God is Love
God is Love
1 John 4:7-21
Love is all the rage these days. Some of us remember the 1960s - the era of “free love.” The Beatles hit, “All You Need is Love,” hit the number one spot on the pop music charts for two weeks in 1967. That was the same year the Sinatras released “Something Stupid” (like, ‘I love you.’), The Association hit number one with “Never My Love,” and Lulu sang, “To Sir, with Love.” We got Frankie Valli with “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You,” and The Doors, “Come On Baby, Light My Fire.” I picked 1967 because that was the “Summer of Love” and probably the height of the hippy movement. Today, of course, it’s all about protests and pride and naked bike rides, and “Love is Love,” and people yapping about “It doesn’t matter who you love.
You wouldn’t be surprised, I suppose, if I told you we were wrong in 1967 – it wasn’t really a summer of love, and it wasn’t really about love anyway. And you wouldn’t be surprised, I suppose, if I tell you that we are wrong today. Love isn’t love. And all the hoorah about love isn’t really about love at all. The problem is that the world has it all wrong and the Church has largely stood silent on the sidelines, unsure, I suppose, how to respond. To make it worse, many churches and denominations are simply surrendering to the culture, adapting and adopting the vocabulary of the culture and bringing a rather perverse view of love into the church. Instead of standing against the current of the culture, we built a raft to float with it.
Oh, and they recruit Jesus to their cause. “Jesus was all about loving everybody,” they say. “Jesus taught that we should all love one another,” they say. The odd thing is they are right and wrong at the same time. Because the sort of love they want Jesus to be promoting – in their minds – is not the sort of love Jesus was talking about. They want a love without demands, a love without sacrifice, and a love without responsibility. They want a permissive love that allows them to do whatever their perverted hearts desire without condemnation or consequence.
Just as an aside, one of these days I’m going to write a sermon about what God hates. We talk a lot about God’s love, but there are a lot of Scriptures about what God hates. And here’s the problem for our society: God’s love is first of all a holy love. I commented recently that, after the big three (omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence) God’s first attribute is holiness. I was reminded that even the “big three” are measured by God’s holiness, that holiness is God’s first attribute. His presence is holy; his wisdom is holy; and his power is holy. God’s justice is holy. God’s love is holy. The sort of love that our culture celebrates with flags and parades is anything but a holy love.
We need a brief review. Our New Testament is translated from the original Greek. In Greek there are four words we can translate into English with the word “love.” The lowest form is eros, sensual love, the love of pleasure and pleasurable things. Eros is a selfish, self-centered “love.” It is all about what feels good, and it is entirely subjective - each to his own. In the middle are storge, parental love, and philia, friendship or brotherly love. The highest form of love is agape, an altruistic, sacrificial love. This fourth word rarely appears outside of the New Testament, but it is the love that Jesus commanded. Jesus did not command that we feel good about people or that we use them for our pleasure. His call to love one another is far higher and far more difficult – including loving our neighbors and loving our enemies.
Now, let’s see what John has to say about that.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for this love is from God, and all who love are born of God and know God.” First, the NIV translates the first word as “dear friends.” John does not address them as phileitoi, my friends, but as agapetoi, my loved ones, my beloved. He addressed the Church as those he loves, and then admonishes them to that same love – let us love one another. It is interesting that forms of the word appear twice together – agapetoi, agapomen – beloved, let us love. And everyone who agapon – everyone who loves in this way, with this sort of love, is a child of God. NIV says “born of God;” Greek says “comes from God,” or “is from God.”
But this is the yardstick for John, perhaps hearing Jesus’ words, “By this all men will know ...” Whoever does not love (in this way) does not know God, because God is love, because God loves this way. The “family resemblance”, the disciple’s aim, is to know God, and to love as God loves. How do we know how God loves? This is how, John says. This is how God showed his love to us: His only begotten Son God sent into the world so that we might live because of (or through) him. The Father sent the Son into the world as a divine demonstration of love for us. That divine demonstration is our example of the sort of love that Christ commanded of us. We are to love one another in the same way that God loved the world by sending Jesus. John says it this way: Beloved, because God loves us in this way, so we also ought to love one another. In this way, we become the visible representation of God and God’s love to the world. They can’t see God, but they can see us, and John adds that if we love one another, God lives in us and through us.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for this love is from God, and all who love are born of God and know God.” First, the NIV translates the first word as “dear friends.” John does not address them as phileitoi, my friends, but as agapetoi, my loved ones, my beloved. He addressed the Church as those he loves, and then admonishes them to that same love – let us love one another. It is interesting that forms of the word appear twice together – agapetoi, agapomen – beloved, let us love. And everyone who agapon – everyone who loves in this way, with this sort of love, is a child of God. NIV says “born of God;” Greek says “comes from God,” or “is from God.”
But this is the yardstick for John, perhaps hearing Jesus’ words, “By this all men will know ...” Whoever does not love (in this way) does not know God, because God is love, because God loves this way. The “family resemblance”, the disciple’s aim, is to know God, and to love as God loves. How do we know how God loves? This is how, John says. This is how God showed his love to us: His only begotten Son God sent into the world so that we might live because of (or through) him. The Father sent the Son into the world as a divine demonstration of love for us. That divine demonstration is our example of the sort of love that Christ commanded of us. We are to love one another in the same way that God loved the world by sending Jesus. John says it this way: Beloved, because God loves us in this way, so we also ought to love one another. In this way, we become the visible representation of God and God’s love to the world. They can’t see God, but they can see us, and John adds that if we love one another, God lives in us and through us.
Follow John’s reasoning here. He has told us that we are to love one another, and that whoever loves has been born of God. If we love, we know God. How do we know God? Because God sent his Son to give us life and atone for our sin. That was God’s demonstration of love, and our example of how we ought to love one another. Now, if we love one another, that is evidence that God lives in us. How can we know that we live in him? He has sent his Holy Spirit. By the Spirit, we understand and now are witnesses to the reality of the Savior. If we understand that and acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God who has come into the world, that is the evidence that God lives in us and that we live in God. The foundation for all of this is the love God has for us.
Let me connect the pieces here. Jesus told the disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit to live in them and be with them. He told them that the Holy Spirit would cause them to remember what he had said. Paul, then, wrote that the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:16). The writer to the Hebrews adds, regarding the one perfect sacrifice for sin, the Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this (Heb 10:15). The Holy Spirit reveals to us the things of God (1 Cor. 2:10). Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers that God would give [them] the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better (Eph 1:17). All of that is what John is talking about: God gives us His Holy Spirit so that we may know the things of God with certainty. And the main thing the Holy Spirit affirms to us is the indwelling life and love of the Father through Jesus Christ.
Why? Because an essential attribute of God is love. So central to the nature of God is holy love that John can write, God is love. God’s nature is described as agape, and it is vital that we not be confused on this matter. God is love, but love is not God. Eros is not God; storge is not God; philia is not God, agape is not God. We don’t worship love; we worship the God who is love. Love is of God, but love is not God.
To live in love is to live according to the command of Christ, to be mindful that our first rule is to love one another in the same way that Christ love. As we submit to the Lordship of Christ, and walk in allegiance and obedience to him, we are made complete in him. That word, complete, is a lovely word. From the Greek that means finished, complete, or mature, the KJV renders it made perfect. It is what we talk about when we talk about “Christian perfection.” We are not made flawless, but blameless. We are completed in him and completely his. John Wesley defined Christian perfection as perfect in love toward God and man. And so we stand blameless before our God, and John says that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like Jesus.
John connects to important things here: confidence and fearlessness. We will have confidence on the day of judgment because we live in love, and perfect love casts out fear. Confidence in Christ replaces fear of judgment. Living in the love of God eliminates the fear of punishment. Here John again uses a form of the word meaning complete, finished, or mature. The point is that God’s love for us is a perfect love, demonstrated in Jesus. As we live in that love, and according to that love, we need not be anxious about judgment. There is no punishment for those who are in Christ.
That doesn’t mean that there is no discipline, no trouble, hardship, or opposition in this life. It does not mean that we won’t have bad days, or that we won’t have sickness. It means that, whatever comes, we have no reason to fear. We fear punishment. And if we are afraid, John suggests, might it be that we are not yet living as we ought to live, that our allegiance to Jesus is incomplete, or that we are making excuses for our lack of this sort of love? John says that our fear of punishment is because we are not yet made perfect in love, that our love is not yet complete, that our obedience to Jesus is not complete.
Here may be where we have a bit of a problem. The idea that we have to be perfect and utterly flawless in our obedience is a problem. John has already laid a foundation for us with two important things, and we need to remember this. John began chapter two, remember? “My children, I write this so that you will not sin, but if you do ...” What’s the answer – come to Jesus. He is your perfect atonement for your imperfect obedience. And then John defined sin – sin is lawlessness, and he urged his reader to stop sinning. It’s not a matter of the occasional slip, the momentary mistake, or an imperfect response, but of a habit of sin, of continuing to sin. Sin is lawlessness. The one who goes on sinning, who makes a habit of sin, or who sustains a sinful habit is the one who has not been made perfect in love.
But there’s an even greater problem for us: we think it’s up to us. Listen: We love because he first loved us. We don’t know how to love apart from the love God pours out on us. Our love does not come from within us; it is a response to the love of God. You can’t love the way Christ loves unless Christ lives in you. You can’t manufacture a godly love without the Holy Spirit working in your life to create what you don’t naturally have. It’s like nutrition. There are what are known as “essential nutrients.” Those are things your body does not manufacture on it’s own. Vitamin B12, for example, is essential. You can’t make your own so you have to get it from an outside source. You need fat to survive, but your body cannot make fat. That sounds strange doesn’t it, when we battle our weight. But you need certain fats from outside sources. You need protein, but your body cannot create dietary protein. You need water. You need calcium, iron, and potassium. Agape love is an essential spiritual nutrient. You cannot manufacture it on your own. It is given to us and taught to us as we live in Christ and receive his love.
People love to talk about the “unconditional love” of Christ, and how we are also to love unconditionally. Again, they make a serious mistake. One of these days, I’m going to write a sermon on the things God hates. For now, just note that the Bible has a lot to say about what God hates – including certain kinds of people God hates. God’s love is not unconditional. It is true that he loves us, all of us, with a perfect, unchanging love. But God’s love makes demands on us, not least is the demand that we love one another. Jesus expanded that to include our neighbor and our enemy. John’s particular focus is closer to home. Love your fellow believer. This is your family in Christ. For the record, let me note that many churches divide because of a lack of love for one another. We fight because we don’t love the brother across the room from us.
John notes a serious disconnect. We say we love God, but don’t love a brother. Here’s the problem: you can’t see God, but you can see your brother. So John asks, How can you love a God you can’t see and hate a brother you can see? Anyone who says, “I love God, but my brother I hate,’ is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. You can’t love at a distance while you hate up close. We think we can; John says we can’t. We think we can because we have one sort of love for God and a different sort of love for people. No, this sort of love for God will manifest itself as love for one another. Perfect love for God will overflow into the world. Not “must.” Will. That is the nature of God’s love, the nature of godly love. It will overflow, or it does not exist. Love one another.