Oh, For the Love of God :: 1 John 4:16-21
God is love.
Years ago there was a television commercial in which a man ran back and forth in a parking lot full of bright yellow trucks. As he ran from one truck to another, he said, Ryder rents trucks. Ryder rents big trucks. Ryder rents small trucks. Ryder rents pickup trucks. Ryder rents moving trucks. Ryder rents dump trucks. Then he asked, Now what did I say?
It was hard to miss the point.
Saint John may well have asked the same question at the end of our appointed epistle reading today. John hammers home the love of God. God is love. To know love is to know God. God is love. He uses this word love 14 times in the six verses of our reading. He uses it another 16 times in the rest of chapter four; and he uses it 55 times in the entire epistle. Given that it takes only 16 minutes to read the entire epistle, you could hear about God’s love on the average of once every 17 seconds. Now what did I say?
This is the word we all know and love. God is love.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, because you have been baptized ... most of you at this font ... we have known and still know this truth: God is love. We have believed it and still believe it. God is love. He loves us. We love him. And we love each other. God is love. ... We love because he first loved us (vv.16-19). And we love each other because he is in us and we are in him: God is love (v13,19). ... And in this way God loved the world: He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).
Yes, God is love. ... You get it, don’t you?
THANK GOD FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
This word of the day is so much easier to remember than last week’s. Leave it to churchmen such as myself to muddy our memory with things like things like Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance to describe who God really is. The Holy Spirit always says it better. God is love. And whoever remains in love remains in God and God remains him (v.16).
That seems so easy to understand, yes?
1. But what on Earth does this even mean: God is love and love is God?
The problem is, none of us actually understands this. We like to think we do, though.
The world says love is a feeling, a vital impulse of the sexes toward one another; that it is warm and fuzzy, a tingle of the spine. Some think love is affection; others say it’s commitment. Some consider love to be freedom granting; others, instilling discipline. Some think it an easy to do; others, unattainable. Some think that it is recognized only on first sight; others, it takes time to develop. The word love doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone.
In Greek thought, there are at least eight different ways to talk about love, everything from selfless to narcissitic, friendly to familiar, erotic to euphoric, playful, and enduring.
But scripture, and John in particular, gives us a much clearer picture of what love really is.
2. God is love. And the world is blind to it.
Scripture expresses only two kinds of love: the love of mankind and the love of God. The first is φιλέω, the verb associated with brotherly love. You’re familiar with this word: It’s at the root of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. When Peter speaks of his love for Jesus, he uses the word φιλέω. He loves Jesus like a brother.
Saint John, on the other hand, talks about only one kind of love ... ἀγάπη love. This love comes only from God, because God is love.
The world doesn’t understand ἀγάπη love. This love is not really an emotion; it is not a feeling. It is an action, an act of will. It is selfless and divine. It requires faith to the highest degree ... faith against which the world fights. ἀγάπη love opposes conscience, the devil and darkness, hell, and condemnation. The love of God is the light; it desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God’s love is the source of true compassion, the love that compels men and women to give without thinking, to never worry about yourself, fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things.
I’m not saying that you can’t feel ἀγάπη love. I am saying that ἀγάπη love ... God’s love ... persists even when we don’t feel it, and it lasts beyond emotion because it comes only from God. It is not simply internal; it is the fruit of faith. God’s love is perfect in every way.
The goal of God’s love is that we believe ... believe in Jesus Christ ... believe in what he has done for us through his life, death, and resurrection; to have faith in him ... to trust him ... to hear his word and to desire to treasure and obey all of it. This is the message we have heard from the beginning, which John was a witness to, and why he gave us these words of God’s love for us.
3. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God really is.
And this is that love: God saw his magnificent world ... he saw you ... dying in sin, and he didn’t let it happen by ignoring it. Unlike you and me, he recognized that sin is leading all of us to condemnation and hopelessness. He saw a city around us rotting in poverty, and he planned intelligently to meet those needs. He put his love into action, even at personal cost or danger.
The maker of heaven and earth ... who mourned the day that we destroyed creation by looking out for ourselves first ... made right the wrong by becoming one of us. He who knew no pain, who knew no sickness, who knew no death ... became one of us ... with us ... for us ... to serve us. In this way, God loved: He sent his only begotten son, Jesus to us, to do what we don’t do, won’t do, can’t do ... fulfilling the Law of God as one of us to earn eternal life for us.
More than that, the Love of God died in our place. God poured out all of his righteous anger and wrath upon his beloved son, the son who took our sin from us, who served his neighbor by bearing their sin. God who is love ... hates your sin that much. It was divine selflessness.
This is love: Jesus suffered the death you deserve ... on a cross ... for your selfishness, for your lust, for your eroticism ... for your refusal to treasure and obey his word ... for your refusal to love your brother whom you have seen ... for your refusal to make amends with each other, to forgive each other ... for your insistence on paying lip service to the sacraments ... for ignoring the plight of the people all around you.
In the name of Jesus, repent!
Mourn your self-idolatry, and recognize what the love of God really has done ... delivering to you the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation ... gifts that the God of Love longs for you to share with the world around you.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, because of ἀγάπη love, your sins have been forgiven. Because God is love we have the promise and confident hope that we can stand with [boldness and confidence] in the day of the judgment. Because of the Love of God, we know that we will share in the reward our brother Lazarus received.
Without the Son’s expiation ... that is the act of making amends with God ... there would be nothing but condemnation and eternal damnation awaiting us. But God is love. Otherwise, we would be like the rich man, who refused to listen to Moses and the prophets, who refused to repent of his sins, who refused to believe the promises of God.
4. Instead, thanks be to God, in Christ, now we have nothing to fear.
God is love. And the love of God is in Christ.
He has poured himself out upon you in baptism, uniting himself with you, giving you faith knowing that he is in you and you are in him, united together forever. He will take your pain and your sickness. In Christ, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). In Christ, we can now hear his proclamation of the forgiveness of your sins and rest knowing life and salvation are ours now and forever. ... In Christ, we can now see with eyes of faith how he has prepared a feast of forgiveness for you to nurture and strengthen the saving faith he gave you. ... In Christ, you know the love of God through these means of grace. Receive them as often as you can with joy!
And for the love of God tell the world all about this good news: God is love.
I pray that you will always remember this, that it gives you comfort and peace and blessed confidence knowing the love of God is the forgiveness of your sins.
I pray that this Gospel truth of God’s love for you produces the fruits of love ... love that loves God by actually striving to be with Him where he is ... where He calls you to be ... love that loves God by actually loving your neighbor.
May this love of God not only be our goal and destination but our font and source, our beginning and end, and everything in between.