True Love 3, True Love's Source 1 John 4:7-21

Paul Lee Tan tells the story of a man who arrived in heaven telling Peter how grateful he was to be in such a wondrous place and asking Peter to give him a glimpse of hell so he might appreciate the goodness of heaven even more, which Peter obliged.

In hell the man saw a long table extending as far as the eye could see weighed down with the most delicious of every type of food you could imagine. But everyone seated at the table was thin, gaunt, and malnourished; starving to death. The man asked Peter for an explanation to which Peter replied, "Everyone is required to take food from the table with chopsticks which are 4 feet long. They are so long that no one can reach the food from the table to his mouth, and therefore each one is dying of starvation."

Upon their immediate return to heaven, what should meet the man's eyes but the same scene of a table stretching as far as the eye can see filled with every imaginable food, however, everyone at this table appeared happy and well fed. So the man turned to Peter and said, "With what do they take food from the table?" To which Peter answered, "Only with chopsticks which are 4 feet long." So the man replied, "How is it that everyone in hell is starving to death while all the people in heaven are well fed and happy?" To which Peter replied, "In heaven we feed one another." (Tan, 7700 Illustrations)

- This story encapsulates the truth of our passage this morning: The evidence of true love for God is true love for one another.

- John testifies that our love for God is the source of our love for one another.  ⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

- The love of God is not a possessive love which seeks to have, to get, the object of love for itself. The love of God is a compassionate, consuming love that is concerned for the well-being of others.

- It is a giving love rather than a getting love.

-Those who are God's children will express this kind of love because it is God's nature.

- When we know the God who is love, it will be our deepest desire to express the love we experience in him.

- Love is not God, but God is love. Love summarizes the character of God. We read in John's Gospel, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life"(John 3:16). The death of Jesus Christ on a cross is the ultimate expression of God's love.

- The good news of Jesus crucified, buried, and risen, shows the consuming passion which the God of love has for a lost, broken, and sinful humanity. It shows the lengths to which God was willing to go to give away his love to those who desperately needed it.

- God is the source of our love for one another.

- ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

- By sending Jesus to die, God took the responsibility for giving us the opportunity for new life upon himself. Without God's initiative, we are incapable of initiating a loving relationship with God.

-Romans 5: 8 tells us, "while we were still sinners Christ died for us." And John puts it in a nutshell in verse 19, "We love because he first loved us."

- This is the wonder of God's love, the mystery of his mercy, and the glory of his grace, that he loved us while we were still dead in our sins.

- God is the source of our love for one another.

- God's love is the motivating power in our love for one another.

¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

- If God's children must be holy since he is only, merciful because he is merciful, just because he is just, then it stands to reason that his children must love because he is love. Not because we must but because we may, and we can through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

- Because Jesus has returned to the Father, God shows himself to the world through the love of his children for one another. The strongest witness that God has in the world are Christians who love one another.

- It is the same kind of love which Jesus exercised in the cross bearing suffering in his body on our behalf that Christians must bear for one another on behalf of the world. The witness of love in the suffering is evidence that we are indeed disciples of Jesus Christ.

- The evidence of true love for God is true love for one another.

- God is the source of our love for one another.

- ¹³ We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.

- John reminds his readers that not only have they received God's love through the Holy Spirit but God's truth as well.  The loving Holy Spirit is also the spirit of truth.

- It is the Holy Spirit who persuades people to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and it is the Holy Spirit which empowers believer's to witness to this truth.

- As John writes in verse 15, ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. According to John, there is no tension between Christian truth and Christian love.

- God's love is demonstrated in the suffering, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, however, if Jesus is not God's Son or if this message is not true, then both Christian love and truth fall because they are false.

- Truth and love are inseparable. Confession of faith in Jesus Christ and love for one another together represent the work of the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel in the life of a believer.

- ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

- It is through our experience of faith in Jesus Christ and our relationship with him that we come to more fully understand that God is love and rely on him as a loving God. We also find here in this verse again an expression of God as the source of our love for one another. If you live a life that is filled with love it is because you live your life in God and God is living in you.

- It is this experience of God and his love in our lives and in our relationships with one another that enables us to have confidence about our eternal hope on the day of judgment.

-  As John writes, ¹⁷ In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

- Assured of our relationship with God and with one another because of his love within us we need not fear. In fact, not only is there no reason to fear, but fear ought to be something completely foreign to us because of the confidence which love gives.

- ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹ And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

- Throughout the Gospels Jesus laid down the priority of the greatest Commandments, which is to love God and to love our neighbour. This same command, John reviews over, and over again.

