Sunday,
September 29, 2013
* I did not preach the sermon
in this form. Some of it was left out;
some other things were added. If you
want to hear what was actually preached, listen to these two files...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rk1lddoncpgfjhh/9%20-%2029%20%20Let%20Us%20Love%20One%20Another%20%20%231.mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h71qksvg11klu97/9%20-%2029%20%20Let%20Us%20Love%20One%20Another%20%20%232.mp3
LET US LOVE ONE
ANOTHER
I John
For the past two weeks we have been
looking at I Cor. 13, commonly referred to as "the love
chapter." I have stressed that the
location of this chapter is no accident.
Paul deliberately spoke about love in relation to the gifts of the
Spirit. That was necessary because as
the gift-rich church of Corinth exercised the gifts, there was a great lack of
love. Our general outline has looked
like this...
Love
Is the Context: How shall we exercise
the gifts of the Spirit? In the context
of love
Love
Is the Catalyst: What will prompt us to
exercise the Spirit's gifts? Love
Love
is the Test: How do we know if it is
truly a spiritual gift? Does it
demonstrate love?
Let's take time this morning to read
I
Cor. 12:31-13:8...
But
earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. 13:1
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have
become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all
faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is
kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does
not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.
But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues,
they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
I trust that you are able to see
that love is the key. Paul made it very
clear that the exercise of any or all of the gifts apart from love is
useless. Love is that God-given quality
that stands above every gift and above all the gifts combined. It is the more excellent way that puts the
gifts of the Spirit in proper perspective.
Remember that the Spirit who distributes the gifts according to His own
pleasure is the Spirit who produces in us the fruit of the Spirit, and the
first and foremost aspect of that fruit is love. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace..." (Gal. 5:22). When we
truly love one another, we will be motivated to use the Spirit's gifts to
express that love. As we do, the
emphasis will not be upon the gifts, but upon the Lord and His love.
Having said that, we must now ask
the question: "What is it that
hinders us from loving one another?"
That question might possibly prompt you to ask another question: "Pastor, are you saying that we don't
love one another?" Two weeks ago I
tried to emphasize the fact that when it comes to loving one another, we have
much to learn. Brothers and sisters,
it's the truth. We are very weak when it
comes to loving one another.
As you think about that assessment,
let me give you a word of caution. Don't
evaluate our love for one another by comparing us to other churches. If you want a measuring stick, go to the New
Testament. There you will be confronted
with the example of the Christians in Macedonia. Though their own poverty made it difficult
for them to make ends meet, they joyfully sent a generous offering to the
saints in Jerusalem, whom they had never met.
It is no wonder that the Roman historian Tertullian said of the Christians
in the second century, "Oh how they love one another."
So what is it that hinders us from
loving one another? I don't pretend to
know all the answers, but I am deeply convicted that the Holy Spirit wants to
give us insights from I John. Again, I
make no claim to be the only one, or even the primary one, who can discover
those insights. That is why I have been
urging you this week to read I John. As
the people of God, let's come to the Word, expecting our Lord to speak to us
for His glory.
Brothers and sisters, I believe much
of our problem in loving one another does not come from direct dis-obedience
nor from a lack of desire. Much of our
difficulty is due to a lack of understanding.
We talk about God's love, but do we really understand it? Of course, we will never understand it
perfectly. That is one of the things
that is so glorious about the love of God -- it is inexhaustible. Nevertheless, if we don't know what this love
is, how can we express it to one another?
Before you write me off and conclude that you understand this love well
enough, stay with me while we work through some of these glorious passages in I
John.
Last week I shared with you that I
believe the Lord will call us to repentance for our lack of love for one
another. Perhaps there is more truth in
that than I realized. The actual Greek
word that is translated "repent" literally means "to change the
mind." Of course, true repentance
will result in a change that goes far beyond the mind, but it begins with a
change of mind. As Spurgeon put it,
"It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character,
which makes the man love what once he hated and hate what once he
loved." Paul said, "And do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind..." (Rom. 12:2). Brothers
and sisters, this idea of loving one another is an area where we desperately
need to have our minds renewed. And that
is exactly why we are going to spend our time in the Word this morning,
specifically in I John.
