True Love 1 John 4:7-21 Part 1

TRUE LOVE

1 John 4:7-21

TEXT:

1Jn 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1Jn 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Our scripture today is probably one of the best if not the best scripture passages on love. First of all we see God's demonstration of love by sending His Son Jesus to take our punishment for our wretched sins so that we see Himself as the ultimate source of love

Secondly the love doesn't end there by the great power of the Holy Spirit indwelling inside of us it gives us Christians the power to love others in practical, everyda ways which is needed more today than probably any other time in history at this moment. We will also learn from our scriptures today how John the writer taught his believers the way to share God's Love and we will see the blessings that resulted from living a life of love.

I want to start our with a story of a rice farmer in India. The first year he owned his farm the water which flowed through it watered his and his neighbors field. That year was a great harvest for both of them. The next year the farmer said that the water was a great wealth so he shut up the water from going to his neighbors field. By not letting the water flow freely the water became stagnant and ruined his field and he lost his crop and his neighbor lost his as well. When we shut up God's love we become stagnant and unproductive as Christians. The Bible even tells us that in 1Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: . We have to let the love of God freely flow that our cup runs over and spreads. We have been preaching on the great commission for some time now and as far as God's love goes is no different and is a vital part of the great commission. I was doing some work on the church website the other day and I took a good look at what Bro. Demitri put on our home page. "Our mission is to glorify God by proclaiming Jesus, being disciples and making disciples." How true this is to the great commission and our lesson today.

1- The Declaration of True Love 4:7-8

3 times here John the Apostle confronted his readers with the words, "LOVE ONE ANOTHER". In the first reference it is a command VS. 7 "Let us love one another". The second is a conviction out of VS. 11, "We ought also to love one another". Then finally in the third instance out of VS. 12, "If we love one another" is a conditional statement. The main point though is that WE ARE TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Do we trully understand what it means to love another. We can say we love our parents, we love our spouses, our kids etc. but the fact remains and will be through out eternity is the fact that true love is only found in God. He is it's origin and source. He imparts it, but only to those who belong to His family the Bride of Christ.

Vs. 8 "God is love" as John tells us the words that the Holy Spirit had him write indicates the nature of God. God is love. Love is one of God's characteristics, but it is more than just a characteristic it is the essential fabric of His nature.

God's love does not violate or go against any of His attributes. A lot of people misunderstand God's love. They say God is too loving to send any one to an eternal burning HELL. To claim this doctrine is inconsitant with His love.

On the contrary God's judgement requires punishment for sin on all men BUT GLORY TO GOD His love offers us a full pardon of that sin through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ.

2-The Demonstration Of True Love 4:9-10

God demonstrated divine love by sending His ONLY Son Jesus to this sinful world. His purpose was that man who was spirituall dead, might live VS.9. When Jesus came to this world He came to His people the children of Israel the Jews. Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Also in Romans Paul writes this,Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. but Israel refused Him the chief cornerstone, the lamb without blemish the supreme sacrifece.

There trully was nothing in the world to attract God to send His Son. We had been disobedient creation from the very beginning and even more so today with the condition of the world but God saw this before the framing of this world and He knew what He was going to have to do. We were and still are alienated from God and lost in our sins.

Our steps our will was hardened and turned from God and His righteousness. Which we know our righteousness is as filthy rags and that we have all sinned and come short of HIS glory!!

Even though John does not mention Christ's death it is implied in these verses and in VS. 10 "Sent" that He existed before time and came and was incarnate as man then was crucified, buried and rose againg giving us victory over death hell and the grave. VS.9 does not mean that He came into existance at His Birth in Bethlehem. It means He was God the only begotten Son and became flesh John 1:1. By Him coming to this world He became our propiation our substitution to satisfy God's judgement and punishment for our sin. If that isn't Love I don't know what love is. This should really help with our appreciation of God's love and the magnitude that we need to spread it to the rest of the world!!!. Just as John refered to Jesus in John 3:16 he refers the same way and wants to make it very clear and to those false religions that believe satan or lucifer is His brother these scriptures makes it very clear he isn't. VS. 10. JESUS IS THE ONE AND ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF THE LIVING GOD!!!!!!!

The infinite love exhibited by the Father in sending His Son and the love of His Son dying for us as rebellious, mean, rotten sinners ought to encourage us to get out and reach the unsaved. It should also help us to appreciate our brothers and sisters in God's family even more.

3- The Delights Of True Love 4:11-21

John starts VS. 11 off with "IF" which conveys the meaning since or in view of the fact that."" In the view that God loved and still loves us today despite of our sinful nature. With that we ought to love one another. I see on facebook about people saying we shouldn't hang around with this denomination or that denomination or with a certain type of people but on the contrary that is where Jesus told us to go and show His love!! Yes we jus as in our earlier scriptures we need to tell this lost and dying world about the judgement and punishment for our sins but even more we are to tell them about the LOVE of God and Jesus and what they did for us and made evident by the power of the third part of the Holy Trinity the HOLY SPIRIT. Oh how we should love that Spirit in us!!!!!! When the Holy Spirit gets on us we should be as bubbly as a mountain brook in the spring thaw!!!! We need to let the unsaved about our concern for them because unless they get saved they will NOT be partakers of His rewards at the Judgement Seat of Christ which takes place after the soon coming rapture of the church. Love forms a solid foundation for service in the Lord. It seeks the best for others.

After the delight of God's Love comes the assurance or safety that we have because of God's love. In VS. 19-21 a beliver can not love God but hate his brother. John asked an important question. How can a man love God whom he has never seen and faily to love God's children whom he sees? The TRUE believer can and MUST love both God and God's children. A writer on world religion has observed that pagonism is the "complete absence of any conception of love. You may go through heathendom anywhere, and you will not find mercy, kindness, and love to compare with the Christian virtues.

This confirms that God is the source of love and true love is present only among His children. It must show in the life of the Christian as he interacts with other family members and the world.