Love is the Key
1 John 4:7-21
Introduction
A couple was getting married. The bride wished her pastor could be there but he lived too far away. He was asked if he wanted to send a message to be read at the reception. He wanted to have read: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” (1 John 4:18) But when he texted the reference, he accidentally sent John 4:18: “The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” Not quite the same message.
When we read through the first letter of John, we will quickly notice the emphasis on love. This was not because John shared modern entertainment’s infatuation with romantic love and thought that this topic would keep people’s interest. John had a very serious purpose for talking about love.
At the point that John was writing to his audience, the church had begun to grow rapidly, The small group of disciples that had followed Jesus was now a much larger group that was spreading across the Roman Empire. This was a good thing. We want to see as many Jesus followers as possible. But the rapid growth was a mixed blessing.
People began to join the church then, as it is today, from a variety of motivations. For some it was because of their attraction to the person and teachings of Jesus Christ. For others, it was because their household had declared for Jesus and they were expected to follow along. There were even those who saw an opportunity for advancement. There was a new society developing, one that was in need of strong leaders, where those with the right gifts and abilities could make a name for themselves.
Even if they would not have described it exactly like this, there were true followers of Jesus and there were counterfeit followers of Jesus. Many years ago, my mother went to a convenience store to purchase something and was informed by the cashier that the $20 bill she was using was counterfeit. Ironically, my mother had just withdrawn those bills from the bank, not from an ATM but from a teller. Even the bank had been fooled by the counterfeit.
Now there is plenty of talk today about counterfeit Christians. Unfortunately, the motivation is often to lift oneself up and to exclude others out of a sense of superiority. We see this among individuals, congregations, and denominations. “Don’t listen to those people, they are not real Christians!” There are those whose identity is formed primarily by those they exclude.
That is not what John is trying to do in his letter. He is acknowledging that there are those who are and those who are not truly following Jesus. So he develops a series of tests to determined who is truly following Jesus. The test is not for us to exclude a group but to examine ourselves to make sure we are where we should be. We will only focus on one of John’s tests in this message, and that is the test of love.
God is Love
There is a danger that when you make Christianity about love that it becomes like any other human organization. Plenty of people see love as important and they act that out in their life. But for John, love is not just about nice people, it is something that is deeply theological. It is based in the nature of God. God is love. This is often misunderstood and flipped around to basically say “Love is god.” John is not just saying that love points us toward God, rather love is part of the essence of God. God is not just loving, God is love. One of the themes in John’s letter is that of family resemblance. While there is plenty of diversity within families, often you can find some sort of resemblance. Even in our family, which includes a mix of biological and adopted children, we can look and identify certain characteristics that they have in common with either my wife or I. If you are part of a family, you would expect that resemblance. The Bible tells us that Christians are children of God. God is our Father who art in heaven. We have been adopted into God’s family. But how do we know if have truly joined God’s family? We look for the family resemblance. If God is love, then we would expect that love would be a defining feature of who we are as God’s children. It does not mean that we have perfected love, but we should at least see love as developing into the force that shapes all that we are and do.
Christians Must Love
The basic idea is that there must be some sort family resemblance and one of the clearest examples is that of love. There are Christians who think that all that is required of us is to give mental assent to the correct set of doctrines. God wants much from us and at the top of that list is love.
The biggest challenge for us is not that we are incapable of love but that we have been trained to see love as a feeling or an emotion. We are all very aware that we can not manufacture feelings. Feelings are nice when they are there but they are pretty unreliable. If God expected us to feel affection for all people, no matter what they have done or how they behave, we would be in a lot of trouble. Thankfully that is not what God expects. God doesn’t ask us to feel love for people, God just tells us to love people.
The example that is given to us is that of Jesus. Jesus demonstrated love by being crucified for us. He didn’t just sit in a room and feel love, he allowed himself to be crucified as an act of love. And was it because the people Jesus was dying for were particularly lovable? Even the small group of the apostles were a mixed bag, once you add in the rest of us, it really makes you think. God does not give us the option to say that we are allowed to love this group but we are not allowed to love this other group.
Jesus told his disciples: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) This assumes that there is some way to recognize love and thus rejects love as only a feeling. How do you recognize love? It is about how we treat each other. This includes when we disagree. This is a good moment for us to reflect on how the Church has lived out the life of love during the pandemic. Will future generations look at how the Canadian Church responded and say they recognize that we are children of the God who is love? While I saw a lot of love, there was some harsh behaviour on both sides. There were those who saw the death of the elderly and those immune-compromised as a reasonable price for keeping things the way they wanted to. There were others who cut off all contact with family members who struggled with the ideas of getting the vaccine. You might think, yes, but there was one side of the debate that was correct and that is all that matters. Perhaps, but the Apostle Paul had a different view. In 1 Corinthians, Paul looks at a debate about what was allowed and not allowed in their context. While there was one side that was technically correct, Paul emphasizes that our primary responsibility is always to treat one another with love, even if or especially if, you think the other side is wrong.
It is also about how we support those in need. Driving people to appointments, taking someone out for coffee, calling someone up on the phone, dropping off a meal, cutting some firewood. It is not about doing everything, it is about looking at the need and then looking at your resources.
Also important to the Jesus-style of love is how we treat the marginalized. Two of the groups that stand out are indigenous peoples and people with disabilities, although there are many more. Again, we need to have more than feelings of affection for people. It has been said that justice is love in action. Demanding justice for the marginalized and working toward that justice is an act of love. Prayer is important, but often God uses us as the answer to our own prayers. James wrote: “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16) Again, we cannot do everything but we can always do something.
Conclusion
Some of you will know that I have not always been a Christian and I spent some time as an atheist. It can be hard to believe in God because we cannot see God with our own eyes. If God is real, where is he? “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:12) God is present when we love one another. I am happy to talk about logical reasons to believe in God but love in action is the most powerful apologetic. What does our community need? It needs to see love in action. It needs to be the recipient of unconditional love and it needs to to be invited into the ongoing sharing of love. This is evidence of God, the God that is love.
