1 John 4:7-11; 3:11-24; 5:1-5
Bart W. Newton, Preaching Minister
To view a simple online worship service of “Word, Communion and Prayer,” and please click on the the following link: "Living Faithfully in the Mystery of the Day” Part 5
Summary: In part 5 of the series "Living Faithfully in the Mystery of the Day, we learn from 1 John 4:7-21 that those who know and love God are to love one another. Neutrality is not an option. A Christian either loves his/her brothers and sisters or hates them. Gratefully, followers of Jesus are empowered to obey this commandment.
Basic Outline:
Five weeks ago, we began this sermon series “Living Faithfully in the Mystery of the Day.”
• Part 1: Living Faithfully in the Mystery of the Day by the Power & Promises of Jesus (2 Peter 1:3-11)
• Part 2: Living Faithfully in the Mystery of the Day with the Humility & Obedience of Jesus (Philippians 2:1-13)
• Part 3: Living faithfully in the mystery of the day by remembering we are strangers and exiles in this world.
• Part 4: Living faithfully in the mystery of the day requires practicing Christian hospitality by every believer to whatever degree he or she can do it.
• Remember: Biblical hospitality primarily means using our homes and places of worship to show friendly, brotherly affection to strangers in need by providing meals and/or a temporary lodging in the name of Christ especially to those who have no way of offering hospitality in return.
• In today’s passage, we are reminded of a 5th way to live faithfully in the mystery of the day.
1 John 4:7-21: 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide 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 Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (ESV)
So, we are to live faithfully in the mystery of the day by loving one another.
• The apostle John speaks often of God’s love. In 1, 2, & 3 John, “love” is used 62 times out of 310 occurrences in the New Testament. That’s 1/5 in these few pages.
• In the Gospel of John, “love” is used 62 times in 21 chapters compared to 63 times in the 7 chapters of Johns three letters!
• The phrase “love one another” is found 13 times in the NT. Ten of them are in John’s writings—4 times in John’s Gospel, 5 times in 1 John, and 1 time in 2 John.
• Two times we find the phrase “love for one another” (John 13:35; 1 Thessalonians 3:12).
• When we talk about loving one another, don’t think that the apostle John isn’t concerned about what we believe about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and what it means to live faithfully as His children.
• John insists on both right belief and right behavior. What we believe should determine what we do.
• But let’s do like John and take our cue from Jesus:
• John 13:34-35: 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
• The #1 way to identify followers of Christ is supposed to be our love demonstrated to one another. Sadly, we’ve not always taken Jesus up on that.
• Partly, I think it’s because in our culture, we’ve taken what Jesus said about love and made it a feeling, an emotion.
• But the reason Jesus can command us to love one another is because the love He commands is not an emotion but a choice. It’s a verb. It’s something we do.
• In fact, sometimes, it is not until after we choose to love that we experience the feelings of peace, contentment, and joy.
• So, let’s look at this more closely.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Loving one another is evidence of experiencing the new birth into God’s family (vv. 7-8).
• Because God is love He is the Source of love. Therefore, if we have been born again love should be in our spiritual DNA.
• The “love apple” shouldn’t fall far from the tree!
• Love should be a common trait among His kids.
• If it’s a common trait, then we ought to be able to extend love to each other.
• 1 John 3:14: We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.
• 1 John 5:1: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
• John says that if this isn’t the case, then you don’t know God as your Father because He is love:
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
If you do not love your brothers and sisters then you do not know God. If you don’t know God, then you have another father who is the devil.
• 1 John 3:10: By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
If you do not love your brothers and sisters in Christ then you are no better off than an unforgiven murderer (1 John 3:12, 14-15).
• 1 John 3:12, 14-15: 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous….14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins…19 We love because he first loved us.
The basis for our love for one another is that before we loved God the Father, He proved His love for us by sending His Son to the earth as a payment to satisfy His wrath against our sins (vv. 9-10, 19).
