Love - the nature of God

1 John 4:7-16

Would you open your Bibles to…

I Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

And…

I Jo 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Pray

Intro

√ As we’ve studied 1st John one can begin to wonder whether or not John has anything else to say than...

…LOVE, LOVE, LOVE - 36 times John uses this word "love" - agape in this epistle!

It’s like he has a one track mind! Yet, we have to remember that it is the Holy Spirit who inspired John to continue to hammer away at us regarding the issue of love in our lives.

Why? Because true agape love is contrary to our fallen nature!

That is - we are born in sin and therefore are born to be lovers of self - not lovers of God and others.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit continues to bring John's pen back to the necessity of true love working in and through our lives.

Ap. A new nature

When a person is born again God plants the seed of agape love in their heart. It's the seed of His Nature. As it grows the believer becomes more and more like Jesus.

Agape love is the evidence of salvation.

Yet, we find that the nature of the world system is working overtime to crush, or inhibit, the growth of agape love in our lives.

So, John keeps on bringing us back to the foundation of our Christian faith…

…love.

√ The evidence of love

John has shown us already that our love for the brethren (other Christians) is the defining proof of our:

FELLOWSHIP with God - that we walk with Him

SONSHIP - that we are a child of God

We come away from these earlier tests knowing that if we manifest true agape toward others then we can be sure that we are saved!

√ The nature of love

In this section John tells us why love is a valid test of our relationship with God.

That is because God is love! His nature is love; His character is the very definition of love.

God and love are inseparable.

So then, the children of God will be known in that they have the same nature as God.

Why?

Because God is the single source of true love - a person can't have agape love in their life unless they have a relationship with God!

Ex. Spiritual "DNA"

So, John defines love for us by describing…

Who God is

What God did for us

What God is doing for us

Who God is - “God is Love” (vs. 7-8)

I Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

I Jo 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

√ The Bible tells us that God’s nature is revealed in three expressions:

1) God is SPIRIT (John 4:24);

"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

That is, in His essence God is spirit. He is not a material being, for the material world was created by Him. He exists outside of the limitations of the material world - that is, He transcends…

Time

Space

Matter

He is thus able to be everywhere all at once in the eternal present.

2) God is LIGHT (I John 1:5);

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”

In scripture light is often used as a symbol of God's holiness, while sin is symbolically called “darkness”. The point is this; God alone in the universe is eternally pure and without sin.

3) God is LOVE (I John 4:8 & 16)

Now, before we jump to any conclusions about what that means, may I say that we have to be careful that we understand the definition of the word "love".

Please don’t apply the world's definition of "love" to the nature of God.

It would be better to say that;

God defines love, not that love defines God.

That will protect us from wrong conclusions regarding God’s nature.

So, what then is the true definition of love - of the nature of God?

The Bible defines God for us in I Cor. 13…

Ex. Substitute "Jesus" for the word "love" and read it

1Co. 13:4 Jesus suffers long and is kind; Jesus does not envy; Jesus does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

1Co. 13:5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

1Co. 13:6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

1Co. 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1Co. 13:8 Jesus never fails.

Did you notice that love as defined by the Bible does not include…

A feeling

"Chemistry"

Letting people do what they want

Rather, love is defined as the very nature of God - completely selfless and interested only in what is best for another.

What it isn't is mushy sentimentalism without regard for truth.

Rather, true love - God's nature, is to always chose what's best for another - even if what is best is not pleasant of comfortable.

Ex. Look at the consequence of Man’s sin in the Garden - God cast Adam & Eve out! Now, we might wrongly conclude that as an act of hate on God’s part.

However, God’s motive was love. He understood that if Man was left in the Garden that he would have next eaten of the Tree of Life and thus live forever in a corrupted state. (Gen. 3:22-23)

Looking more like the fictional "night of the living dead" people!

Ex. The same is true of corrective discipline - we as parents correct our children because of our love for them.