Suppose we had an enemy who didn't
want us to love one another. Do you
think he would whisper to us, "Hate that woman"? "Despise that young man"? No, if he did that, we would recognize him as
the enemy and would flee from his suggestions.
But what if he carefully designed a counterfeit to rival God's love? What if he made it such a good thing that it
appeared to be godly? Do you think we
might fall for such a counterfeit? That
is much of our problem. Love is such a
dominant theme in the world that if we are not saturated with the Word of God,
then we inevitably are influenced by the world's concept of love. That concept is not ugly and repulsive, but
neither is it the kind of godly love we encounter in I Corinthians 13 and I
John.
So what do the authorities do when
they train their agents to sniff out counterfeits? I am told that the best strategy is to be so
familiar with the real thing that you can spot anything that deviates in the
slightest detail. So we will not spend
most of our time looking at the world's concept of love, but we will give our
attention to discovering what God's Word says about this love. And there is no better place to look than
John's writings. In these five chapters,
John uses the word "love" some 46 times.
So let's look at some of the
characteristics of love in I John. We
have already read a large portion of the letter, so we will just plunge right
into it.
I.
Love Is Our Duty -- God Commands It
Immediately someone is bound to say,
"You can't command love." No,
I can't, but God can. Deut.
6:4-5, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You
shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with
all your strength." And as you know
so well, when asked what was the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus quoted
this exact injunction. His addition,
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself" was a quotation of His
Father's command from Lev. 19:18.
Now John the apostle, taking His
cues from Jesus, commanded that same love.
3:11, "For this is the message that you heard from the
beginning, that we should love one another." 3:16, "By this we know love,
because He laid down His life for us.
And we ought to lady down our lives for the brethren." Do you hear those words "should"
and "ought"? They are words of
command. 4:7, "Beloved, let
us love one another." 4:11,
"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another." 4:21, "And this
commandment we have from Him: that he
who loves God must love his brother also."
God commanded love through His Son Jesus, and He did the same through
the apostle John.
"But I still don't
understand. How can God command
love? Love isn't something we can turn
off and on." That raises the
question: "What is love? What is this love of which Jesus and John
spoke so often?" The fact that God
commands this love helps us to better understand it. You see, the kind of love this world
advertises can't be commanded. I am not
saying that all the kinds of love in this world are bad, just that none of them
measure up to the agape love we find
in the New Testament. By the way, I
might use that word agape from time
to time. It is used quite often in
Christian circles to identify this specific love of God we find here in I John,
on the lips of Jesus, and in Paul's love chapter, I Cor. 13. ________, could anyone command you to fall in
love with your wife? How many years ago
was it? It had nothing to do with a
command, did it? ________, I'm not
saying it wasn't a good thing; I am just stating that it isn't the kind of love
of which John is speaking.
Okay, let's state the obvious --
love is not a feeling. Can love include
feelings? Yes. Is love ever emotional? Absolutely.
Nevertheless, the core of this
love is not feeling. Because we have been
influenced so much by the world, we tend to drift toward the attitude: "You either love someone or you don't.
There really isn't much you can do about it." That kind of attitude treats love like it is
some kind of chemical reaction over which we have no control. That is the farthest thing from the concept
of God's love.
Someone has put it well in this
little statement: "Love is a
verb." Rather that asking you,
"Do you love others?" it would
be better for me to ask you, "Are you loving others?" Do you see the difference? The second question: "Are you loving others?" suggests
action. God's love is an attitude that
always leads to action. We see this in
the world's best-known Bible verse:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son..." (John 3:16). Because He
loved, He gave. Amy Carmichael made a
little statement that went something like this:
"You can give without loving, but you can't love without
giving." It's true. Love that doesn't give isn't love. That is exactly what John was saying in I
John 3:16-18, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life
for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But
whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his
heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children,
let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."
