Sermon Tone Analysis

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/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. 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. 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.

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?/

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This is part 2 of the sermon we began two weeks ago.

It is a continuation of our exposition of 1 John 4:13–5:5.

This passage is much more than a summary of John’s letter, although he does take the time to remind us of the three tests of an authentic relationship with God (doctrinal, moral, social).

But what I believe John is emphasizing for us is how God’s love has impacted us through whom God intends to show his love to the world.

If God’s desire is to manifest himself to the world through a radical display of love, and if he intends to show that love to the world through us who have already experienced it, then we should expect that God’s love would have already had an enormous impact on us.

John gives us at least six ways that we have been changed by God’s radical love.

Two weeks ago we discussed four of those ways.

Let’s review them briefly.

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We have a share in the Holy Spirit (4:13).

The Holy Spirit is given to us to empower us to obey God’s commands and to show God-like love, but the Spirit’s presence within us also gives us spiritual and emotional perception that we truly belong to God.

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We acknowledge Jesus as Savior of the world (4:14-15).

Because of the new birth, Jesus becomes much more to us than a good example to follow or a great moral teacher.

With eyes of faith, God allows us to see Jesus as the Savior of the world.

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We believe in the power of God’s love (4:16).

That means that whatever else we experience in life, we can always be assured of God’s love for us.

For if God gave us his Son to be our Savior, then we need no further proof of God’s love.

We have become believers in its power because we have seen it demonstrated in the coming of Jesus.

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We are no longer afraid of God (4:17-18).

Because of God’s radical love shown to and experienced by us, we are changed to become lovers just like he is.

And because of this mutual relationship of love that we have with God, we, like Christ his Son, have no reason to fear God.

Love has dispelled fear!

There are two more results of God’s love for us that John mentions in this passage, and that’s what I want us to see in the final verses of this passage.

! 5. We become lovers of others (4:19-5:1)

The next result that God’s love for us has on us is that it makes us lovers of others.

John is very clear that this ability that we have to love others comes from our own experience with God’s love.

Verse 19 reads, “We love because he first loved us.”

!! Our love for others depends upon the new birth

Jesus told us that the whole law could be summarized with two commandments: love God and love others.

But here we find that it is impossible to keep those commandments without God’s love first coming into us.

The only way that we can love is by having been loved first.

That means that we have not loved others until we love them the way that God loves us.

It also means that we will fail to love others unless we can see the depth of God’s love for us.

Most of us think too little about this.

Either we assume that God ought to love me because we think too highly of ourselves.

Or, we think that God should love me simply because he is a God of love.

What we need to meditate on over and over again is that God loves me by providing a Savior for me.

God’s love does not cause him to /overlook/ our sin.

God’s love causes him to /do something about/ our sin.

Until we can see how God’s love works for us, we will never understand what love for others should look like.

We will assume that there are limits to our love.

Or we will believe that there are things people can do that disqualify them from receiving our love.

When we do not love others as we should, we need to consider again the depth of God’s love for us.

Having been loved by God, we should be able to extend his love toward others.

!! We love God by loving others

Because Christian love is a response to God’s love, and because Christian love is empowered by God’s love, Christian love for others is identical with Christian love for God.

This is what John says in verse 20.

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.”

In other words, we cannot be lovers of God if we do not love our brothers.

We can /claim/ to love God, but our claim is a lie if we do not also love others just like God loved us.

John’s argument is based upon the assumption he makes at the end of verse 20.

“For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

The way to love an invisible God is by loving our visible fellow man.

John can say this is true because the effect that God’s love has upon those who are born of him is to make them lovers.

Remember what he said in 1 John 2:9? “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.”

If God’s love for us has not changed us, then God’s love has never made its way into us.

Let’s back up a bit and see the whole of John’s argument.

He is saying that God has taken the initiative in showing love to us, and he acts in love because it is his character to love.

But the aim of God’s love for us is for his love to radically change us, making us lovers like him who then pass on his love to others.

Because we are transformed by God’s love, we now have a relationship of love with God giving us confidence before him rather than fear.

Still, John is not interested in theory but in evidence, and any claim should be validated by fact.

It is one thing to say that we have a loving relationship with God; it is quite another thing to prove that this is indeed the case.

If I say that I love my wife, there should be evidence to back up this claim.

If the evidence can not be found, my words simply do not count.

So John says that the evidence that proves that we really do love God is that we love our brother.

How do we prove that we love God?

By loving others.

We might even say that the way that we love God is by loving others.

The evidence of our love is also the way that we love.

But I have to show my love in a way that the person I love experiences it.

I can say that I love my wife, and even say that it is proven in my hard work to provide for her.

But I cannot love only on my own terms.

I have to love my wife in ways that communicate love to her.

She is the one who primarily decides how that should happen.

Likewise, John is telling us how we are to show love to God.

We have to love on God’s terms.

And God says that the way we love him is by loving others.

Granted, this is not the only way that we love God.

But John’s concern here is that we love God in ways that also give evidence of our love.

Other ways of loving God, including the spiritual disciplines, can be done with no heart for God at all.

But, loving others with God-like love is only possible with a heart that is moved by love.

Because the new birth is required to love in this way, this kind of love is a clear sign that a person has been overcome by God’s love and that by loving others he is demonstrating his love for God.

!! The command to love is effective on those who have been born again

Chapter four ends with this command: “whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

The command does not diminish the role of love.

Rather, the command can have the positive effect of awakening love.

If you or I feel the conviction of God from what John has had to say, the command of verse 21 should bear fruit in our lives.

There is no concern here with legalism.

An unregenerate person will simply not be able to love others with God-like love.

But those who have been born again will respond to this command because the love of God resides in them, giving them the power to carry out this command.

So God’s commandments are not to have the effect of placing undesirable rules upon the heartless soul.

God is not interested in getting us to respond out of guilt.

In the first verse of chapter five, John says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” John reminds us that the new birth comes only through acceptance of who Jesus rightly is.