This is Love

Transcript

GR 1100
2/27/1083

1 John 4:7-12
Gil Rugh

1 John chapter 4. Last week in our study together we looked through the first six verses where the focal point is on false teachers and a test there of the reality of the person's faith is seen in verse 6. "We are from God. He who knows God listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." So you can measure a person's relationship with God by their response to the truth of God and a person claims to be a believer but rejects the truth of God, is opposed to the truth of God, you have reason to question the reality of that profession.

The chapter opened with the encouragement to test and try the spirits because there are many spirits in the world, many false prophets have gone out into the world. We noted to test the spirits is to test the teachers and as you test the teachers and what they are teaching, you see what kind of spirit is motivating them, inspiring them and so forth and it is in light of what they believe and teach regarding the Person of Christ. That's the focal point here. We come into the work of Christ in the verses before us this evening. So Jesus Christ is the focal point and a person's attitude toward the Person and work of Christ is the central factor doctrinally in determining whether they have a true relationship with God. So you see in the Book of I John you have a balance in the coverage. It's both what a person believes and what they do that is indicative of the reality of a relationship with God. And what they do indicates whether they have believed or not. What they believe about Christ is Indicative of whether they have a saving faith. So you must have both correct doctrine and correct practice. Must believe in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His finished work on the cross and if you have that will manifest itself in a changed life. So when you come to verse 7 the matter comes back to our relationship with one another and that has to do with loving one another and in this section he'll emphasize the finality of Christ's work as a satisfaction for sin. But it's in the framework and the context of having love for one another as believers and now this has been a recurring theme through I John-that we love one another.

Back in chapter 3:16. We said, "We know love by this that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Then in practical outworking, if you have material goods and a believer has material needs, you ought to meet those needs. So it's back again to that theme of love. Because it's our relationship with God and our relationship with one another that is a reflection of God's character. "Beloved, let us love one another." And there are three phrases, the same phrase repeated three times. You ought to underline, "love one another" in verse 7. Down in verse 11, the last statement, love one another. The middle of verse 12, love one another. That emphasis on this reciprocal love. We are to be loving one another and that stresses on our love for fellow believers. One another as members of the family of God. Remember that that's the point that Join has made earlier in this letter. That it's the family relationship that manifests itself in this love. So he's not talking about phileo love, but agape love which is the self-sacrificing love. Let us love one another. And he started out by calling them "beloved" which means "loved ones." Loved ones, let us love one another, is really what he says and those who are loved by God and are loved by fellow believers, they ought to be manifesting this. Let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. We are to love one another as fellow believers. The reason for love is from God. Now this becomes the focal point that's going to be developed. We as believers are to love one another. We as believers are loved ones. We are to love one another, for God is love. Love is from God. It finds its source in God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. So this flows out of what he says. Love is from God. If that's the case, love is from God. He is the source of love, then everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Manifesting this kind of love, this agape, self-sacrificing love, is an evidence that you've been born of God for love is from God. And the fact that you manifest this love manifests the fact you have a relationship with God who is the source of love. Now what he is really saying here then is only true believers can have a true agape love for fellow believers. Now this does not mean there are not counterfeits. As soon as you start talking about a true agape love, you can be sure that the devil is going to make a counterfeit. But you only make counterfeits of those things which are genuine. Right? If I pull this out and say, this is a counterfeit catalypiscico. You say, well what's a catalypiscocio? I say, there is no such thing. You say, well how can this be a counterfeit and you're right. A counterfeit presupposes the original or the genuine. So we talk about love. We can be sure there is a counterfeit to what we're talking about here and it becomes very deceptive. We're talking about the genuine agape love that is produced by God. It's from God as its source, so everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. We're going to say something about the tenses here again. The perfect tense, remember we've talked about that in I John, the perfect tense refers to something that happened in the past, the results continue into the present. Everyone who loves is born of God.
"Is born" is in the perfect tense. Now that means that you were born in the past of God. The result continues in the present, that you're God's child. You're one born of God. Now that is crucial here because it indicates that the order is you are born of God and the result is you love. Everyone who loves. Present tense. Everyone who is loving has been born of God. Now I say that because you do not become a child of God by loving. That would be an impossibility obviously from what we have said that God is the source of love. You must first have a relationship with Him before you can have the manifestation of that relationship, His character. But in the general way that it is used that people talk about love, they think that if you try to be loving you'll have a relationship with God. No. You start out with the relationship with God that results in the manifestation of love. So everyone who is loving has been born. The time in the past. Of God and knows God. They have cone into that relationship of being born into God's family and knowing God. Now, if that's so, the negative side.