• This truth ought to motivate us to love one another:
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
• If God loves me, I ought to love you. If God loves you, you ought to love me.
• But what if it’s difficult for you to love me? What if I find it challenging to love you?
• Think about it from our heavenly Father’s point of view. He sacrificed His Son in order to make a way for you and me to be right with Him and experience new life which includes loving His other kids.
• Think about every offense you ever committed again God, every vile thought, word, deed. Think about every good thing He wanted you to do in His name and yet you failed to obey through lack of awareness, forgetfulness or simply choosing not to obey. And yet He forgave you and He forgave me and loves us. Can we not strive to love one another, too?
• Well, let’s think about this together. Does it not make sense in light of the Gospel to follow Jesus’ example when He was in the garden, wrestling with the thought of paying for your sins and mine? What did He pray?
• Matthew 26:39: 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (ESV)
• Three times He prayed that prayer. And then He obeyed.
• Maybe we need to pray, “Jesus, give me Your love for this person I cannot love on my own! Thy will be done!”
• But this love must be shown in concrete ways:
• 1 John 3:16-18: 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 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? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Additional ways Christians are to show our love to one another:
• 1 Peter 4:9: Be hospitable to one another without complaining. (CSB)
• Romans 12:16: Live in harmony with one another.
• Romans 15:14: …able to instruct one another.
• 2 Corinthians 13:11: …comfort one another…
• Galatians 5:13: …serve one another.
• Ephesians 4:2: …bearing with one another in love
• Ephesians 4:32: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
• Ephesians 5:21: …submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ
• Colossians 3:16: …teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom…
• 1 Thessalonians 5:11: Therefore encourage one another and build one another up…
• 1 Thessalonians 5:15: See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
• Hebrews 3:13: But exhort one another every day…
• Hebrews 10:24: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works…
• James 4:11: Do not speak evil against one another, brothers…
• James 5:9: Do not grumble against one another…
• James 5:16: Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed…
• 1 Peter 5:5b: Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
• On this side of the new heaven and earth, we cannot see God and survive. But if we love one another, God’s character is seen abiding in and through us. How?
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
Our love for one another is an expression of God’s presence made possible by the Holy Spirit that lives in us (vv. 12-13).
• Acts 2:38: Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (NLT) (underlining added)
• 1 Peter 1:22: You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. (NLT)
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
• John and the rest of the apostles spent 3 ½ years being discipled by Jesus, listening to His teachings, witnessing His miracles. Peter, James and John witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration.
• John witnessed His crucifixion. He saw Jesus after His resurrection. He witnessed Jesus’ ascension up into the sky to return to His Father where He now reigns as Lord and King.
• John had witnessed Jesus’ ministry, the crucifixion, and the resurrected Jesus. But you don’t have to have had the same privilege as John and the apostles for God to abide in you:
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
• V. 17, NLT: 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
If we accept God and His love for us and reciprocate by loving others as Christ does, we have nothing to fear on Judgment Day (vv. 17-19).
• It has to be this way because:
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
I cannot love God and not love my brothers and sisters in Christ (vv. 20-21).
• I either love my fellow Christians or I hate them. There is no neutral ground.
• But through allegiance to Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit, you and I can obediently love one another.
• 1 John 3:23-24 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
• I know I love God when I love His children. I know I love His other children when I obey Him.
• 1 John 5:2-3: 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
• I. Howard Marshall writes, “God’s love is expressed perfectly in obedient people.” New Testament Theology, p. 534
Don’t be shocked if non-believers hate you.
• 1 John 3:13: Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
Respond to hatred in two ways:
• Prove to Whom you belong by loving them and praying for them:
• Matthew 5:43-45: 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
• In a description of Christians in the 2nd Century Letter to Diognetus (c. 125-200): “They dwell in their own countries only as sojourners…They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time, they surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all.” (A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, David W. Bercot, Editor, p. 133)
• Remain loyal to Jesus the Overcomer:
• 1 John 5:44-5: 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
• John 16:33b: In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”