Not only is love not a feeling, but
we learn from 3:18 that love does not consist of words. "Let us not love in word or in tongue,
but in deed and in truth." Some of
you are aware that what James says in two verses, James greatly expands in the
second chapter of his little letter. The
difference is that James is exposing a counterfeit faith, while John is working
to undermine a counterfeit love. So is
it wrong to tell another that you love him or her? No, not at all, but always remember that
words are cheap. If they are not
supported by action, they can be worse than nothing.
So this agape love from God is not
contrary to feelings, nor is it opposed to affectionate words, but the
essential ingredient of this love is giving, the giving of self. This love may generate wonderful feelings and
gentle words, but the feelings and words can never give birth to this
love. As we have said many times before,
God's love within the believer is an attitude that actively seeks God's best
for the other person, and that has special meaning within the body of
Christ.
Wednesday evening we were looking
again at I Cor. 13, considering the nature of this agape love. During our discussion, someone mentioned
another passage from I John which deals with love and commands. Let's read I John 5:1-3...
Whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him
who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love
the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is
the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not
burdensome.
God commands us as His children,
even commanding us to love, but His commands are not burdensome. How can this be? How is it possible that love can be our duty
and that duty not be a burden upon us?
We will be answering this question, as we continue to examine what John
says about this agape love. Love is our
duty, but love is much more.
Brothers and sisters, if we are
going to effectively love one another, we must understand that God commands
love. And because this love can be
commanded, it does not consist in feelings and words. Love gives.
Jesus summed it up with the words, "If you love me, keep my
commandments" (John 14:15).
II.
Love Is Our Heritage -- We Love Him Because He First Loved Us (4:19)
We inherit many things from our
parents and grandparents. You may be
thinking, "No, my parents didn't have much to leave me." I'm not talking about physical things you can
see with your eyes; I'm speaking of something much deeper. Regardless of the size of our parents'
physical estate, we have an heritage.
One of the definitions of "heritage" is "something
transmitted or acquired from a predecessor." We might say, "Sarah acquired a love of
the outdoors from her mother; that is part of our heritage."
Brothers and sisters, we have a rich
heritage from our heavenly Father, and part of that heritage is love. This principle is stated most concisely in I
John 4:19, "We love Him because He first loved us." I am aware that some of your translations do
not contain the word "Him," but read simply, "We love because He
first loved us." The addition or
omission of the word "Him" is due to a difference in Greek
texts. Whichever way you read it, it is
a true statement. We love God because He
first loved us. We love in general
because He first loved us. The emphasis
is on the truth that God first loved us.
If that were not true, it would be absolutely impossible for us to
demonstrate the godly love that is described here in I John and in I
Corinthians 13. A life of love is the
heritage we have received from our Father.
Now let's go back to chapter 3. I John 3:1-3...
Behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called
children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know
Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed
what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies
himself, just as He is pure.
Can we even begin to understand the
love that our heavenly Father has poured out upon us? We could list all the wonderful things He has
done for us, but John wraps our list up in one great bundle, when he says
"that we should be called the children of God." A man might do many wonderful things for a
boy in the neighborhood. Maybe that
young man has no father of his own. So
you take him to a ball game. You have
him join you and your own sons for a fishing trip. When he is hurting, you sit down and listen
to him, giving him advice when the time is right. But in spite of all the things you do, he
isn't like your sons. You're not his father. But what if you made him your own son? What if you adopted him and he became as much
your son as the other boys you had raised from birth? This one act of love would overshadow all the
other things you had done for him. Try
to let this sink in -- if you are in Christ Jesus, then God has made you His
child. To that John says,
"Wow! What kind of love is
this!"
This concept becomes more and more
powerful as we continue to come to a better understanding of who God is. It is one thing to be adopted by the man down
the street; it is something else to be adopted by a king. This idea is difficult for us, because we
don't live in a society that is governed by a king, but what if we did. For just a moment transport yourself back to
the days of David, the greatest earthly king who ever ruled over God's
people. He was deeply loved by the
people of the Jewish nation. David was
not only their king, but he was their hero.
Imagine being adopted by this wonderful king.
King David himself understood something of
this concept. Do you remember what it
was like for David before he became king?
Saul was the first king of Israel.
