Last Sunday (and Tuesday) I got to give the talk before Christmas. Our Advent theme is Love this year and it just so worked out that I could re-use a bunch from a previous talk I gave at youth last term.
This was also our last live stream (God willing), so you can see me give it from the 9:30 service (below). I was a little town at the beginning, and I think I felt better at the 4pm service (not recorded), but you can still get the point.
I put up my talks, as I think it is good to cite where I get all my material from, as I haven't worked out a good way to cite without breaking the flow of the talk.
Good morning, we are starting quick advent series as we approach Christmas. Traditionally advent comes with themes of hope, peace, joy and love. Some churches have candles for each one. For the last four years at St Matts, we have been looking at one of these topics over Christmas time. Last year it was Joy, the previous two it was hope and peace, and this year we are looking at love this Christmas.
The topic of love you would think would be easy to talk about. It is in the songs we consume all the time. We are told:
“What the world needs now is love”, “Love is in the air”, “love is all around us” and “All you need is love”.
But I think as a culture we get love wrong all the time. It is misguided, inaccurate and doesn’t deal with the source of love. Love in our culture I think is overdone, overused and sometimes overrated.
I’ve had enough. Simple cliché pop culture songs about love make it to the charts constantly.
[[In the mid-week service I hacked on the Beatles (and not Blink 182) saying
On June 25, 1967, between 400 and 700 million people in 26 countries watched, the first ever live international satellite broadcast. It is most famous for a short segment where the Beatles perform for the first time the song “All You Need Is Love.” The Beatles had been asked to come up with a simple song in two weeks that could be understood by all nations[1].
“All You Need Is Love” is a pretty basic idea to the human condition. But this sentiment is so vague, the song itself actually doesn’t say anything really. It got lines like:
“There's nothing you can do that can't be doneGreat. All you need is love.]]
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung”
Pop Punk band, Blink 182, when recording an album, were told by their producer that they needed a feel-good song for the summer. As the story goes, one of them stormed out and said “I'll write you the cheesiest, catchiest, throwaway blipping summertime single you've ever heard!”. He then wrote the song “Girl at a rock show” in 10 minutes. It was a love song about meeting a girl at a concert. That single became their most popular one and went to number two in the charts. On the same album, out of response to the same meeting with the produce, another band member overnight wrote the song “First Date”, about going on a first date with a girl they like, that song went to number six on the charts. People lapped it up.
Now I know, on one level this kinda makes sense. We are wired to love, even emotionally stunted punk rockers get this. They don’t need to study Maslow’s hierarchy of needs[2], to know that love is important. (Maslow puts love after our basic needs of water, oxygen and safety and security.)
Don’t get me wrong, love is a good thing. It is just that I think as a culture, we don’t really know what love is, or we use the word in so many different ways it has lost its meaning.
I love a good hamburger, I also love my country, and I love Hannah, my wife. Now when I say these things, you would be foolish to think that I love all these things in the same way with the same seriousness and intensity.
The problem is we use the word “love” in lots of different senses. There is friendship love, a certain sense of affinity for each other. Sometimes this is based around a common interest. There is a family love, that comes with a built-in structure to it, like a mother to a daughter.
And there is the love our culture is trying to sell us all the time. This is your strong romantic or sexual attraction love. When it comes to this type of love, our culture messes it up. Our culture has not read our passage that says, “God is Love”. Instead, our culture says, “Love is God”. They get it backwards. Our culture makes love the ultimate and has people basing their whole identities on this type of love.
In the Bible, sex is an act, not an identity. But our culture says your attractions is your identity. Our culture says who you love is who you are. But putting this type of romantic love on such a high standing doesn’t work. By basing who you on who you are attracted to puts unrealistic expectations on that person you like. That is not sustainable and results in disappointment, unfulfillment, blame and dissatisfaction[3]. In the book of Romans when talking about this exact point it says that we become foolish when we replace God for another person or created thing (Rom 1:22, 25).
John, the Apostle, identifies himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. That was his identity. It was based on who was loving him, not who he loves.
