INTRODUCTION (SECURE ATTENTION) & BACKGROUND OF THE PASSAGE:
PRAY before starting the sermon.
ILLUSTRATION: {In his book, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Richard Foster tells of an old sage who asked his disciples, “How can we know when the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming?”
“When we can see a tree in the distance and know that it is a coconut tree and not a palm tree,” one student responded.
“When we can see an animal and know it is a fox and not a wolf,” replied another.
“No,” said the teacher.
Puzzled, the students asked for the answer.
The sage replied quietly, “We know the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming when we can see another person and know that it is our brother or sister; otherwise no matter what time it is, it’s still dark.”
Are some of us living in this darkness?
Do we take seriously John’s words, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren”? (refer 1 Jn. 3:14).
Or do we know of Christians whom we dislike intensely?
Do we hold in contempt those who go to a different church and don’t agree with us on every issue?
What about Christians of another language or race?
If love is the mark of a believer, do people recognize that we belong to Christ?
ODB, June 17, 1998.}
When we examine our hearts, we have to admit that we all lack in love.
Thus, we need to ask God to fill our hearts with His love so that we can love one another with His love.
Today’s text talks about the obligation of mutual love.
Would you take God’s Word and turn your Bibles with me to 1 JOHN 4:7-12 (READ)?
I have entitled today’s sermon as: “LOVE ONE ANOTHER.”
In this sermon, I have used some material from John Stott’s commentary on the epistles of John.
CENTRAL PROPOSITION OF THE TEXT: In this passage, John talks about the obligation of mutual love.
This general letter to congregations across Asia Minor (now Turkey) was probably written by the apostle John in the late first century A.D.
Verse 7 begins with the exhortation that we must love one another.
But back in 3:11 (read), he exhorts the Christian community to love one another.
THE PURPOSE BRIDGE: To encourage the members of GWC to love one another with God’s love.
FALLEN CONDITION FOCUS: Already dealt with above.
CENTRAL PROPOSITION OF THE SERMON: We must love one another.
Why must we love one another?
Our text presents 3 arguments for mutual love:
I. MUTUAL LOVE IS BASED ON GOD’S ETERNAL NATURE.
Refer verses 7-8.
Read verse 7.
agapetoi agapomen (“Beloved, let us love.”)
Not only does John exhort them to love one another, but in verses 7 and 11, he practices what he preaches by addressing them as “beloved.”
We must love one another because (“for”) “love is from God.”
He repeats this idea in different words in verse 8: “God is love.”
QUOTE: A. E. Brooke, an NT scholar says: "Human love is a reflection of something in the divine nature itself."
Since God is the source of love, those who are born of God and know God will love others.
Not just righteousness, but even love demonstrates that a person is truly born of God (cf. read 2:29).
The assertion that “God is love” is repeated in verse 16 (refer).
God has always been loving and He will continue to be loving for all eternity.
However, that does not rule out other attributes of God.
God is light as well (read 1 Jn 1:5).
He is also referred to as a consuming fire (refer Heb. 12:29).
So, when God judges, He judges in love.
Since He loves us, He will also judge us.
Read verse 8.
John is straightforward in claiming that “Anyone who does not love does not know God.”
It’s that simple.
QUOTE: {Commenting on this verse, John Stott says, “The argument is plain and compelling.
For the loveless Christian to profess to know God and to have been born of God is like claiming to be intimate with a foreigner whose language we cannot speak, or to have been born of parents whom we do not in any way resemble.
It is to fail to manifest the nature of him whom we claim as our Father (born of God) and our Friend (knows God).”}
QUOTE: William Barclay says, “We are never nearer to God than when we love.”
As we know, humans are created in the image of God (refer Gen. 1:26).
Since God is love, when we love one another, we reflect God’s image.
So, we must love one another.
II. MUTUAL LOVE IS BASED ON GOD’S GIFT.
Refer verses 9-11.
Read verse 9.
God demonstrated His love by sending His son into this world.
So, John tells us that we must love God not just because that’s His nature.
But we must love God because He manifested His love by sending His son for our sins.
The love of God is emphasized by the phrase “his only Son.”
The Greek word is monogenes, which basically means one and only or unique.
This Greek word is also used to refer to Abraham’s only son Isaac (refer Heb. 11:17) and the only son of the widow of Nain (refer Lk. 7:12).
So, when it used of Jesus, it communicates the idea that God gave His unique, one and only Son for us.
QUOTE: John Stott says, “No greater gift of God is conceivable because no greater gift was possible.”