√ Here’s the point of what John is saying; our sinful nature by birth is to not love…

…therefore, to love is valid proof that we are born again of God!

It is really that simple.

Ap. If you’re a Christian, truly Born Again, going to heaven to live eternally with God, then you will love the way that God does. It’s His signature (or mark) upon our life that you have His Nature working within you.

So, God is our definition of love.

What God Did for us - “He sent His Son” (vs.9-11)

I Jo 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested (revealed) toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

I Jo 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

I Jo 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

√ He sent His Son

God’s thoughts toward Man were manifest, made known, revealed, through the incarnation.

In other words, we can discern what God thinks about human beings based upon His actions toward us.

What are His thoughts?

Based upon Man’s record on earth it would have been easy to come to the wrong conclusion! Even the greatest optimist would be hard pressed to find enough good on the planet to warrant anything but God’s wrath toward Man.

Yet, surprise of all surprises - we find that He LOVES US!

How do we know that? By His actions…

…He sent His only Son to die in our place!

As the Angels proclaimed when Jesus was born...

“Peace on Earth, good will toward Men.”

And Paul says in Romans 5:8

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

√ Here then is the defining act of true love;

He who in all the universe did not deserve death…

…choose to die for those who in all the universe least deserved to live!

The chasm between…

God’s righteousness and Man’s unrighteousness

God’s value and Man’s worthlessness

God’s goodness and Man’s wickedness

…is so great that we must conclude that since God sent His Son to bridge that chasm He must love us!

Friends, there can be no doubt that He truly loves us.

Ap. Here’s the catch.

Now He expects us to act the same way toward others.

Yes, now that we’re born again, now that His nature flows in our veins, He expects us to love those that sin against us in the same way that He loves us who have sinned against Him!

Ex. The Parable of the wicked servant in Matt. 18:21-35. The point of the parable is that there was no comparison between the two debts - therefore the servant should have freely extended the same grace he’d been a recipient of.

You might want to yell out this morning…

“But you don’t know my situation!”

You may want to hold onto your unforgiveness, bitterness and anger toward whomever has sinned against you. Yet. the bottom line is this; there is no sin against us that even comes close to the sin for which God has forgiven you and me.

The more that we understand that; the depth of our own sin against God, and what it cost Him to purchase our salvation…

…the greater will be our capacity to love those who have sinned against us with the same love with which God has showered upon us.

Unforgiveness will only hurt you.

So, we know that God loves us because He sent His Son to save us.

What God is doing: “God abides in us.” (vs. 12-16)

I Jo 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

I Jo 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because he has given us of His Spirit.

I Jo 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

I Jo 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

I Jo 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

√ The key word in this section is abide. Specifically, where does God abide today?

You'll remember that we looked at this in some detail just a few weeks ago, so we'll just do a quick review.

It is an interesting study to go through the Bible and look at where God chose to dwell in times past.

He moved in with Moses and the children of Israel and dwelt in the Tabernacle in the wilderness as a demonstration that He loved the Jewish people.

Later, God inhabited the Temple which Solomon built in Jerusalem as a demonstration of His love for David and his descendants.

In those days the Jewish people could point to God's presence within the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, as evidence of God's love for them.

But, today both the Tabernacle and the Temple do not exist! Rather, with the sound of wind and tongues of fire the presence of God came to live in the hearts of believers!

Paul tells us in I Cor. 6:19

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”

Today God has chosen to live within the very heart of every person who has responded to God's love.

His presence within us is a testimony of His great love for us!

Paul says…

Eph. 1:13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

Eph. 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

So, God confirms His love for you and me as individuals by living within us - the guarantee that He will come to take us to be with Him forever.

Close

√ So, we know what true love is because we know…

Who God is

What God did for us

What God is doing for us

Ap. Therefore, as Christians we ought to…

Demonstrate His nature and love by our love one for another.

Extend the same forgiveness to one another that He has extended to us.

Live with the confidence that He truly loves us as individuals because He lives within us.