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God is Love | 1 John 4:7-12 (Mark Evans: 3-3-24)
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In this sermon, the speaker is discussing the concept of love as described in the letter of 1 John. They emphasize that love comes from God and that those who know and love God should also love one another. The speaker challenges the idea that love can come solely from humans, stating that all true love originates from God. They stress the importance of love in the Christian community and urge listeners to examine their own lives to see if love characterizes their actions and relationships. The speaker concludes by affirming that as God has loved us, we are called to love one another. And if you have your Bibles, do make your way to the letter of 1 John as we continue this wonderful series through this marvelous epistle and we find ourselves this morning in 1 John chapter 4, picking up where we left off, so we will be in 1 John chapter 4 and this morning we will be in verses 7-12, 7-12 of 1 John. And these are the words of the God who is love. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this is the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. Let us pray. Our gracious God, our heavenly Father, we do praise You. You are the God who is love in Your very being and essence, and so You have called us to love one another. And so, Father, we pray that You would give us eyes to see just how vast, how wide, how deep, how great is the love of God in Christ so that we might go and love others, all for Your namesake. In His name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, it was J. R. R. Tolkien, that famed author of The Lord of the Rings, who once described humans as, quote, sub-creators. And by that, Tolkien simply meant that we humans have the ability to take this idea that might be in our mind or on our hearts and then put it out onto a canvas or compose it in a novel or short story or craft it into a poem. But notice, Tolkien did not say that we are creators. No, he said we are sub-creators. You see, he was purposely reserving the title of creator for God and God alone, that God uniquely creates ex nihilo. He creates all things of nothing, that God alone can just speak things into existence. And so while God creates, we sub-create as image bears. Well, just as we are sub-creators this morning, John tells us that we are sub-lovers. Yes, we can know love and do love, but our great God does not merely just know love. Rather, God is love. All love is from Him. And so it's only as we come to know the God of love and the love of God that we can do love as image bearers. We are sub-lovers. And so we'll walk through this section in three parts. We'll just look at the God of love. Secondly, the display of love. And then lastly, the obligation to love. But it's all at the very simple main point, that as God has first loved us, Christians go and love one another. It is as logical as it is heartwarming as God has loved us, so we are to love one another. So to remember where we left off from last week, if you weren't with us, we saw last week how spiritual activity does not necessarily mean godly activity. No, John said, test the spirits, because not every spirit is of God. And so we saw how discernment is actually loving and love is discerning. And that leads us right into today's section, which is thoroughly dominated by the concept of love. It's for good reason that John earns the title, the apostle of love. In just this short section, John uses some form of the Greek word love, or agape, fifteen times in just six verses. We've got this machine gun of love here, this highly concentrated use of love. It's going to feel like every other word out of his mouth is about love. And so even the most incurious reader should pause and wonder, hmm, seems like John is trying to tell me something important. It's almost like John is trying to get something through to my thick head or to my thick heart. Indeed, in our culture, we flatter ourselves that if we know anything at all, surely we know love. We know what love is and we know how to love. In our day, falling in love is as easy as falling off a log. But such is the point. We have fallen far from the truth of what love really is, of what love demands, of the duties and obligations of covenant love. And so our society knows so little of the joys of love. Well, this morning, John's going to show us true love, and he's going to bring in some very profound truths about love. But don't lose sight of his main plea to the people of God. You see it in verse seven. John says, very simple, beloved, let us love one another. Now he's going to anchor that command in some solid truth. But the question to begin thinking about even now, if John was to peek inside of your marriage, if John was to look into your family or into your relationships, certainly if he was to walk into this church and linger maybe for a month or so, would he say, wow, look at how they love one another. I really don't care that they happen to meet in a school cafeteria. It really doesn't bother me that they don't have slick marketing and fancy programs. What impresses me most is how they love one another. Because the church is called to be a colony of love. And so it's asked the proper question, well, why is that so? What is the precise reason for our love for one another? I mean, if you're going to tell me that I have to do the