The one who does not love, does not know God for God is love. The negative side, the one who does not love, present tense, is not loving. Nov/ we are talking about the general character of life, you remember, in John. The one whose life is not characterized by a love for fellow believers, for other believers, we call them fellow believers because they profess to be a believer. If its genuine that they are a believer, they v/ill love fellow Christians. The one who is not loving fellow Christians from the preceding verse, does not know God. Does not know God. Now there's a contrast here in "know." The end of verse 7, "everyone who loves is born of God, has been born, perfect tense." And knows God. And that verse knows there, that word knows at the end of verse 7, is present tense. You have been born of God. The present condition is you are one who is knowing God. You know God.

However, in verse 8, the one who does not love, does not know God, is in aorist tense. Remember, in aorist tense is point action usually in past time, has not known God. So it indicates they have never come to that point in their life where they have entered into the knowledge of God which is the point of salvation and personal faith in Him. So John makes clear here the point in the details as he moves along. The one who loves, present tense, has been born of God, and knows God, present tense. But the one who does not love does not know God. Or, to reflect the tense, has never come to know God. So there's never been that point of time in their experience where they entered into that relationship of the knowledge of God by faith in Christ.

For God is love. The reason given is God is love. Well, that's back up in verse 7. Love is from God. That's why we love one another for love is from God. Now the one who doesn't love can't ever have come to know God because God Himself is love. Nov/ let me say something about this statement first. It's not a reversible statement. You cannot turn this statement around grammatically even. It would be grammatically incorrect. You cannot say love is God. The way it is structured grammatically that's not possible. It would also create theological confusion because God is love. Love is an essential characteristic of God. But God is more than love. God is light. God is spirit and we can go on, God is holy. God is righteous and so on. So love is not all there is to God but it is an essential characteristic of God. God is love. A similar statement back in I John 1:5. "This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God is light. In I John, in the Gospel of John chapter 4:24 we are told God is spirit and so those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. God is spirit. But the Holy Spirit is spirit. Jesus Christ is spirit. Angels are spirits, ministering spirits, Hebrews chapter 1 says. But God is. That's an essential characteristic of Him. He is a spirit so here He is love. Now that's an essential aspect of His character. So anyone who does not manifest this aspect of His character manifests the fact they don't have a relationship with Him. So if you are not loving fellow Christians, you have never come to know God because God is love. You're not manifesting His character. It's rather simple.

All right. He moves on in verse 9 for the development. "By this, which is how we manifest love which love has been manifested. By this the love of God was manifested in us." Since God is love, God displays love as well as produces it in those who have a relationship with Kim. By this the love of God was manifested in us. That God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. The love of God was manifested, aorist tense, at a point in time in the past. Definite point in time God's love was manifested. Aorist tense. At a point in time in the past. Definite point in time God's love was manifested. In chapter 3 of I John verse 5. "And you know that He appeared, aorist tense at a point in time in the past, to take away sins. And in Him there is no sin. What He is talking about is the incarnation at the time when Jesus Christ became a man. That's the time he is looking back to. The love of God was manifested in this, in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world. Now His only begotten Son. It's a word that we have looked at on other occasions. It does not mean that Jesus Christ had a beginning. He is the One who was born of God so He evidently had a beginning. That's not the stress of this word, monogonaise, only begotten. Rather the stress of the word is the uniqueness of His relationship with God. That He has a unique relationship. He was God's unique Son. For we are the sons of God by faith but He is God's unique Son. He is a Son in a way that you and I never were or never will be.