- He tells us the best way to express our love for God who is unseen is to love people whom we can see. John highlights the utter hypocrisy which exists in us when we talk about our love for the Lord and then in the next breath express tremendously un-Christian attitudes toward our fellow believers.

- It is only when we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ with the same love and respect with which we treat ourselves and God that we prove our faith is real.

- The evidence of true love for God is true love for one another

- - The story is told of an American journalist who while visiting China observed a Catholic nun cleaning the wounds of hospitalized soldiers which were infected with gangrene. "I wouldn't do that for $1 million!" remarked the reporter. To which the quiet nun immediately responded without interrupting her work, "Neither would I."

- Only the love of God in the heart of the believer can move us to do what we otherwise would never do out of love for others.

- We show we love God as we love one another.

True Love 2, "True Love Acts" 1 John 3:11-24

- According to an ancient tradition, the elderly apostle John, too weak to walk, was carried in to say goodbye to his congregation. His only counsel to them was this: "Little children, love one another!"

- Another tradition tells of how the people asked for something new, a new commandment, but the aged apostle responded by reminding them of what he had already written, "This is the message you heard from the beginning: we should love one another."

- The apostle John never let go of his conviction and never stopped proclaiming love, true love, but why is love so important?

- What does love do?  What does true love accomplish?  In our passage for today what did John tell his readers true love does?

- Verse 18 slashes straight to the heart of the matter: "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." True love is not shown in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

- Let your actions show Christ's true love in you.

-Love is a verb and a verb describes, conveys or portrays action.

- True love is the flesh and bones of the gospel.

- The story is told of St. Francis of Assisi and how terrified he was of leprosy. One day as he was going down a narrow path there in front of him in the middle of the path stood a snowy white leper.  Inwardly, St. Francis was repulsed.  Ashamed at the response of his heart, St. Francis clothed himself with compassion, ran and embraced and kissed the man, then went on his way. But a moment later he looked back only to discover there was no one there, just the empty path in the warm sunshine. For the rest of his life St. Francis of Assisi was convinced that it was no leper he met on the path, but Jesus Christ himself.

- We Show Christ's love in us by what we do.

- John wrote, ¹² Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.

- Cain proved he hated his brother Abel by murdering him.  In fact, the subtle meaning of the Greek text compares the murder to an animal that's had its throat cut for slaughter. 

-Does that kind of hatred surprise us? Are we shocked by the degree of jealousy and resentment that would drive a man to murder his own brother in cold blood.

- The spiritual children of evil reproduce evil, but the spiritual children of God reproduce love.

- John wrote,¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  - John's words in this verse reflect the very words of Jesus in the 15th chapter of John's Gospel.  "If the world hates you," said Jesus, "know that it hated me before it hated you.

- Bitterness and resentment, anger and jealousy breed hate and Cain became filled with hate toward his brother Abel. Those who love God should expect no less.

- Cain followed the way of the world by rejecting God's advice and murdering his brother whereas Abel found favour with God.

- God accepted Abel sacrifice because of Abel's heart. He was seeking to please God. God rejected Cain's sacrifice because of Cain's heart.  He was seeking to please himself rather than God.

- We Show Christ's love in us by what we do.

- ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵ Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

- Hatred of any sort is strong evidence that someone does not belong to the family of God. True love is of such importance that those who fail to show it show instead that they do not have new life in Christ. As Jesus said, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

- ¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

- John is continuing here to hammer away on his point for his readers.  Love is a verb. True Christian love is a love that works for the good of, and the sake of others.

- In a family movie we have at home about the Pinewood Derby, the dads in the film are all going crazy getting ready for the Derby and a wife confronts her husband with a slogan from one of his advertising campaigns for the company he works for which said, "Self-sacrifice is giving up something good for something better."

-True love sacrifices the self-centered lowercase "G" good things for the other centered uppercase "B" better things. True Christ-like love follows a plan which is carried out intentionally and is deliberately focused on loving others above self.

- ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

- John tells his readers, allow me this paraphrase, "This is where the rubber meets the road. If you really love your brothers and sisters in Christ you need to put your money where your mouth is. Needy people cannot see your love until you meet their need."

- We Show Christ's love in us by what we do.

- True love requires more than lazy lip-service, rather true love meets needs.

- James also says as much, "¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (Jas 2:15-17)

- We Show Christ's love in us by what we do.

