BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 4, 2020 under 2020 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; October 4, 2020 from 1 John 4-5
Theme: We are a living epistle that commends the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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1. TO GROW IN MY RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST.
2. TO GROW IN MY REPENTANCE FROM SIN.
3. TO GROW IN MY RELIANCE UPON THE HOLY SPIRIT.
4. TO GROW IN THE DAILY READING OF THE BIBLE.
5. TO GROW IN MY REGULAR ATTENDANCE AT CHURCH.
6. TO GROW IN THE RESTORATION OF RELATIONSHIPS.
7. TO GROW IN MY READINESS TO SHARE OUR FAITH.
We have been devoting every other ‘first Sunday of the month’ to each of these seven resolutions over the course of the year. And this morning, we take up the sixth of those seven. In some ways, it’s the most tempting one to try to excuse ourselves from; and also the hardest one to follow-through on. It’s that we resolve to mend and restore the broken relationships we might have with other brothers or sisters within the church family.
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Did you know that, in the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote in one of his letters about a couple of believers needed to restore their relationship? They were two Christian women named Euodia and Syntyche. Paul’s words to them are found in Philippians 4. He wrote to the Philippian church and said;
I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life (Philippians 4:2-3).
Apparently, these were two women who sincerely loved the Lord. They had both been faithful in their service to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His church. They had labored with others—and with Paul—in the cause of Christ. But something had happened in their relationship that had put them at odds with one another. They were no longer ‘of the same mind in the Lord’. They needed to be reconciled to one another. Paul even had to urge someone (perhaps the pastor), to help them to be restored in their relationship with one another.
This shows us that it is not an unusual thing when two or more believers come to be at odds with one another in some way. It happened even in as remarkable a church family as the one in Philippi. But this also shows us that it is not something to let go. It is something that has to be dealt with because it impacts the rest of the church family—and that perhaps even hinders the Lord from blessing the church. It stands in the way of our witness to the world as Jesus’ devoted followers. It may even be something that hinders our prayers together for revival in our time.
The Lord Jesus Himself said something about the seriousness of this potential hindrance in His instructions on prayer—in that great passage that we often call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. He taught us to—among other things—pray,
“‘And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors’” (Matthew 6:12).
And then—as if He knew we would have some questions about that—He went on to explain;
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (v. 14).
Think of it! Jesus told us that our relationship with the heavenly Father is hindered if we are unforgiving toward one another. The vertical relationship is hindered if the horizontal relationship is broken.
We can’t always make everything right with people as much as we may like to. As it says in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” Sometimes in some situations, as much as we try, it’s just not possible. But on our part, the freedom of our fellowship with the heavenly Father requires that we be ready to do all that is in our power to make things as right as we can. And this is especially true among us as fellow believers. If we harbor unforgiveness or resentment toward a fellow Christian—if we allow ourselves to separate from another or refuse to speak to each other within the church—God will withhold His blessing from us until we make things right with each other.
This, then, is a very serious matter. It may be that you are—right now—thinking about someone that you are at odds with within the church family—or in another church family. Something happened; and now you no longer love them. You don’t even like them. You won’t even speak to them anymore; and they won’t even speak to you. You may even be hesitant to come to church if they are there; and they may be hesitant to come to church if you are there. And it may be that such a situation is making it impossible for God to bless your life. You may even be making it impossible for God to bless and use the church family in the way that He wishes. It may be that—as it says in Hebrews 12:15—a “root of bitterness” has been allowed to spring up; so that it ’causes trouble’, and by it ‘many’ are becoming ‘defiled’. In the body of Christ, we don’t have broken relationships only unto ourselves. Because we are one body in Christ, we harm everyone else by it. If you have experienced such a broken relationship with another brother or sister in Christ, you must repent and seek restoration.
But the good news is that we have great help in doing so. We aren’t left to merely ‘human resources’ in our effort to restore what is broken. We have the help of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who brought about the ultimate ‘restoration’ of a broken relationship when He died on the cross for our sins and reconciled us to His Father. He made us—who were far away—to be able to draw near to God by faith. And now, there really isn’t anything that should hinder us in the church family from being reconciled through Him to one another. Because He has showsuch great love toward us who had caused such great harm to Him, then we can now surely love one another through Him.
