Does God love, or is God love?

At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled Connect. During this series, we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 John. During this series, we are going to discover the components that make for true connection and community. During this series, we are going to discover the landmines and roadblocks that keep us from true connection and community. And as we go through this series, our hope and our prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands, in a way that moves us to the place where we can experience the connection and community with God and one another that we were created and designed to experience. 

This week I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And as we jump into the next section of this letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of John, we will see John reveal for us another timeless truth when it comes to connecting in community. So let’s discover that timeless truth together, beginning in 1 John 4:7-8:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

John begins this section of his letter by renewing his call for the members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to love one another. As we have talked about throughout this series, when John uses the word love here, this word refers to a warm regard and interest in others that is marked by a selflessness in their relationship with others. John here is urging followers of Jesus throughout history to demonstrate a warm regard and interest in others that is marked by a selflessness in their relationship with others.

John then provides two reasons behind his call for followers of Jesus throughout history to love one another. First, John explains that followers of Jesus are to love one another because love is from God. With this phrase, John is revealing the reality that that God is the source of love. And because God is the source of love, therefore, God in His very nature and character is love. You see, God is not loving, God is love. Love is not something that God does. Instead love is something that God is.

Second, John explains that followers of Jesus are to love one another because everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. As we discovered earlier in this series, when John uses the phrase born of God, here is revealing for us the reality that when we respond to Jesus making Himself known to us by placing our confident trust in Him and recognizing and acknowledging who He is by accepting Him as being large and in charge of our lives, we become a part of the family of God.

Becoming a part of the family of God as a child of God is solely the result of God’s transformational activity in our lives. It is only through God’s transformational activity in our lives that flows from His desire to bring us into an eternal relationship with Him that results in us becoming a child of God as a part of the family of God.

John’s point is that the natural result of coming to a knowledge of God as a result Jesus making Himself known to us so that we become a part of the family of God is that we would love one another. John’s point is that those who have a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus will reflect that reality by a life that looks and loves like Jesus and that results in them being identified as being in relationship with God as part of the family of God.

By contrast, John explains that the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In other words, the person who does not demonstrate a lifestyle that demonstrates a warm regard and interest in others that is marked by a selflessness in their relationship with others reveals the reality that they have not come to know and experience a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with God, because love is not simply something God does, love is something that God is. And, as we discovered earlier in this series, just as a child takes on the characteristics of their parent, a child of God will naturally take on that characteristics of God. And one of those defining characteristics, if not the defining characteristic of God, is love.

And as John continued this section of his letter, we see John transition to provide an example for followers of Jesus to follow when it come so how they were to demonstrate a warm regard and interest in others that is marked by a selflessness in their relationship with others. So let’s look at that example together, beginning in verse 9-11:

 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Now to fully understand what John is communicating here, we first need to understand a few things. The first things that we need to understand is what John means when he uses the word manifested. This word literally means to cause something to become known. John is explaining that the love of God was manifested, or made known in us, in that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

Now that leads us to the next thing that we need to understand, which is what John means when he uses the word sent. What is so interesting is that the word sent, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to dispatch someone for the achievement of some objective.

And then there is this church mumbo jumbo talk word begotten. You see, we often hear people use the word begotten in church when they refer to Jesus, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself what the word begotten really means? This word begotten literally refers to something that is the only one of its kind or its class. So when John uses the word begotten, he is revealing for us the reality that Jesus is unique; there is no other. There is only one son of God and His name is Jesus.

John’s point here is that God’s love and interest in us was made known and shown in the most powerful way when He sent His unique, one and only Son to earth on a mission. The mission that God gave His Son was a rescue mission so that humanity might have the opportunity to experience the forgiveness of sin and eternal relationship and connection with God through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

John here is reminding the readers of this letter throughout history of the reality that love is a verb and that God’s love is demonstrated and made known through His activity in history through His Son Jesus Christ. You see, unlike our culture, which views and talks about love as though it were a noun, the letters that make up the Bible talks about love as a verb. Here is a clear and simple definition of love that the John is talking about here: Love is giving someone what they need most when they deserve it the least. Biblical, selfless, sacrificial, other centered love actively gives someone what they need the most when they deserve it the least. And it is that love that was made known to us by God through the sending of His Son Jesus on a rescue mission for us.

John reinforces this reality is verse 10 by stating that 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. Now when John uses the word propitiation here, this is a church mumbo jumbo talk words that refers to satisfying God’s right response to selfishness and rebellion in a way that removes the selfishness and rebellion. The word propitiation simply means that God’s right and just response to our selfish rebellion and sin was satisfied through Jesus death on the cross.

In addition, Jesus death on the cross, in our place, for our selfishness and rebellion removes the guilt that comes as a result of our selfishness and rebellion. You see, Jesus death on the cross provides us salvation because Jesus death alone satisfies God’s justice and removes humanities guilt that results from selfishness, sin, and rebellion.

John here is revealing the reality that God did not send His Son Jesus because we loved God but just did not know how to love and live in relationship with God. No humanity selfishly wanted nothing to do with God. Humanity at best only wanted to use God to satisfy what they truly loved, which was to satisfy their own selfish desires. But to use someone to get something is not to truly love someone, is it?

No humanity did not take the initiative to seek to love God. Instead, God took the initiative to demonstrate a warm regard and interest in others that is marked by a selflessness in their relationship with others by selflessly sending His Son Jesus to live the life we refused to live and to die on the cross, in our place, for our selfishness and rebellion, so that all humanity could have the opportunity to be forgiven of their selfishness and rebellion and experience the relationship and connection with God that they were created for.

And because of that example of selfless love that God provided by sending His Son Jesus on a rescue mission for humanity, in verse 11 we see John urge followers of Jesus throughout history by stating “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." As we have seen throughout this series, when John uses the word beloved, this word is a term of endearment of how John felt about the members of the church at Ephesus. In addition, when John uses the word ought, this word means to be under obligation to meet certain moral or social expectations.

John here is calling the members of the church at Ephesus, who were very near and dear to his heart, to respond to God’s demonstration of His selfless and sacrificial love for humanity by fulfilling the obligation that they were under as a result of their relationship and connection with Jesus to demonstrate that same selfless love in their relationship with one another. John is revealing for us the reality that when followers of Jesus live in genuine and authentic community with one another that is marked by a selfless and sacrificial love for one another, we reveal and reflect the very nature and character of God to the word around us.

Friday, we will see John reinforce this reality…