1 JOHN 5:1-5 - Invincible Love

A couple of weeks ago, one of my students in Christian Student Fellowship told me about something that happened in her Women’s Studies class. The instructor told the students to move to one side of the room if they supported so-called “traditional” marriage (one man and one woman for life), and the other side of the room if they believed that “marriage” could be defined however people wanted (whatever number and combination of “gender identities” people wanted.) Our CSF student and one other student were the only ones who stood on the side of the room for God’s commands regarding marriage. Each side of the room was then instructed to present their case to the other side of the room.

The CSF student went on to relate that the “Anything Goes” side was flabbergasted that she and her friend were standing on the other side of the room. They asked her, “How can you possibly believe that??” She simply answered, “Because the Bible tells me that is God’s definition of marriage, and I believe and obey the Bible!” (I was SO proud of her!!”)

It’s one of the reasons I’m profoundly grateful that God has made it possible for Christian Student Fellowship to be present on campus for the past 13 years—because students who are believers have to live in that kind of atmosphere day-by-day in their classrooms, in campus activities insisting they affirm and celebrate rebellion against God’s commandments, living with roommates who not only don’t share their convictions but are sometimes actively hostile to them. They need a place like CSF where they can be encouraged and strengthened and equipped to live in such a hostile environment.

And you have to live in this world too, don’t you? It’s not just on college campuses where believers have to live in a world hostile to their faith—you and I navigate on a daily basis a world that runs on hatred and envy and spite and “cancel culture”, a world that despises any idea of submission to what it sees as a bigoted and outdated morality of the past, a world that belittles any genuine allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Here in our text this morning, John is continuing his teaching on the role of Holy Spirit-generated love in the life of a believer—he uses the word “love” 31 times between 1 John 4:7-5:5! We have seen that love is the indispensable mark of the Christian, that love is the indelible assurance of the Christian’s salvation, and today we will see that

Loving God SUPREMELY produces an OVERCOMING faith that the WORLD cannot OVERWHELM

1 John 5:4 tells us

1 John 5:4 (ESV)

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

And what I aim for you to see from God’s Word this morning is that this overcoming faith—faith that the world cannot overwhelm—is grounded and formed and nourished by an invincible love found in the Spirit of God that dwells in every believer. In the first verse of Chapter 5, John shows us that the love of God in us produces a faith that will

I. Overcome the world’s DIVISIVENESS with others (1 John 5:1)

This world, by its very nature, is divisive. This world runs on envy, jealousy, bitterness and rivalry. This is particularly evident in what has come to be known as “cancel culture”—

The World: Imperfect ALLEGIANCE gets you CANCELLED

If you don’t completely and utterly conform in every last respect with the prevailing sensibilities of the world, you will be cast out, shunned, and silenced. And because the spirit of this world is set completely against Christ, it is necessarily a spirit utterly devoid of any kind of grace. You don’t have to look any further than the way Hollywood treats its own movie stars. According to a recent MSN article Matt Damon, one of the most consistently liberal and progressive actors in Hollywood today, caused a great deal of consternation and was threatened with being “cancelled” because he only recently stopped using a particular word considered a gay slur. No matter how perfectly he “checked all the liberal boxes” in his progressive orthodoxy, just one step out of line is worthy of being cast out of polite society. (https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/how-a-reality-show-almost-got-matt-damon-canceled/ar-AAVskfn)

This is the way the spirit of antichrist that governs this world works—imperfect allegiance gets you cancelled. But what does John say in the first verse of Chapter 5? For the believer

The Believer: Common LOVE means you BELONG

Look at verse 1:

1 John 5:1 (ESV)

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.

The world expects us to divide over everything—gender roles, economic disparity, educational differences, political ideologies, masks and vaccines—the list goes on. But John says here that the love that we have in God overcomes all of those divisions! “Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him!” Instead of the world outside that insists you have to perfectly conform in every last way before you will be accepted, the love born in you by the New Birth in Christ means that if all you have in common with another person is Jesus, that is enough! If you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are born of God. And if you love God as your Father through Jesus Christ, then you love everyone who has been born of God through Jesus!

