God Revealed His Love To Us And We Reveal God’s Love To The World (1 John 4:7-12)
Our world is very unloving and unkind. And I think we see that with great clarity today.
When the internet and social media began a lot of people believed that this connection with one another would cause us to become better at loving one another. Time and time again the Christian understanding of things is proven right. And here that is the case. They did not understand the wickedness and hatred that lies within the heart of mankind. Rather than bringing people together our connected world has caused people to fight and hate each other out in the open rather than in seclusion.
But that is not all bad. Now that everything is out in the open we have an opportunity. While the world bites and gnaws at everyone and everything Christians have an opportunity to show the world another way.
God revealed His love to us and we are to reveal God’s love to the world.
We Are Commanded To Love One Another (1 John 4:7-8)
The beginning of our text today is a command to love one another (V. 7). But John doesn’t just give the command in a bare manner. He gives us a few reasons why we should be loving one another.
The first reason that John gives is that “love is from God” (V. 7) If this verse were read by itself this would make no sense at all. But taken as a part of this letter it makes complete sense. God is light and Christians are people that live in the light. We have been brought into this fellowship with God and are characterized by righteousness. God is love, and for all the same reasons we are characterized by love.
The second reason that Christians should be loving one another is that Christians have been born of God (V. 7). We are God’s children. Our nature has been changed and now we love God’s people. Our unfeeling heart of stone has been replaced with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36). We now love God and love His people. We are a new creation and love God’s people (2 Corinthians 5:17). God has made us alive and so we love God and love His people (Ephesians 2:1-5). We have been born again and so we love one another. Because we have been born again we have an intimate relationship with God and we love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
And John tells us that those who do not love are the mirror image of those who do. They do not love therefore they do not know God. Another way of saying this is putting everything together. They have not been born again and do not have this fellowship with God. Therefore, they do not love. And it is obvious that they are not from God because God is Himself love and love is from God. If they were from God then they would love one another.
The people have had to deal with the unloving and uncaring character of those who left. The heretics claimed to be from God but did not have love for brothers and sisters in Christ. This was obvious. John’s response to this was simple. The one who loves is born of God. God is Himself love and those who love are the ones that are from God. It is the unbelievers that are the mirror image and do not love God.
The unbeliever can show love of sorts to one another. There is no denying that this is the case. God has graciously made people able to love each other. This is especially the case within families and friendships. But unbelievers do not love with the depth and consistency of Christians. The reason for this is that love characterizes the Christian. It does not characterize the non-Christian. And I think the world knows this intuitively. Unbelievers oftentimes scrutinize the decisions and actions of Christians looking for inconsistencies. And the reason is twofold, 1) They want to see us mess up. 2) They know that we are different. And the reason for that difference is that the Church is characterized by love. Christ loved us so that we could and would love others.
Christian, how are you doing with this? Do you show love to those not like you? Do you show love to those who are different than you? Do you show love to those of different ages or situations?
This has specific reference to those who claim to be believers but are not. That is what John is addressing in this moment. The Christian is commanded to love one another. And the Christian has been born of God, so he does love his brothers and sisters in Christ.
Christ Revealed God’s Love For Us (1 John 4:9-11)
God revealed His love toward us when He sent His Son into the world (V. 9). This love was hidden from us for a time and now it has been revealed to us in the sending of God the Son. God’s only Son was sent into the world so that we could have life in Him. This was done without any of our help, input, or knowledge. Before we loved God, He sent His Son into the world (V. 10). And He did all this so that we could have eternal life.
We oftentimes speak of God’s grace as being unearned. That is certainly true. We did nothing to earn God’s grace. But this doesn’t quite go far enough. I didn’t just not do anything to earn my salvation. I earned the opposite. I earned for myself God’s wrath and justice. I earned for myself the opposite of His love, but He graciously gave it to me through the sending of His Son. God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a perfect life and accomplished everything that I should have accomplished. Then He died on a cross and paid the full punishment for sin on my behalf. He bore in Himself God’s wrath and justice. God poured out my punishment upon His Son, that is called “propitiation”. Jesus took my place and got what I and every other person who would ever believe deserved. God didn’t just send His Son into the world, He sent Him into the world as the propitiation or “wrath-bearing sacrifice” of everyone who would ever believe (V. 10). This is the love that God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ. He then rose from the grave and conquered the power of sin and death and achieved my justification.
