Wednesday, February 14, 2024

1 John 4 and the Meaning of Love

Letter of 1st John, 1st John chapter 4. And we'll begin reading in verse 7, so 1st John chapter 4 and verse 7, Beloved let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love does not know God for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him in this is love not that we 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. Well I thought this might be a fitting passage for us to examine on Valentine's Day. There is a need to be clear on who God is and what love is. Those would be I would think fairly important questions to be answered in our culture in our time and the high levels of confusion that surround those two definitions lie at the heart of a lot of chaos in our world today.

Who is God. What is love. Not having a clear understanding of the first or the second leaves a whole lot of people in a whole lot of trouble a whole lot of sin a whole lot of pain and suffering and misery.

Who Are the People of God in Christ?

When we are in the picking up this passage here in the latter half of first John it's important to remember that John is writing so as to clarify who are the people of God. This is a very important question for the people living in this time because all you can remember the arguments the theological back and forth between Jesus and the Pharisees or Jesus and the religious leaders and they were wanting to define things according to their own spin on the Old Covenant.

But Jesus kept telling parables and and and mixing everything up in their world redefining everything in terms of himself so that even though these folks had all these credentials and had all of this experience Jesus would say things to them like you're you're keeping people out of the kingdom of heaven and you yourselves are not going to even enter.

But you're going to be surprised when you see tax collectors and prostitutes and all kinds of sinners who have been saved and have repented and they are in the kingdom instead of you. How surprising to find that the that the people of God are different than what we expected what you grew up believing.

Who are the people of God. Now that Jesus Christ has come and lived and died on the cross and rose again and ascended to heaven. Who are the people of God. And the New Testament answers again and again and again the Old Covenant was the shadow.

The main question was who is in Israel. That's shadow substance is Christ. New Covenant people of God. Who is in Christ. Well that could be Jews. Could be Gentiles male and female free men and slave barbarian Scythian Italian Mesopotamian Ethiopian all kinds of people are now in the kingdom of God are considered the people of God because well one reason because they're in Christ.

And one of the key factors of determining who really are the people of God according to first John is by just observing what these people are like. There's a whole group of people you see in John's day who are saying we're the people of God.

And they go around killing Christians we're the people of God. And they go around kicking Christians out of their cities. They go around saying oh we're the people of God. And yet they greedily hoard all their money and ignore the plight of others.

And namely these were the stewards of the Old Covenant the Jews who were drinking the blood of the Saints Saints like Stephen and James and so forth. So these can't be the people of God. They hate their brethren.

Right. So they have all these tests through first John. Well if you hate your brother obviously you're of the devil. You're not of Christ. But love is one of those key elements to determine who really is in Christ and who is not.

Well who loves. Didn't Jesus say by this all men will know that you are my disciple by the love that you have for one another. And so this is a major theme throughout first John that a defining characteristic faith hope and love abide these three.

But the greatest of these is love. And so John focuses in on love and what that looks like. He's already brought definition to it in first John 3 16 he says by this we know love that Christ laid down his life for his own.

He laid down his life for his friends. He laid down his life for the brethren. So also we ought to lay down our lives for one another. We get our definition of of what love is simply by looking at how the father gave the son so that by the Spirit we would be born again saved.

God Is Love, Light, and Spirit

So now we come to chapter 4 and again after several contrasts of well here are those who are not in Christ and here are those who are in Christ. Then John exhorts his brethren and he says beloved. Remember reminding them that they are those who are loved.

They're identified as those who are loved beloved. Let us love one another. Why. Because love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God being born again. Being of the true people of God means that you're alive in a very specific way.

Your Creator not only gave you the breath of life but also through Christ he has raised you from spiritual death so that you actually live. And that life can be detected by your love. He who does not love does not know God for God is love.

Now it's important to identify that God is not merely only love but he's certainly not less than love. And that God is also described in other ways. John will describe God at the beginning of 1st John God is light God is light.

And in that passage he contrasts those who are in darkness with those who were in light. Those who are in darkness are those who deceive themselves and lie and say I have no sin or I have not sinned. And those are those who walk in darkness.

I don't I don't need a Savior. I don't have a problem. I'm already clean. As some of Jesus's opponents would have declared to him. You know Jesus said actually you know those who aren't sick don't need a doctor.

