Introductory
Question
What words would
you use about God’s love?
Introductory
Comments
(a)
God
can do no other than love, because God IS Love (verse 16b). God
loves the world because God IS Love. The very nature or character of God is
disclosed in love.
(b)
As
God IS Love, God defines what love is. God is the model for love (verse 19).
Thus our love for God would not only be a response to God’s love, but
also a reflection of this very same love. We return to God his own love – we
love God with the gift of love he first gave us – we share back God’s own gift
of love.
(c)
In
this way we can also share God’s love with others … in a real sense, it’s not
just our love toward others, but God’s love for others being transmitted
through us.
(d)
God
is also the power that enables love to occur. God is not only named as “Love”
but also does (lives out) “love”. God is the initiator of love (verses 10 &
19). God’s love then evokes our love. We can only love God because God has
first loved us, and opened up the path of relationship.
(e)
How
we interpret what God is doing … must factor in the concept that God is Love –
that love sits behind everything that God does. Loving is not just one
thing God does among many things, but rather all of God’s activity is loving
activity! So if we can’t quite understand some particular response that we are
attributing to God, we must at least consider God’s loving intentions behind this.
(f)
Love
(”agape”) is clearly the central feeling, emotion, activity or character trait
in life. Paul would agree with John – faith, hope, love … “the greatest of
these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
(g)
If
anyone is walking a little heavy this morning, I would hope that just talking a
bit about God’s love would allow to you walk a little lighter, perhaps even
stepping a little higher off the ground.
What God’s
Love is about
1.
God’s
love is active – thoroughly engaging – broadly welcoming. Heaven was torn open so that God’s love
might reach humanity. There seemed to be a major division between heaven and
earth, one with perfect light (heaven) … and the other (earth) with predominate
darkness. But God’s love makes connections between these. Thus God’s love can
break through all sorts of boundaries, e.g. the spiritual boundary of sin, the
emotional boundary of broken relationships, the physical boundary of sickness,
the social boundary of cultural differences.
2.
God’s
love is sacrificial – we
have seen the greatest act of love in human history from God, in sending his
Son, part of Himself, part of the Divine Community, to earth … meaning that
Jesus would ultimately die (carrying the sin burden of all humanity … just
imagine that weight). This, on a torturous cross, feeling alone and rejected.
This – so that we could find relationship with God, with no guilt or shame to
get in the way. Jesus surrendered divine prerogatives and gave himself for us
(R B Hays).
Here is the ultimate way in which the Bible talks about love … verse
9 – “God sent his ONLY Son into the world so that we might LIVE through
him”; verse 10 – “… [God] sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for
our sins; verse 14 – “… the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of
the world”. John Painter writes that, “Love is safeguarded from
misunderstanding by the definitive demonstration in Jesus’ act of
self-giving”!!! “God is love” may have remained somewhat abstract without this
particular demonstration!
3.
God’s
love is a constant – we
can dwell in this mutual love relationship (verse 16b … “God is love,
and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them”). That’s a
bit awesome! Let’s hear how another translation words that: God is love. When
we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives
in us. This way, love has the run of the house… (The Message). As we
dwell in this mutual love relationship, this love then spills over into the
world … naturally it would.
4.
God’s
love is transformational
– it changes us as we respond to it … it changes everything – we become a ‘new
creation’. God’s love changes us from … self-oriented people, on our own way,
despite others, to … community oriented people, on God’s ways, with others.
God’s love perfects us or completes us, but this perfection or completion is
more a corporate experience (verses 12b & 17b i.e. “among us”). It
is a radical God-inspired love for one another that completes us as a whole. It
is in the community of faith that love has its ultimate fulfilment (G W
Barker). And now, God’s love is set fully free to reach the wider community!
Our Response
to God’s Love
Our text (from
the 1st Letter of John) e.g. verse 7, makes it clear that those who
have attached themselves to the God who IS Love, must themselves love others.
Verse 11 says that the motivation behind our love of others comes from the
quantity of God’s love given to us (“God loved us so much”). An inverted
possibility is challenged in verse 8. If we do not love others, then
this says something about our relationship with God. What?!? That is doesn’t
really exist … that we are kidding ourselves!?!
Then the rubber
really hits the road when we get to verse 20. This tends to personalise
things a bit; this suggests that there could actually be a refusal to
practically love a brother or sister when the opportunity sits right before us.
Or what about this one from the previous chapter: “How does God’s love abide in
anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet
refuses [to] help?” (1 John 3:17).
Such a person, if
they refuse to help, cannot really love God, and if they say they
do (love God), then this scripture would call them a … “liar”! Such a person is
ducking the truth that God’s love in the process of being returned (vertically)
must he shared horizontally. Such behaviour betrays the character and essence
of God. Love must have authenticity, the proof must be there for all to see.
