The Attribute of God is Love
The Attributes of God: God Is Love
1 John 4:7-21 (NIV)
The non-Christian, Greek writer Lucian who lived from A.D. 120-200 made an observation about Christians. He said, “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator [Jesus] has put it into their heads that they are brethren.” Lucian said that Christians “spare nothing.” “Sparing nothing” is an indication of unconditional love. Unconditional love is what we are going to take a look at this morning.
What is love? The Bible says, “God is Love.” What are the implications of this statement? Love is an extraordinary gift from God, and it is the source of the Lord’s presence in his living creation. It is a gift meant to unite creature and Creator, but the creature has distorted its meaning and separated itself from God. Some of the misinterpretations about love are that love is purely physical, or that love is only a temporary state. As we will see though, these interpretations about love are way off track.
1. The Origin of Love vs. 7-8…
John begins by telling us that love comes from God, and the person who does not love, does not know God. We cannot begin to understand this statement until love is defined. So what is love?
Mr. Webster’s dictionary, defines love as a strong liking for someone or something, or a passionate affection for another person. Verse 7 though says that love is from God, a being who is not of this world. Notice that Webster’s definition of love involves worldly objects using the word “person” or “something.” The problem that is evident in a human definition of love is that we humans see with and not through the eye. We must remember that love is from God, therefore a human definition will not suffice to describe love.
In Modern English “love” is one word that encompasses many meanings, which creates misunderstandings in defining what godly love is. We need to take a look at the original New Testament Greek in order to understand what type of love John is talking about. In Biblical Greek, words for love include storge, philia, eros, and agape. Each of these words has a distinct meaning. Storge, for example, is the love between family members. Philia is a friendship between kindred spirits. Eros, which is not even found in the New Testament, is sexual desire. This is where we get the English word “erotic.” Agape is godly love, or unconditional love. As one person put it, “Eros is all take; philia is give-and-take; agape is all give.”
In 1 John 4:7-21, all references to love are the Greek word agape. The love spoken of here in this passage is unconditional. It is “all give.” The spiritual psychologist M. Scott Peck tells us concerning love that it is “the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” If we have the love that is from God, we will willingly extend ourselves and reach out to help others.
2. The Sacrifice of Love vs. 9-11…
In these verses John presents the ultimate example of godly love. Christ’s death on the cross for you and me is the greatest love that anyone can have. Jesus tells us in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” The sacrifice of one’s own life for another is the greatest act of love, or agape that can be shown.
A person does not have to literally sacrifice his or her life in order to lay it down though. Laying down one’s life for a brother or sister can be done through serving others. Laying down one’s life can be dedicating one’s time to help someone in need, or listening to someone when you really don’t feel like it.
Starr Daily says, “Sacrificial love is not loss, but gain . . . In its true meaning sacrificial love is natural and spiritual increase. It is the gradual giving of the lower for the higher, the lesser for the better, and the least for the most.” What Daily is saying is that agape, or sacrificial love is humbling oneself to love, and in return one will gain everything. It is servanthood.
Verse 10 says…, Sacrificial love expects nothing in return. God showed love toward us, but he did not expect to receive love in return. The Lord doesn’t force us to love Him, He gives us a choice as to whether we love Him or not.
So we need to be as the little four year old girl, who hugging a doll in each arm, looked up at her mother and said, “Mama, I love them and love them and love them, but they never love me back.” We should love people even if they do not love us back.
3. God is In Those Who Love vs. 12-15…
“No one has seen God at anytime.” There are those who say this is a contradiction in the Bible. They say John forgot about Moses. No, Moses got a glimpse of God, but he never fully saw Him. Anyway, no one today has seen God. “Art Linkletter saw a small boy drawing a picture. He inquired, ‘What are you drawing?’ The small boy replied, ‘A picture of God.’ Linkletter told the boy that no one knows what God looks like, to which the boy confidently replied, ‘They will when I get through’.”
If no one has seen God, is there a way that we can see him? Have you ever heard the hymn Let Others See Jesus In Me? There is a way for a person to see both God and Jesus. “How is that?” some of you may ask. These verses are telling us that God can be seen in a person who loves. In John 14:23 Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” According to Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest, the Lord is in those who have love because, he “. . . is the source of love and expects his children to be channels of love to others.”
God’s Holy Spirit is our assurance that both the Father and the Son abide in us, and can be seen in us and through us. In John 15:7-8 Jesus tells us, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you . . . By this My Father is glorified . . .” In other words, if Jesus’ words abide in us, God will be seen though us. The Holy Spirit is the one who will help us understand how to represent Jesus. Christ tells us in John 16:14 that the Holy Spirit, “. . .will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you.”
4. God is Love v. 16…
This verse says, “God is love.” I read about a man named J. P. Jardine and he told a story about a lady who helped him understand something about the statement “God is love.” Mr. Jardine said, “When I was in high school in Douglas, Georgia I had a dear Christian lady who taught my algebra class. One day she said to us, ‘Do you know that there is an algebraic equation in the Bible?’ We, at least I, looked at her in astonishment!”
