Sermon Tone Analysis

What would this world be like if every person who called them self a Christian, and every church that claimed to be the body of Christ, loved one another so completely that the world outside the church noticed?

And what if we loved our enemies so completely that they thought we were on their side?

You think that would breed confusion.

But that is the question that came to mind as I read John’s words to us today.

Is the love of the church visible to the world in reality, or is it words we use with each other on Sundays to make ourselves feel better?

Love One Another, God is Love

John’s exhortation to Christians is that they should love one another.

Nothing novel or interesting in that.

It’s an old commandment.

But John’s reasons should interest us.

1 John 4:7 (ESV)

Beloved, let us love one another,

1. for love is from God, and

2. whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

When you add in what he says in verse 8,

we should have some questions.

Does this mean that anyone who loves someone else has been born of God and knows God?

If that’s true, then we would say that anyone who loves their friends and family has been born of God and knows God, and we know that isn’t true.

If God is love, then is every experience of love an experience with God? Can we say “love is God”?

If that’s true, then anyone can have experience the divine every day, and this will be a different kind of sermon.

Are people who do not know God incapable of loving others?

If that’s true, then atheists could not love their children, spouses, family and friends.

The world would be a much worse place if that were true.

The answer to these questions is found when we answer one more question.

What is love?

As Ross told us a few weeks ago, the Greek language in which John is writing has four words for love.

We have one.

So when we talk about love, we had better make sure we understand what we’re talking about.

Are we talking about the kind of love people have for their children, or their spouse, or their friends?

John doesn’t use the word for any of those kinds of love here.

How do we know what love is?

How would you describe the love of God that was seen among us in Jesus?

John describes it in three ways.

1 John 4:9 (ESV)

In this 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.

Generous.

He describes it as the kind of love that gives.

He gives the gift of His Son.

He sent His Son into the world.

If you were to measure a gift by the value the giver places on the gift, this gift is immeasurably valuable.

God loves us in such a way that He will give His most valued treasure, His very Son, to us.

It comes into the world.

God is for the world.

He has not abandoned it.

It isn’t damned for eternity.

He loves the world.

He wants the world to know His love.

He is manifesting His love among us.

He doesn’t hide it in some transcendent philosophy that only the initiated can understand.

Life-giving.

This gift of love gives us life.

Eternal kind of life.

This isn’t life that goes on forever.

It is life “from the eternal sphere”, “from above”, from God’s country where there is no death, no tears, no broken things, no fear.

We live through Him.

Our life came at cost to Him.

Jesus died that we might live.

This is giving, sacrificial love from a supremely perfect Person to sinful people.

This is the One who is supremely worthy of the love of all His creatures, yet is unloved by them, and they should fear His wrath for their sin.

But He loves them as their Savior.

This is the love of a good Father who gave His most precious treasure, His only Son, to make slaves and sinners and dead people into children, fully alive.

So, if we want to know the kind of love John is talking about, here is the way we will know.

It is not our love for God or anyone else...

The love you have for God is a different kind of love than the love God has for you.

You should not get the two confused.

You come to God for what He has that you need.

C.S. Lewis calls this “Need-love.”

Bernard of Clairvaux called it “carnal love” “self-love”.

You can grow past that love, but that is where we all start, loving God for what is in Him that we need.

But God’s love is categorically different.

God needs nothing from us.

God loves us out of His nature.

God is love.

He loves as an overflow, not out of lack.

Here’s what God has that we need, He gave the gift of His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Because God loves us, and our sins separate us from Him in His perfection, God hates sin.

Propitiation appeases the wrath of God for our sins by establishing justice through the perfect obedience and loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ, cleansing the sinner who repents and believes, and reconciling us to our loving Father.

This is divine love.

It is a love only God could demonstrate.

Can you propitiate anyone’s sin and reconcile them to God, no matter how much you love them?

John’s application seems impossible, then.

So we can assess our love for others by measuring it according to God’s love to us.

Is my love demonstrated through generosity?

Do I measure my love for others and give according to the value I place on them?

Do I love without measure by giving what is of ultimate value?

Do I share Jesus Christ as a gift with others?

Can others see manifestations of my love?

Is my love visible through deeds and in truth, or is it only words and talk?

How would others describe my love for them?

Is my love for others life-giving?

Do I trust in God’s love for me so deeply, as Jesus did, that I am willing to give to those who have less trusting that my heavenly Father knows what I need and will take care of me?

Right now, people are dying of loneliness and isolation.

Is my love life-giving in the way I give my time and attention to others?

When I spend time with someone else, am I truly present, ready to listen, or distracted by my cell phone, or what I need to do next, or what I want to say, or the ways the person across from me irritates me, etc.? Do I speak words of encouragement and edification to others?

Is my love life-giving?

We are not God.

But here is John saying we should love others as God has loved us.

The seemingly impossible is not only possible, but what we should expect from people who have been born of God and know God.

How will this happen?

We will talk more about that next week, when we will see that God abides in the believer, and loves in us.