Presentation 08

Presentation 08

Presentation 08

IntroductionLove is a great themes in this epistle and one of the three tests of a genuine Christian profession. Indeed this is the third time John has returned to this subject; in 2v7-11 love is related to light; in 3v11-18 to life and now in these verses to God's nature. John does not identify a quality God possesses but is making a statement about the essence of God's being.

The Godhead is a 'love family' the most basic characteristic of which is a dynamic relationship of love; the Father's love for the Son and the Spirit, the Son's love for the Spirit and the Father, the Spirit's love for the Father and the Son. God loves within his own being because his very nature is love. From this John draws out three important implications.

Presentation 08

God Is LoveFirst in v7-8 we are encouraged to love one another because God is love. The Christian's ability to display love establishes the family likeness and connection. We are used to identifying children by their parents traits. We talk about them being a chip of the old block! Their mannerisms, speech and behaviour often reveal their identity.

What is true of the natural world is also true of the spiritual world. Jesus taught that by our behaviour we reveal who we belong to. As the religious leaders were plotting Jesus murder he challenged their identity in Jn. 8v42-47.

Presentation 08

God Is LoveDo not misunderstand John's meaning when he says 'everyone that loves is born of God.' For the question of the good pagan arises here. What of the man who loves yet wants nothing to do with Christ or the gospel? Do John's words apply to him? Clearly not. The love in view is 'agape' which describes God's self-sacrificial love, not a natural love but something which only God can impart. Much of what passes for love has self-regarding motives behind it. E.g. Mrs Fidget. Great deeds of philanthropy and even martyrdom are not necessarily expressions of agape love which is only possible where self is broken. Self can only be broken by the cross of Christ. No one can love in the N.T. sense of the term outside of the influence of the gospel.

Presentation 08

God Is LoveSome ask, 'Should love not come naturally to us if we are God's children?' Perhaps, but it will not come automatically. We must exercise it. Let me illustrate. At a musical recital we find the orchestra seated around the conductor with instruments poised. All the potential is there for fine music. But no sound is made until the conductor raises his baton. His action brings the players into the performance.

In the Christian life, faith is the conductor which draws out the graces that God has worked in, love joy peace etc. For this reason the Puritans described faith as a 'drawing grace'. Faith calls out and develops the fruit of the Spirit in our lives – a point Peter makes in 2 Pet.1v3-9.

Presentation 08

God Is LoveTurn on a kitchen tap and no water will come out if the pipe has not been connected to the mains. Only if the connection has been made will the act of 'turning on' be of any value. Similarly, we need to be connected to the source of love before love flows. But even then the fruit of the Spirit cannot be developed without hard work and conflict. This is implied by Peter's word's 'add to your faith'.

Paul teaches that the fruit of the Spirit is found in the context of conflict and struggle, 'For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other.‘ Gal.5v17

Presentation 08

God Is LoveLoving others often means refusing to allow their attitude to influence ours. Loving and liking are not the same. Love is our duty whether we feel like it or not. We lose the battle when we fail to die a particular death.

It is easy to love loveable people whom we have a lot in common with but what of the unlovable. But does God love us because we are loveable or because he is love? You answer because he is love! That's right, and in this sense we also must be god-like. This is only possible when self is crucified. The command to love is a summons to take up our cross and follow Christ, to deny self.

Presentation 08

Love Gives The BestIf the development of God's love in our lives does not come about automatically but in the context of conflict, then what equips us for this conflict. It is motivation. Football commentators often comment that the reason an unlikely team won their match was that they wanted to win more than the highly fancied opposition - they were the more highly motivated!

John provides us with the supreme motivation for loving others with agape love in v9-11. God's love is seen in the fact that he sent his Son to be our Saviour. The cross is the historical focus of God's love.

Presentation 08

Love Gives The BestThe O.T. points forward to the cross, the N.T. points back to it as the ultimate measure of God's love. Children often show how much they love by stretching out their arms to their full extent saying, 'this much'. When we ask God how much do you love us? He points to the outstretched arms upon the cross and says, 'That much'. The cross provides us not only with motivation but lays upon us an obligation to act in a similarly. Cf. 2Cor. 5.v15 ‘He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.' We owe it to a loving Father not to slander his name by denying his love in our human relationships. It is impossible to live for oneself and to love too. Love involves the giving of oneself, expending ones life for others not mollycoddling it and clinging on to it.

Presentation 08

Love Gives The BestDo you see the infinite moral obligations that the love of the cross lays upon us as Christians? Can we really turn away from the outstretched arms of God and face our fellow Christians and hold our fingers a couple of centimetres apart and say,'I love you that much, my love not only requires little effort it involves little in the way of self sacrifice.'

Do we see ourselves as a people who are under obligation to love because we have been loved so sacrificially and so comprehensively by God?

Presentation 08

The Indwelling Of GodV12 provides evangelistic incentive to love. For when we love one another, God's love is perfected in us, it becomes more clearly recognisable. This is profoundly practical. The opening phrase of v12 seems a little out of place: 'no one has seen God at any time'. Cf. Jn.1v18 No one has ever seen God...[in the gospel he goes on to say] but God the one and only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known’.

Do you see the significance of that? The coming of Jesus, love incarnate, into the world made God visible to men and men and women were drawn to him.