Mr. Jardine had a good reason for his astonishment. His teacher was referring to 1 John 4:16. Let’s examine this insight that his algebra teacher gave him, and see how the statement “God is love” is an algebraic equation. If you see the problem “x is y,” this is a statement of equality. It would be represented as “x = y.” If you flip the equation to read “y = x,” it still has the same value. If you take the expression “God is love,” it could be represented as “God = love.” Flip this and you get “love = God.”
True agape love “is God.” John says, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” A person who abides in love can abide in God, because love is God. If a person abides in love, he or she is already abiding in God.
5. Fear Not My Love vs. 17-18…
In these verses Paul basically said that if we have love then we need not fear judgment, because there is no fear in love. Why is this? A man named Henry Drummond sheds some light on these verses. He says, You remember the profound statement or remark that Paul makes elsewhere: “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Did you ever think what he meant by that? In those days men were working the passage to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they manufactured out of them. Christ came and said, “I show you a more simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously fulfill the whole law.”
Henry Drummond says, “If you love, you will unconsciously fulfill the whole law,” he was talking about Matthew 22:37-40. In these verses Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”
6. God’s Love Is Unconditional Love vs. 19-21…
In verse 19 John says, “We love Him because he first loved us.” In other words, we should love God because God loves us. C. S. Lewis said, “On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for him.” Love is a two way street.
Verse 19 can also be applied to love for our fellow human beings. Verse 19 could be read as “We love [others] because [God] first loved us.” Verses 19-21 reveals that if we do not love each other, then we don’t really love God. We must love because we are loved.
If we are to love at all times then our love has to be unconditional. In looking at the three Greek words for love again, we see that “eros (sexual desire) is all take; philia (brotherly love) is give-and-take; and agape (unconditional love) is all give.” According to Plato, eros (sexual desire) and philia (brotherly love) are based on the condition of the object loved, and are practiced only when the object loved has something that the lover needs. Eros, (sexual desire), and philia (brotherly love) are conditional types of love, but agape is unconditional. If God’s love is in us then we will love no matter what. We will love unconditionally.
In looking at this passage we see that the human definition of love is way off the mark. If we want to be as close to our Lord and Savior as possible then we need to clothe ourselves in the type of love that is revealed to us here. We need to love unconditionally. We also need to jump at the chance to show someone love everyday.
Henry Drummond says, “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
VA Baily wrote: I hurried into the local department store to grab some last minute Christmas gifts. I looked at all the people and grumbled to myself, "I am going to be in here forever." But I hurried the best I could, and finally made my way to the toy department. I found myself in the doll aisle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little boy about 5 holding a lovely doll. He kept touching her hair and he held her so gently. I just kept looking over at the little boy and wondered who the doll was for. I heard him say to his aunt, "Are you sure I don’t have enough money?" She replied, "You know that you don’t have enough money for it." The aunt told the boy to stay there for a minute.
After a bit, I asked the boy who the doll was for. He said, "It’s the doll my sister wanted for Christmas. She knew Santa would bring it." I told him that maybe Santa was going to bring it. He said "No, Santa can’t go where my sister is, I have to give the doll to my Momma to take to her. I asked him where his sister was. He looked at me with sad eyes and said "She is with Jesus. Daddy says that Momma is going to have to go to be with her too." Daddy said the purpose of their lives was to teach me more about Jesus, I am so glad they did, because God has a plan for me.
Then the boy looked at me again and said, "I told my Daddy to tell Momma not to go yet. I told him to tell her to wait till I got back from the store." Then he asked me if I wanted to see his picture. I told him I would love to. He pulled out some pictures and said "I want my Momma to take this with her so she don’t ever forget me. I love my Momma so much and I wish she didn’t have to leave. But Daddy says she needs to be with my sister."
I saw that the little boy had lowered his head. While he was not looking I reached into my purse and pulled out a hand full of bills. I asked the boy, "Can we count your money one more time?" He was excited and said, "Yes, I know it has to be enough," so I slipped my money in with his and we began to count it. And of course it was plenty for the doll. He softly said, "Thank you Jesus for the money." Then the boy said, "I just asked Jesus to give me enough money to buy this doll so Momma can take it with her to give to my sister. And he heard my prayer. I wanted to ask him for enough to buy my Momma a white rose, but I didn’t, but he gave me enough to buy the doll and a rose for my Momma. She loves white roses so much."
In a few minutes the aunt came back and I wheeled my cart away. I kept remembering a story in the newspaper several days earlier. In the story, a family was deciding on whether to remove life support from a young mother. Now surely this little boy did not belong to that story. Two days later I read in the paper where the family had disconnected the life support and the young woman had died.
I could not forget the little boy and just kept wondering if the two were connected. Later, I could not help myself. I went out and bought some white roses and took them to the funeral home where the young woman was. In the casket, the young mother was holding a lovely white rose, the beautiful doll, and the picture of the little boy in the store. I left there in tears, my life changed forever.
The love that little boy had for his little sister and his mother was incredible. It is the same kind of love that God has for you and me. How do I know? Because, God is love! He gave everything had to buy salvation for you and me. If you do not understand this love that Scripture speaks of, or if you have never felt the love of Jesus Christ, if you do not know God, let me encourage you that today can be the day.