There are no divisions that this world can come up with that can overwhelm the love you have for God’s people! Race doesn’t matter, politics doesn’t matter, wealth doesn’t matter—none of the ways the world tries to tear you away from each other can overcome the overcoming faith born of the love of God revealed in you through His Spirit dwelling in you!

Loving God supremely produces an overcoming faith that this world cannot overwhelm. It is a faith that overcomes this world’s divisiveness, and it is faith that will

II. Overcome the world’s DISOBEDIENCE to God (1 John 5:2-3)

Look at verses 2-3:

1 John 5:2–3 (ESV)

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

The word “burdensome” can also be translated “heavy”, or “weighty” or oppressive, to use one of our generation’s buzzwords. To the world around us,

The World: God’s commands are OPPRESSIVE (Psalm 53:1-3)

This is the way God’s standards for marriage (for instance) are described in places like that Women’s Studies class our student is in. The notion of one man and one woman married for life and producing children is considered monstrously unfair, unjust, oppressive (and very probably illegal somehow). What it all comes down to is that the world around us hates the idea that there is a God Who has created them and therefore has the right to govern their lives. The deal that Adam and Eve struck with the Serpent in the Garden, after all, was that they would be like God, deciding for themselves what was good and evil.

And right down to this day, the world around us hates the notion that they can be told by God what to do:

Psalm 53:1–3 (ESV)

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

And Christian, you have to live in this world that is constantly pulling away from obedience to God, that is continually working to undermine His statutes and call His authority into question. And not only do you have to live in this world, but you have to bring up children in this world. How do you protect them from succumbing to the gale-force winds of disobedience in this world?

Look again at verse 3:

1 John 5:3 (ESV)

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

See here that obedience to God is entwined together with love for God.Another way of saying this is that believers don’t just obey God’s commands, they love God’s commands! To the world, God’s standards are oppressive, but to the believer,

The Believer: God’s standards are BLESSINGS (Psalm 119:47, 127, 143)

The Psalmist says this over and over in Psalm 119:

Psalm 119:127 (ESV)

Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold.

Psalm 119:143 (ESV)

Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight.

Psalm 119:47 (ESV)

for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.

It is hard to overemphasize how crucial it is to understand that we must not just obey the standards, but we must love the standards! Far too many Christian parents focus only on compliance, on making sure their children obey God’s Word. And then, after eighteen years of Ten Commandments Boot Camp, they are flabbergasted as to why their kids immediately go off the rails as soon as they get out from under their roof. They made God’s commands ugly, and it chased their kids away.

But love for God—love for His commandments—produces an overcoming faith that the world cannot overwhelm. When that student stood facing most of the rest of her class and was called to give an account of why she supported “traditional” marriage, her answer wasn’t because she was afraid some religious authority would find out what she said, she wasn’t afraid that a vengeful God would strike her dead if she didn’t say the right thing. No—her answer was borne out of her love for God and His Word!

Decades after this book was written, one of John’s disciples (a man by the name of Polycarp) would stand trial for his faith. According to an eyewitness to his death, the Roman proconsul conducting the trial offered to set him free:

“Swear,” urged the Proconsul, “reproach Christ, and I will set you free.” “86 years have I have served him,” Polycarp declared, “and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?” (Retrieved from https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/study/module/polycarp/, accessed 3/25/2022)

When you love God and His commands, obedience to His commands is not burdensome, but a blessing—even if means obedience unto death!

Loving God supremely produces an overcoming faith that the world cannot overwhelm. It will overcome the world’s divisiveness with each other, it will overcome the world’s disobedience to God, and it will

III. Overcome the world’s DISDAIN for Christ (1 John 5:4-5)

Look at verses 4-5:

1 John 5:4–5 (ESV)

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

It goes without saying that the spirit of this world—the spirit of Antichrist—does not believe that Jesus Christ is God. And so, this world does not recognize His authority, and does not treasure Him as supremely valuable. If anything, this world’s attitude towards Jesus is that

The World: Jesus is a COOL HOBBY

Everybody gets a hobby—hunting, fishing, stamp collecting, religion, movies, music—and as long as your relationship with Jesus is no more consequential in your life as your relationship with your favorite sportsball team, then no harm, no foul. Some people are Steelers fans, some people are Jesus fans. Go hoot and holler and cheer on Sunday as loud as you want, but on Monday morning it’s back to work and there’s only so much we want to hear from you about how great that game (or that worship service) was.

