22. 1 John 1:3:16-18: In Deed and Truth

1 John chapter 3. We'll be reading three verses, verses 16 to 18. 1 John chapter 3 starting in verse 16. Hear now the inspired word of God. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.

Let's pray. Father once again as we look into your word we simply ask that you'd be pleased to bless it, that as it's preached that you would take it and just as you have promised that as it goes forth it would not return void but it would accomplish every purpose for which you intended.

That's our simple prayer we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. 1 John. John speaks about love. In his commentary on 1 John, Martin Lloyd-Jones says this, how easy it is to fall in love with loving instead of actually loving.

It took me a few minutes of contemplation before I realized just how profound that statement really is. We live in a society that is obsessed with the idea of love. Love is a predominant theme in movies, in television, as well as literature.

And just think of the number of songs written about love that even have the word love in their title. There's actually a website, the top 100 songs that have love in their title. I want to know what love is.

Love me tender. When a man loves a woman, love is a battlefield. Only love can break your heart. And of course, endless love. Yeah, our generation is obsessed with the idea of love. But does it practice loving?

Far too often, love is a battlefield. We see the world splintered into many factions. It's splintered in political lines, and social lines, and ethnic lines, as well as religious factions. And those factions often express their feelings in violence towards one another instead of love.

Even those who are proponents of peace and love often practice hate speech. How can this be? They really don't know what love is. In our study in First John, we've examined love a few times now already.

Most recently, even last week, when we saw how demonstrating love for the brethren was a test of genuine faith. But also we saw that this admonition to love one another is an exhortation for us to strive to be more loving.

In fact, it's a test that shows one has passed from life, from death unto life. So in that sense, we saw last week that love, love is a matter of life and death. Now in the next three verses, John gives the church some examples of what biblical love looks like in some pretty practical ways.

But first, let's start with the basics. What is love? Now you may say, Pastor, how many times do we ask that question from the pulpit? A lot. And it'll be a lot more, because love is such a predominant theme.

Even in this epistle, we're going to come across some more verses later on in our study talking about love. So let's begin first with man's idea of love. And what we find is there is no consensus among mankind pertaining to this topic of love.

Here's an excerpt from an article I found on the web. Love has been a favorite topic of philosophers, poets, writers, and scientists for generations. And different people and groups have often fought about its definition.

While most people agree that love implies strong feelings of affection, there are many disagreements about its precise meaning. And one person's I love you might mean something quite different than another's.

Hmm, that's an interesting comment. In other words, love is subjective. When somebody says I love you, it may not mean what you think it means. But one of the consensus that we do see is that love, according to mankind, is an emotion.

Now that's just one article that I read. There have been myriad number of books and magazines and essays trying to define what love is. And of course the movies are rife with love stories. And everyone has their own opinion of what love is.

In the book by Eric Siegel, which was made into a movie called Love Story, he has a very unique definition of love. Love is never having to say you're sorry. I disagree. Love is always having to say you're sorry.

But one fact that everyone does agree upon is that love is important. And everyone seeks love. After all, the Beatles said it, all you need is love. But what is love? Marilyn Monroe once said, I have often loved, but I don't think I have ever really been loved.

So what are we to think as Christians? For us it's much clearer, though not simple. Anytime we think of love or speak of love, we must begin with God. We're going to get a jump ahead on our next chapter in 1 John chapter 4, verses 7 and 8 are germane to what we're talking about this morning.

1 John 4, 7 says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And the one who does not love does not know God. And here's the key, for God is love.

So all the other notions of what love is or is not must take a backseat to the scriptures. The starting point of any discussion must be right here that God is love. Now what are the ramifications of that truth?

That means we don't have the liberty to decide on our own definition of what love is or isn't. God defines what love is because he is love. That being said, we must also recognize that there are different ways the word love is used, even in Scripture.

The Greeks had at least four, some people say as many as seven, different words that are translated into the English word as love. But we see that there's different connotations in Scripture. For example, the Bible tells us that men divert the love that they should be giving to God, they devote it to other things.

Paul tells Timothy that men are lovers of self and lovers of money. It's in the second book, chapter three. And Jesus, rebuking the Pharisees, said that they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

Obviously these are perversions of biblical love. And while we can love many things in many different ways, if it is truly love, then we must first begin to understand the love of God. So what is the character of this love of God?