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To help us to see this—and to help us to work toward reconciliation with one another—I ask you to turn with me this morning to a wonderful book near the end of the New Testament—the little book of 1 John. The apostle John wrote this letter to help his fellow Christians know whether or not they are true followers of Jesus Christ and that they truly have eternal life by faith in Him.
This letter is about examining ourselves as to whether or not we pass three basic tests. He presents these three tests to us repeatedly throughout this little letter. The first test is the test of ‘doctrine’: Do we sincerely believe the truth about Jesus Christ that the apostles taught us in the gospel? The second test is the test of ‘holiness’: Through faith in Jesus, do we put away sin and walk in the light as Jesus is in the light? And the third test is the test of ‘love’: Do we love one another as those who Jesus also loves and has saved? If we can pass the examination of these three tests, we can know for certain that we have eternal life.
John writes about this third test—the test of love—several times in this letter. And one of the most fascinating passages about it—one that I believe gives us a ‘theology of love for one another’—is found in 1 John 4:7-12;
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another..
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us (1 John 4:7-12).
I like to call this a ‘theology of loving one another’ because it gives us the doctrinal basis for why we are commanded to love each other as we should. It gives us reasons that have their basis in the gracious and loving work of God toward us through Jesus—rather than in whether or not we prove ourselves to be worthy of one another’s love or whether we find each other to be ‘lovable’. We can put it this way: Because of the impact of the heavenly Father’s gracious love upon us, we have four theological reasons why we now absolutely must love one another.
The first of these reasons is because of our likeness to God as His children. In verse 7, John wrote, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” If we are born of God, then we ought to bear His likeness in our behavior.
Now; the kind of love that John is writing about is not a mere sentimental feeling or emotion. It is a self-sacrificing, active kind of love. In the original language, it is agape love—the sort of self-giving love that Jesus showed toward us when He laid down His life for us on the cross. John is saying that this agape kind of love does not have its origin in man. It is “of God”. He is its ultimate source. It is inherent to His being. And John is saying that if we are born of God—if we are His children by grace through faith—and if we have a relational knowledge of Him—then we will be characterized by the kind of agape love that characterizes our Father. We won’t be able to help it. We will bear His likeness as His reborn children.
Earlier in his letter, John put this in the form of a discernible test as to our true spiritual condition. In 3:14, he wrote,
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death (3:14).
If we have a lifestyle that is characterized by an ongoing, perpetual love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, then we can know that we have ‘passed from death to life’. We are truly God’s children by faith, because His characteristic of love is found to be demonstrated in us toward one another. But if we hold on to unrepentant bitterness toward our brother or sister—if we consistently resent them and ongoingly refuse to love them as God loves them—then it is evidence that we have not yet passed from death to life. It proves that we are not yet His children by faith.
How important it is, then, that we prove that we are His children by the fact that we love in the way He loves! We must be reconciled to one another, because it proves our likeness to Him as His children.
Another reason is because of the nature of God’s own being. In verse 8, John wrote, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Those words are among the most remarkable in the Bible: “God is love”. They are just three words; but theologians have written entire books on them. They are not indicating to us that God is “love” in a sentimental, merely-emotional sort of way. Rather, they are speaking of the nature of His being. They are telling us that, because of the very triune nature of God—because of His eternal existence as one God in three Persons—the very nature of His being is love. The Father has always loved the Son; and the Son has always loved the Father. And the Father and the Son experience eternal love in the loving communion of the Holy Spirit. The very being of the triune God is as a relationship of blessed, delightful, glorious eternal love. He doesn’t simply have love. He is love. He is the very origin of all love.
And John is telling us that if we don’t love one another, then we don’t have an experiential and relational knowledge of God as He truly is. We might have some kind of theoretical ‘head knowledge’ about some details about God; but we don’t really ‘know’ Him because, if we did, we would love one another as a reflection of His very being.
Elsewhere in his letter, John refers to this lack of true knowledge of God as ‘darkness’. He wrote;
He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes (1 John 2:9-11).
How important, then, that we prove that we truly know Him—and that we truly walk in the light of a relationship with Him because of that knowledge—by the fact that we reflect His being in our ongoing love for one another.
