Advent - Love
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Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Thanks for investing your Christmas Sunday with us. If you’re visiting - we’re so glad you’re hear. If you don’t have a church home, we’d love to invite you back for a few more visits to see if New Hope might be a place & people you might like to call home.
“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.”—Billy, age 4
Chrissie, age 6 says, “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French Fries without making them give you any of theirs.”
Terri, age 4 says, “Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.”
Danny, age 7 says, “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.”
Noelle, age 7 says, “Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.”
Noelle, age 7 says, “Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.”
Tommy, age 6 says, “Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.”
Elaine, age 5 says, “Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.”
“You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.”—Jessica, age 8
“Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.”—Elaine, age 5
I’m guessing that we all would have our own definitions of “What love is”. Love can be a kind of a squishy word - you think you have a pretty good handle on it as you grab hold of it and it slides right through your fingers.
Well this morning we are continuing in our Advent series…And as you’ve guessed it, our topic is love.
(NLT)
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
love comes from God...
Love originates from God. Love did not originate from mankind. To love is not a man-made idea. The ability to love one another is only possible because God designed it; God created it; and God planned it. He is not only the Author & Perfecter of our faith, but He is also the Author and Perfecter of our love.
He made it so that we could love one another - and John says, “let’s continue doing that”. Those who are currently or have ever been in a relationship where you’ve loved and experienced love - spouse, child, grandparent, aunt, uncle, close friend - praise God for the opportunity to experience love.
The ability to love one another is only possible because God designed it; God created it; and God planned it
He made it so that we could love Him in return;
Moses tells the people - And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
5And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
Jesus said, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
37Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
Then John writes something that sounds a little weird - Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God; anyone who doesn’t love doesn’t know God. Sounds like all we have to do is love a little of this and love a little of that; and “Presto!” I love Reece cups; I love my cell phone; I love people who are nice to me; I love Discovery channel documentaries; I love being right; I love winning basketball games… I guess I’m a child of God ;-)
But it must be more than this. We can’t equate loving randomly with knowing God. We can’t love people the way God intends us to love people without knowing God - because love comes from God; and God is love. This word love that’s used 13 times in these 6 verses (52 in 1 John) is a form of the Greek word “agape”. We will explain and provide context for the word “Love” in just a few moments when we get to verse 9. But for the time being, let’s wrestle with this...
But it must be more than this. We can’t equate loving randomly with knowing God.
God is love...
Not that loving is just one of God’s many activities or qualities, but that his very existence is love. Everything which God does and all that God is… is done out of love - discipline, judgement, justice, holiness, sovereignty, faithfulness, grace, mercy.
Tozer wrote, “Equating love with God is a major mistake which has produced much unsound religious philosophy and has brought forth a spate of vaporous poetry completely out of accord with the Holy Scriptures and altogether of another climate from that of historic Christianity.”
Translation: No good!
He goes on, “Had the apostle declared that love is what God is, we would be forced to infer that God is what love is. If literally God is love, then literally love is God, and we are in all duty bound to worship love as the only God there is. If love is equal to God then God is only equal to love, and God and love are identical.”
So we must understand that “God is love” means that love is an essential attribute of God. Love is something true of Him but it is not God. It expresses the way God is.
One of my most favorite Tozer quotes - “The love of God is one of the great realities of the universe, a pillar upon which the hope of the world rests. But it’s a personal, intimate thing, too. God does not love populations, He loves people. He loves not masses, but men.”
And as we have been celebrating this Advent season - we have been speaking of how we can experience Joy, Hope, & Peace… It is because of this -
Everything God does aligns with His love
So when we use the word love in reference to God, what does it mean? Verses 9 & 10 invite us in and help us understand the type of love that God has for you and me.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
This is Christmas! God made known; He revealed; He made plain; He brought to light how much He loved us. Do you know how much God loves you? Really, do you know? He loved you so much that He didn’t want to leave you in the state you’re in - because we are all sinners - and we’re all in need of a Savior - and a life apart from Jesus is a life destined for Hell. So he did something. And He didn’t just do something. He didn’t just wave a magic wand. He did what had to be done. He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Jesus.