After David killed the giant Goliath, Saul brought David into his court. He took a great liking to this brave young
man. But then something happened. Saul began to realize that David's popularity
with the Israelites was rivaling his own.
As Saul put it, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to
me that have ascribed only thousands.
Now what more can he have but the kingdom" (I Sam. 18:8). Saul was jealous of David, so much so
that he threw a spear at him. But then
Saul came up with a plan. "Then
Saul said to David, 'Here is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as
a wife. Only be valiant for me, and
fight the Lord's battles.' For Saul
thought, 'Let my hand not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines
be against him'" (18:17). Wasn't that a fine way to reward David for
all he had done! When Saul sent his
servants to David, urging him to accept Saul's offer, David responded with
these words, "Does it seem to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law,
seeing I am a poor and lightly esteemed man?" (18:23). Because David had such high respect
for the Lord's anointed, he saw even being the king's son-in-law as a great
honor. If David was in awe of being
son-in-law to a wicked king who was trying to kill him, how much more amazed
are we at being adopted by the Creator and King of the universe, who has poured
out His love upon us?
But that's only part of the
story. What is even more amazing is what
it cost God to adopt us as His children.
This is where we find the love of God to be absolutely amazing. I John 4:9-10, "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. 10 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." God did not just decide it
would be a nice thing to adopt some of us, draw up some papers, and welcome us
to the family. How could the righteous
and holy Creator bring a bunch of wicked God-haters into the family as His sons
and daughters? We were dead in our
trespasses and sins. Could He bring such
death into the family? How could He give
His name to those who despised His name?
There was only one way to rectify the situation, and that was through
the giving of His own Son as a wrath-bearing sacrifice for us. He made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for
us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5:21). Nothing less could fit us for being His children.
When it comes to God loving us, I
have a problem. It isn't that I don't
believe it intellectually. The truth is
well established in my head, but how can I say I truly believe it, if it
doesn't motivate me to love. Make no
mistake about it, the motivation for loving God and others is believing and
receiving His love. Earlier I talked
about repentance being a change of mind.
But understand that repentance never operates alone. As we often say, repentance is one side of
the coin, but what is the other? Faith,
belief. You can't put one side a coin in
your pocket; you have to take both sides.
If repentance is the real thing, it will include belief. Hear me carefully: God is calling us to change our mind about
love and believe that He loves us. The
key is not our love for God, but His love for us. "We love Him because He first loved
us." "This is love, not that
we loved God, but that he loved us..."
When we believe that truth in a deep, practical, biblical way, we cannot
but love. It's our heritage.
Our problem is that we think we
grasp this truth in our mind, but the lack of excitement it stirs deep within
is shocking. We have read and quoted
John 3:16 so many times that we are in danger of losing the shock value of
it. I use the word "shock" on
purpose. "For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son..." Do we have any idea what we are saying? Let me try to illustrate it for us. Suppose you have a young son, perhaps 14
years old. You live in a rather rough
neighborhood, and a certain gang has singled out your son and makes a sport out
of harassing him. They shove him around,
take things from him, and call him names.
After a while, they become a bit more aggressive and beat him up. One day you send him out on an errand, and
you know what is going to happen. Sure
enough, on this particular day they ambush him, beat him, and leave him lying
in the street. He's dead. You sent him out there, knowing not only that
these boys would beat him to death, but also knowing that you would adopt into
your family some of those very boys who killed him. That's what God did. It's one thing to forgive, it's another to
make us His sons and daughters.
May He open our minds and hearts to
see the depth of that love.
"Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we
should be called children of God" (3:1).
The scriptures are full of this incredible love God has for
us. Romans 5:6-8, "For when we were
still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even
dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us."
See the picture the hymn writer sets before us...
Could we with ink the
ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on
earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God
above would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll
contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.
Now come back to what we read in
4:9-10. After setting forth this
mind-boggling love the Father has for us, John then says in verse
11, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one
another." This love is our
heritage. We learn it from our
Father. Because He first loved us, we
express this love in our relationships with our brothers and sisters. Yes, love is our duty, but it is far more
than that; it is our heritage. We
learned it from our Father, and we practice that same love for His glory.