hard, laborious, sacrificial work of love, at least tell me why. John says, I'm glad you asked. Because he shows us next what is the great fountainhead of all love. Verse seven, he says, love one another. And here's why. Because love is from God. Kids, you may notice. Kids, if you find a river, a river, either on a map or say you find a river on land, you can always trace that river back to its source. Right? A river always flows out of some larger body of water. Well, kids, guess what? You can do the same thing with love. If you ever stumble upon real love, you could trace that love back to its source. And if it's genuine love, you can be sure it flows from God. Because God is the source of all true love. And that truth strikes an absolute death blow to the kingdom of man and the lives of our age. In our age we have humanism, secularism, atheism, spiritualism, all having in common this idea that love can come from the bottom up. That love is a grassroots movement. Man can do it. Man can will it. Man can know it. Whether or not there is a God. And John says, no, renew your mind. Love is from God. He is the source, the origin, the alpha point of all true love. And I use the words true love deliberately in contrast to the world's mislabeling of love. And we need to be acutely aware that while scripture says that God is love, the world flips that around to say, no, love is God. In other words, anything and everything that we consider to be love is surely good and of God. You see this all the time. Expressions like love wins or choose love or even a loving God would never do this or that. Even a popular notion that any kind of relationship, be it adulterous, homosexual, polyamorous, anything that happens to feel like love is surely good and sanctioned by God. This, of course, ignores the very simple truth that man's talent is that he can call good things evil and evil things good and he can do it all with a straight face. Our emotions, our sentiments, our passions do not define love God's character and God's revealed word to find love because all love is from him. And the truth that all love is of God connects us to this observation that John makes in verse seven simply says, everyone who loves has been born of God. Remember, first, John is a letter all about assurance. John wants you to not just know God, but to know that I know God. I've got this robust confidence that, yes, I really do belong to Jesus Christ. And so, as John will do, he throws out certain tests, certain diagnostics by which we can grow in our assurance. And you've got this diagnostic here and it arises out of the new birth or new heart. We're reminded that God causes us to be born again. We do not make ourselves born again. God carves out the heart of stone and he gives us this heart of flesh. And the focus of verse seven is in asking the question, OK, well, what does that new heart do? In modern health care today, we've got all kinds of cardiac tests, cardiac EKG, cardiac output test. All these tests just ask are the ventricles and vessels of this human heart doing what they're supposed to do. This is John's spiritual cardiac test. Very simple diagnostic of love. If you happen to stumble upon a person who loves, he says, you can know this heart, this person is born of God. It's remarkably simple. The more we know the love of God and the God of love, it spills out into our lives. We just can't help ourselves but love one another. And that's why John can also state the reverse situation in verse eight, that anyone who does not love does not know God. And so to the professing Christian who fails to love, John would say your claim is invalidated by your lovelessness. You cannot know the love of God in Christ and then go and be loveless. And so, for example, if we cannot ever get along with anyone, always quarrelsome, always contentious, always self-willed, always going from one fight to the next, or say forever envious and bitter towards our brothers and sisters, always stirring up disunity and disharmony. If we're gossiping and slandering about our neighbor, if husbands are harsh towards their wives, if wives do not respect their husbands, if we're neglectful to discipline and disciple our children, if we always look after our own interests, John says we are not born of God. It is that simple. Now, of course, we will all have our loveless moments that we are to confess and seek God's grace in. But John is just saying in a very real way that if love does not characterize us, if love doesn't constrain and compel and motivate our thoughts, our duties, our actions, then we may not know God. Indeed, John wants us to be assured and confident, but he also wants to destroy the false confidence of the loveless. And that lands us on John's summary statement at the conclusion of verse 8 that capitalizes everything he has said. He sums it all up by simply saying, this is so because God is love. We are immediately humbled here, reminded of the great chasm between God and man. What man could introduce himself and say, hello, my name is love. What a woman could boast. I'm not just loving. No, I actually am love friends. Behold the greatness of our God. He alone is holy. Love is of his unchanging character. The very essence of who he is in his eternal being is love. And maybe think of it this way as a thought experiment. Just ask yourself, how long has God been the God of love? When could we put it on the calendar that God became the God of