God is Love 1 John 4:7–12

INTRODUCTION “What is love?” That’s the question a British newspaper was asking in an article I read several years back. The writer of the article garnered opinions from those whom they considered to be experts. They asked a physicist. His answer was that love is basically chemistry, and we really have no control over it because we’re talking about the release of chemicals such as pheromones and dopamine. Not only that, love is a survival tool that we have evolved over time to promote long-term relationships.

They asked a psychotherapist. Her answer was that love is a variety of emotions—sexual, non- sexual, brotherly—but that we must not forget self-love, because unless you love yourself, you can’t love others.

They asked a writer of romance novels. Unsurprisingly, she couldn’t really define love. After all, from her vantage point, it depends on your situation. But one thing is certain, it’s the emotion that drives all great stories. Is love chemistry? Is love emotions? Is love the undefined driver of good novels? What is love?

We use the word love in a variety of ways. We use the word love to refer to just about everything and anything. We use love in reference to what we cherish most: “I love God.” “I love my family.” But we also use the word love to regularly refer to things that are of lesser value. My wife made an apple pie the other day, and halfway through the first piece I said, “I love apple pie.” So, what is love?

We’ve been talking about the attributes of God since mid-February. The perfections of God. The things that make him who he is. We’ve looked at attributes such as his supremacy, his sovereignty, his holiness. And today we look at his love. But it’s not just that God has love or shows love. In two verses, verses 8 and 16, of 1 John 4, we find this phrase: “God is love.” In other words, any discussion about love has to begin with God, because that’s who he is. And if the very essence of God is love, then we would be remiss to try and understand love apart from him. If we fail to understand what is meant by that phrase, “God is love,” will we be able to even experience the love that humanity longs for?

TRANS: J. I. Packer once said, ‘“God is love’ is one of the most significant and misunderstood statements in all the Bible. False ideas have grown up round it like a hedge of thorns, hiding its real meaning from view, and it is no small task cutting through this tangle of mental undergrowth. Yet the hard thought involved is more than repaid when the true sense of the text comes home to the Christian soul.” What makes it hard, in my opinion, is the fact that we come to the word “love” with all sorts of ideas drawn from experience, romanticism, and culture, and we run the risk of projecting onto God something other than what he is. Well, my hope this morning is that we would come away with a true sense of God’s love.

READ 1 JOHN 4:7–12….

John was an older man by the time he wrote his first letter. Some thirty to sixty years have passed since the resurrection. When he was younger, he had the privilege of walking daily with Jesus for three years. He heard his sermons, he saw the miracles, and he witnessed first-hand how Jesus dealt with people. He had been part of that inner circle with James and Peter. He watched Jesus die as well as saw him after his resurrection. He was there at Pentecost, seeing

the church grow day by day. And now, even with the passage of time, John still finds himself enamored by the love of God. It hasn’t grown stale or cold. Here’s how I know. John 3:1: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.”

1. Love has its origin in God (vv.7–8). As John begins, he points out that love has its origin in God. In verses 7 and 8, you’ll notice that he says something about us, but grounded in God. He says two things: One, you need to love one another. Why? Because love is from God. Second, he says our lack of love for others is indicative of our relationship with God. Why? Because God is love.

It is God’s very nature to love. In the same way the Bible says that God is Spirit or that God is light, it is true that the nature of God is love. But notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say love is God. And the reason he doesn’t is because to say that love is God is to say that love defines God. Yet, what we see is that God defines love. And as a result—although hard to grasp at times—everything that God does is love.

So, how should we think of the love of God? Let me briefly give you six ways in which we should think of God’s love:

#1 God’s love is uninfluenced. This may be hard to understood, but there was nothing in you that moved God to love you. Of course, I’m not trying to say that you’re an unlovable person, but when we think about God’s love towards his children, it’s important to know that he loves us because he loves us. Listen to what it says in Deuteronomy 7:7–8. Speaking to the Israelites, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you.” Here’s why I think this is so important. Because it also means that God loves before we even have a chance to love him. It means God loves his children even when they’re unlovable.

#2 God’s love is eternal. Did you know that God loved his people even before heaven and earth were called into existence? In Paul’s letter to the believers at Ephesus he writes, “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption.” Think about that. If you’re a believer, God’s love towards you has no beginning and will certainly have no end.

#3 God’s love is infinite. There is a depth to his love that none can understand. There is a height, a length, and breadth to the love of God which we cannot fathom. That’s why Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that believers would have strength to comprehend it.

#4 God’s love is unchanging. After all, God himself cannot change. And if God is love, then that too remains the same. In those final hours with his disciples, about the time he was getting ready to wash their feet in an act of service and humility, the Apostle John reminds us that “he loved them until the end” (John 13:1). Through all of their shortcomings, and through all of the trials, Jesus’ love remained the same. Yet we hear people all the time, for whatever reason, claim that they have fallen out of love or no longer love so-and-so.