- Our trouble is we so often fail in the area of living out the love of Christ. We become hard on ourselves. We become discouraged and we wonder about our faith and we say to ourselves, "If I were really a Christian things would be different.  I should be different.  I should be better.  I should be more loving. I should do this," or" I should do that."  What we really need to do is stop "shoulding" on ourselves and start listening to the advice of John.

-  ¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

- When we lose our way, when we fall down what we must remember is that we serve and love the God who is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. 

- He knows that all things being equal even when we fail to keep the law of love, he knows we intend to keep it.  God knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.

- He also knows that we don't measure ourselves fairly. We often punish ourselves, put ourselves down, and dwell on our failings which is exactly where Satan wants us.

- But God wants us to be honest with ourselves about our failings; deal with them in simple and humble confession, and then get back up again and move on walking deeper in our life with him.

- ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.

- We serve the God who is greater than our consciences and we know that as the divine judge his verdicts are authoritative and just because his knowledge is perfect and he alone is able to assure us that Christ's blood has covered a multitude of sins.

- Because we are washed clean our consciences are clear.

- Whenever our consciences are pricked and we feel the conviction of guilt over sin we need to deal with it right away. That way, we can continue to serve God with a clear conscience as his children in whom he delights.

- His children delight in him and the thought that there might be any tension between obedience and love doesn't occur to them.

- In that kind of relationship, it is natural and automatic for the child of God to come to him and ask for whatever is necessary, whatever is needed.

- ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

- With verse 23 we come full circle. John tells his readers that they can't have true love without faith in Jesus and they can't truly have faith unless they love one another.

- To believe in the name means to believe in his person, his character and nature, and everything he represents.

- Above all things, Jesus Christ represents the self-sacrificial, unconditional love of God.

- Christians are enabled to live out true love because of the gift of new life which they receive from the Holy Spirit.

- As John says, ²⁴ The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

- If you're a believer and you're here this morning with doubts about your ability to love, then John says to you, "You have the Holy Spirit living within you, therefore you have the power to do whatever God wants you to do, including learning to love."

- Many years ago Wycliffe Bible translator Doug Meland and his wife moved into a village of Brazil's Fulnio Indians.  They called him "the white man"  which was no complement because they had been oppressed and exploited by other white men.

- But after the Melands had learned the Fulnio language and began to help the people with medicine and in other ways, they began calling Doug "the respectable white man."

- When the Melands began adapting to the customs of the people, the Indians gave them greater acceptance and spoke of Doug as "the white Indian."

- Then one day, as Doug was washing the dirty, blood caked foot of an injured Fulnio boy, he overheard a bystander say to another: "whoever heard of a white man watching an Indian' s foot before? Certainly this man is from God!"  From that day on, whenever Doug would go into an Indian home, it would be announced: "Here comes the man God sent us."

- We Show Christ's love in us by what we do.

- Show the love of Christ in you by what you do.

July 31, 2011: “ENCOURAGING FORGIVENESS” Ephesians 4:17-32

- The apostle Paul in this passage is comparing and contrasting Gentile, earthly, worldly people with God’s chosen heavenly kingdom people.

- Paul is telling his readers that there are two kinds of people in this world; the worldly and the heavenly.  It seems like he is painting a picture that’s us versus them, but it’s not like that.  

& It’s not like that because within us, each one of us, is that godless worldliness, the worldly “they” Paul wrote about.  And within each one of us is someone who knows Christ, the heavenly “you” Paul wrote about.

- Paul was concerned about this issue in every church.  As he wrote to the Colossians, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you...” (Col. 3:5, ESV).

- We are at war against our own person and Paul says, “You know that stuff inside you that’s earthly & worldly & sinful, Kill it!”

- God is serious about dealing with sin.  The message of the Bible is that sin brings death.  We need to get serious about dealing with our sin too.

- There are two kinds of people in this world: heavenly people & worldly people & both kinds of people are within each of us.

- At the end of our Ephesians passage Paul sums up what heavenly kingdom people need to be like: If you know Christ, forgive as you’ve been forgiven.  We need to forgive; we must forgive because of what’s wrong in us & we need to forgive & we must forgive because of God’s forgiveness & the new life in us.

- You see, we have all been forgiven of a lot of sinful junk and garbage in our lives.  & We have some sin-junk we still have to get rid of, that’s why Paul says we need to stop living like Gentiles who are spiritually lost trying to fill up their lives with empty things and empty pursuits.

- We all used to be worldly people, but we need to stop living like worldly people and start living like the heavenly people we are.

