1 John 4:7-21 Perfecting the Love of God

Woodland Hills Church of Christ

Perfecting the Love of God

1 John 4:7-21

Introduction: How much thought do you give to loving others? I would imagine that for most of us, we are just trying to get through the day. Oh sure, the needs of others certainly crosses our minds, especially when it is urgent and brought to our attention. But providing for urgent needs isn’t the sum total of loving one another.

In our last lesson we looked at 1 Corinthians 13 and Paul’s emphasis as love as the greatest of all character traits that Jesus expects of us. It is the first virtue listed in the fruit of the Spirit and it is the pinnacle of virtue of Peter’s list growing to become partakers of the divine nature. In other words, there is simply nothing more important. And yet, we typically do not give much thought to it, especially when relationships become troubled.

In John’s first epistle, loving the brothers is a primary theme. In chapter 4, he explains why: we are called to perfect the love of God.

1. Love Defined
   1. Understanding love can be elusive. We “love” everything! Love is so deeply connected to our immediate emotions that we become dulled to its real meaning. Therefore, it is imperative that we define love as God defined it.
   2. 1 John 3:16-18 “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
   3. In our text, verse 9 states, “In this the love of God was made manifest [revealed, made visible] among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”
      1. We could easily say that God showed his love in many ways throughout the OT. But never was the measure of his love truly evident until he “sent his only Son into the world.”
      2. Please notice the words, “that we might live through him.” The concept is striking. He gave up his Son to give life to us. That is like saying that I would be willing to give up one of my children in order to save one of your children. Of course, I don’t want anything to happen to your children, but what if the only hope for your child is giving up my child? The whole scenario is unimaginable, but that’s what God did.
   4. Maybe we can appreciate this concept more when we think of God telling Abraham, “take your son, your only son whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering…” Now, do you understand God’s definition of love?
   5. Verse 10: There is another aspect of God’s love to consider: “In this is love, not that we loved God.” We are not the originator or definition of love. God defined love and is the standard of love. Romans 5:8, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
      Our love for God is not magnanimous in that we are loving someone who has never done anything for us or loving someone who is undeserving. That is why love cannot be defined by us! And, it is why we cannot use our own comparative, earthly standards to evaluate how we love.
   6. Verse 11: Thus John’s pause and exhortation: “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
      1. Therefore, the foundational definition of love as God displayed it is not how we loved him, but how he loved us. He loved enemies. He loved the unlovable. He loved when he wasn’t being loved. That is how love is defined.
      2. This should always be our motivation, our stimulus. When loving is difficult, considering the great love God had for us should take away any hesitation to love as we should or initiate love even when it is underserved.

• • • Words of the Hymn, “Here Is Love”
      “Here is love, vast as the ocean,
      Lovingkindness as the flood,
      When the Prince of life, our ransom,
      Shed for us His precious blood…
      On the mount of crucifixion
      Fountains opened deep and wide;
      Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
      Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
      Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
      Poured incessant from above,
      And heaven’s peace and perfect justice
      Kissed a guilty world in love.”

2. Perfecting the Love of God
   1. Verse 12: “No one has seen God…” seems to be an odd assertion in the midst of John’s discussion on love. But note carefully the connection to the rest of the verse. “If we love one another God abides in us…” In other words, since God is invisible to the world, if we love one another as we should, the world will be able to see God because God will be abiding in us.
      1. In John 1:18, John made the same argument concerning the coming of Jesus. In Jesus, the world could see the invisible God. Now that Jesus is gone back to heaven, he has left us as his offspring so that we continue to show the world the invisible God.
      2. Therefore, it is in this way that God’s love is perfected in us. “Perfected” is the idea of bringing God’s love to its ultimate goal or to completion. We continue to see this repeated theme in scripture of us being image-bearers of God. By being the offspring of Jesus, everything Jesus did, we do because we are a reflection of him. Thus, back in verse 7, if we love we have been born of God.
      3. Notice again the phrase in verse 12, “if God abides in us…” The idea of God abiding in us indicates that the way we love has become a natural, inherent way we live. Just like the parts of the fruit of the Spirit, we grow to the point where we become what was previously unnatural to us because God has taken over our inner being. Put another way, it should be unnatural to do anything but love!
      4. Consider that Jesus didn’t see sinners and tax collectors come to him and think, “Oh no, here comes these people again!” When people were screaming at him on the cross, mocking him, and saying terrible things about him, he did not think, “Father, there is a special part of hell for people like this!” Jesus didn’t will himself to think in a loving way, it is that he couldn’t think any other way. It was not in his nature!
      5. I hope we can see how easily we violate this principle and how important it is to change.
   2. Therefore, the obvious question is, how can we grow to this love? Verses 16-17 gives us the key. Our ability to love is dependent on knowing, believing and valuing God’s love for us.
      1. Luke 7:36-51 We have noted this incident many times, and there is no need to rehearse it in detail. However, something in the story especially struck me when considering how we love. Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven – for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little” Luke 7:47. Both Simon and the woman “love.” But one loves little and one loves much. Jesus commends the woman for loving much and exposes Simon’s love as inadequate.
      2. Consider, how did Jesus evaluate the love of each person in the story? Jesus quantified the love of each by comparing how they responded to what he had done for them. Therefore, our challenge: do we love little or love much? John is giving us the standard. Jesus loved much!
   3. This should be a reminder this is to us of the danger of valuing certain commands greater than others. Listen to Jesus: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness, these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matt. 23:23). We can stand on our head proclaiming the need to “repent and be baptized” or else be lost, but then hardly a whimper comes from us concerning how we love each other or love a lost world. If this happens, woe to us!
   4. 4:20-21 Final warning: If we do not love one another we do not love God.
      1. Why is the way we love one another so important to God? There is a reason God is always pushing us and forcing us into relationships we are not allowed to sever, whether it be in marriage, family, or the church.
      2. Ephesians 5:25-28 says it all: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.”
      3. We are being prepared as a bride that Christ will present to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle…holy and without blemish. Therefore, the testing ground for being his bride is whether we love those he loves! The proof of our love for him whom we cannot see is loving those we can see. It is simply obvious that we cannot be his bride if we have not learned to love.
3. Our Mission: Perfected Love
   1. It is seen in three areas of our life:
      1. Love God by pursuing the knowledge of him
      2. Love one another by sacrificing ourselves for each other’s good
      3. Love a lost world by involving ourselves in their lives as salt and light
   2. It is demonstrated in the way we model Jesus’ love:
      1. Jesus loved first. God-like love initiates love; it does not wait to be loved. Waiting to be loved before we love, is not imitating God.
      2. Jesus loved even when it meant putting himself at risk of being rejected and mocked.
      3. Jesus loved even those who hated him, even when there was a high probability of rejection. We cannot excuse ourselves from love because people are difficult or even hate us.
      4. Jesus loved people who were different or outcasts from society. We tend to love people who are like us and avoid people who are not.
      5. Jesus’ love accomplished what is best for people even when it was not what people wanted. People usually like their lives just the way it is. They put an imaginary sign up that says, “Do not disturb.” But love still operates in their best interests.
      6. Jesus’ love persisted and endured even when it was inconvenient and he was wronged and abused.
      7. Jesus’ love came at extreme cost to himself, even a death on the cross. There is no cost too high to pay for someone’s soul.. Perfect love will be attained at a heavy cost.

Berry Kercheville

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