Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1John 4:7-12 NIV)
What comes to your mind when you think of the word "power"? When you think of power, you might also think of strength. You might think of a force of some kind, such as the power of nature in hurricanes or tornadoes or floods. You might think of the power of electricity. You may also think of explosive force, such as that which is unleashed in dynamite or nuclear weapons. You may also think of authority that comes from a certain position someone may hold. And there may be other images that come to mind as well.
Did love come to mind? Although it may not have, it certainly should have. Power and love do go together. In fact, love is the most powerful force in the world! Love is the greatest power in the Universe. I believe that this is not only what the Scriptures teach, it is born out in the experience of all people everywhere.
Love is powerful. We all seek to have it. We all need it. Love is perhaps the basic human need. Someone once said that "Life minus love is zero." The great psychiatrist, Karl Menninger, declared that "Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it." And we are probably all familiar with the quote by the Roman statesman and philosopher, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who lived at the time of Christ. He said, "Better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all." And throughout history people have written about, sung about, and thought about love more than perhaps any other single human need. It has been said that, "What the world needs now is love."
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (4:7-8)
What is love defined? The word sounds so simple, yet defies a simple definition. As I said, if there ever was a topic which could qualify as the most thought about, written about, talked about, and sung about, it is certainly love. Love has been defined as "a many splendored thing – a flower – a rose." The love story has not only been told, but written about in poetry, literature, and screenplays. Even the cheap romance novels are best sellers because of the theme of love. People used to talk about "free-love," which wasn’t free at all. It cost many not only their purity, but also their self-respect. People try extramarital "love" affairs, only to find that they are misnamed. So what is love really?
The Bible defines love. In our text today we find that love is linked in extricably with God. Our text says that love comes from God. And it also says that God is love.
What does it mean when it says that love comes from God? Well, it simply means that God is the source of real love. True love is based in the very life of God Himself. In other words, there can be no real love without God being behind it. Love has its basis in God.
And when our text says that God is love it is saying something about the very nature of God Himself. John is telling us here that love is the essential and central attribute of God. God is characterized by love. In fact, this is so true that it defines those who belong to God. Our text here gives us this test for determining who has been born of God and for who knows God. Because God is love, those of us who claim to know God should live lives characterized by that love.
But how do we know that God is love? It’s one thing to say it, and it’s quite another to see it.
In the play, My Fair Lady, Eliza is being courted by Freddie, who writes to her daily of his love for her. Eliza’s response to his notes is to cry out in frustration:
"Words! Words! I’m so sick of words!
Don’t talk of stars burning above,
if you’re in love, show me!
Don’t talk of love lasting through time.
Make me no undying vow –
Show me now!"
We don’t want to simply hear about love, we want to see love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (4:9-10)
If you want to see love demonstrated, look at Jesus. He is the evidence of God’s love. He is the demonstration of God’s love. Listen again to John’s words in our text: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we mind live through him.
God certainly has shown us what true love looks like. In Christ we see the depth of His love and compassion for us. Christ came because God loves us. Christ came because God is love. Christ came because God saw our need for love and did something about it.
Think of how difficult this was. Christ left His throne of glory knowing that He would have to offer the sacrifice of His life in order to save us from our sins. Christ humbled Himself for us being made in human form. Christ gave Himself daily for us as He walked the dusty roads of Palestine ministering to people. And finally Christ offered Himself up willingly as a sacrifice for our sins, enduring the shame and humiliation of the Cross and suffering its terrible pain.
John said that Christ became an atoning sacrifice for our sins. And John says that He did that so that we might live through him. He died for us. He died for our benefit. He died so that we could live. What greater love could ever be shown? How could anyone look at that sacrifice and not see the very love of God?
We should never be able to say to God, "Show me!" He has shown us. Look at the Cross. Do you not see there the love of God? Consider Jesus hanging there in agony and pain. Consider the crown of thorns pressed down upon His brow. Consider the stakes driven through His hands and feet. Consider the beating He had already endured, ripping flesh from bone, so much so that He was virtually unrecognizable. Consider what He suffered. He did it all for love. He did it all for you. That is the love of God demonstrated.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (4:11-12)
There are implications of God’s love for us. God’s love demands a response. You see, God desires for His love to be duplicated in us.
Our text instructs us that since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. This is how love is duplicated in us. As we love one another, our lives are reflecting the very love of God. And this is how others will see God’s love – through us! You see, while God’s demonstration of His love through the death of Jesus Christ is a bold fact of history, many people will never look at that historical fact until they see God’s love manifested in our lives. Nietzsche said, "Show me that you are redeemed, and I will believe in your Redeemer." The world is looking at us for evidence that there is a God of love.
This is what John is getting at when he says in verse 12: No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. People may not be able to see God, but they can and do see us. How’s your love life? Is your life manifesting the love of God in word and deed? Even small acts of love can have a powerful effect. Love is powerful. Never underestimate the power of the smallest deed done in love.
One illustration of this is the true story of Teddy Stallard. By his own admission he was an unattractive, unmotivated little boy. He was difficult to like, especially for a schoolteacher who all daylong faced his deadpan, expressionless, unfocused stare. Although his fifth grade teacher said she loved all her students, Miss Thompson had to admit that deep down she wasn’t being honest. She didn’t like him, and she even received a certain perverse pleasure in marking his papers with red ink and writing the F’s with a flair.
Her view of him was already distorted by her perspective, but she should have known better. As his teacher, she had his records and she knew more about him than she wanted to admit. His records read like this:
First Grade – Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but he has a poor home situation.
Second Grade – Teddy could do better. Mother is seriously ill. He receives little help at home.
Third Grade – Teddy is a good boy but too serious. He is a slow learner. His mother died this year.
Fourth Grade – Teddy is very slow but well behaved. His father shows no interest.
At Christmas, her class all brought her presents in pretty wrappings and gathered around to watch her open them. She was surprised when she received a gift from Teddy. It was crudely wrapped in brown paper loosely held together with tape. When she opened it, out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with half the stones missing and a bottle of cheap perfume. The children began to giggle, but she had enough sense to put on the bracelet and apply some of the perfume on her wrist. She asked the class, "Doesn’t it smell lovely?"
When school was over and the children had left, Teddy had lingered behind. He slowly came over to her desk and said softly, "Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother. And her bracelet looks real pretty on you too. I’m glad you liked my presents." When Teddy left, Miss Thompson got down on her knees and asked God to forgive her.
The next day when the children came to school, they were welcomed by a new teacher. Miss Thompson had become a new person. She was no longer just a teacher; she had become an agent of God. She now had a changed perspective. She was now a person committed to loving her children and doing things for them that would live on after her. Because of Miss Thompson’s loving attention, by the end of that school year, Teddy showed dramatic improvement and had caught up with most of the students.
Miss Thompson did not hear from Teddy for a long time, after he left her class. Then one day she received a note that said:
"Dear Miss Thompson:
I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my high school class.
Love, Teddy Stallard."
Four years later, Miss Thompson received another note. It read:
"Dear Miss Thompson:
They just told me I would be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know. The university has not been easy, but I liked it.
Love, Teddy Stallard."
Finally, Miss Thompson received another note:
"Dear Miss Thompson:
As of today, I am Theodore Stallard, MD. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family I have now; Dad died last year.
Love, Teddy Stallard."
Miss Thompson went to that wedding. In Teddy’s eyes she deserved to sit where his mother would have sat; she had earned that right. She had done something for Teddy that he could never forget. By a small act of love and kindness, she had changed the course of his life. She had exercised the power of love. She had become an agent of God.
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