#5 God’s love is holy. You’ve probably heard it said that love can cause a person to do foolish things. Not so with God. His love is not blind to sin. Perhaps that is why the author of Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those whom he loves (Hebrews 12:6). His love is not driven by sentimentality or subjectivity.

#6 God’s love is gracious. We will see this a bit further in 1 John, but suffice it to say the love of God was most clearly shown in his determination to give his Son to sinners. And when we’re tempted to doubt God’s love for us, we need only to go back to the crucifixion and see God’s gracious love in the giving up of his Son.

The love of God summons us to love (7). Well, because of all this, John addresses his readers in verse 7 as “beloved.” You could even render that as “dear friends.” He cares about his readers, and he is summoning them to love one another. This isn’t the first time he has told them to do so in this book. But now, John is grounding it a bit differently. He tells them to love one another “for love is from God.”

Keep in mind, John is talking about believers loving one another. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t love those who have not trusted in Christ. I think that becomes clear a bit later on. But he’s also not saying that unbelievers are incapable of love. All of us probably know lost people who are very loving, and in fact are more loving than some of the believers we know. After all, everyone is created in the image of God. Even though the fall has marred that image, God in his common grace has allowed humans the capacity to love. But a person will never fully know or understand love apart from new life in Christ. I. Howard Marshall says it this way, “Human love, however noble and however highly motivated, falls short if it refuses to include the Father and Son as the supreme objects of its affections.” You see, Jesus said in Matthew 22:36–38 that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. If we miss out on that, we’re missing out on real love.

And then John makes a parallel statement, “and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” So what happens is that when people become born again, they are given a new nature. The old has passed away and the new has come. The believer has experienced the love of God in a supernatural way, so much so that it spills over into all of our relationships. It’s a radical kind of love that can only be credited to the work of God in our lives. John says that children of God, who love in this way, are from God. So in a very real sense—and this is part of John’s purpose in the letter—your love for one another is indicative of whether or not you're even a Christian.

There are real consequences of not loving (8). So, if love is evident in our life, that is a good sign—not the only sign—that we know God personally. Love for God and love for those who also belong to God. But what if we don’t have a God-like love? John is good at stating not only the positive, but the negative as well. He says here in verse 8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” In other words, if you don’t love, then you don’t know God. You see, the implication is that knowledge of God as love logically leads believers to do the same. John is saying in clear terms that if you have been born again, if you’ve come to know the living God and his love, you will love also because it’s your new nature. But if you don’t, then it could very well be the case that you don’t know God. Take a step back and see the beautiful logic here: God is love -> Born of God means we are his children -> God’s children have God’s nature -> Therefore God’s children will love.

Trans: Love has its origin in God. But there is another truth that helps us to understand love and understand this exhortation to love others. It is the fact that love is seen in the cross of Christ.

2. Love is seen in the cross of Christ (vv.9–10). Now, it is one thing to talk about love and quite another thing to show it. How easy it is for us to say that we love someone. Yet if that love is real, it will be made visible. It will materialize into

action. Real love takes on the form of sacrifice and self-giving. God doesn’t just say he is love; he has demonstrated love.

God sent his Son so that we might live (9). Look with me at verse 9. John is using language that sounds just like what he said in his gospel, in John 3:16. His love has been made manifest or visible in the sending of his Son. Jesus, who is God, came in the flesh. He lowered himself. He left his privileged position. He came and dwelt among sinful human beings. He didn’t do this out of obligation. He didn’t come because he was lonely. He did so out of love. God initiated the sending of his Son. This, my friends, is the ultimate picture of love.

And who did he come for? He came for sinners. He came for those in rebellion against him. He came for the unlovely. There are many people who think that they are unlovable. They’ve been abused, or abandoned, or mistreated, and all they want is for someone to love them in spite of all their imperfections and in spite of their past failures. And yet, in the gospel we have a God who so loved us that he didn’t just say it. He did something. He sent the only son he had to die.

When we let our ideas of love be shaped by things other than Scripture, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that God’s love has been shown to sinners. While some may think they’re unlovable, others might think, “Who wouldn’t want to love me?” At the same time, that person is quick to notice everyone else sin. All of us, however, were born in utter sin. And no matter how lovable you think you are, your sin is ugly and should be met with righteous anger. But what did God do? He said, “Here is my Son. My only Son who has no sin.”

What comes about as a result of this sacrifice? God sent his Son so that we might live. He sent his Son so that the power of sin in our lives would be broken. He sent his Son so that we would have fellowship with him and with his Son. He sent his Son to rescue us from spending eternity in hell. He sent his Son so that we might have joy! Is this not love? Is this not the measure of love? The worst thing you can do is measure love by the amount of warm feelings you have for someone. God is love. And God’s love has been made visible in the sending of his Son.

God sent his Son so that he would die (10). John takes things a step further in verse 10. Look at what he says. He tells us two very important truths here. First, he tells us that God took the initiative. If you’ve been born again, if you’ve experienced the love of God, take no credit. God took the first step. We did not love God. Other passages in the Bible give us further insight into this idea of “we have not loved God.” For example, when Paul is speaking to the church at Colossae in Colossians 1:21, he says, “you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.” That is the status of every unbeliever. But God took an initiative. He did not send his Son to live. He sent his Son to die.