love? Maybe when he created Adam and Eve, maybe when God formed the world, maybe then God had something or someone to love. Friends, we need to see just how awesome it is to say that God is love because his love extends back before Eden, before creation, before all of time into all eternity, that as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he enjoys this perfect fellowship of love. He did not come to first know love at creation as if he needed something to love. No, the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, in the bond of the Spirit that is love from all and to all eternity. And that means that for God to love is the most natural thing in the world because it is his very nature to love. See, for creatures like you and I, I've got to get up here and stir us up to love. We have to be poked and prodded to love, told to love, motivated to love, commanded to love, inspired to love. Not so for God. He simply is love and can be nothing other than that. And that's what separates Christianity from every other religion. You could not say, for example, that Allah is love. Allah cannot be love in his being because Allah is not a triune God. There is no one for Allah to love. There is no fellowship of love. There are no persons in a communion of love. Allah is alone and solitary and loveless. There's a reason that Islam means submission and not love. But our triune God enjoys this plenitude of love simply by being himself. And so we're encouraged once more how the Trinity is not some abstract, academic doctrine for nerdy theologians. No, we are confessing the boundless love of God in his essence. And that is the best news of all for you, the Christian. Just imagine how dreadful, how anxiety inducing, how frightful it would be to wonder if my God is loving on Sunday, but he's moody on Monday. If God's love was arbitrary or capricious, if God's character changes, shifts, and therefore his love rises and falls and waxes and wanes. No, Christian, drink deeply from this truth. God is love. That is food for your soul. That is light in the darkest of nights that when you come before your God, you come before the God who is and can only be the God of love. Well, if you need more persuasion, we turn now to our second section because it is indeed one thing to say that God is love before all time. But the next obvious question is, okay, well, how does that love make its way to me? Yes, eternal love is awesome, but my handy wristwatch reminds me that I live in time as a creature. So now we're asking, okay, how is God's love put on display? How is it revealed? I wonder how would you answer that? There are many good answers to that question, right? You could simply point to creation or you could point to your daily bread. You could point to the mere fact that the sun rose this morning and that we have breath in our lungs. Here is evidence that God loves. And John would not disagree, but John is going to say, let's point to the highest peak. Let's point to the highest elevation. And we make that summit in verse nine says in this is love and was made manifest, simply meaning revealed, made clear, not visible. Now it is visible. And John says in verse nine, God has showed off his great love and that God sent his only son into the world. There's the love of God put on display. It's one thing to say love from all eternity, but no amount of squinting gives us visibility into eternity. Our creaturely eyesight is far too weak for that. No, God must reveal it. He must come down to us. The Christian faith is entirely humbled by the truth that man cannot go up. God must come down. That's what love does, doesn't it? When you love someone, you draw near to them. You're not aloof. You're not distant. No, you come close. That's what John says in verse nine. Specifically, this love of God has been manifested. You see that phrase among us among helpless creatures, sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Did love come down? Because no one is higher than God, and yet no one has come lower than God. Not even heaven or the highest of heavens can contain God. And yet he has come down to be with us. And not just that, he has come down as one of us in the person of Christ. And not only does love draw near, love has a purpose. Love is not aimless. It's not pointless. And you see this purpose of love bloom in verse nine. John says, the reason God sent his son is so that, there's the purpose, we might live through Jesus. Now, that's an interesting phrase, right? We don't normally speak of living or having life through a person. Indeed, one of the particularly deceptive lies is that man can live off of bread alone. And think of especially this in affluent America, that once man and wife get the suburban home, they get the nice income, they get the 2.5 children, which is more like 1.2 children now. They get the 401k. These are considered to be the things of life. We have life. As the letter to Laodicea reads, now you say, I am rich. I have prospered. I've got everything I need. What does the letter say? You don't realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Man can no more live apart from Christ than can a branch when severed from the life-giving vine. This is why Christ came, that we might have life and have it abundantly. That's why if you're here this morning and not a Christian, you need to see that God's Word does affirm what you might call secondary causes of death. That is, our heart