Love is Elusive Sermon I John 4;7-21
Love is Elusive, Until….
“All We Need is Love”, “What the World Needs Now is Love”, “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” These are all songs that at one time or another were popular best sellers. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” by Elton John is considered the greatest love song of all-time by modern songwriters. An anthropologist once asked a Hopi Indian in Arizona why so many of his people's songs were about rain. The Hopi replied, "Because water is so scarce……. Is that why so many of your songs are about love? Why is love so elusive for so many people? The world is………..looking for love in all the wrong places? Christians are called to be salt and light to the world and Christian love is at the heart of the matter.
So then……..…..what is this Christian love? What is God’s love? Today, we are looking at Scripture to help us understand. As a businessman who formerly negotiated contracts between different parties, especially international parties, the first thing we needed to do was define the terms we used. Since the Bible describes Christians as aliens in a foreign land, we especially need to define what type of love this passage of scripture is talking about. Many of us really don’t understand what Christian love is.
In the Greek language there are three types of love; eros, philo, and agape love. Briefly, eros love is a strong craving, abnormal appetite, not only for physical things but it can also be for spiritual satisfaction. Eros love can be both good and bad. We often see this as the world seeking satisfaction wherever it can. Philo love is more of an attachment and a peculiar personal affection for another person. We often see this as a natural human affection for one another.
Finally, there is agape love. This is the only love that our scripture passage speaks about to us today. Agape love is Christian love, the love that God has for us. This love requires a judgment and a deliberate choice on one’s part. In our fallen nature, this is the most difficult love for us to have for one another. Christian love is elusive until we understand God’s love for us and our love for others. Without really understanding, the Hopi Indian knew that we too often do not love others as God loves us and our popular songs reflect our society’s longing for God’s love. What better reason do we need to go and show God’s love to others?
Look at verse nine again. “This is how God showed his love toward us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” Love is self-less. If you are following along in the bulletin insert, this is the first point. Both God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son gave up of themselves for the world. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Philippians 2:5-7 put even a finer point on it. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
Christian love is self-less. Christian love……..REQUIRES………judgment and deliberate choice. We can not do this on our own. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” Everyone who loves has been born of God, Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” These are challenging words to us that open our passage today. Let’s look a little further.
Christian love is sacrificial. Sacrificial love is difficult in our individualistic society. We wonder why the world searches in vain for love. They and too often, we, are looking for love in all the wrong places. We and the world too often look for what we GET from others. Christian love is found in what we freely and sacrificially GIVE to others. My father died seven years ago this coming week. He was not an educated man, he only went to school through the eighth grade, but he understood this point well. He used to tell me a lot of things and one of them was this. “Dale, there are really only two kinds of people in this world. There are givers and there are takers. And there are too many of one and not enough of the other.” Christian love is sacrificial.
Look at verse ten. “This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Think again if you have anything to do with God loving you. It was God’s deliberate decision to sacrifice His one and only Son on the cross for you and for me……….. What’s even more important is that we realize that there are a whole lotta people in Holland, MI that Jesus died for too. They just don’t realize it yet. That is my challenge to you as First Reformed Church. Help them to realize sacrificial Christian love. I’m not dumping it all on you; I and my family are going to Southern California. I have been called by this same God to be challenged and to challenge others to reach out to those who do not yet know the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. I too, saw the movie, The Passion of the Christ. I never knew how much Jesus LOVED ME. I’m not the only one who said that. Christian love is sacrificial. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Christian love is non-situational. Non-situational, unconditional love……..We all know what this one is about. There isn’t a single person here that doesn’t have a story to tell about unconditional love or the lack of it. Before I received my “call” into full-time ministry, I found it very difficult to talk openly to people on the street about my own personal faith. Once I received that “call”, it was different. I found it was easier to talk openly about my faith journey and God’s love for me. People wanted to know my story of God’s love for me. What happened? I was and still am the same person. I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was seven years old………….I just needed an “opening”.
I am from First Church, We LOVE People. (This phrase would make a great pin or bracelet for you and I to wear, just like the WWJD bracelets) I can envision a button or bracelet with these words on it. It would be that “opening” that people need to talk to others about their faith journey and the love that God has for us all. This love is the same love we, as sons and daughters of God, have in us for others. You are a church that is known for your love. Connie and I, Emily and Grace, we know that…….you know that………..but, there are people outside these walls who don’t know that. Find a way to show and tell them.
Yes, this one, this non-situational love is the toughest. Let’s look at verses 19-21 and see whether we can pat ourselves on the back. “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God.’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” Oh, how we must grieve God.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount raises the bar so high it is impossible for our fallen humanity to achieve this kind of Christian love towards each other alone. Listen. NIV Mat 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
If the message of the gospel, this passage and this sermon ended here, we of all people are to be pitied. No, the message of the gospel does not end there. God is love. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We have the love of God in us. Our passage says it this way. Look at verses 13-16. “We know that we live in him and him in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love that God has for us.”
Dear friends, love is elusive until…………you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Four weeks ago, Pastor Dan began a series of sermons on faith, hope and love. These four verses speak to all three, faith, hope and love. We know……….we have a sure and certain knowledge….…we have faith that God sent Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, to save us from our sin. This same Jesus Christ is the one in who is our only eternal, true, hope, who has conquered death and risen from the grave. This same Jesus Christ sits on the right hand of God the Father reigning over the universe. This same Jesus Christ sends us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to dwell in us. Love is elusive until……..you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and receive the power of the Holy Spirit. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. Faith, hope and love, these three………….faith begins with a decree from God that requires a decision on our part. Our hope is in Jesus Christ alone. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Faith, hope and love, these three, and the greatest of these is love. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Let us pray.