Go ahead and wear your “this girl runs on coffee and Jesus” t-shirt from Rural King, or your “Stand for the flag, kneel for the cross” bumper sticker—the world has no problem with you being a fan of Jesus. But where you “cross the line”, Christian, is the point at which you say

The Believer: Jesus is GOD’S SON (cp. Luke 14:26; Matt. 19:29)

The world around you doesn’t care if you say “stand for the flag, kneel for the cross”, but it will lose its mind if you say “I love Jesus more than that flag.” The world around you will freak out and call you a dangerous alt-right extremist if you say, “I love and honor and serve Jesus Christ more than the United States of America.” “I love Jesus more than I love my children.” “I love Jesus more than I love my own life.”

But that is exactly what Jesus Himself says we must do:

Luke 14:26 (ESV)

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 19:29 (ESV)

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

Can’t you see that this is where it all comes together? Believing that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh means that you have been born of God—and being born of God means that you love God supremely. And when you love God supremely, when He is your greatest treasure, then you treasure everyone who loves Him—regardless of any other way they may be different from you!

When You love God supremely, then you love to do what He tells you to do! You do not obey Him because you are afraid He will smite you for disobedience—because He already smote His Son in your place! You obey Him because it is sheer joy to do His will! And your delight to do His will, your love for His standards will produce in you (and in those who see your conduct) an invincible obedience that this world cannot overwhelm!

Loving God supremely produces an overcoming faith that this world simply cannot overwhelm. No matter how the winds of opposition may blow against you, no matter how fierce or threatening the spirit of the age that sets itself against you, you have a Holy Spirit-borne love of God as your highest treasure in this life and the next—and nothing this world can do to you can overcome it!

Christian, if this invincible love lives in you, then how can you hold grudges or bitterness against your fellow believer? What division could there possibly be that could overwhelm the fact that you and your brother both love Jesus? Prove the love of God in you by repenting of that bitterness, that grudge, that divisive spirit, and make it your motto to say, “If all we have in common is Jesus, that is more than enough!”

If this invincible love lives in you, Christian, then how can you separate that love from obedience? Are you chafing at His commands, are you bristling at the suggestion that you are called to submit to your husband in all things (Ephesians 5:24)?

Do you resent God’s command in Ephesians 5:3 that “sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you...” because you really want to watch that Netflix movie behind the PIN code?

Are you enforcing a zero-tolerance obedience to God’s commandments in your home so completely that you are teaching your children to resent His laws? Then you need to take a step back and remember who you are! You are a Christian, and that means that you not only obey God, but you love to obey Him—and bring that resentment and heavy-handed demands for obedience to the foot of the Cross and repent of them there.

If this invincible love lives in you, Christian, then how can you love anything more than Jesus? Are you letting your delight in Him get nudged out of the way by the things this world tells you are more valuable? Are you reserving your supreme love for Him for two hours on Sunday mornings when you come to church (that is, if you don’t have anything better to do on Sunday?) If so, name those things for what they are—idols—and break them in pieces before Him, repent of them and turn your eyes to Him alone--your King, your delight, your treasure and your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

What are some of the ways the world around us insists on dividing people into groups of enemies? How does loving God supremely enable you to love other believers regardless of the ways they may differ from you? How does that love govern the disputes that might arise between believers?

Why does John connect loving God so closely with obeying Him? What is the aspect of your life that seems to be most difficult for you to submit to God’s commands? How does the presence of the Holy Spirit through the New Birth in you make loving obedience to God possible?

How does your confession of faith that Jesus Christ is God enable you to overcome the hostility of the world against Him? Read 1 John 5:4-5 again. Take some time to write these verses out and memorize them. Ask God by His Spirit to enable you to love Jesus supremely this week!

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