God's Love Lives in Me

There can be no doubt that Jesus loved us. His great love was proven as He bore our sin and endured the judgment we deserved as He hung on the cross. He commands us in these verses to love one another as He has loved us. Our love for one another defines us as followers of Christ.

John 13:34–35 KJV 1900

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

John admonishes us again and again in this epistle to love one another. Our text this morning once again offers this continual challenge.

Now I would agree this is easy preaching, but it is often hard practicing. Our love for others is to be in line with the love Jesus had for us, a deep and sacrificial love. I will admit I am incapable of offering such love within myself. This is a tall order for any of us to properly carry out. In fact, we cannot within ourselves.

As I read this passage, I realized again the enormity of God’s love for us and the varied benefit of His love in our lives.

His love enables us to love.

Were it not for His great love, we could never hope to love as He would have us too!

We sing the song: Love lifted me quite often.

I thought about titling this message after that wonderful hymn

Because This passage conveys that very thought.

God’s love lifted us in order that we could be pardoned from sin and live according to His will, including loving others.

But than I thought, yes God’s love lifted us out of our sin and He has given us that new heart to love others

But how are we to love others when they give no reason to love them

How are we to love like Christ?

Simple, we can love others because God’s love not only lifted us it lives in us.

I want to examine that truth, John reveals concerning God’s love as we consider:God’s love Lives in Me!

John revels three things to us regarding how we know that God’s love lives in us.

I. The Exercise of God’s Love

(11-12) – Here John reveals the way God’s love is known and displayed before others.

We find that:

A. God’s Love is Practiced

(11) – Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

When we truly understand what God has done for us and how much he loves us, we realize we have no other option but to love one another.

That’s why John as gone to such great lengths to define love for us before he exhorted us to love.

You can’t love as you ought until you understand how God has loved you!

The word “so” translates a greek adverb meaning “so intensely”

If God “so” loved us we ought to love one another.

Focus on that little word “ought” in verse 11.

It means obligation.

Some Christians view loving others all the time as optional.

Love is not optional; it’s an obligation.

We are under moral obligation to love one another.

The expression of our divine duty is, “we also ought to love one another.”

If the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves, then the greatest sin is not to do it!

God-like living demands God-like loving.

if you are going to live like God than you must love like God

John says, “We also ought to love one another.”

This is the divine imperative based on divine logic.

If we have really come to know God in salvation, our Christian life will be the outworking of the truth that we claim to believe.

There is a problem: some Christians are difficult to love.

I read this while preparing for this message,

“To dwell above with saints I love, that will be glory. But to dwell below with saints I know, now that is a different story.”

Its funny, but sometimes thats how we all feel. But our love for others should grow out of our love for God and His love for us.

Our love for others is not dependent upon like or on arrgrement.

Through Jesus, we can love those that we do not agree with.

I can just picture the scene in the Upper Room with Jesus in John 13 when he gives them the new commandment.

Peter looks over at John and thinks, You mean I have to love that dreamer, that guy who has his head in the clouds?

John looks at Peter and thinks, You mean I have to love that loudmouth?

Matthew looks at Thomas and thinks, You mean I have to love that skeptic?

Thomas looks at Matthew and reflects, I have to love that tax collector?

Can you imagine what went through the minds of those men when Jesus gave them the new commandment to love one another?

How can you love someone if you don’t like them?

Easy! We do it to ourselves continually. Sometimes we feel foolish, stupid, or wicked. But we can still love ourselves.

John 3;16 tells us about how God’s love for us is so great that he overcomes all the many reasons he could give for not loving the sinful people we are.

The question for us is this: if God has bestowed such love on us, will we overcome all our petty reasons for not loving one another?

B. God’s Love is Perfected

(12) – No man hath seen God at anytime. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

In v.12 John is making a statement about how our love for others fulfills three important functions.

1. Our love for others is evidence that God is real v.12 a

No man has ever seen God except through Jesus, so just as God was incarnate in Christ, and everyone could see and sense the presence of the invisible God in the character, conduct, and conversation of the Lord Jesus, even so God is now indwelling us.

Therefore, people ought to see Him in us by the way we display what He is—love! and when we display Him by our love for one another He is made real to those that would otherwise disbelieve.

2. Our love for others is evidence that we are of God v.12 b

Possessing genuine love for one another is a mark of one’s salvation. If we genuinely possess that love for others, we are assured that God dwells in us. Genuine love is a by-product of our salvation.

3. Our love for others is evidence that God’s love is perfect v.12 c

His love (God’s love for us; His kind of love) is “perfected,” brought to complete maturity.

It reaches its intended goal.

