Share the Love (1 John 4.7-21)

Sermon by: Robert Austell; January 14, 2018 - 1 John 4:7-21

:: Sermon Audio (link) :: Click link to open and play in browser; right-click to save. Sermon audio is also accessible as a free podcast in iTunes. Search for "Good Shepherd Sermons" or "Robert Austell." 



::: Scripture and Music ::
Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service (from the Sacred Harp)
Here is Love (Lowry/Rees)
O Church Arise (Getty/Townend)

:: Sermon Manuscript (pdf) ::
This "manuscript" represents an early draft of the sermon. Some weeks the spoken version varies more than others from the early manuscript. Nevertheless, if you'd prefer to read than to listen, this is provided  for that purpose.

Typically, I would recommend the audio over the written version, but I think I'd recommend the written manuscript this week.  :)

Today we are starting a new series on grace. And let me tell you what steered me towards that topic. This past Fall our theme was the Body (of Christ) and we looked at how each of us fits in and to one another as followers of Christ and as the Church. There was a lot of focus on obedience, stewardship of ourselves, and following Christ. Then in Advent we looked at Jesus’ relatives and how they listened and paid attention to what God was doing, and they responded with obedience and faith. And I had folks express two things: appreciation for the call to pay attention to God and put God’s will and Word first in life. The other thing was a mixture of intimidation, sense of unworthiness or failure, and guilt. And I know that is not God’s intent for you, His beloved children. Just as a good parent wants the best for their children, a parent is full of understanding, forgiveness, and second and third chances when those loved little ones mess up or fall short. It’s a both/and kind of thing, with parenting as well as with God. I think it is no accident that Jesus gave us the name ‘Abba’ for God, to evoke that parenting imagery, to help us understand both the high calling and the deep and wide embrace of grace.

So, grace. I think it will be a good and encouraging follow up to the true messages of the Fall. See over on the wall of the sanctuary? (the “truth and grace” banner) We always need to hear and hold those together. So over the next few weeks I want to look at some different passages that I hope will help us understand and accept God’s loving grace towards us as we continue trying to listen, obey, and follow. Today we are looking at a particular kind of grace – that is the mirroring kind of grace found in blessing one another. In the old covenant with Abraham, God tells Abraham he is blessing him so he will be a blessing to the nations. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “forgive as we forgive others.” Blessing others is extending the grace God has shown us towards others, extending the love God has shown us towards others. And that sharing of love as a blessing is what 1 John is talking about in our text this morning.

Saying and Doing

We all know what it feels like to be told what to do. And right here off the bat is one of those sayings. You may have even heard a parent (or preacher) say it to you: “Love each other.” And because parents and preachers and all of us are human, it’s easy to fill in the second part of the saying, “Do as I say… (but not as you do).” But God is not like us. What God SAYS and DOES lines up. And that’s exactly what John unfolds for us in this passage. He starts with this commandment – love each other – but he grounds it not in power and duty, but in the DOINGS of God.

There are a lot of verses in our text today, but there is a relatively straightforward logic to the verses that I want to walk you through. I’d like to do that and then end with a tangible experience and expression of this teaching that I think will bless you.

Here’s the basic sequence of what John is saying:

Let us love one another. (v.7)
Here’s why and how that works. (vv.7-10)
So if that’s all true, then I’ll remind you: let us love one another. (v.11)
You might wonder how you see and experience God’s love: ABIDING w/God. (vv. 12-15)
It also results in confidence and does not produce fear. (vv.16-18)
So again: let us love each other truly and authentically. (vv.19-20)
Once more: love like you’ve been loved. (v.21)

Let’s walk through that. I’ll have the verses on the screen, but you may also find it helpful to follow along in your Bibles and even make notes in the margin.

Living Loved with God

v. 7 – The Main Message: Let us love one another.

The main message is right there in verse 7 and it is: “Let us love one another.” It is also not inconsequential that John addresses his readers as ‘beloved.’ That one word really captures the whole message and I’ll return to it at the end to summarize the whole text. But even without that, note that John includes himself in the command: Let US love one another. It’s not just a “you do this” but a “let’s do this together.”

vv.7-10 – Here’s why and how that works.

Verses 7-10 explain why and then how we are to “love one another.” First there are two positive and one negative explanations as to WHY. Positively, “love is from God” and “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” (v.7) Love is a gift from God and it’s one that also helps identify us as belonging to God and is evidence that we know God. It’s kind of like if one of my children does something very Austell-like. Particularly if you know Heather and me or see us together with our children, you might quickly deduce that they have inherited genetic traits from us and have grown up in the particular environment of our home. I won’t call anyone out by suggesting what those traits might be. But it’s the same way with God. Both in the imago Dei (image of God) stamped on our humanity and in the environment of being adopted sons and daughters through Christ, we are bound to demonstrate our belonging and our closeness to God when we love, because as John will tell us in v. 8, God is not just loving, He IS love – the author, source, and giver of true Love.

In that same next verse 8, we also read the negative WHY we are to love. It is because the one who does not love does not know God, or at the very least acts against both the nature and nurture that God’s children should bear. In fact, John will return to this family imagery a little bit later when he introduces the term ABIDE, which means to make a home with.