Presentation 08

The Indwelling Of GodSimilarly, throughout the church age, although God remains invisible, He may nevertheless be seen when his love operates within the lives of his people. Love becomes incarnate! His indwelling in us, if real, cannot be hidden.

This is what Schaeffer described as 'the ultimate apologetic'. Questioning people are hungering for spiritual truth. Uncertainties plague their minds, but to encounter love incarnate dismantles their difficulties sweeping away so many of their intellectual arguments in an instant.

Presentation 08

The Indwelling Of GodA missionary couple worked in N. Africa sought to share the truths of God’s word with many hardened Muslims making little impact. When it was time for their children to be educated they were obliged to sent them back to the U.K. tears streaming down their faces as the ship carried their precious cargo home.

That day a Muslim mullah visited and asked to be instructed in the Christian faith. The reason he gave was, 'If you love us enough to endure the separation from your family whom you also so obviously love then I want to hear why you have come and what you have to say.' He was responding to love incarnate!

Presentation 08

The Indwelling Of GodNo greater challenge for the believer can be found in the whole epistle. The great need of the church is to make Christ known, by being indwelt in such an unmistakable way that people are bound to see him. Not that they necessarily recognise him at first; but they would certainly be conscious of an indefinable 'something' that would grip and impress, and lead to eventual recognition and encounter with the living Lord! And this as a result of the perfecting of his love in us. One of God's purposes in drawing us to himself, that we might make him known. Are we communicators of his love?

Presentation 08

The Assurance God GivesIn v13-21 one further important consequence of displaying God's love in our lives is emphasised. A growing assurance of belonging to God. First, in v13 John speaks of God giving us his Spirit. Christ's coronation grace gift to his church, which we need to live as God's children in the world.

It is the Holy Spirit who produces the love of God in us which we then direct towards our fellow Christians. He works in all sorts of ways to make us like Jesus. When God indwells his people we can expect to see the characteristics of his own life - his holiness, his mercy, his love.

Presentation 08

The Assurance God GivesChristians sometimes marvel at the inner constraint they find to love other people unselfishly, when previously they may have treated them dismissively or been fearful of them. That is an evidence of the Holy Spirit at work - a work that strengthens the believers’ assurance of salvation.

Where the life of God is at work, its sweetens bitterness, melts hardness and promotes love. Where an individual discovers no evidence of these things they have good cause to question the genuineness of their profession.

Presentation 08

The Assurance God GivesSecondly, note that the reality of the Spirit's work in the lives of Christians is linked to the witness of the apostles v14. Only by receiving and responding to apostolic truth concerning God's plan of salvation focused upon the person of Christ that we can experience the Spirit making us like Jesus.

The witness of the apostles could not be separated from the witness of the Spirit. Apostolic truth builds a bridge into our hearts over which the Spirit of God comes and does his transforming work, which in turn furnishes us with a strong assurance of our salvation. We respond to the truth the Spirit does his work and then he points to the changes and says, 'Clear evidence of being a child of God’.

Presentation 08

The Assurance God GivesIn v15 John points to the relationship between an outward confession of an inward conviction. John looks beyond an empty, verbal profession to one that involves personal faith and commitment. Only then can we experience the assurance of belonging. Where there is a real relationship with God, the Spirit of God not only assures us that we belong, he assures us of the reality of God's love upon which we can increasingly rely cf. v16.

Sometimes if we lose someone dear to us or we are denied something upon which we have set our heart, or we find ourselves in circumstances from which we see no way out we may ask, ‘Does God really care?’ How do we deal with that?

Presentation 08

The Assurance God GivesThink of a man and woman who exchange marriage vows, solemn promises which say their love can be relied upon whatever may happen - ‘for better or worse; for richer or poorer; in sickness and in health’. They express a love that is still to be tested through all the changing scenes of life and as such theirs is a commitment of faith which is yet to be tested.

Experience of God's love is a bit like that. God is love and he has committed himself to us. Only as we live in a relationship of trust and obedience with him do we discover that we can rely on his love more and more. Sometimes we go through life's testings for this very reason, because the God who loves us wants us to rely on him more completely and to trust him more fully.

Presentation 08

The Assurance God GivesA persuasion of God’s love provides boldness to face the day of judgement 16b-17 for our confidence rests not in our own performance but in the perfect righteousness of Christ. This is why there need be no fear in his heart v18. 'There is now no condemnation…’ Rom.8v1

This is very practical. We love because he first loved us. We are delivered from the natural fear of judgement by our knowledge of God’s love that saves us. And one of the tests of assurance that we truly belong to God is that we demonstrate our professed love for him by loving our brother. It is not enough to say, 'I have no hate in my heart for my brother.' Clearly, 'not hating‘ is not the same as loving. To love one’s brother is to let one’s heart go out to him when he is in need.

Presentation 08

ConclusionDo you see why John places such store on love. It lies at the very heart of Christianity because it lies at the very heart of God. It is the family likeness which God is looking for. And he has given us not only the incentive to love but the enabling to love For God's love is resident in the hearts of his people. It is a love which brings tremendous reassurance and confidence to his people. But it is not there only to assure! It is to be communicated to others. It is something which we for our part need to work out. The call to love is a call to crucify self, to be turned inside out, to face a world of need and to meet it with God's own love!