- Worldly people have a darkened understanding to the things of God because they don’t know Jesus & don’t know his forgiveness.

- Worldly people are ignorant of God’s gift because they are hard-hearted; they have braced & propped themselves against the knowledge of God.  Like a fossil that was once flesh, their hearts are petrified, turned to stone.

- Worldly hard-hearted people have lost their sensitivity by refusing to deal with their sin & reconnect with God, in that sense they’ve lost touch with reality & are full of spiritually empty ideas.

- Because they are disconnected from God, worldly people can’t think straight & they come up with all kinds of absurd & ridiculous explanations, justifications, & excuses for not reconnecting their lives to God.

- Worldly people are naturally drawn to sensuality and are absorbed with whatever brings life pleasure.  Since they are disconnected from their Maker, it’s only natural to connect with sensual desires.

- Worldly people are preoccupied with satisfying physical desires because they think there’s nothing deeper or beyond this life.  Many completely worldly people gratify their desires at all costs, without thought of the consequences, living like they are perpetually addicted to one thing or another or trading one addiction for the next thing that comes along that seems better.

- Worldly people live by their impulses & urges.  Their life’s philosophy is: “If it feels good, do it.”

- Is this the kind of life for a Christian, a disciple & follower of Jesus whose citizenship belongs in heaven?

- Since we have learned Christ, we are supposed to understand what life is really all about.

- Christians have not learned Christ to just keep on living the way we have always lived, oblivious to the changes that need to take place on the outside because of the change that has taken place on the inside.  No, we have learned Christ.

- People who learn Christ are no longer Gentile, earthly, worldly people, no longer living after the flesh like an ever hungry, self-satisfying, earthbound caterpillar, but set free to fly in the skies like a beautiful butterfly.

- Heavenly people have no more excuses for worldly living which demonstrates a sick, godless form of self love.

- Heavenly people need to get rid of everything in their lives which reconnects them to their old worldly way of life.  The old way of life is rotten & mouldy & putrid through & through and the only proper response, as we all know all too well, is to get rid of it, put it to death, kill it.

- Worldly people’s lives are in bondage to decay, but heavenly people are set free from rot & death.  If we don’t get rid of our old, sinful, worldly behaviours that connect us to putrid living , then rot will set in again & our lives will not make the impact God intends for them to make.

- Heavenly people prepare themselves for honest living.  They stop lying & stop pretending to be someone/something they are not.

- Heavenly people tell the truth about who they really are.  Truth telling helps maintain the connections we have with our self & others, & Christ.

- Heavenly people know that anger can be used as a tool & a weapon, & know the difference.  They refuse to allow their anger to get the best of them & don’t give the devil the edge he so desperately wants so he can make gains in their lives.

- Heavenly people refuse to let anger fester in their hearts, but find a healthy outlet with God’s help to get rid of resentment & bitterness that Satan can use.

- Heavenly people seek to make an honest living by finding ways of working which contribute to the greater good of society & ways to generate income which is not illegal, unethical or immoral, but God honouring.

- Heavenly people are aware that what they say can either connect them to or disconnect them from others.  They strive to make their conscious thoughts & words into blessings & gifts.  They know that every time they meet their neighbours is an opportunity to extend gift & blessing.

- Heavenly people are aware that God’s Spirit is always within & around them, revering & respecting him with peace & joy, looking for where he is working & working with him.

- The person of the Holy Spirit gives the grace of his gifts & the fruit of his character as an instalment of the eternal, glorious, destiny that awaits those who love God.  & in God’s presence heavenly people will serve him & one another with immortal, resurrection bodies that never die: working, serving, singing, praising, planting, harvesting, in peace & joy forever.

- Bitterness & rage, brawling & slander, evil plans & intentions are at the heart of what is worldly.

- But heavenly people are gentle & kind & compassionate.

- Heavenly kingdom people know how much they have been forgiven.  They know the depths of their own sins & the greatness of God’s gift & they show others the same forgiving courtesy God showed them.

- Heavenly people know how bad they’ve been & they know how badly others need the forgiveness that God makes available in Christ.

- If you know Christ, forgive as you’ve been forgiven.

- All of us were once worldly people desiring only to please ourselves, living for today, but we have learned Christ & are citizens of his heavenly kingdom with glorious eternal destinies.

- If you know Christ, forgive as you’ve been forgiven.

- As worldly Gentile people, we hurt others & hurt ourselves, but as God’s chosen citizens of the kingdom of heaven we are called to restore & heal & forgive.

- If you know Christ, forgive as you’ve been forgiven.