As to the HOW it works to love one another, John tells us in verse 9 that the love of God was manifested – made known and shown – in us BY THIS: that God sent His son into the world that we might live through Him. In other words, we know how to love one another because God showed us how to do that. And he did that by sending Jesus among us. Verse 10 elaborates and says that love is known and shown IN THIS: not in our love for God, but in God’s loving action toward us, specifically in making propitiation for our sin. That’s the fancy theological way of saying God showed us grace: doing what we could not do in order to restore our relationship. That’s forgiveness, mercy, love, and grace – undeserved and offered freely.

The answer to why and how we can love each other is simply this: God showed us how, not just in a lesson, but by actually loving us. That’s how we know love and how we know how to show love.

v.11 – So if that’s all true, then I’ll remind you: let us love one another.

So, like a good preacher, John revisits his main idea. He says that if you are tracking with all that – if all that rings true – then remember, the point is this challenge to love one another. It’s not just to increase your head knowledge about love or even about God; rather it is about doing, about loving like God loves. He says it simply, “If God so loved us, beloved, we also ought to love one another.” (v. 11)

vv.12-15 – You might wonder how you see and experience God’s love: ABIDING w/God.

What comes next is like the answer to an unspoken question. And it’s a good question. It’s like John anticipated how our minds work. And this is a familiar question to me. People often ask me, “How can I experience God?” All this talk about loving because God has loved us, but where is God? How do I see Him? How do I FEEL this love? Especially if it’s supposed to be the basis of my own love for others…

This is the question John answers starting in verse 12. He says, “No one has seen God at any time” but he continues… “if we love one another, God ABIDES in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (v. 12) And I add in parentheses: “and will be seen or experienced.” In other words, if the invisible truth is that we love because God has loved us, then when we love, we make visible the invisible truth. That’s when God abides or makes a home with us and His love is perfected or made known in and through us. Does that seem crazy? Here’s an analogy. Physics tells us that air resistance is sufficient to hold aloft an airplane with the right speed, weight, and wing structure. We are able to fly because of the invisible qualities of air. When we choose to fly, we make that invisible truth visible because we see the plane aloft riding on the ‘invisible’ air. It’s like that with God’s love. God may be invisible to us, but the reality of His love makes our love possible. And when we love, we make visible the reality of His love for us.

John continues with some more examples. We know and experience God making a home with and in us BY THIS: because of His Spirit. (v. 13) That’s the Spirit of God that scripture says dwells within us and alongside us. In John 3, Jesus says the Spirit is invisible like the wind, but we can see and feel the effects of wind when we see leaves and branches moving because of its influence. So it is with us. So John says here that not only does our loving other make visible the invisible God, but our experience and testimony of Jesus also makes God’s love visible. Remember… God showed his love by sending Jesus into the world for our sin. When we believe and confess that – when we ‘testify’ to it, we also make God’s love visible.

vv.16-18 – It also results in confidence and does not produce fear.

John says there is also very tangible evidence of making a home or abiding together with God. That evidence is known BY THIS: we have confidence and we do not fear. (vv. 17-18) That confidence doesn’t come from our perfect behavior or from a false confidence, but because we know that God loves us. And again, we know that because of the one God has sent: Jesus. It’s not a boastful or prideful confidence, but it is the kind that is set free from fear of judgment and failure. This is the essence of the grace we are going to talk about for the next month or so. We are commanded to live and love like those who belong to God. But our imperfection and our failure is covered by the love of God in Christ. It is not a license to do whatever we want and flaunt our freedom. But it is the assurance that the measure of our belonging is our love for God, but God’s love for us. And if you can truly ABIDE in that, it is the most freeing thing in heaven or on earth.

vv.19-20 – So again: let us love each other truly and authentically.

So, in verse 19, John repeats the main message: “We love.” But he includes the how, the why, and the reason we can love: “because God first loved us.” (v.19) And he includes a practical example of how to do this truly and authentically. It’s more than the words, “I love God.” If we hate another person, we are not displaying the nature of nurture of God. We are not abiding and we are not living in truth. And John makes a claim that rings very true: “the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (v.20) If we truly are making our home with God, it transforms everything. It doesn’t mean we won’t make mistakes or slip up. But neither does it mean intentionally and wantonly refusing to love, forgive, or show grace to another person.

v.21 – Once more: love like you’ve been loved.

And finally, preacher John makes his point for the fourth and final time in our text for today: “This commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” (v.21) Said more simply: love like you’ve been loved. It is as simple as that. It is also as hard as that, because God has loved you really well. But that love is also patient and kind and forgiving, so don’t wallow in guilt or failure, but in confidence. This IS who you are as a child of God. And God lives in you and has made a home in you. You can do it!

Beloved!

I wanted to end with the word “Beloved,” which John uses a number of times in this text. Once you’ve worked through this passage you realize that it contains the whole gist of what is being said here. John is exhorting his readers to love as God has loved them. But he’s also modeling that whole dynamic by calling them “Beloved.” He is acknowledging (and identifying them) that they are loved by God and also by him (John). He is, himself, loving as God has loved. In the church I attended for several years right after college, my pastor called the congregation, “Beloved,” and it was always so special and affirming. I believed him! I heard God’s love for me as well as his love as my pastor. And that’s what John is doing here.

Love, because God has first loved you and abides with you. Love because God has shown you His love through Jesus, His son. Love, because in doing so you make visible and tangible the love of God for those whom you love. Love, because in Christ that’s who you are and what you are meant to do and be. Amen.

We are going to conclude this sermon with a very special “blessing” from Kathy Larson and the arts ministry at Good Shepherd. I’ll let her tell you about that and I think you’ll see how this is a variation on calling you “Beloved” – and one that you can then share with others in your life.