes that you are a liar if you hate your brother who you can see and love God who you can’t see. You can’t say you love God if you don’t obey Him.

i. Verse 21, John completes this section by telling us, that this is not a suggestion. John is not telling us that we should comply to this because he wants us to live well. No, John is reminding us that this is the commandment we have from Christ. This is the actual words of God and He is telling us that it is His law. John is telling us that if we truly love God, then we will truly love others in Christ.

j. This is the greatest mark of the believer. It is to know the love of God in his own heart and translate His love for God by loving the church. The way we grow in our love for God is to love the church. Remember, the context of John’s Gospel is to help us to understand our position in Christ, our salvation and how we are to live in the church among other brothers and sisters in Christ. Although there are other verses in the Bible that tell us to love others, in 1 John, it is a call to love the church and practice the one anothers with each other. With that scope in mind, John is telling us that our love for God will be made manifest by our love for others. If we know the love of God, and we know that He first loved us, then we are to first love others. We are not supposed to love others because they love us. Verse 19 does not say that. We are supposed to love others because God first loved us when we were unlovable. If we know that, we must love others who we might think are unlovable. The motivation? Verse 19 gives us all we will ever need.