I guess. But the great physician was sent to those who are sick. The Son of Man has come to seek and save sinners. So if you identify as I'm not a sinner then Jesus doesn't get you at all. Not at all.

So God is not only merely love he's also light which means God is truth. God is truth and he has no fellowship with those who are operating in deceit. So already we've got something interesting happening here.

Because if if God is love and and people think that love is simply unqualified affirmation that does not square well with God is light when he says I don't have fellowship with those who live in deceit and walk in deceit.

John also says in John chapter 4 in the Gospel of John God is spirit. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So when we think of we say God is love.

The understanding of what love is must be defined by who God is and how he manifests that love. And we're told how he manifests that love in verse 9. In this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him because we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

But God sent his Son into the world that he would live for us die for us be raised for us so that we might live in. This is love. Not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

So very clearly John is saying we don't get our definition of love from us from our experiences even if they're worshipful experiences. In this is love not that we love God but that God loved us. We don't understand what love is because we have a a wonderful worshipful experience and then identify that that warm feeling of adoration as love.

That's not how we know love. We don't know love by simply pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and saying I've got to love others. But in the in the exhortation in verse 7 and verse 11 that bracket this text when we're in when we're called to love one another he identifies who we are first.

Right. There's a name for us those who are called to love one another we're called something. We're named something. Aren't we. Verse 7 says. Beloved. Let us love one another. We've already done been loved.

How is it that we're going to love one another. We are the loved. That's how we know. Verse 11 says the same thing beloved. Right. Beloved. If God so loved us we also have to love one another. You see.

So we've got to begin with how God defines love and how he has manifested love. And he has done so preeminently through the display of his his love towards us through Christ. Scarcely for a righteous man would one die.

Perhaps for a good man someone would die. But in this in this what while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. When we think about the definition of love that we have from 1st John 316 and we compare that with with here we find that love is a righteous and sacrificial devotion.

It's it's a giving of oneself even if it costs that person a great deal. But devoting oneself to another even if it costs them but doing so in the right way. Now some would be willing to devote themselves to somebody else at great cost.

But to do so in a wrong way. Codependency infatuation idol worship. They sacrifice themselves again and again and and go to great lengths of sacrificing themselves for this other person over and over and over again looking for their good but ultimately not doing in the right way.

You see to bring all these things together. We see that when the way that God loved us he was concerned about righteousness he was concerned about our good. And he did so at the cost of his only begotten son.

So we are informed what love looks like when we think about Jesus Christ we think about the cross and the resurrection. We find that God is the one who defines what love is so that we may know how to love one another because Christ gave himself for us we know how to love one another.

Right. It's not that we're given. We notice here in this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and gave us his law. No he said his son who is the end of the law unto righteousness for all who believe.

For there is no difference. The law tells us to love our neighbor. But basically along the lines of the Hippocratic Oath first do no harm. Don't do these list of things to your neighbor because to do so would be unloving towards your neighbor.

And that's the truth. Absolutely truth and tons of wisdom is just built in there. And yet Jesus comes and says you've heard it said that. But I say to you love your enemies. Here's what I say to you. Here's a new commandment that I give to you.

The old commandment was what love your neighbor as yourself. Here's the new commandment. The new commandment is love one another as I have loved you hello. That's a lot more. It's richer it's deeper it's brighter it's more glorious.

Love, Truth, and the Culture War

Okay. So we think about all. Right. What does God. Who is God. We can say God is love now. That's all we're going to say. But then we think about that and that means that being alive in God and being a child of God by the grace of God.

I want to love others as well. And I know what that looks like because of Jesus. Okay. So what happens when we think we don't need God to understand what love is. What happens. Well then we are where we are today right now.

It's just profound isn't it. But what. What is the message. Well you can't deny love. If somebody feels something and they identify it as love then it must be love. And you can't say anything against it.

Love is simply love. And there's no way you can deny it. The tautology here where you're just saying love is love by its very nature demands simple affirmation without qualification. A simple affirmation as there's no qualifiers to go along with it.

And then everybody must affirm that no matter what shape style it comes out as. But this this almost seems like it's. It's not a big deal because this would just be an individual's conception. There's another there's another saying that goes along with this.

Okay it's been around a little bit longer but it's not much different. Live and let live. I say right just let people be and do what they want. What what business is it is yours. If somebody says love is love and then they have their own expression of it.