Now, if God loves us this way, and He does love Christians this way, then John sees it as a no-brainer to say that this is how we should love one another. The Christian ought to love his brothers and sisters in Christ in the same manner that God has loved us. God has loved us self-sacrificially through the giving of His Son. God the Son sacrificed His own life for our salvation. We should sacrifice of our own selves for the love of our brothers and sisters. We sacrifice monetarily, of our free time, of our stuff for our brothers and sisters in Christ. God the Son gave Himself. We ought to give of our selves to our brothers and sisters in Christ. And He did this for the good of His people. And we ought to do these things for the good of our brothers and sisters.
The world “manifest” simply means to reveal. God’s love was “hidden” so to speak but revealed to us fully in Christ. God sent His Son into the world so that we could have life. He is our propitiation because He bore the wrath and justice of God in our place. This wonderful love and grace of God has been given to those who believe. That is the response to this message, repentance and faith. Repentance is a change of mind. We change our mind and agree with God about who He says we are a sinner in need of a Savior. And we trust in Jesus Christ.
Christian, God has revealed His wonderful love toward us. You should have this kind of love for other believers. God loved us in a way that was self-sacrificial, self-giving, and for our good. Shouldn’t we love our brothers and sisters in the same way?
Self-sacrificial love means that we are giving of ourselves in some way shape or form. It’s not always easy to spend time with people. It’s not always easy to give up some of our free time to help someone. But that is what we are called to do. We self-sacrificially give of our selves for the good of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
One thing that I want to work on when I get moved here is getting rides for those who can’t get themselves here. There are people who once went to church here that are still connected to our church that might benefit from receiving rides from church members who will simply drive a little out of the way to go and get them. I have seen the love that you have shown to others and how quickly you do it. I am sure we can figure this thing out.
Church, we are loved by God and should love each other in the manner that God loves us. Our local church should be characterized by self-sacrificial, self-giving love that is for the good of others. And we do this because God has revealed His love for us in Christ.
We Reveal God To The World Through Our Love (1 John 4:12)
Verse 12 is one of the most beautiful pictures of what Christians are doing when they love one another. John says,
“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12 ESV)
This seems like a strange phrase and it is a little difficult to understand but once we get there, I promise, it is incredible.
No one has seen God. Even Moses wasn’t allowed to see God face to face. But why would John say this before saying “if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.”?
The answer is simply that the world sees God in the love that we have for one another. When those who profess faith in Christ have love for one another God’s love abides in them. And that is where we see the image of God’s love perfected here on Earth. The world sees God in the love we have for one another.
People are simply not allowed to see God. Not even Moses was allowed to see God in all His glory. But there is a way for people to see God today and it is through the Christians love for one another.
It is my hope and prayer that the lost can see the love of God in this Church and among Christians in general. I don’t believe that Christians generally do a good job of discussing all the ways that they show God’s love to their community. But a large number of organizations that help people in the world today are Christian organizations. In some areas it is hard to find a hospital that was not begun by a Christian organization and even still runs with Christian values. Many of the adoption clinics in America today are Christian agencies. And here in Arkansas the State of Arkansas reached out for help with foster care from the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. How many homeless shelters are Christian or have Christian roots? How many soup kitchens? And my point is that the number of helps out there that are Christian are staggering. And these things are a revelation of God’s love to others through the love of Christians.
And that is how things are supposed to be. The Christian reveals God’s love to the world through the love that we have for one another. It was revealed to us through Christ and now the world sees the love of God through how we love each other and our neighbor.
Conclusion
By the year 165 there was a tremendous plague in Rome. It was a 15 year epidemic in which ¼ to 1/3 of the population died. When illnesses are new they tend to do something of that nature. This was not one event, neither was the Black Plague. Romans were leaving their sick family members to die. This was a very dark time in Rome.
There was one group of people with a markedly different death rate in Rome. It was Christians. They were sacrificing their selves to care for one another. At some point they decided to start caring for those outside of the faith. They were extending this love to the pagans in Rome. Historians have called the actions of these Christians “rudimentary nursing.” They gave water and food to those who were sick and treating them the best way they knew how. And the care that they gave to the sick who were left to die allowed many of these people to be brought back to full health.
The result of these actions were extraordinary. It was at this time that Christianity began being seen as superior to the paganism of Rome. But why?
Well, the actions of these early believers really illustrate today’s message beautifully. Because these believers loved each other in a self-sacrificial and self-giving manner, the way that God loved them, they revealed the love of God to the world. And Christianity exploded.
Let us be a people who give of ourselves and sacrifice of ourselves because God has loved us that way. Let us reveal God to the world through our love for one another.
R. Dwain Minor