Well we read about it this morning in first Corinthians chapter 13. Our love for one another should reflect the love of God to us. And that is what Paul gives us in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians.

Let me just read a few of the verses of it, starting in verse 4. Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, love does not brag, and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomely, it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. There's one of the most concise descriptions of what love is. We're not going to go through each of those this morning, but we will before the study in 1st John is over. But this chapter, believe it or not, is one of the most misused and misapplied chapters in all of Scripture.

That should not surprise us, since everyone seems to have their own idea of what love is. But interestingly enough, Paul is not addressing the character of romantic love, or even the love of a husband to a wife, not primarily.

Now it is appropriate to use application for that, and it is appropriate that we read this at weddings. But Paul is writing in a certain context, and that context is important. Paul is writing to a contentious and immature church in the first century Corinth.

They were behaving very poorly toward each other, and they were lording their particular gifts and talents over one another. They were treating one another with arrogance and with pride. And even in the practice of their spiritual gifts, they were doing it without love.

And so Paul brings them back to what must be the centerpiece of the church, and that is love. And in this chapter, the opening words if you remember, Paul uses great hyperbole to bring his point home.

Listen to what R .C. Sproul says on this chapter. I quote R .C. Sproul. Paul says in effect, I don't care if you've been fluent in 50 languages, or if you have the gift to speak foreign languages miraculously.

I don't care if God has endowed you with the ability to speak the language of the heavenly host. If you don't have love, the eloquence of your speech becomes noise. It becomes dissonance, an irritating and annoying racket.

He says here that if we speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, we become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, mere noise. All the beauty of speech is lost when love is absent. That's quite a stinging commentary, but he's got it right on the nose.

And it's significant how Paul ends this admonition in 1 Corinthians 13. Look at verse 13. But now faith, hope, love. Abide, these three. But the greatest of these is love. Everything the Christian is called to do is to be done in love.

Biblical love must be at the heart of all the characteristics of the Christian. If you take love away from joy, you end up with pleasure-seeking and self-gratification. If you take love away from holiness, you have self-righteousness.

If you take love away from truth, you have bitter orthodoxy. Take love away from missions, and you have imperialism. Take love away from unity, you have tyranny. Why? Because God is love. One more comment before we come back to our text.

In John 15, Jesus gives us the epitome of practical love. Verse 13 of chapter 15 of John's Gospel, he says, greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. If you look at all the teaching of all of Scripture on love, both in the Old and New Testament, and you take the essence of all the very teaching in the different context of each portion of Scripture, and you examine them to determine what does love in action look like, you will not find a better summary than these words of Jesus right here.

Greater love has no one but the one who lays down his life for a friend. And of course, Jesus exhibited this to the max. Listen to Charles Spurgeon on this. Spurgeon said, that laying down of our life in our Lord's case was specially a proof of love, for he died voluntarily.

There was no necessity upon him as upon us to die. Other men, if they died for us, would repay the debt of nature a little before its time. But Jesus died who need not die, so far as he himself was concerned.

He died also amid circumstances of pain and shame and desertion, which made the death penalty particularly bitter. The death of the cross is to us the highest proof of our Savior's infinite love of us.

He must die the death of a felon, between two thieves, utterly friendless, the object of general ridicule, and this he must do as bearing our sins in his own body. All this makes us say, behold how he loved us.

Oh beloved, can we doubt Christ's love since he laid down his life? And the Apostle Paul sums up the same theme in Romans 5, 6. He says, for while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

His sacrifice was more than any of us can really imagine. And then he says this, Jesus said, in verse 12, the same chapter, this is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. How do we love one another?

Just as Christ has loved us. You know what R .C. Sproul's reaction was to that phrase? He says, I don't like that statement. And he continues to explain what he means. He says, I can try to love you, but to love you as much as Jesus has loved me is beyond my natural ability.

He loved us when we were unlovely, and we are called to model that kind of love. No wonder Jesus talks so much about sending the Holy Spirit to help us. So as R .C. Sproul so aptly says, none of us can ever love exactly as he does.

It is beyond our moral capability, but we ought to love in that same way. And that brings us back to our text, 1 John 3, 16. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

In this verse, Jesus gives us both the motive and the example of the type of love we are to provide to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to love to the point of self-sacrifice. The ultimate of that is, of course, laying down your life, but includes everything up to and including dying.