A third theological basis for our reconciliation with one another is because of the obligation that His love puts us under. In verses 9-11, John wrote, “ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
A “propitiation” is an atoning sacrifice that removes the barrier between a holy God and sinful people and that satisfies His just wrath for sin. And God the Father sent His Son to be that propitiation for us. And just think of what it cost the Father to do so! In His love for us, the Father expressed that love in self-giving, self-sacrificing action. He sent His only begotten Son into the world for us. ‘Only begotten’ doesn’t mean, of course, that the eternal Son of God was born at a certain time. Rather, it refers to the fact that the Son was unique and most precious to the Father—the dearest love of His heart. There was nothing and no one is dearer to the Father—in all the universe—than His only begotten Son. And yet, He sent Him into this world to be born into the human family as one of us. He entered into our fallen condition—without any sin of His own—and took the guilt of our sin upon Himself on the cross, and paid the death penalty on our behalf; so that our sins may be forgiven and fully atoned for, and so that we might have eternal life.
God the Father was the initiator of this ultimate act of love. He didn’t look down upon the earth and see that we loved Him or that we were in any way worthy of His love. No! We were in rebellion against Him! Nevertheless, He took the initiative of love, and sent His Son for us. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:6-8;
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).
And so; Paul says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” He puts it in a very strong way. He says that, because of what the Father has done for us, we owe a debt of love to one another. How important it is, in our relationship with God, that we not refuse to pay that debt!
And finally, a fourth theological basis for our reconciliation to one another is because of the necessity of God’s love to be completed in us. I’ll admit; that seems like a rather strange-sounding way of putting it. But the fact of the matter is that John tells us that God’s love for us is not yet ‘perfected’ in us—not yet brought to full completion in us—until we love one another as we should. In verse 12, he wrote, “ No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.”
Notice first that John says that no one has seen God at any time. This is speaking of God the Father. He has loved us; but we wouldn’t know about that love by sight; because He cannot be seen and has never been seen by the eyes of fallen human beings. But He was manifested to us through the Person of His Son Jesus Christ. As it says in John 1:18;
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John 1:18).
Jesus told His disciples that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father. Or think of what John says at the very beginning of this epistle:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full (1 John 1:1-4).
Have you heard the message of God’s love through His Son Jesus Christ? Have you believed that Jesus has been sent to us by the Father to atone for our sins on His cross? Have you come to understand that God has so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son; and have you believed on Him for everlasting life? Then God has already fully manifested His love; and you have seen that love on full display, and you now know the Father’s love through His Son Jesus. But that love is not yet perfected in you—the ‘circuit’ of that love, if you will, has not yet been completed—until you love your brother or sister in Christ as you should.
I think that the best explanation of what John is talking about here is found 1 John 4:20-5:1. John wrote;
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him (1 John 4:20-5:1).
Jesus has given us a commandment—His ‘new commandment’—that we love one another as He has loved us. Unless we love our brother or sister in Christ, who we can see, then how can it be proven that we love God the Father, who we cannot see except through the love of Christ? How important it is, then—how absolutely necessary it is—that we mend any rift between us, and restore any broken relationship that exists between us in God’s family!
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So then; John gives us four theological reasons why we must be restored to one another. They are all reasons that have their basis—not in ourselves—but in God’s gracious expression of love toward us. We must be reconciled to each other (1) because of our likeness as God’s children, (2) because of the nature of God’s being as love, (3) because of the obligation God’s love toward us puts us under, and (4) because of the necessity of God’s love to be completed in us toward one another.
And so; what do we do about it? If we discover that we are at odds with another brother or sister in the church because of something harsh they said to us sometime, or because of a strong disagreement we might have over temporal things, or because of some act of unkindness or insensitivity—whatever the reason might be—then we must do what the Lord Jesus told us to do. In Matthew 5—in the Sermon on The Mount—He said;
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny” (Matthew 5:21-26).
Even if you are in the midst of an act of worship or sacred duty before God, stop what you’re doing and go to your brother or sister, ask their forgiveness, trust in your fundamental unity in Christ, and be reconciled in love toward each other.
Let’s do this not only that we may we experience personal revival in our own lives, and not only that our church family may be revived and blessed, but that God might also hear our prayers for another great awakening in our time!
EA
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