When we talk about love being our
heritage, we have to take it a step further.
Think about the family of God and our place in that family. By the way, just in case you don't
understand, let me make it clear that not everyone (not even everyone here this
morning) has been adopted into God's family.
Some of you are still dead in your trespasses and sins. You have no hope and you are without God in
the world (Eph. 2:11). You are in
constant danger of breathing your last breath and descending into eternal
darkness. But praise God for the truth
of John
1:12, "But as many as received Him [Jesus], to them He gave the
right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." Though you are presently under the wrath of
God, it is not too late for you to throw yourself on the Christ who bore your sins. You too can become a child of God. I urge you this very morning to repent and
believe the good news of Jesus. Give up
on yourself and trust Jesus and Jesus alone.
Now back to where I was... Before God adopted any of the human race to
be His own, did He have any children?
Indeed, He did. Jesus is
described as His only begotten Son. How
long had God the Father and Jesus His Son enjoyed this father-son
relationship? For all eternity, for
"in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning
with God" (John 1:1-2). "But
when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman,
born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4-5). Jesus is the eternal Son of God, and
now through Him we are the adopted sons of God.
Though there will always be a distinction between our sonship and His,
that does not mean we are second-class children. In fact, Heb. 2:11 tells us that Jesus is not
ashamed to call us "brothers."
Jesus is our elder brother.
Now come back to I John and notice
the example of our older brother Jesus. 3:16,
"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren." Not only did God
send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, but the spotless Son of God
freely laid down His life for us. Long
before they came to arrest Jesus, He said, "Therefore, My Father loves Me,
because I lay down My life that I may take it again. Not one takes it from Me, but I lay it down
of Myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This
command I have received from My Father" (John 10:17-18). What love we see in Jesus! He went to the cross for us, where the Lord
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. This
too is part of our heritage. We have
experienced the love of the Father, and we also have the loving example of our
older brother Jesus.
Conclusion
Yes, love is our
duty. We are commanded not only to love
God, but also to love one another. But
these commandments to love are not a burden to us; they are a joy. Remember how Jesus connected love and
obedience. John 14:15, "If you
love Me, keep My commandments." But
what did Jesus say immediately after that?
"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper,
that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He
dwells with you and will be in you" (14:16-17). It is the Holy Spirit who not only gives us
the ability to love, but He is also the One who makes it a joy.
Praise God that love is far more
than our duty; it is also our heritage.
"We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19). Not only does the Father love us, but so does
His Son Jesus. "I am crucified with
Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). Jesus loved me and gave Himself for me
personally. Since the Father loves me,
the most natural thing in the world is for me to long to demonstrate the same
kind of love. And the most supernatural
thing is for His Spirit who lives in me to give me the power to do it. Jesus demonstrated that same love, and I am
being conformed into His image day by day.
He did the will of the Father, and that will was to love even the
unlovable. I John 2:6, "He who
says he abides in him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked." I ought to love like Jesus loved, and I know
God wouldn't command me to do something He will not enable me to do.
I do believe the Lord is calling us
to repentance and to faith. I am not
going to ask you to get on your knees and pray some specific prayer of
repentance this morning. There is a time
for that, but I don't believe that's where we are right now. Rather, I am calling us to cry out to God
with all our hearts in these days. And
what do we cry? "Father, open my
eyes to the fullness of your love. Let
me truly see how much you love me. Bring
to life the scriptures I know so well."
I am not suggesting that you put this on your prayer list and remember
to mention it every day. I am urging you
to live in this prayer day and night until the Lord answers. Three or four years ago we spent some time
looking at fasting. Yes, this might well
be a time to fast and pray. For us right
now, I know of nothing more important than letting our Father renew our minds
concerning His love for us.
Jesus put it this way, as He poured
out His heart to His Father that last night on earth, "I in them, and thou
in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (John
17:23). Jesus' words reveal that
God the Father loves us, His children, just as He loved Jesus. May our Lord give us grace to receive and
rejoice in that good news.
Let's pray right now...
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