The Greatest of These Jim Burton 5/2/2010

1 John 4:7-11 ESV

7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been
born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God,
because God is love. 9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God
sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10In this is
love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another.

Last week our starting text was taken from the Gospel of John…the
Apostle’s eyewitness account of the life and words of Christ when He
walked on this earth.

This week our text is also from the writings of the Apostle John.
His first letter to the churches of Asia Minor written probably around the
year 90.
The Apostle John was getting old…Jesus had ascended into heaven over
50 years ago but as you read John’s writings, you can tell that John still
knew the Lord on a very personal basis…in vs 9 of our text the Apostle
says we live through Christ.
He is our very life.
One of the main points of 1 John is the evidence of our fellowship with
Jesus, demonstrated in how we live and more specifically, our love for
one another.

We saw in the Gospel of John chapter 15, last week, that Jesus said that His
commandment to His disciples was to love one another…saying that if they
obeyed His commandment to love one another, they were, in fact, His
friends.

The idea that Jesus would be our friend…would choose to relate to us and
fellowship with us on a personal, intimate basis, is just amazing.
Have you thought of that this week?
Maybe you have sensed His presence with you, or thought of how He has
been with you.
Maybe you have heard Him knocking at your door…wanting to come in
and have fellowship with you.

If you know Jesus, personally, then you really know something of what it
means to love.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
And this is not the world’s idea of love…this is God’s love…agape.
It’s important that whenever we talk about loving one another, according
to scripture, that we clarify this.
Amplified agape:
“true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us”

Someone ask me this week what I was preaching on this week and I
hesitantly said, “Loving one another.”
Some of my younger brothers (we give each other a hard time) were
standing within ear-shot of this and they sarcastically said “Awwwww!”

I know. A sermon on loving one another just doesn’t have the same
serious, challenging, manly tone that say a sermon on “The Great
Tribulation” or “The Final Judgment of God” or “Spiritual Warfare.”

I want to tell you today that the most powerful force that has ever entered
the human race is the love of God as demonstrated by Jesus Christ our
Lord.
The Apostle John knew the power of this love. He saw this demonstration
with his own eyes and he lived to proclaim this love.
Like the other apostles, I believe that John was the polar opposite of
“awwwww.”
He lived in a brutal time and bearing the name of Christ became an enemy
of both the Jews and the Roman government.

He was the only apostle who did not die a violent death but he lived under
the constant threat.

If we seriously say that the love of God as demonstrated through Jesus

Christ and proclaimed by His Apostles is weakness, then we are admitting
our ignorance as to who Jesus Christ is.

No other man has even come close to exemplifying the courage, the
strength, the honor, the loyalty and truth as Jesus did.
No one has ever faced an enemy like Jesus did. No one ever took on a
burden like Jesus did. No one ever loved like our Lord Jesus did.
He took upon Himself, our sins. He bore the penalty for our crimes. He
faced the wrath of God for the sins of the world. The only righteous man
who ever lived died for the unrighteous.

The world has never seen a greater man, a greater love or a greater power.
We talk about it every week. God demonstrated His love for us in that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
So how do we love one another? Are we to die for one another?
Christ is our standard, but realistically, we are not all called to lay down our
lives for others but we are all commanded to love one another…how?

What loving one another does NOT mean:

One reason the idea of loving one another doesn’t sound powerful
because we are notorious for twisting the true meaning of love.

Many times, and most certainly in our day, the idea of loving one
another is watered down to mean pleasant and happy emotions.
The absence of disagreement or confrontation of any kind.
Above all else we must not offend!
Some might call this being pragmatic or tolerant…
If our actions or speech promote good feelings all around than it must be
love…regardless of the truth…and if you disagree with someone’s opinion or
lifestyle choice, well then that is hate speech!

This radical, post-modern way of thinking has permeated our entire

culture and is widespread in the Church.
We have learned to, or been intimidated in to accepting behavior that God
clearly warns against and then we call it loving others.

There are churches and entire denominations that have proudly decided
to knowingly “accept” and approve of open rebellion against God…not
even loving the sinner enough to help them escape destruction.

When we refuse to speak the truth, fearing the tension that it might create…
it is not love at all…it is politics in its lowest form.
It is spineless and it is self-loving and self-serving and it is the opposite of
God’s love.
Just as the Apostle Paul warned Timothy in 2 Timothy 4
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having
itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

We must be careful that we do not coddle people and call it love.

We may coddle a little baby, but when the child begins to walk and talk,
we must give them teaching and instruction and discipline…if we really
love them.
We never have the luxury of accommodating what God’s word does not
accommodate.
Jesus always loved everyone…even when He was on the Cross, He prayed for
the forgiveness of His murderers but He always spoke truth…He never
excused sin.
And as important as it is to speak truth, we are not loving either if we just
demand to be heard…with no real concern and compassion for others.
We must speak the truth as Christ did….in love.

1 Corinthians 16:14
14 Let all that you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-6
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong
or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love,
I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but
have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at
wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

So we see that loving one another is not accommodation of sin, refusing

to speak the truth.
Nor is loving one another the proclaiming of truth with no regard for
others.

We have seen what loving one another is not (according to scripture).

Now let’s see what loving one another is.

As we have said, Jesus is our standard. If we are still alive, we know we

still have love to give.
And that is what the God-kind of love is really all about…giving.
It is giving of ourselves for others. Serving others. Concerning ourselves
with the welfare of others.
Thinking and acting for the interests of others.

7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been
born of God and knows God.

Beloved…let us love one another…the word love, in the phrase “let us love
one another” here is a verb (a-ga-pa`-o)…action is involved. It is not enough
to just have love. This is not a feeling or emotion only.
Love (a-ga-pe`), the noun, is from God and whoever loves (verb) has been
born of God and knows Him.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

If you have fellowship with Jesus…if He is your friend…you simply will love
others…actively.
From Jim Cymbala:
“The greatest days of your life will not be days when you gratified your self, serving
your own interests.
The greatest days of your life will be when you lived for the benefit of others.”

This word for love. God’s love (a-ga-pe`), is used in the NT 116 times noun, the verb
form (a-ga-pa`-o)…147 times

John 13:34
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you,
you also are to love one another.

The Apostles constantly urged the church to love one another, with God’s
love…
*To pursue this kind of love.
*To consider ways to show our love for one another…even to outdo one
another in this.
*To stir one another up to love.
*Bear with one another in love.
*Remain steadfast in love.
*Love covers a multitude of sins.
*The one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
*The fellowship is held together in love.
*To grow in love for one another…above all, to put on love.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these
is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT)