God is Love

1 John 4:8

Introduction.

  1. To truly understand God, you must understand love.

    1. This is true the other way around as well: to truly understand love, you must understand God.

    2. In fact, that’s why we study the Scriptures, is it not? At least one reason.

    3. If we want to understand God, why don’t we study the book He wrote?

    4. Not too long ago, I saw a picture of a Bible with a sticker on it that said, “Signed copy.”

    5. The joke, of course, is that God is supposed to have signed this… but how.

    6. Being the weird guy I am, my first thought was: “The Bible has dozens of authors. How is that going to work? Plus they’re all dead. Or are we talking translators?” This was for an ESV, so I think many are still alive.

    7. It finally hit me, “Oh, they’re saying God signed it.”

    8. It’s one of those jokes that isn’t funny if you have to explain it.

    9. Regardless, Paul writes in 1 Cor. 2:11 that the only way to know the things of God is to have them revealed by the Spirit of God.

    10. Since the Spirit of God revealed the Scriptures to us via holy men of God (2 Pet. 1:19-21), then the only way to know the things of God is to study His Word!

    11. That said, the only way to know God is to study what He wrote.

    12. That very Word states that God is love (1 John 4:8).

  2. God is love.

    1. Love is such an important concept in all of Scriptures.

    2. It is so important that it is one of the key defining characteristics of God Himself.

    3. This is the same God who killed the world’s population except for eight people in a Flood.

    4. This is the same God who commanded the Israelites to destroy the Canaanites in battle, driving them from their homes.

    5. This is the same God who allowed Job to suffer the loss of his children and riches.

    6. This is the same God who has allowed this pandemic to rip through the world, taking so many lives, causing us to react by shutting things down to prevent its spread.

    7. But this is the also the same God who sent His Son to die for us to take away the penalty for our sins.

    8. Our modern conception of love shows the God of the Bible to be rather contradictory when it compare our definition of love vs. what God has done.

    9. So then what is wrong? Is God wrong? Or is our conception of love wrong?

    10. Since the idea of God being wrong is unconscionable, it must be that our concept of love is wrong.

    11. So how do we start thinking right about love? Let us consider the Apostle of love.

  3. Preview.

Body.

  1. Love Not the World (2:15-17).

    1. If we expect to understand the love of God, we must understand what He doesn’t love.

      1. Here, John instructs us to love not the world or the things in it.

      2. Loving the world means we don’t have the love of God.

      3. This implies that God does not love the world.

      4. But wait, doesn’t that contradict one of the most central verses to our faith? (John 3:16).

      5. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son!

      6. So God loves the world, but tells us not to love the world—what?

      7. This goes to how we understand the word, “world.”

    2. God loves the world, but He does not love the world.

      1. This is the Greek word κοσμος.

      2. This word has so many different meanings or nuances of meaning, that it’s not surprising if we might have difficulty understanding it.

      3. Here is a list of different definitions of this word as presented by Blue Letter Bible.

      4. Thayer defines John 3:16 as #5 here, “the inhabitants of the world, men, the human family.”

      5. God loves people, His highest created thing, those made in His image (that’s you and me), to send His Son to die for each and all of us!

      6. Thayer then defines the world in 1 John 2:15 as #7, “world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly.”

      7. The following verse is defined as #6, “the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ.”

      8. While Thayer may define these differently, it seems likely to me that there is overlap in the definitions here.

      9. Certainly things that are among the aggregate of things earthly include that which is ungodly, and is very dominant in society.

      10. In any event, they are all temporary, passing away, as we see is the natural outcome of everything we see.

      11. While there are many things we cannot help but to be occupied with down here, our focus always needs to be heavenward, on things eternal.

      12. God loves the world, all the people in it, but He does not love the world, the ungodly things of the world.

      13. We need to be like God in this matter, but at the same time working toward making the ungodly godly. Turning the wicked into the righteous.

      14. Not as easy task, but that’s why Christ came—to die for the wicked so they might turn to Him.

  2. Love One Another (4:7-11).

    1. As a result, we are to love one another.

      1. 1This is a common refrain found in the Bible, particularly in John’s writings.

      2. It is found five times in this book alone, four times in John’s gospel.

      3. It is the message heard from the beginning (1 John 3:11).

      4. This is an indication that this is a central tenet of Christianity, a main teaching of Christ—to love one another.

      5. John’s gospel makes this evident as Jesus taught this to His disciples (John 13:34; 15:12, 17).

      6. Again, this concept is dripping with every page of Scripture, from the Good Samaritan to the Love Chapter, as a motivation not to sue the brethren to take care of their needs.

    2. God is love (4:7-11).

      1. John repeats this phrase, “love one another,” the most times in this passage.

      2. He gives us a motivation for loving another another, and some strong facts about this act.

      3. Love is of God—He is the source of true love.

      4. There certainly is something unique about the love that you have for your spouse, and something absolutely special about the love you have for your children, isn’t there?

      5. It’s the kind of love you might not understand or fully appreciate until you have experienced it yourself.

      6. You never really love someone like you do your kids.

      7. And after having children you begin to, ever so slightly, understand the love of God.

      8. Kids are disobedient, mean, selfish, obnoxious, and eager for attention—but often they don’t really mean to be.

      9. They don’t always understand that what they’ve done is wrong or getting on your nerves.

      10. It’s why they must be taught to empathize with others so they can be less selfish and more considerate of others.

      11. And it’s a hard and laborious task, but it’s the one you have taken on as their parent.

      12. Some days it gets to be too much, but you keep at it. Why? Because you love your children!

      13. That’s the kind of love that God has for us, His children.

      14. There are many non-believers out there who have no conception of God’s love, yet they love their children.

      15. They don’t realize that that kind of love comes from a God they don’t believe exists, and it’s sad that they can’t truly understand it.

    3. No Jesus, no peace / know Jesus, know peace.

      1. This is so profound and so true.

      2. But allow me to alter the saying just a little bit further.

      3. Originally, the saying is, “No justice, no peace.”

      4. Someone changed it to “No Jesus, no peace” – so perfect.

      5. But this is also true for other things: “No Jesus, no love.”

      6. Or even flip it around, “No love, no Jesus.”

      7. The Scripture says (Heb. 11:6) that without faith it’s impossible to please God, but I think we can include love in that mix—without love, it’s impossible to please God.

      8. Without love, we cannot truly know God and participate in His salvation.

      9. Does that mean we aren’t saved if we have problems loving? Not necessarily.

      10. As with anything having to do with being a Christian, there is grace for those learning and growing.

      11. But this doesn’t take away from how vitally important this is to our faith—we must diligently seek to understand it.

      12. After all, His love was manifested in Christ.

    4. The manifestation of God’s love.

      1. You see, God’s love does not preclude God’s justice.

      2. According to God’s justice, we all have a death sentence hanging over our heads.

      3. Someone might say, “That’s not loving! Why would a loving God do that?”

      4. To that I say, “You’re right. But guess what? He provided a way out!”

      5. You see, that’s the love of God. No, He didn’t create a problem just to solve it.

      6. He created us, creatures capable of choice, and we choose the bad.

      7. You see, we created the problem. But the very nature of God prevents Him from accepting us when we have chosen the bad. In doing so we have rejected Him.

      8. We have chosen sin, wickedness—as one author put it, moral crimes.

      9. He nature is perfectly just and perfectly loving.

      10. This creates a quandary, a dilemma—how can you reconcile perfect justice with perfect love?

      11. Answer: Jesus.

      12. He made a way for us to be reconciled to Him, so that we don’t have to endure the punishment we all deserve.

      13. That’s what it means to be a propitiation, an atoning sacrifice.

      14. He loved us so much that He was willing to allow His Son to die for us, appeasing His perfect justice by showing His perfect love.