His identity was based on the love of Jesus for him, not on his own love for anything. In our passage when it says “dear friends” it literally means “beloved”. Those John were writing to, were loved by God and so that was their identity. That is who we are - beloved. I think that is a better way to see ourselves, and it is based on a different type of love.
The love that John based his identity on was from God. This is a love that exists regardless of circumstance. It is sacrificial and unconditional towards the outsider.
If you want to know something about love pretty much read the letters of John in the Bible. John is the guy who goes on and on about love. There is an old story going round[4] that when John was very old, they would carry him to the front of their church gatherings, and he couldn’t say much, so all he said was “Little children, love one another” someone spoke up annoyed saying “why do you always say this?” and then John said “Because is it the Lord’s commandment and if it alone is kept, it is sufficient”.
In today’s passage, we are looking at how God is Love and what that means for us. We will first look at what this love looks like for God and then think about what this love looks likes for us.
God is Love
At the end of verse 8 we have the phrase that “God is Love”. Later in verse 16 John repeats this statement. Not only does love come from God, but He is also Love. He isn’t just the source of love, He is Love[5]. This passage doesn’t just say that God loves, but “God is love”[6].This is huge. This affects how we define love and how we define God.
This means we don’t get to define love. Because of our sinful nature, we have lost the ability to define love for ourselves. Just look around and you may find that our world has a bunch of messed up, upside-down views on love. Our world may even define love as something that is actually manipulation, self-justification or even sinful[7].
God being love, also means that our definition of God must include love. I do not know what you think of God. Is he an absent Father, a tyrant who doesn’t want you stepping out of line, or someone like Santa who wants to spoil us? Whatever you think about God, it is wrong if you don’t consider that God is Love. Yes, God does get angry, he does judge, he does rule and create but He does all those things in Love, because love is part of His essential being. All that He does is an expression of His nature - which is to love[8].
God’s love for us
So this is nice that God is love, but what type of love is this talking about?Because God is love, does this mean that God affirms and encourages us to be who we want to be? That God approves and accepts everything that we do? Is that love?
No, not really. In fact, in our passage, track with me here[9], right after John says God is love in verse 8, comes verses 9 and 10 which tells us exactly what this means:
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.We see that this love John is talking about is an action, it is a gift, it initiates and takes the first step. It is a sacrifice. Love is found in the person of Jesus and what He has done for us.
As one commentator said,
“The violent death of a man on a cross would be the last place we would expect to see a demonstration of love”, yet that is where John puts it[10].
Jesus came into this world to give us new life. That is Christmas. Jesus entered in this world as a man. He was sent, like a gift, posted to us by God. And this gift was so that we might live through him. He was sent as a sacrifice for our sins.
The bad news is that we are sinful and that God hates sin. Some may want to separate the sin from the sinner, but we are told on judgement day that it is sinners who are punished. The good news is that God loved us so much He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him (1 John 4:9).
For Jesus to give us life, it cost Him His life. Jesus died so that we could be made right and restored back to God. Jesus took the punishment that we deserved. He took God’s just wrath that we deserved because we are sinners, and then, after that, we are seen without sin. We are perfect in God’s eyes and we can have a relationship with Him because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
As I read earlier this week, on the cross we see the “merciful heart of the creator God who would rather submit to earthly horrors himself than condemn his beloved human race to perish”[11]. That is love.
So, when John says, “God is love”, the love He is talking about is seen in the sacrifice of Jesus. It is an action, it is a gift, it initiates and takes the first step. It is a sacrifice.
We are to love others
The other thing we see in this passage is that we are to love others. Just in our bit of this letter, we have verse 7 and 11Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.And there are plenty of other verses about loving others, in this letter and though out the whole Bible. We are told that all the law and the prophets can be summed up as loving God and loving others (Mat 24:37-40).
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Now again, it is important that we work out what type of love this is. I don’t think this means we should have warm and fuzzy feelings about everyone around us, and chalk that up as love for others. I don’t think this means we have to approve and accept every idea and culture and religion and say that that is love.
I think this love is an action and not something that goes on in your mind or in your emotions or even your words. The chapter before this passage we are explicitly told:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)We are to look towards the example we see in Jesus and then love others with our actions based on Jesus. While we cannot atone for other people’s sins, we can still look at God’s love for us in Jesus as a model for how we can love.
