(1 John 4: 7-21)
I think one of the hardest things about being a Christian is acting like it. Consistently. You remember what Jesus said about the greatest commandment: Love God and love your neighbor and this pretty much covers the law of the prophets. Yeah, it’s easy to say that you love God and of course your neighbors, the ones you know and get along with. But it’s that showing it that is so difficult. That requires putting yourself out there. Can’t I just give some money and let the pastor do all that touchy-feely stuff? It’s not so much the commitment that prevents us from getting involved in someone else’s life, it’s that fear of the unknown and that fear of being rejected or rebuffed. You’re asking me to interact on a personal level with someone I don’t know, someone with issues and problems? What do you expect me to do? Afterall, I’m not a trained social worker. Again, isn’t that what we pay the pastor to do? Hey, I get it. I’ve volunteered at the homeless shelter as a meal server and a monitor, and the same questions run through my mind. What do I say to them? What if they want to talk to me? What if I say something wrong? Are they dangerous? And there are those people who come by the church for assistance. What do I do, how do I help them, what if they ask for something we can’t provide? Will they get upset? We have all these preconceived notions that feed on our fears, prejudices, and apprehensions all reinforced by the nightly news and social media. Well according to the Apostle John, you just show them the love of God that is in you and let the Spirt lead you the rest of the way. Now that’s a leap of faith.
And love is what John is talking about in our scripture reading for today. Apparently, even back then, there was a debate regarding love and how it is best shown among the early believers. Everyone then, and now, believed without a doubt that love was important, but that love is usually thought of as a feeling, as in the love you have for someone close to you like your spouse, your children, your parents, your grandchildren, your closest friends, and so on. In reality, the kind of love that John is talking about is a choice and an action, more than that warm feeling you have in your bosom for your actual loved ones, people you know and care about. The kind of love God is looking for is a love that involves a choice and an action. How we display our love for God is revealed and shown in the choices we make and the actions we take in our daily lives as we interact with others. According to John, if you’re going to claim that you really love God, then you’re going to have to get up off the couch and be an action figure for Jesus showing people that this is how you know that God is the God of love.
John starts out by stating: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. That’s the basic premise, the cornerstone. Love is from God, that’s where it all begins, but it doesn’t stop there. He continues by saying: Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. I think what John is saying is that if you are incapable of love, you’ll never know God. When I read this, I immediately thought that would not sit well with the non-believers, but then I reminded myself that John was addressing believers who were having a difficult time themselves grasping the breadth and depth of what God meant by love. So yes, non-believers can still love one another, their pets and their hobbies, and they can also belong to service organizations and do good deeds out of love. So John explains that God’s love was revealed to us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so 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 atoning sacrifice for our sins. God loved us so much that He came to earth in the form of his Son to show us the true meaning and depth of His love, a love so deep and abiding that He was willing to die a painful mortal death to make His point. And John tells us, that because God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. Seems to be a small price to pay for such a supreme sacrifice. Count me in. I love all you guys. If only it was that simple. At this point John begins to make his case when he says: No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. This is an interesting statement. John points out that no one has ever seen God so how do we know He exists? Well, if we love one another God is alive in us. And, if God is alive in us His love is perfected. What that tells me is that if you truly love one another (no strings attached, no questions asked) then you cannot contain that love. It is perfected when you let it out, when you choose to take affirmative action, when you do something for someone that shows God’s love for them through you. John says this is how we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us his Spirit to guide us and lead us. To show us the way, His way. And because of this indwelling of the Spirit, we can testify that the Father sent his Son as the Savior of the world. John reminds us that God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. It is because of this special relationship that we know and believe the love that God has for us. The Apostle tells us that God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. We are one with God and God is one with us. And in this way this special love has been perfected in us so that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. We are God’s representatives here on earth, we are his boots on the ground. We have been charged with getting it done, no matter what. And John goes on to reassure us that there is no fear in love and that this perfect love we now have casts out fear. Fear, he says, has to do with punishment, and we’ve been forgiven, so there is no punishment. John then states quite simply: We love because he first loved us. John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist denomination, believed that this statement is the sum of all religion, the genuine model of Christianity. He believed that Christians are able to practice love because God loved them first, not only to give them a new capacity to love others but to reveal in Christ the right manner of loving others self-sacrificially. John then lays it on the line when he says: Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. I’m not sure what was going on in the early church to prompt the Apostle to be so blunt, but he was pretty much telling them to knock it off and start acting like Christians. A timeless message and one worth repeating.
So how is that relevant today? Well, just as the Apostle John observed almost two thousand years ago, we still have infighting within God’s church. It may be within a particular church which leads to a split or a closure, or within a denomination like the one currently being experienced by the Methodist Church, or it may be between denominations regarding disputes in interpreting God’s word. And non-denominational churches are not immune either as they too have their ideological disputes and carpet wars that obscure the love of God that is within them. I’ve even observed something relatively new cropping up in America on social media. We now have Conservative Christians and Progressive Christians which I guess frees you up to align your political beliefs with your view of what God really wants and expects you to do or not do in His name. It’s kind of like Jesus might post on Facebook something like: “Hey, Jesus here, can someone explain the difference between a Conservative Christian and a Progressive Christian? Asking for a friend.” I almost expect him to tell us to knock it off and re-read the New Testament or at least what the Apostle John said in today’s scripture reading about love. If you claim to love God, there are no qualifiers or exclusions. Love God, love others, serve others. It’s just that simple.
Jesus is the complete expression of God in human form, and he has revealed God to us taking the mysteriousness out of an unseen God. When we love one another, the invisible God reveals himself to others through us, and his love is made complete. Our job is to love faithfully the people God has given us to love, whether there are two or two hundred of them. And if God sees that we are ready to love others, he will bring them to us like the folks who come to us for assistance during the week and on Saturday mornings. I firmly believe that interaction with someone they believe is connected to God means more to them than we can imagine if done with love and kindness. If not, God wouldn’t have entrusted their care to us in the first place. And no matter how unsure of ourselves we are as to whether or not we are cut out for the job, we don’t need to be afraid of the love commandment. God will provide us with the strength and confidence to do what he asks. And if we are ever afraid of the future, eternity, or God’s judgment, we can remind ourselves of God’s unconditional and forgiving love. We know that he loves us perfectly. We can resolve our fears by first focusing on his immeasurable love for us, and then by allowing him to love others through us. His gentle and patient love will quiet our fears and give us the confidence we need.
The point is that it’s easy to say we love God when that love doesn’t cost us anything more than our weekly attendance at the religious service of our choosing. But the real test of our love for God is how we treat the people right in front of us, our family members, our friends, fellow believers, and the “others” out there who desperately need to experience the unconditional love of God through us, action figures for Jesus. We must never forget that we cannot truly love God while neglecting to love those who are, like us, also created in His image. The refrain that “no one has ever seen God” implies a missional dimension to the community of believer’s God-like practice of love in that a transcendent God can only be made known to others in the world when embodied in the selfless practices of God’s people for all of God’s people. This is how we know.
Please pray with me.
Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart, in my heart. Lord, I want to be more loving in my heart, in my heart. Lord, I want to be more holy in my heart, in my heart. And Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart, in my heart. Gracious and loving Father, we can only do this if your love abides in us and we in you. Move us to love one another unconditionally as you have loved us. Use us as you will to show the love of your Son Jesus Christ to those who so much need to know that they are loved especially at those times when they feel unloved and unwanted. Through our actions done in your name, let us be a living testimony that God is love. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.