Live and let live. Just let them be. What business. Let them be free. Okay all right. The sexual evolution has been going on for a long time. Some places in our world are looking a whole lot like the streets of Paris in another revolution not all that long ago.

What happens is if we adopt this this is not simply somebody's individual affirmation and say well this is just the way it is and everybody can just be their own way. Everyone can just live at peace and all have their own definition of love.

And your truth is your truth and so on and so forth. Because we're made in God's image inevitably inevitably because the worship switch is hardwired on. Love cannot just be love. The base cravings which in the in the desires of somebody just become their ruling directing worship.

You can't you can't take God out of the phrase God is love. If you take him out of the first side he becomes on he shows back up on the other side. That idea of you just turned love into your God. You created God in your own image.

And so if this is the case this is why this is why the whole love is love is love doesn't work. This is why it doesn't stay just however anybody wants to be just let them be libertarian style. Right. Libertarians are wrong.

There is authority in the world and this is where you end up. This is why there has to be all these efforts to forcibly indoctrinate children. Stephen Black calls it the queering of our generation. This is why you have to have laws forcing other people to accept and approve and affirm and so on.

This is why there is a they call it a culture war. It's actually a religious war. This is why we have a religious conflict on our hands. It just the same as if Muslims had taken over the US Senate and decided we're going to have Sharia law.

It's the same type of religious conflict. Because you can't take God out of the picture. Right. So this is why it's very important that we teach our children subject verb and indirect object and that we put them in the right order and diagram them properly.

Because God is love is not the same thing as love is God not by a mile. So what we have here are some basic affirmations from first John and reminders of why people have gone so far astray any comments or questions.

It's enslavement. So when your identity when your identity becomes your God and somebody says your identity should not be allowed. This is why they scream at you you're killing me.

In light of what scripture says true love is or say for the sinner for the Christian to.

Loving the Sinner and Hating the Sin

Basically interact with this simple generation around us. Yeah. So um when it that the the duty of the Christian is indeed to love the sinner and hate the sin. And and we we don't. We're not called to hate sinners.

But this does not mean that God does not hate sinners. Right. First 50 Psalms read those and you come away with. God hates sinners. He hates doers of iniquity. He hates those who lie. He hates those who shed innocent blood.

And it says it over and over and over again. But also he for this he demonstrates his love and that he sent his son into the world for God loved the world in this way that he gave his only begotten son.

Whoever would believe in him not perish would have everlasting life. Our job is indeed to love the sinner and hate the sin. But but most of the times that that phrase is used very often it gets interpreted as affirm the sinner ignore the sin.

Because people think that love is affirmation. But when we think about what love looks like it isn't Jesus saying he gets us just basic affirmation. Just affirmation. No it's. It's Jesus saying go and sin.

No more. Right. Where he is. He's admonishing. He's rebuking. He's calling forth. He's like oh ye of little faith. Right. It wasn't you guys you know. No it's hey you know. You need to believe. You need to hold fast.

You need to repent of your sins. Jesus Christ did not die on the cross and suffer under the wrath of God because he thought we were okay. Right. But precisely because he needed to raise us from the death of transgressions and sins.

And so loving the sinner is going to involve telling truth to the sinner in a way that is filled with hope and faith. Meaning that when we speak the truth lovingly to them it's not a matter of doing so outside the bounds of the faith but inside the bounds of the faith.

And it's not going to be without hope. We're gonna be hope filled. And the hope that we have is that Jesus Christ saves and he heals he delivers and he transforms. Right. You may you may be dealing with somebody who is so enmeshed in sin that you don't think there's honestly practically speaking you don't think there's a hope in the world for this person to ever come around.

But you refuse to to cave to that. And you maintain hope. And you love the sinner by telling them the truth and calling them to faith in Jesus Christ. Hating the sin would be would be being honest about the sin and saying what God has to say about it.

Because don't you want the sinner to confess his sins or her sins. That means saying the same thing about their sins that God does. That's confession. So if you're saying something else other than what God says about their sin you're not teaching them to confess their sins.

That doesn't make any sense. So that's where you know there is plenty of examples in the scripture in the New Testament examples of loving the sinner and hating the sin. But again that can usually sometimes that glosses over affirm the sinner.

Ignore the sin. Which is where a lot of folks are today all. Right. Well let's close with a word of prayer. Father I thank you so much for the time that you've given to us.