gives out, goes into failure. Our organs may give out on us. We may get cancer or some kind of terminal illness. And Scripture affirms, yes, these are legitimate causes to death. But Scripture says the primary, the ultimate reason for our death is it is the wages of sin. Sin has earned us death, and not just death, but eternal death as the righteous consequence before a holy and just God. And as soon as we ask, well, what remedies this death? What cures the death of man? The answer comes back in a resounding negative, that there is nothing that man can do. And verse 10 gives us that awesome order of love. John says, in this is love. Not that we love God, but that God loved us. Our God first loved us when we were unlovely and unlovable. God loved us when we were His enemies. And so our love to God is always responsive. We are not the initiators of love. We are the recipients of a great love. One of the great quotes that has always stuck with me is that the greatest proof that God loves you is that He never began to love you. The greatest proof that God loves you is that He never started to love you. You see the point. There was never a click on the stopwatch when God said, OK, now I'm going to start loving you. No, God has always loved us from all eternity, from everlasting to everlasting. As Ephesians says, in love, God predestined us. And if you search high and low and wonder why, what was it about me that would cause God to love me? No, the answer comes back. This is simply who God is. He is the God of love. But love does even more than this. Love not only sends the Son, love sacrifices the Son. You see it in verse 10. John says, Christ was sent in order to be the propitiation for our sins. And Mark Twain once said that the difference between the right word and the wrong word is all the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. You need just the right word to bring the pop and the flash. Propitiation is that right word. It's one of those million-dollar words. It's a big word, but it's an important word and it's a scriptural word. Because to propitiate simply means to satisfy the wrath of God, to appease the wrath of God, to exhaust and absorb the wrath of God. Now it's vital to understand that when we say God is wrathful, that in no way overrides or diminishes the truth that God is love. As if God's love and God's wrath are competing with each other. As if He's got to choose to be one or the other. No, it's just the reverse. Because God is love, out of that comes this wrath, this anger. Not in spite of His love, but because of His love. Every parent knows this, right? It is because you love your children. Not in spite of it, but because you love your children. If someone were to harm them, you would become angry. You would become wrathful. Not despite your love, but because of your love. And on the highest and holiest level, God's love opposes all that is wicked and sinful and evil. Now just imagine if God looked out on, say, murder, rape, oppression, injustice, sin, and was entirely indifferent. That would not be love at all. If even a human did that, we would suspect something is seriously wrong with your character. And how much more so for a holy God. And so let's make it real. When God looks down upon you and I as sinners who warrant the full, righteous, just wrath of a holy God, now we can see, yes, that is why the love of God is put on full display at the cross. That just as God provided that sacrifice for Abraham, that at the cross there God pours forth the full vent of His righteous and holy wrath unto sin, so that upon the cross there could be the chastisement that brings us peace, that by His wounds we might be healed. All of it upon His one, His only Son. And why? Because He is love. It was love that sent Him there. It was love that held Him there. As we just read from Romans, in this is love that God showed for us while we were yet sinners. Oh, we have seen the God of love, His display of love. Lastly now, let's look at the obligation to love. Because now, finally, comes man's call to duty. Right? Now comes the call for you to love. Until now, it's been all about the love of God. Finally, comes your response. That order, of course, is entirely deliberate. Of God first, man second. Right? John is the proud man's worst nightmare. John could not even make it on an after-school special because he never preaches empty morality that caters to man's ego. Right? He will never say, okay, now go love and be a good person. Go love in your own strength and in your own might and by your own will. It's always, no, here's who God is. And here is what God has done in your life. And on that basis, now, go and love. And you see that very application in verse 11. John says, beloved, if God so loved us, if that's really true, that He gave this Lamb of God for us, what follows? Well, you see His answer. Therefore, we ought to love one another. God's love creates this oughtness, this obligation to love. It demands this reflex of love in us. Francis Schaeffer called this, quote, the final apologetic. Or, most simply, the final vindication or proof of Christianity. And why is that? Well, it's rightly said, you cannot give away what you do not have. And man in his fallen nature will live an unobligated life, clinging to his individual freedom to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to do it with no obligation. But love changes a person. Love claims a person. And so, to those