This type of love comes from God. He is, after all, our Father; we are His children. So, we should have some type of family resemblance.
I think this type of love involves at least two things, which come from one gospel motivation. This love is a sacrifice and this love is unconditional towards the outsider.
Sacrifice
In our passage, the motivation for loving others is Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. It is called an atoning sacrifice for us. To know what this means, you just need to look at the word atonement[12]. It means At-One-Ment. It is about making something that was broken one. It is the action of joining two things together, and Jesus brought about us being one with God. Jesus restored our relationship with God, but in doing so, it was a sacrifice. It cost Jesus His life. He was selfless, He was sacrificial.We are to love others this way. We are to help restore relationships with others, seeking not our own glory or for attention to be on ourselves. We are not to treat people as things that we can get something out of them. We are to recognise others needs and seek to maintain right relationships with them[13].
In primary school, I was friends with the kids who had a Sega master system. I like them, so I could go over their place to play with their Sega. I was using that relationship to get something out of it.
When we are older we don’t really change. We start using people for their connections, or influence, or their stuff, or even how they make us feel. We see our relationships as transactions. I will do this for that person, I will invest in them so that they will do something for me, or give me attention, or make me feel nice about myself. Those are not sacrificial reasons.
Because of Jesus’ love for us, we are to live humble lives, putting others above ourselves, not so people think we are good and kind, but because we know what it is like to be loved sacrificially and we want others to know that type of love too.
Unconditional towards the outsider
There is something noble about sacrifice. People on a battlefield can be selfless and sacrificial in their love for their fellow soldiers by jumping into harm’s way to save others. It is possible for this to happen in other relationships, but I think this type of God love that we are called to do, really breaks away from other types of loves when we see that this sacrificial love is for the outsider, not for those you are in tight with.In World War 2, American soldiers didn’t jump on grenades to save the German soldiers. The Vietcong didn’t jump in front of American generals to save their lives[14].
Mothers of small children do not go running back into their burning house to save the guy who is robbing the joint.
But here we see another aspect of God’s love for us.
We did not love God first. The passage says love comes from God, that we didn’t love God, but He loved us and then later in verse 19:
We love because he first loved us.The Bibles says that were enemies with God. That no one was righteousness, that no one was seeking after the one true God, and yet, despite our lack of love, or interest or feelings toward God, He still sent Jesus to rescue us, because He loved us.
Our love for others is not just sacrificial towards those we like, it is towards those we may not even like. Those who are an inconvenience to us.
And the world does not understand this type of love. I know it is low hanging fruit to argue against Richard Dawkins, but I thought one of the biggest glaring errors in his God Delusion book was his section on Love Thy Neighbour[15].
Dawkins says:
Christians seldom realize that much of the moral consideration for others which is apparently promoted by both the Old and New Testaments was originally intended to apply only to a narrowly defined in-group. 'Love thy neighbour' didn't mean what we now think it means. It meant only 'Love another Jew.'This is exactly the opposite point that Jesus makes when asked the explicit question “who is my neighbour” and then Jesus goes on to tell the Good Samaritan parable. Dawkings misses the point that the Good Samaritan is a Samaritan. The Samaritan shows love to his neighbour who was from a different race to him and is commended as the example to follow.
As Christians, we love others not because they are on the same national or cultural tribe as us, we love those from every different tribe and nation because God showed His love to us first.
Jesus was the ultimate Good Samaritan. While we were hostile towards God, we experienced His initiating love which breaks down walls of hostility and brings us into relationships with Him[16]. And after experiencing this love, we want others to know that type of love too.
Do you love?
So the challenge here is: do you love? Are you loving because of God, are you loving like God?Let not just work harder on what we are doing. Sure, knock on your neighbour’s door this Christmas and see if you can do anything for them. Sure, donate to a great cause over this Summer. But do these sacrificial actions because of God’s love for you, not to make yourself feel better, or for your own glory or attention or to be repaired in some way.