That’s why Paul could say, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (refer 2 Corinthians 9:15)
Refer Jn 3:16.
Read Romans 8:32.
Jesus died so that we can live, so that we can experience eternal life (refer v. 9).
Read verse 10.
Love is not about we loving God, but God taking the initiative in demonstrating His love towards us by sending His Son.
God loved us so much that He gave His Son as the propitiation for our sins.
Propitiation: Jesus was the perfect sacrifice who turned away God’s wrath.
Apart from Jesus, we are “dead in the trespasses and sins” (refer Ephesians 2:1).
QUOTE: John Stott says, “So the greatness of his love is seen in the costliness of his self-sacrifice for the wholly undeserving (cf. Rom. 5:7–8). A clearer manifestation of God’s love could not be imagined.”
QUOTE: {“If God had merely sent Jesus to teach us about Himself, that would have been wonderful enough.
It would have been far more than we deserved.
If God had sent Jesus simply to be our example, that would have been good too and would have had some value . . . But the wonderful thing is that God did not stop with these but rather sent His Son, not merely to teach or to be our example, but to die the death of a felon (criminal), that He might save us from sin.” (Boice)}
We don’t deserve this amazing love, but God is so loving that He gave us what we never deserved.
As we sing that hymn:
“I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me
A sinner, condemned, unclean
Singing, how marvelous! how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous and how wonderful!
Is my Savior's love for me!”}
After experiencing the unmerited love of God, we cannot continue to live a life of selfishness.
ILLUSTRATION: {If you had a pipe that was clogged – water kept going into it, but never came out, that pipe would be useless.
You would replace it.
Just so, God puts His love into our lives that it might flow out.
We want the Lord to clear us and fill us so that His love can flow through us. ~ David Guzik}
We cannot have cold hearts.
Since God loved us, we also ought to love one another (read verse 11).
III. MUTUAL LOVE IS BASED ON GOD’S PRESENT ACTIVITY OF LOVE.
Read verse 12.
The fact that God is invisible is reiterated in 1 Jn 4:20; Jn 1:18, Jn 4:24; 1 Tim. 1:17 (refer).
Even if He is visible, no person can see Him and still live (cf. Ex. 33:20).
Whenever God appeared in the Old Testament (called as theophanies), He displayed His glory, but no human could literally see Him.
We cannot see this glorious, awesome, and holy God.
But we can see Him in those who love.
QUOTE: {William Barclay says, “It is by love that God is known (1 John 4:12).
We cannot see God, because he is spirit; what we can see is his effect.
We cannot see the wind, but we can see what it can do.
We cannot see electricity, but we can see the effect it produces.
The effect of God is love.
It is when God comes into a man that he is clothed with the love of God and the love of men.
God is known by his effect on that man.”}
God’s love flows in and through us.
Mutual love means that God abides in us and that His love is perfected in us.
The crucifixion is also in view in the statement that God’s love is “perfected” in us.
The word here translated “perfected” is the term teteleiomene.
The last words of Christ on the cross were “It is finished” (tetelestai, refer John 19:30); in his Farewell Discourses, Jesus was said to love his disciples “to the end” (telos, refer Jn 13:1).
The love required of disciples is a love that imitates the sacrifice of the Lord (read 3:16-18).
We must love one another because God abides in us as we love and His love is perfected or made complete as we love one another.
God works in us as we love one another!
CONCLUSION (INCLUDING THE PROPOSITION, REVIEWING THE MAIN POINTS [OPTIONAL], AND ACTION STATEMENTS):
CENTRAL PROPOSITION OF THE SERMON: We must love one another.
ILLUSTRATION: {The church father, Jerome, said that when the apostle John was in his extreme old age, he was so weak that he had to be carried into the church meetings.
At the end of the meeting he would be helped to his feet to give a word of exhortation to the church.
Invariably, he would repeat, “Little children, let us love one another.”
The disciples began to grow weary of the same words every time, and they finally asked him why he always said the same thing over and over.
He replied, “Because it is the Lord’s commandment, and if this only is done, it is enough.”
(cited by John Stott - The Letters of John Tyndale New Testament Commentary). (1 John 4:7-11 Why We Must Love)}
Let’s love God and love one another with God’s love.
Let’s demonstrate our love towards others in practical ways—pray for them, invite them for dinner, help them in their need, encourage them, visit them in the hospital when they are sick, etc.
IF YOU ARE STILL NOT SAVED, REPENT AND GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS RIGHT TODAY!