To understand why John repeats the Lord's teaching on love, we must remember the historical context of John's epistle. Remember, this epistle was written more than likely in the mid -60s AD. The church was subject to great persecution.

Many of the apostles, as well as regular church members, had been martyred, and heresy had crept into the church, causing disruption, confusion. The two main heresies were the Judaizers and the Gnostics.

Now, John is mostly concerned with the Gnostics, as they taught that Jesus didn't come in the flesh. Back in chapter 2, verse 22, remember what he said, who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. So, you can see why John is so emphatic in his warnings. If Jesus isn't the Christ, then the sins of the people have not been atoned for.

Not only does that mean we're still in our sin, but the example of self-sacrificing love is meaningless. So, once again, we see the principle, doctrine has to precede practice. So, John is telling the church, you know that Christ came in the flesh.

You know he died on the cross. You know he was raised from the dead. You know he ascended into heaven, where he rules from his Father's throne. You know your sins have been forgiven by his great sacrifice, because you know all those things.

Therefore, now, love one another to the extent of giving up your own life. Now, you need to understand also, let's look at the context of this. This was a real possibility in the early church. This was not Paul speaking hyperbolically.

People literally were being sentenced to death just for being Christian. Remember part of our text from last week in 1 John 3 .13. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. The consistent history of Christianity is one of persecution and death.

Those are simply the historical facts, and here's a fact. I've said it from the pulpit before, but we need to be reminded of it. The 20th century, when most of us were still very much alive, was the bloodiest hundred years in the history of the Christian Church.

We in America have been insulated from that by nothing else but God's grace, but the warning from John still stands true and real, and as I herald this warning again to you, that it is still not hyperbolic.

The anti-Christian sentiment is not hidden in our society today, so we need to consider anew the exhortation of this epistle. Love one another to the extent of laying down your life. Let's look at verse 16 one more time before we move on.

Remember John's overriding purpose in writing this epistle. He wants those who have professed faith to know that they have eternal life, and one major test of true Christianity is loving the brethren.

We know love by this, he said, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. What do we know? We know what love is. Christ laid down his life for us. What does that mean for us?

It means we must love our brothers and sisters in the same way. There is nothing more real and more practical than laying down your life for another person. Most of us will never be called to that great sacrifice.

So John gives us, there is still another test for true Christian love, and that is love is active. Biblical love is never static, it is never merely theoretical. Biblical love sees a need and take action.

Look at verse 17 of our text. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? John introduces his next point by asking a rhetorical question.

I love teaching with rhetorical questions. The Bible is full of them. Love is never static, it's not theoretical. Placing the statement in this form adds emphasis to it. Let me rephrase what John says this way.

Can a Christian who has material means see a brother in need and not help him? Can he? Is that possible? If so, John says, does he have the love of God in his heart? And the way John phrases it, that rhetorical question actually gives an answer, a resounding no way.

There's a super important implication in that question. Not only is John teaching that we should love like God loves, but that we have the love of God abiding in us. And if we truly have the love of God abiding in us, then how can we not help if we have the means to help?

Now the primary application for these verses is helping those within the family of faith, brothers and sisters in the church. We certainly do have obligations to help those outside the church as well.

We're told even to love our enemies, well we'll touch on that a little bit later, but for now we are concentrating on loving one another within the church, because even that is hard. Notice that one of the primary characteristics of biblical love, it's active.

It's demonstrated by doing something. God so loved the world that he sat up in his throne and said, I love you guys. Now, for God so loved the world, he gave, and he gave us his only begotten son. We can know what love is because Christ laid down his life.

Christians demonstrate love by giving the necessities of this material world to brothers and sisters in need. And notice how John views Christians. You can tell the difference between a Christian and non-Christian relatively easy, John has said numerous times.

Non-Christians walk in darkness. Christians practice truth in light. Non-Christians do not obey the commandments of God. In fact, they hate the law. Christians delight in the law of God and walk in obedience.

Non-Christians love the things of the world. Christians love the things of God. Non-Christians look out for number one. Christians are willing to lay down their lives for one another. In verse 10, John says the difference between children of God and the children of the devil, he says, well that's obvious.

The key is that the love of God abides in the believer. And if that's true, there must of necessity be a difference. And then John sums up his point in verse 18. Basically, he says, I'll introduce it this way, talk is cheap.