Non-Christians can love sacrificially and can be kind and open to the outsider, but they do not love because God is Love. They do not love because of Christ’s sacrifice for them. Their motive, no matter how noble and good, isn’t because of Christ. Only the Christian’s action is done out of God’s love. That is how you know if you are a Christian or not.
If we love those around us, who we can see, with the same motivation as God, then we know the Spirit is in us. If we say that Jesus is king over this world and our life, then we have His Spirit in us. We can rely on God’s love for us, to help us to love others around us.
So, do you love? Are you loving because of God, are you loving like God?
What does this love look like? Love looks like obedience. John writes:
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. (1 John 5:2)And again, in another letter:
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (2 John 6)Love comes from obeying God’s commands. These are actions. As the great Christian band of the 90’s, D. C. Talk would say, Love is a Verb.
And I know many of you are loving. Some here visit those who are lonely and sit with them, for nothing in return. Others I know give people lifts, know they will not get a ride later down the track. Others here, give sacrificially to help those in need, knowing they will not get that money back. Others serve the running of this church is so many ways, like the music team who practice throughout the week and come early beforehand. Life group leaders, youth, fish and catch leaders all give of themselves, to point others towards Jesus.
The Women on Thursdays just recently made a whole bunch of food hampers for Wanniassa primary school because the school asked if we could help. There is no way that any of those women are going to receive back any food or help from those they gave to. They gave because they know what it’s like to be loved and they want to share that love with others.
Jesus is the ultimate example of God’s love. He got alongside the outcasts, the sick, and weak and the prostitutes. He loved to unlovable. He saves the unsavable[17].
Jesus didn’t love those who deserved it. He saved us not because of works done in righteousness, not because we met him halfway, not because we took the proper steps forward to be deserving in some way, but because of His great love for us.
Jesus didn’t just feel for us in our misery and need, He took the necessary action to save us. He left the eternal glory of heaven and the fellowship of the Trinity and condensed to us, lived among us, suffers like and died for us.
John in our passage says we are to love like Jesus because we have experienced this type of love. John is clear; if you haven’t experienced this love you don’t display this type of love.
The evidence of God’s love in your life is not displayed in how much theology you know, or by how many books you have read, but by your active love towards people in need.
We are loved by God. We are beloved. That should be the basis of our identity. Not who or what our interests or attractions are.
May the good news of what Jesus had done for us, be our bedrock and motivation in our love for others around us, especially in this Christmas time.
May we be known for our love, because God is Love.
[1] Daniel L. Ankin (2014) uses this in Exalting Jesus in 1, 2, & 3 John (Christ-Centered Exposition) and I picked up some other facts from youTube somewhere.
[2] Maslow's hierarchy of needs
[3] Tim Keller in Counterfeit Gods as well as in this clip on Idols
[4] Jerome's Commentary on Galatians, 6:10
[5] Constantine R. Campbell (2017), 1, 2, and 3 John (The Story of God Bible Commentary), p143
[6] Karen H. Jobes (2014), 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan exegetical commentary series on the New Testament)
[7] Karen H. Jobes (2014), 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan exegetical commentary series on the New Testament)
[8] Constantine R. Campbell (2017), 1, 2, and 3 John (The Story of God Bible Commentary), p143
[9] This is such a Matt Chandler things to say
[10] Karen H. Jobes (2014), 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan exegetical commentary series on the New Testament)
[11] Karen H. Jobes (2014), 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan exegetical commentary series on the New Testament)
[12] I know it should be “propitiation”, but I want people to trust the text in front of them. I did try to mention sin in this talk
[13] Karen H. Jobes (2014), 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan exegetical commentary series on the New Testament)
[14] I had someone afterwards say they heard of examples of this in the book A Wonderful Life
[15] The quote actually comes from the paragraph just before the heading “Love Thy Neighbour” as the flow into that section. I didn’t really want to explain too technically where the quote is from. Christopher Hitchens also didn't get the Good Samaritan parable or didn't see this point, till Doug Wilson debated him.
[16] I have Eph 2:14-18 in mind here
[17] Most of this section has been lifted from this clip Blessed Are The Merciful by Beautiful Eulogy (with the word "mercy" swapped for "love")
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