      15. Jesus also loved us so much that He was willing to die for us.

      16. Because of His love for us, we should love, too.

    5. The manifestation of our love.

      1. Did you know that Jesus died for you?

      2. He also died for the bum on the street and the man trying to cross the border.

      3. He died for President Trump and President-elect Biden.

      4. He died for Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg.

      5. He died for the person in the grocery line with you, for your cashier or server, for your next door neighbors.

      6. He died for men, for women, for black, for white, and everything in between.

      7. He died for the homosexual, for the adulterer, for the criminal and the thief.

      8. He died for sinners like you and like me.

      9. So because He did that, how should we treat them?

      10. Well, it means we treat them like a human being, with dignity and respect.

      11. This does not mean we support them in their sinful behaviors.

      12. There is a difference between feeding and clothing a homosexual versus baking a cake at their wedding.

      13. One action shows love for the person caring about their basic needs, the other supports them in their sin.

      14. We are to love the world, but we are not to love the world.

      15. We love the people, the souls of these men and women who are before us.

      16. But we are not to love that which is hostile to Christ.

      17. We often express this concept: hate the sin, not the sinner.

      18. After all, one of His commands is to repent of our sins, to turn away from them.

      19. This, after all, is how we know we love the God’s children, by keeping His commandments.

  3. Keep His Commandments (5:1-3).

    1. John says so much about love in this book.

      1. It almost feels criminal to overlook some of the great things he says.

      2. But for time’s sake, we are going to consider what the next chapter says.

    2. There is a connection between love and obedience.

      1. Summarizing what John said about love between 4:11 and 5:1, he is continuing to urge his readers to love one another.

      2. He who loves God must love his brother also” (4:21).

      3. This is a commandment from God, John says.

      4. So how do we know if we are loving our brother? By obeying His commands.

      5. As we have discussed a few weeks ago in our Bible class on Mark, all the commands of God and be categorized into two columns: 1) Love God and 2) love your neighbor.

      6. So if we are to follow these commands, we will automatically be loving one another.

      7. What are some commands to obey?

    3. We discussed some, to show dignity and respect to all people.

    4. To take care of their material needs.

      1. Of course, this doesn’t mean taking everyone under your wing.

      2. We are not all capable of doing that; we have finite resources.

      3. But we can help people out from time to time.

      4. In fact, John talks about that a little earlier (3:17).

      5. It even gets to the point where one may be asked to give up his life for his brother, just as Christ gave up His life for us (3:16).

      6. In any event, if we can help, we should.

    5. Not causing him harm.

      1. That’s the idea we see in Rom. 13:10 – love does no harm to a neighbor.

      2. Paul here quotes from the Ten Commandments, that they illustrated not causing harm to others.

      3. But these are all negative commands, don’t commit adultery, murder, steal, or covet.

      4. There is the positive: honor your mother and father!

      5. The point is, love will prevent us from doing such wicked things to our neighbors and motivate us to help them as well.

    6. Taking care of their spiritual needs.

      1. Unlike material needs, spiritual needs can be fulfilled from a never-ending resource.

      2. Granted, how you help to fulfill those needs requires time and energy which are finite, but the ultimate Source from which we draw is not.

      3. The ultimate show of love is to share the gospel with someone, or to get to know someone with that in view.

      4. Someone might say, “That’s not loving, it suggests they aren’t saved.”

      5. Well, they might not be. And isn’t it more loving to warn someone of the coming judgment than to let them go through life without your giving them that opportunity to get right with God?

      6. Sure people have the internet today to help them learn about what to do.

      7. But have you seen the internet? No, they need sound help and guidance.

      8. And you may be the only person who can provide that or guide them to someone who can provide that.

      9. You see, the bridge is out. There are no warning signs except for this Book and your word. But there are also dozens of other signs that tell them the bridge is fine. It’s your job to prove to them the reality of the situation, show them what the true sign says before they fall to their death. Hopefully, prayerfully, they listen.

      10. I can think of nothing more loving, can you?

    7. Sure, there are other ways in which we might show love by obeying the commandments.

      1. Be loving and kind, patient and meek.

      2. But that’s a lesson for another day.

Conclusion.

  1. Love is of paramount importance.

    1. It drives us to obey God and be kind to our neighbors.

    2. It is our main motivating factor behind every great thing we do.

    3. Jesus refers to love as the greatest commandments, to love God and to love one’s neighbor.

    4. So of course, God is love.

    5. Knowing Him, means knowing what love is truly about.

  2. It’s not an easy topic.

    1. We could spend hours upon hours studying the Scriptures about this.

    2. But John spends a great deal of time on it, and for that, I’m grateful.

    3. Ultimately, he informs us that His commands are not burdensome.

    4. If we love God, we’ll do what He says, and it’s not too much for us.

    5. While we might take quite a bit of some studying love, ultimately knowing what His commands are and doing them is relatively easy.

    6. Particularly when it comes to what we need to do to be saved.

  3. Let’s be saved today!