Make no mistake: when we talk about God’s love, it’s not that he has let us get away with our former sins. He’s not some indulgent father who says, “You can get away with anything. I’ll forgive you for the sole fact that I’m loving. And as a loving person, I do not punish. There’s no need to demand an accounting for all your evil deeds. It’s okay, I’ll just forget about it.” No! That’s not how God’s love works. Look at the word he uses. He says that he sent his Son to be a propitiation. Propitiation means that wrath has been satisfied. It means that Christ came to satisfy the demands of justice. To pay a debt. To pay a penalty.

You might think, “But how can a loving God ever punish anyone?” You see, if God really is love, then he is also just. Love satisfies justice! Our sins deserve a just punishment. And because

God is love, he sent his Son to stand in our place and absorb that righteous wrath of God that was kindled by our sin. Is that not love?

Most of us know well what John 3:16 says, but I want to encourage you to read the rest of the chapter. I want you to notice what is says at the end, and I only say this because it’s a matter of eternal significance. It says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” If you have not been born again—if you have not believed and trusted in Christ—the wrath of God is upon you.

Trans: Love has its origin in God. Love is seen in the cross of Christ. But notice also that love is seen in the way Christians love one another.

3. Love is seen in the way Christians love one another (vv.11–12). John brings us back once again to the sheer fact that we are to love others. I’m going to let you in on a little secret this morning—just please don’t tell anyone I told you. Sometimes Christians aren’t that loving towards one another. Sometimes Christians bicker, they fight over silly things that have no eternal significance, they’re judgmental, they handle conflict poorly. But look at what John says in verse 11.

God’s love leads us to love others (11). Because God loved us, we ought to love one another. There’s no loophole here. Don’t be that person who says, “I know I’m supposed to love them, but it’s just so hard.” Listen, if you have experienced the love of God, if you have trusted in his work on the cross, if you have experienced the cleansing power of God’s love for you despite your sin and rebellion, if you have been made a child of God, forgiven for every ugly trespass against him—then John says you not only can love someone else, but you “ought” to. If you have come to know the Lord, you have a new nature, and your new nature is one that loves—even when it’s “difficult.”

Of course, we find ourselves in this unique season. We’re social distancing because, quite frankly, we have to. As of right now, all the introverts have a break from trying to come up with excuses for why they aren’t hanging out with others. Nonetheless, we find ourselves in a time of opportunity. Opportunity to love our fellow Christians, and an opportunity to demonstrate to everyone else a kind of love that may be seen as extreme.

It could look something like this: • Leaving a note on your neighbor’s door asking if they have needs. • Organizing errands for those who are elderly or have compromised immune systems. • Praying for healthcare workers and others who daily put themselves at risk. • Giving financial help to those who are struggling financially.

Or, some of you are feeling the pressure right now because you’re in close quarters. What better time to deepen our love for our families. That might look like: • Responding in kindness, understanding and grace. • Husbands and wives choosing to reflect the one-flesh union by being selfless. • Overlooking offenses and being quick to forgive. • Speaking the truth in love.

Certainly there are other ways. But I want you to ask this in a moment of honest reflection: Do I regularly demonstrate love towards others? Do I love God’s people? Do I love those who are

lost? Do I love in ways that cause me to sacrifice for others—whether it be time, money, or something else?

God’s love is perfected in us (12). We come to verse 12, and at first, it’s a head-scratcher. You look at the flow of thought, the argument, the grammar, and you see the first line of verse 12 and think, “Why did John put that here?” No one has ever seen God. What does that have to do with love? Indeed, it is true. No one has ever fully seen God. Sure, Moses in Exodus 33 saw the back of God, but not his face. Isaiah, in Isaiah 6, saw a vision of God. But no one has ever fully seen God. Because no one can see God and live.

God has been clearly revealed in Christ Jesus. How else can God be revealed? God can be seen when believers love one another. The unseen God, who was once revealed in his Son, can now be seen in his people. Why? Because it shows that God abides in us. And his love is perfected in us. If his love is perfected in us, it reaches its goal. The goal is that you would love others the same way he’s loved you.

CONCLUSION On June 25, 1967, over 400 million people in 26 countries watched, via satellite, the Beatles perform the song “All You Need Is Love.” They had been asked to come up with a simple song that could be understood by all the nations. This is what they said:

“All you need is love All you need is love All you need is love, love Love is all you need”

They were right in diagnosing that universally we all need love. But obviously they failed to see that what we really need is the God who is love. What we really need is Jesus who was sent by the God who is love. What we need is not to be connected to love, but connected to Christ, the source of love. And when that happens, real love—supernatural love—will flow like a river from him, into you, and out of you to others. Then you will come to see and know for yourself the wonderful truth, “God is love.”