Hebrews chapter 11 is perhaps the most helpful explanation of this ward or illustration of its meaning. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 17. "By faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was offering up His only begotten Son. Now question, was Isaac Abraham's only begotten son from the standpoint of the son, only son, born to him. No, he was not. He was not even the first begotten of Abraham because Ishmael was born years before Isaac was born and later on by his second wife, Kitura, Abraham had other sons. So he is not the only begotten from the standpoint of the only one born to Abraham, or even the first one born to Abraham. But he is the unique son of Abraham in that he is the only son born to Abraham according to promise. And that's what verse 18 of Hebrews 11 clarifies. It was he to whom it was said 'In Isaac your descendants shall be called. ' He is unique. In Him the promises of God find their fulfillment. So Abraham was offering up not his only son, but his unique son, the only one in whom all the promises of God could find fulfillment. That's stressed as this word "only begotten" is used of Christ. He is the unique Son. He is the only one, only Son of God, in whom all of God's purposes and promises could be realized and accomplished. I am God's Son by faith, but the promises of God regarding redemption could not be accomplished in me. It took the death of the unique Son of God to accomplish that. So important to be aware of that and not be confused that the only begotten would have something to do, that Jesus Christ was less than Deity. That's not the point in the word. It's the idea of His uniqueness.

Back to I John 3. Perhaps used, that word is most familiar to us in the most familiar verse, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son " His unique Son.

All right. Back in I John 3:9. "He sent His only begotten Son into the world for the purpose that we might live through Him." So you see here God's self sacrificing love is agape love manifested. He sent His Son for our benefit that we might live through Him. So for us, because for us to have eternal life, that could only occur through the finished work of Christ. Therefore God in love sent His Son. We were the beneficiaries of that love. God did not need redemption. He did not need redeeming, but we did. So He had His Son come to make that provision.

Now verse 10. Clarify love then. "In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Strong emphases here. "In this is love, not that v/e loved God, but that...." and the not that and the but that indicates strong contrast. "Not that we loved God but that He loved us." Strong contrast being brought out here. You want to understand love. It's not that we loved God. But that God loved us. He is the initiator and that's crucial to see that love begins with Him. Not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son and I ought to mention there. But He loved us. That's emphatic. It gets the emphasis "He". God loved us. That's the remarkable thing about it. I could see why I a sinner might love Him. But why should He, a holy, righteous God, love me? But He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The word "Son" and the word "propitiation" are in apposition and when something is in apposition it means the same thing.

Gil Rugh, pastor at Indian Hills Community Church. Gil Rugh and pastor and Indian Hills Community Church say the same thing. So if you say the preacher at Indian Hills or you say Gil Rugh, you are talking about the same person. So here when you talk about "He sent His Son." The propitiation. His Son is the propitiation. The propitiation is the Son and that's because that Jesus Christ in Himself accomplished the work of redemption.

Remember back in chapter 2 of I John. We saw this word "propitiation." Very simply means satisfaction. He is the satisfaction for our sins. In other words He is satisfied our sins. In other words He satisfies God's righteousness, God's holiness in dealing with our sins.

In I John 2. "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins." He Himself, Jesus Christ is the propitiation. So you note that the propitiation centers in Him. It's His death personally that secures redemption. So He is that satisfaction. So when you read in I John 4:10. "God sent His Son to be the satisfaction, the propitiation for our sins, that summarizes it all." All of love. When he is saying that, he is saying He sent His Son to become a man, to die the agonies of death on a cross so that we might have redemption in Him. Now that's a great demonstration of love. That God would love us enough to make such a sacrifice on His behalf. That's the illustration, the demonstration. That's what we saw back in I John 3:16. "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us. Greater love has no man than this, than a man lay down his life for His friends, Jesus said as He anticipated the cross. And here's God who had that unique relationship of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Had God the Son come to earth and suffered the death of a cross. That's the great demonstration of love. That's what He is talking about when He talks about love one another. He is talking about absolute total sacrifice. The willingness for that kind of sacrifice on our behalf in our relationships with one another, in our dealings with one another as believers.