John’s point is twofold.

First, I can love others as God loves me because He lives in me.

And second, His love will reach its intended goal, which is that I will love others as He loves me.

I am glad the Spirit inspired John to give us that last statement: His love is perfected in us.

Have you ever struggled with love?

Does it seem some are easier to love than others?

Surely we all have dealt with these issues. I know I have.

This gives me hope and comfort.

As I grow and mature in the Lord, walking in fellowship with Him, His great love is being perfected in me.

He helps me love as He loves.

He helps me overlook the faults and failures of others, bringing me to a place where I can love as He loves.

I certainly have not arrived, but I rejoice His love is being perfected in me even today.

II. The Experience of God’s Love

(13-14) – Here John speaks of the experience (hereby Know) of love we share with God and the great benefit it has for us. Through this we find:

A. God’s Love Gave us our Comforter

(13) – Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

This attribute sets believers apart from all others. We do not simply offer worship to an object. The Object of our worship inhabits us. When we are saved and experience the great love of God, we are indwelt with the Spirit.

 This brings great comfort and enormous benefit to our lives.

We experience the love of God mightily through His Spirit.

The Spirit guides our lives in truth.

He directs our worship to the Lord.

He lifts our prayers to the throne when we are so distraught and discouraged we cannot pray.

Many are the benefits of the indwelling Spirit. God, in His great love, ordained the Spirit to dwell within all believers as our guide and stay. John 16:13

John 16:13 KJV 1900

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

B. God’s Love Reassures our Confession

(14) – And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

John reveals the redeemed of the Lord will say so.

Those who have experienced the love of God, and are filled with the Spirit, have understood and testify of Christ being sent of the Father as Savior of the world.

Our witness will vary from time to time and will differ from the ways of others, but the message will come forth and be consistent.

It will be impossible to continually refrain from sharing our faith.

At some point we will be compelled to share what Christ has done for us and what we have received in Him.

III. The Expression of God’s Love

(15-16) – In these verses John deals with how God’s love is expressed in us to let us know that His love is in us.

We find it is:

A. Expressed in Loving Favor

(15) – Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

There is the aspect of our obligation to confess Christ as the Son of God that cannot be denied.

I think we all agree this should be part of every believer’s life.

This is essential to salvation.

As I look at this verse I am drawn to the fact that God would dwell in us and make a way for us to dwell in Him.

His gracious, loving favor has been extended to those who are unworthy and His great love has been expressed for all to see by looking to Calvary.

Life will have its share of difficulty.

There will be valleys to walk through and steep hills to climb.

However, regardless what comes my way or I am forced to endure, I know I am loved of God and accepted within the family because of the sacrifice of my Lord.

B. Expressed in Lasting Faith

(16a) – And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.

John no doubt had experienced times of great adversity.

He had been challenged concerning his faith in Christ.

He likely dealt with doubt and discouragement, but his faith endured.

The enabling of such faith was certainly contributed to by the love God has shown to him.

In times of confusion and doubt, he could not deny the gracious love of God.

There will be times when our faith is tested. There will likely be times when we are tempted to throw in the towel and quit.

Many have given in to such temptation, but not all.

Some have endured.

I am convinced the great love of God has been a major factor in the faith of many.

When we are discouraged and feel alone or forsaken, we must remember the great love we have been given.

God didn’t send His Son to die for our sin in order to forsake us in the journey.

If Christ loved us enough to die for our sin, He loves us enough to see us through the journey.

When trials come, embrace the love of God.

C. Expressed in Living Fellowship

(16b) – God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

I hope you understand that the saved are in God and He is in us.

When we are born again in Christ, we are filled with His great love and indwelt with the Spirit.

Being in Christ is the safest and securest place one could ever be.

That is not to say we will never sin or even disappoint our Lord, but we are in Him.

That fellowship will never be broken.

We have been placed within the family of God and there isn’t a force anywhere that can remove us!

Our fellowship can be strained and hindered through sin, but it will never be broken! John 10:28-29

John 10:28–29 KJV 1900

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

Conclusion:

Aren’t you thankful for the love of God?

I am amazed that He would extend such love to those who are undeserving, but I am thankful He does.

Where would we be were it not for His great love?

That love fills us and ought to motivate us to serve the Lord and others.

Our love isn’t all it should be, but the Lord continues to perfect it in us!

What a Savior we serve.

He loved us when we were unlovable and He continues to love us as we journey through life.

and His loves lives in us and through us.

I pray you have experienced this great love of God. His love is offered freely, but it must be received.

Do you know Christ as your Savior?

Have you experienced the love of God in salvation?

If not, I urge you to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

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