Look at what he says in verse 18. Little children, let us not love with word or tongue, but in deed and truth. Once again, John begins addressing the church as little children. John uses this address eight times in this short letter.

I said it before, but it bears repeating. John had a special relationship with these believers. He's an older man by now, nearing his death. One of the last, if not the only, apostles still living at the writing of this epistle.

And these people have been under his care for for some time. And he has developed a great love and affection. And to bring his point home and add emphasis, he calls them my little children. It's a term of endearment.

But then he concludes the section with a catch-all phrase describing how we are to love one another. But first a negative description. He says, little children, let us not love with word or with tongue.

In other words, yes, talk is cheap. It's easy to say, I love you. There are people who make flattery an art form. It's not uncommon for someone to say, I love you, as a means of getting something. Or inducing a person to do something against their better judgment.

Proverbs 6 and 7 give in pretty graphic terms how the immoral women use these words of flattery to seduce the naive to sin. But that is only one application. An unbridled tongue is the cause of much strife and discord.

James speaks of how dangerous the misuse of the tongue can be. He says it's like a raging fire. And it's important that we understand how the tongue can influence people for good or evil. But here the most direct teaching is the flippant or unthinking use of the tongue.

Not even necessarily with evil motives. As we said, it's easy to say, I love you. It's another thing to show the love by actions. And that's John's final point here. He says, little children, let us not love with word or with tongue.

But in deed and in truth. Actions speak louder than words. It's not enough to tell someone you care about their hard times. You must meet their need. Jay Adams said it so well. He says, love is feeding not feeling.

But John isn't quite finished yet. He must not only respond to, we must not only respond to needs and action and deeds, but we must also be sincere. We love in deed and in truth. The heart that has been converted is sincere.

Not only in expressing concern for our needy brothers, but sincere in the actions we take to aid them in their time of need. Now, if you're beginning to understand a little bit more of what biblical love is, and if you understand this point, it explains how a Christian can love his enemy.

I can't tell you how many times in my ministry over the last almost 30 years now, that somebody says, Pastor, how can I love my enemy? Well, he doesn't address it directly here in this portion. But I believe it's worth addressing before we close, because it's related to this.

Remember what Jesus said, correcting the false teaching of the Pharisees in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said this, you've heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

This command troubles many Christians. How do I love those who are against me? That's why if we understand what love is, that it's not primarily a feeling, but an action, the answer comes into focus. Paul weighs in on and gives us a definitive answer to this question in Romans chapter 12, as he addresses spiritual warfare.

In that discourse, well he says a lot, but I'm going to pull one out. Verse 20, but if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap burning coals upon his head.

Now, I've heard people interpret that, well if you do be nice to him, you know, God's good, God'll get him then. I think that goes directly against the context. So what does it mean? Well, how do you love your enemy?

Not by telling him you love him. That would be a falsehood, but by finding a legitimate need that he has and filling it. And Paul uses the example, if it is your enemy hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink.

Why? Because by demonstrating love, you disarm him and you take him out of the battle. You see, in ancient siege warfare, pouring a cauldron of hot ashes or boiling oil over the top of a castle wall or a city wall on the enemy, climbing up the walls, what's the effect of that?

It takes them out of the battle. They're no longer coming against you. In spiritual warfare, doing acts of kindness has the same effect. Somebody who is cursing you, tell them, hey would you like something to drink?

Can I buy you lunch? They don't know how to handle that. You disarm them and you take them out. Your enemy is expecting hatred, but you give him love and you disarm him. And he doesn't know how to respond to that.

Sum it up, that's overcoming evil with good. And just perhaps, just perhaps, not a promise, that those drastic and unexpected actions that you give him when you show love will even win him to your side.

I have to agree with Dr. Lloyd-Jones. People tend to fall in love with loving instead of actually love, expressing love. Even many Christians, most people don't really know what love is. And that's because they're looking for love in all the wrong places.

Do you want to know what love is? God is love. Any discussion of love apart from that truth leads to futility and eventually to heartache. To the Christian, there you have the pattern for love. Love like Christ loves the church.

Love not just in words, but love indeed and in truth. To the non-christian, if you're here this morning you've never made a profession of faith, remember God is love. He demonstrated his love by sending his only begotten son to die in the place of sinners.

Repent of your sin. Call upon Jesus Christ to save you. Then you will know what love is. Let's pray.