John goes on...
10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
“In the ancient world outside Christianity, it was thought appropriate to love only those who were regarded as worthy of being loved. But God loves sinners who are unworthy of his love, and indeed subject to his wrath. He loved us and sent his Son to rescue us, not because we are lovable, but because he is love.”
“In the ancient world outside Christianity, it was thought appropriate to love only those who were regarded as worthy of being loved. But God loves sinners who are unworthy of his love, and indeed subject to his wrath. He loved us and sent his Son to rescue us, not because we are lovable, but because he is love.”
“In the ancient world outside Christianity, it was thought appropriate to love only those who were regarded as worthy of being loved. But God loves sinners who are unworthy of his love, and indeed subject to his wrath. He loved us and sent his Son to rescue us, not because we are lovable, but because he is love.”
In fact, this is a good definition of the form of love John is using in this passage. Agape love is a self-sacrificing love. A love that says; I’m willing to give up what I want for what you need.
I’m willing to give up what I want for what you need.
I’m willing to not have so that you can have
I’m willing to
For God so loved the world...
God acted on our behalf out of love
And this Christmas season, we must ask the question, so what? Now what? Given the truth of what John has shared with us, what should we do?
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
John would tell us to love one another well this Christmas season. Here’s what John knows that he doesn’t explicitly say in this passage. In order to love each other well, we need to know God & love God - For God is love and love comes from God.
Interesting how John begins and ends this section with the idea of us loving one another. Our love is a reflection and response to God’s love.
Interesting how John begins and ends this section with the idea of us loving one another. Our love is a reflection and response to God’s love.
Our love for God is made known by our love for one another
3 times he uses “love one another” 1 - Let us (exhortation)...; 2 - We ought to (duty)...; 3 - If we (hypothesis)...
V. 7 begins with & V. 12 ends with the idea of us loving one another
The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary a. A Further Elaboration of the Social Test: Love (4:7–12)
The refrain of the paragraph is the reflexive love one another. It occurs three times—as an exhortation (7, ‘let us love one another’), as a statement of duty (11, ‘we also ought to love one another’; cf. 2:6; 3:16), and as a hypothesis (12, ‘if we love each other …’).
Offertory
Offertory
The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary a. A Further Elaboration of the Social Test: Love (4:7–12)
It is true that the words God is love mean not that loving is ‘only one of God’s many activities’ (Alexander) but rather that ‘all his activity is loving activity’ and that, therefore, ‘if He judges, He judges in love’ (Dodd). Yet, if his judging is in love, his loving is also in justice. He who is love is light and fire as well. Far from condoning sin, his love has found a way to expose it (because he is light) and to consume it (because he is fire) without destroying the sinner, but rather saving him.
Tomorrow - Christmas Eve service at 6pm
The Message of John’s Letters Chapter 14: Does God Really Love Us? 1 John (4:7–12)
John is not identifying a quality which God possesses; he is making a statement about the essence of God’s being.
The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary a. A Further Elaboration of the Social Test: Love (4:7–12)
In the ancient world outside Christianity, it was thought appropriate to love only those who were regarded as worthy of being loved.
The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary a. A Further Elaboration of the Social Test: Love (4:7–12)
In the ancient world outside Christianity, it was thought appropriate to love only those who were regarded as worthy of being loved. But God loves sinners who are unworthy of his love, and indeed subject to his wrath. He loved us and sent his Son to rescue us, not because we are lovable, but because he is love.
The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary a. A Further Elaboration of the Social Test: Love (4:7–12)
God’s love, which originates in himself (7–8) and was manifested in his Son (9–10), is made complete in his people (12). It is ‘brought to perfection within us’ (NEB). God’s love for us is perfected only when it is reproduced in us or (as it may mean) ‘among us’ in the Christian fellowship. It is these three truths about the love of God which John uses as inducements to brotherly love. We are to love each other, first because God is love (8–9), secondly because God loved us (10–11), and thirdly because, if we do love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (12).
Baptism Jan 6
Our love is a reflection and response to God’s love
God’s love today is seen in and through the love of us - his family