Verse 11. "Beloved, loved ones" and you realize how we are loved. Not only by John but by God."If God so loved us and that assumes the reality of it because he just stated it. First class condition. "If He so loved us, and He did because He sent His Son, we also ought to love one another. We ought to be loving one another. There is an obligation impressed upon us as the objects and recipients of such great love. We are to manifesting love. Ephesians says the same thing with the issue of forgiveness, that even as we have been forgiven in Christ, so we ought to forgive one another. So here, as those who have been the objects of such overwhelming self-sacrificing love, we also ought, we are bound and obligated to love one another because of God's love for us. Important to see the foundation. We often put the foundation for love and serving one another in those that we are dealing with. I don't mind sacrificing on your behalf in you would
just show a little appreciation. The ground for agape love is not your response or your appreciation or anything else in you. It's the love that God showed to me in Christ and if you try to ground your love for fellow believers in what they do and how they act and how they respond, it won't last very long. God says your love for fellow believers is to be grounded in His love for you. And I should condition my love for you as a believer and say, well, I have gone as far as I can go. I mean—I don't mind being loving for you, but there is an end. Oh, is there? Have I laid down my life for you? Well, not quite. Well, then I have stopped short, haven't I? It's relatively simple, but it escapes us.

How many times have you heard a believer express the fact that they can't go any further until there is some kind of response? Until there is some kind of change? What am I doing? I am grounding my love in you instead of in the love of God and what He did for me in Christ until quite frankly as believers the issue is not you. The issue is God and me. And because of His love for me in Christ, I am obligated to be loving you. So we ought to love one another and it's interesting to me. You would think verse 11 might go and we would like it because it would sound much more spiritual for us. "If God so loved us, we also ought to love God." Now that makes good sense and we should. That's not what He says. If God so loved us, we ought to love one another. It's so much easier for me to profess my love for God rather than demonstrate my love for you. But you know how I demonstrate my love for God when I'm functioning in love in my relationship with you. Because if I am really rooted and grounded in that love relationship with God, I will be loving you, carrying out that obligation that God has placed upon me by His love for me in Christ. Oh, well, I'd rather stand up and be able to give a testimony about how much I love God. Well, I'm going to be living that testimony by the way that I serve you as a fellow believer. That's going to indicate that there's some cost in this kind of love, is it not? Does not the very example that He gives of love indicate that there is a cost in this kind of relationship, in this kind of love? That God loved us so He sent His Son to be the propitiation by the awful sacrifice on the cross. Now that indicates that when you're going to manifest agape love in our dealings with one another as believers, there's some cost. It wouldn't be a sacrificing love if there was not a cost. So we need to expect this in our relationship with one another and that goes to all our relationships as believers. In our homes, in our marriages, perhaps that's the place. It's easily seen. You know, these love relationships work out. They are manifested most clearly by those you are closest to and we work out. So in my relationship with my wife and in my relationship with my
children, then ray relationship with the men on the staff that I'm with every day, then my relationship to others in this Body that I have more regular contact with, then the relationships that I have less contact with and it works out. Then a relationship with believers in other churches that I have minimal contact with and relationships with believers in other countries that I have no contact with.

You see, the love is really demonstrated as you get closer to me. You see the agape love manifested most fully. Now we could look at other passages like Galatians 5 where we are told that the fruit of the Sprit is love, that this relationship of love and this production of love is grounded in God's love for me. But I do not now by ray own efforts and striving produce this love. As a result of that relationship with Him, the Spirit of God indwells me who grows in my life the fruit of love. So we're going to develop that in great detail. But I don't want you to miss the point. This is not something you work up or conjure up on your own. That's why John can say that it is a demanded evidence c£ a true believer because true believers will manifest this characteristic if you will, naturally, by the ministry of the Spirit in the life. Now it's to be cultivated and so on, to be sure. But everyone who is a true believer will manifest it in their dealings with fellow believers.

All right. Let's go on. We ought to love one another. Now interesting. He deals with why he does not say we ought to love God. Verse 12. "No one has beheld God at any time. If we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. No one has beheld God at any time." Now turn back to John chapter 1 just quickly. Gospel of John and the first chapter. John's Gospel and the first chapter. We'll see the word "only begotten again in these verses. John chapter 1:14. "And the word, referring to Christ, the One who is the very expression of God, became flesh, and dwelt among us, and v*e beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now that unique Son was manifesting God.

