The Love of God: 1 John #11
This is an exposition of 1 John 4:7-21. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, January 10, 2016.
Intro:
We’ve come through the holiday season. We’ve seen the annual push for folks to demonstrate how compassionate and caring they really are. People who haven’t spoken to their neighbor for the past six years dropped off a turkey at John 3:16 so that a total stranger could know they are loved, and the one who bought the turkey could soothe his conscience. Meanwhile his cold shoulder insures that his neighbor knows he has not forgotten. Thousands of dollars along with coats, toys, food and other gifts have once again proved that we are a loving and caring people at least from late November through December. Meanwhile, we hear daily of shootings and other violent crimes.
But all of this is just a symptom of a larger problem. We really don’t know what love is. When you listen to popular music – vile, vulgar lyrics speak of perversion rather than love. These kids today have no concept of real love. Why in my day we had “great” love songs, with lyrics like, “Hello. I love you. Won’t you tell me your name?” We were talking about that deep, meaningful kind of love. We could talk about Hollywood and their role in perverting love and reducing it to animal passion. But we must not overlook our role in all of this. The church is no innocent bystander in this culture war. To tell you the truth, when I first saw the footage of Ferguson – I wasn’t sure if it was a riot or a Baptist business meeting! For too long the church has settled for a sappy, sentimental understanding of love. What is love? What does it mean to love one another? Our text this morning is found in the 4th chapter of 1 John.
Text: 1 John 4:7-21
John is writing to encourage a people he dearly loves.
His pastor’s heart is breaking over the confusion and harm that has come to the church.
False teachers have perverted the Gospel.
They have distorted the message of Christ.
The result is hurt and confusion in the hearts of genuine believers.
John says he is writing that they might know that they know.
That they might be certain that they are “in the faith.”
He has set forth three tests:
The moral – the test of righteousness
The social – the test of love
The doctrinal – the test of truth
In our text this morning he is expanding on the social test – the test of love.
This word was important for the believers in John’s day and it is vitally important to believers today. This is a message our culture needs to hear. Because I’m convinced that:
Thesis: In a world saturated with a simplistic, sentimental and wholly inadequate understanding of love, believers must faithfully and consistently demonstrate the love of God.
If our world is to know anything about genuine love believers have to step up. We have to demonstrate or model what real love is. Because, as John makes clear, only those who know God, know what real love is. Only those who’ve experience the genuine article are capable of showing it to others.
There are three great truths revealed in this text regarding the love of God. These are essential to knowing and understanding what real love is all about.
- The love of God flows from the essence of His being and is best demonstrated in the work of redemption. (4:7-12)
- The love of God combines truth and passion. (4:13-16)
- The love of God relieves our fears and enables our passion. (4:17-21)