who are in Christ, who has been loved with the greatest love of all, we therefore now can go and love others, such that the world will know, surely God is with these people. And see just how kind our God is. Here's His command to love, this obligation. But the command to love is also soaked in love. I'm sure we've all experienced this that reverse. Maybe you have that overbearing boss or overbearing leader who just loves to bark out commands. Right? And it's obvious he doesn't care one lick about you. He just likes bossing people around. He's on his power trip all day, every day. But the commandments of God are not burdensome. God says, go and do what I have already lavished upon you. And so with that, we do need to answer, okay, well what does it mean to love one another? This is again where we must be careful because in our day, love is largely defined in terms of feelings, sentiments and emotions. But for John, love is more so something that we do. Our duties, our actions. Remember chapter 3, John said that love would mean I affectionately meet the material needs of a brother or a sister. And maybe just think of it this way. Think of all the many one another commands in Scripture and you'll have a clear picture of what John means. For instance, just consider the call to build one another up, honor one another, live in harmony with one another, admonish one another, serve one another, bear one another's burdens, forgive one another, be patient with one another, be kind, compassionate to one another, submit to one another, bear with one another, comfort, encourage, exhort one another, stir one another up to love and good works, show hospitality to one another, pray for one another and confess your faults to one another. That's a lot of love. You've had to bundle up all of those commands that I just rattled off. And if you had to summarize those into just one command, John would say, let us love one another. That's what love does. And indeed, that is a lot of work, isn't it? And that may be daunting. That would be overwhelming were it not for the news, go in love as you have already been loved. It would be soul crushing. It would be defeating if you were charged to go in love out of your own strength. That would be like asking a person to fill the ocean with an eyedropper. And John says, no, realize you are in the ocean. Use the eyedropper. Well, lastly, John is never one to leave us without a comment that raises the eyebrow that seems to come out of nowhere and true to form. That's what he does in our final verse. Verse 12. He signs off saying no one has ever seen God. That's an odd comment, right? If we're in creative writing class, maybe John gets high marks for creativity. But then his teacher asked, John, where are you going with this tangent? All this talk about love. And then you say, by the way, no one has ever seen God. And that's true. Man cannot see God. And maybe you're asking, John, what's your point? What does not seeing God have to do with loving one another? Well, his next phrase very much helps to clarify why John wants us to know that no one has ever seen God. Because then he says, if we love one another, God abides in us and perfects his love in us. Now you can see his point. Man cannot see God. But man does get a peek, a glimpse of the God of love. And that is in and through our love for one another. Here is how the invisible God makes himself visible through us, through our love for one another. Because when we love one another, all that we are doing is showing the deeper reality of God who abides in us. Just think in the olden days, if you wanted to point to God's abiding, you would say there is the tabernacle. There is where God dwells. And where would you point now? You would simply point to one another. Here is the love of God shown. And John even says perfected in us. That, of course, does not mean that we will love perfectly. The idea of perfection just means God is going to bring it to completion, to this filling up in his church. That's just what Jesus prayed for us. Remember his prayer. He prayed, Father, may the love with which you have loved me be in my people. Can you believe that? That is what Jesus prayed. May the love the Father has for the Son be in us, in my people. And so church, you need to see what higher calling is there. What greater joy is there? What better motivation is there to love one another? When you think, when you serve a brother or sister, when you encourage with your mouth, when you speak and stand for the truth in love, when you give of your time or your talent to one another, when you sacrifice, all that you are doing is showing forth the love of God. For though man cannot see God, he can see the love of God in his people. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we do praise you, for there is no one like you, the God who in your very being, in your very essence, you are love. We praise you that you have brought us in to your great love through the work and person of Jesus Christ, that we have not first loved you, that you first loved us. And so we pray, Father, out of this fountain of grace, out of this lavish love that we would go and do likewise. We do confess we so often fall short, but we all the more know, therein is your love displayed in the forgiveness of our sins and in the power to do what you have called us to do. And so we ask all of it in Jesus' name. Amen.
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