Verse 18. "No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." He has declared Him. He has made Him known. No one has seen God. But God the
Son, Jesus Christ, has become a man to give full expression to His very character and being. So it's not the physical body of Christ that reveals God, but it's the character of God revealed through the physical life of Christ. That the character of God is seen in Christ. The attributes of God and so forth are seen in
Christ. My understanding is that all of the manifestations of God in the Old Testament are in effect Christophanies. So we say all the theophanies are Christophanies. The theophanies are the manifestations of God in the Old Testament. The manifestations of God. Christophanies. The manifestations of Christ. So it was Christ manifesting Himself in His preincamate state. Passages like Isaiah chapter 6. Come back to I John 4. So when He says "No man has seen God, beheld God at any time, the way that we know God is through Christ. But, follow the line of thinking then in verse 12. "No man has beheld God at any time. If we love one another. " Now again, you note he pulls that emphasis back on our relationship with one another. If we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. How do we know God is present if no one has seen Him? By our love for one another which is an indication of God's abiding presence in us. So I haven't seen God, but I have seen evidence of His presence. How? By the love that believers manifest toward me and I towards them. So he has dram the focal point of our love to that which is tangible. Other believers that do have physical form and physical presence and His love is directed towards them. You note. If we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us if we love one another." Possible that we won't and if we don't we're not believers. If we love one another God abides in us. That present tense going to develop next week in the subsequent verses. God continually abides in us at this place of permanent residence.

Now what we're doing then. We're loving fellow believers. We claim to love God but what happens? God dwells in you. God dwells in me. We love fellow believers. We're loving God in effect, that one in whom God dwells and manifests His presence. God abides in us. His love is perfected in us.

Now that word "perfected" we have talked about. It's brought to fruition, to completion. It is accomplishing its intended purpose in us. When God demonstrated His love for us in Christ, it was for the purpose of redeeming us for Himself. To be the propitiation for our sins, to satisfy His righteous demands, that we might become His children, that we might became the people of God, the children of God. Now as we manifest love toward one another, His love is perfected. Brought to completion. It's realizing its intended purpose. Now that's a strong statement regarding love for fellow believers, love for one another. You can see why now there's so much battling, so much bickering, so much strife even among professing believers in the church of Christ. What? Satan is working night and day to keep the love of God from being brought to perfection in us. To be, either from being brought to realization, to have its end accomplished. But all of us as believers do have that love for one another. Now it's not sometimes manifested to the degree that it should and that should be growth and that should be more clearly done with the passing of time. The important statement, we talk about the love of God and the greatness of the love of God. That love is perfected in us. Brought to completion, the realization of God's intended purpose by my loving you. By your loving me as fellow believers are loving one another. What an awesome concept that God's love is brought to perfection in us by our loving one another. Need to be careful about singing about Oh, how much we love God.

Oh, How I Love Jesus. A great song and certainly we do testify to how we love Him, preach how we love. We need to be careful that God's love is perfected in us by our loving one another. You know what? I like to bypass you. You like to bypass me because here's a tangible evidence. Here's a real people in whom God is working. But sometimes we find it hard to love one another and yet if you are God's child and God abides in you and is working in you because of His presence, ought I not to love you if I really love God because God abides in you manifesting His presence, His character. You're His child. I better love you.
I wanted God's purpose in redemption and His love to be perfected in me.

One commentator had a statement which I thought summarized this whole section well. Verses 7 to 12. He said, "God's love which originates in Himself Verses 7 and 8—love is from God. It originates in Him. God's love which originates in Himself and was manifested in His Son, verses 9 and 10. That's the manifestation of love. Verses 9 and 10. God's love which originates in Himself and was manifested in His Son is perfected in His people. That's verse 12. John R.W. Stott and his commentary of I John made that statement which summarized well. God's love which originates in Himself and was manifested in His Son, is perfected in His people. Now that makes our relationships and our dealings with one another of overwhelming significance. God's love originates, comes from Himself, manifested in His Son Jesus Christ, but it is perfected and brought to completion in us as His people. How important it is that we be loving one another. No wonder it is presented as an irrefutable evidence that a person is a child of God. That the abiding God who Himself is love produces this love in everyone in whom He dwells and the only reason it's not perfectly seen in me at all times is because there are times when I attempt to resist the Spirit of God who indwells me. I attempt to stifle His ministry in me and the result is a blurred picture, a blurred revelation. Nonetheless, praise God, He is working in us. We have no ability in and of ourselves to conjure up such great love. No power in and of ourselves. But God by His redeeming love in sending His Son has made possible a personal relationship with Him, the produce of which is love produced in every one of His children.

Let's pray together