If one loves God,
that person cannot refuse to love the image of God on display in someone else
(G W Barker)! Perhaps this could be understood … as needing to see the
possibilities of what God could do in a person (in love) … if they were just in
receipt of some measure of the love in us (to open that door). This could mean
looking past many frustrations and disappointments, and exercising a fair
degree of patience.
If we look at
verse 12, we can see that if we do love others, we will know and
experience that God lives in us, and that this will be noticed. Whereas no one
has actually seen God, God can be seen through the way in which we
love – the way in which we express God ourselves. In this way the reality of
God’s love is given proof (for all to see)! And it’s not just love that will be
seen, but God also.
The idea of love
“perfecting” or “completing” us, mentioned earlier, also has some connection to
how we might feel about judgment or experience fear. Verse 17 points out, that
as we allow God’s love to abide in us and work its way through us, the
spiritual journey we are on is being completed, such that we would have no
concern about any judgment to follow. If we truly represent God’s love in the
daily grind of this world, then we should have no fear concerning the next
world. God’s love motivates our obedience (in love), which in turn completes
us!
If we have any
issues with fear in relation to God, then we haven’t truly experienced the
depth of God’s love (refer verse 18). This may relate to one or more of the
barriers that we talked about last week. God is NOT interested in punishing us;
God is only interested in giving us the best experience of life imaginable.
After all, didn’t Jesus die on a cross for this!! God’s love is so
life-changing, that it casts out any need to fear how life or eternity may turn
out.
Love who?
We might suggest
that those foremost in mind here are those who are also in the Christian
community or part of the same first century house church. And this makes sense
with the broad diversity in the early church … Jew and Gentile, rich and poor,
slave and free. Those who came to follow Jesus would have to embrace the notion
of loving people across the boundaries that can often separate in the general
community … race, financial position/class, occupation. This was a non-negotiable
implication of receiving God’s love (i.e. passing it on).
But our general
reading of scripture, and our knowledge that loving our neighbour has NO
limits, means that loving others means all people (in our true and full
representation of the God who IS Love). So let’s cast our minds as far as
possible … those who give us a hard time … Jesus said love your enemies … those
who we don’t know personally, but know very well that they have significant
need … those we might ignore without too many conscience problems.
So If We Love
as God loves, what will this mean?
In the same way
as God’s nature or character is revealed in love, so must the reality of our
relationship with this God be revealed in love. We can only know and represent
God accurately through an attitude and application of his love. True to say
that other people will only accurately receive our witness to who God is
through genuine love.
1.
God’s
love is active – thoroughly engaging – broadly welcoming.
Our
love will be practical and inclusive.
We will
find ways of meeting people at their point of need (whether it be emotional,
physical, social or spiritual), and welcoming people across boundaries of
difference. In the ancient world it was generally thought appropriate to only
love those regarded as worthy of being loved (Stott). Maybe this would still be
the case!? But God turns this over!! God spontaneously loves all in the hope of
positive change. We will love our enemies, in the hope that they may become our
friends (Matthew 6:43-48, Luke 6:27-28). We will be kind to those who have hurt
us, in the hope that they will discover God’s grace.
2.
God’s
love is sacrificial.
Our
love will be sacrificial.
Something
is sacrificial if it doesn’t take notice of what it will cost personally, or if
notice is taken, it makes no difference. We will engage in humble
service of others – not from any sense of superiority, but as people touched by
grace. This will be generous, and often take us out of our comfort zones. This
is because we ourselves were taken from our lowest point at incredible cost. No
one who has been to the foot of the cross and found forgiveness there can
remain selfish.
3.
God’s
love is a constant.
Our
love will be consistent.
Not just
when it suits us or we feel like it. This is an act of our will … a decisive
choice to be made – sometimes we will just have to act out of love whether we
feel we want to or not, and let our feelings and attitudes come into line
later. Who do you find it easier to love?? Is it your neighbour, or is it a
stranger?? Different answer for different people I expect! Maybe it’s easier to
love someone you see often; but then there may be many more occasions when you
could fail to love! Maybe it’s easier to love and support a stranger in some
financial or other capacity, because they have never said a bad word to us; but
then as we never meet them or see them … could they easily be removed from our
minds!?
4.
God’s
love is transformational.
Our
love would be forgiving, prayerful and hopeful.
Our love
should provide every opportunity for people to connect with the God of
transformation. Our love will bring forgiveness. Our love will take us into
prayer (especially where this is our only avenue of love for certain people
groups). Our love will cause us to be hopeful concerning the positive
difference that God will make in people’s lives. Our love will be expressed by not
just telling the story of Jesus’ sacrifice, but more so living
the story of Jesus’ sacrifice. We might prefer to argue people toward faith,
but the preferred method is to let love be the evidence for faith.
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