This past Sunday we had a guest preacher, the Rev. Louis Johnson, who was the pastor of Bell Springs UMC for seventeen years before his final retirement. It was such a joy to have Louis in the pulpit, even though I wasn't there to personally enjoy it! He told me that he would be preaching on "genuine love" and so I thought we'd look at the Scripture, I John 4:7-21, to look at God's perspective on love to compliment our lesson from Sunday.
It occurs to me that as many of us are reading I John 4:7-21, we could get just as many viewpoints and perspectives on what it means. That's true with all Scripture--but in particular this one, because the primary operating word is "love". Especially in English, we use this word to mean dozens of different things! For example, "I love ice cream" is not the same as "I love my children" nor the dreaded sixteen-year old hastily whispering "I love you" after four weeks of dating! The way we love our career, our friends, our neighbors, and our pets is each a little different.
Not to mention, that many of us have been the target of the opposite of love: hate. Whether this hate has arrived in the form of abuse, violence, malice, gossip, injustice, or any number of other sources, most likely a combination, given our background histories, we would be likely to say that love is the opposite of those experiences that have been the darkest in our lives. So our version of "love" would specifically and directly be a counter-response to our past often times. For example, if you were cheated on by a partner in the past, then you would be quick to define "love" as "loyalty"; if you were subject to violence, then you might make sure to include "peace" or "respect" in your definition of love.
I'm not suggesting that love cannot include these things, but when we look at Scripture, we need to come to the text in such a way that we do not add our own meaning into it, but rather, listen closely to God's word and allow it to redefine our perspectives. The word "love" is very difficult because we have so many uses for the word; but when we talk about God's love, or the love God requires of us, we are discussing a very specific love, a love which may challenge the way we assume we should be loving.
And finally, I John 4 is not the only place in the Bible where we find the topic of love; there are so many examples, we would never be able to discuss all of them. But what we can do is to read this text to see how it transforms the way we understand what it means to use this word "love" as Christians, as God's people.
Verse 7 actually affirms what I've claimed so far: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." This is a really bold statement, because it suggests that the only way people are truly capable of love, of genuine love, is through God and God's love. Again, we can use the term "love" to describe something which everyone is capable of in this world; but genuine love, God's love, true "love" is a term reserved for God and those who are with God. God is the center of all love, so, in verse 8, it reads, "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." As Christians, we do not say that non-Christians are incapable of love; we claim that human beings have tainted love, have turned love into something it isn't, and can only understand genuine, true love, God's love, if God redefines what it means for us to love one another. Even Christians will love one another in sin, but our hope is that through God, we might be refined and purged so that our love can be more genuine and pure, that is, more like God's love. If you need examples of "sinful love", think about those who love selfishly, who love violence, who love themselves only. Fifty Shades of Grey comes to mind as a contemporary example.
So what is God's genuine love? The next verse helps clarify: "God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him." This is a bold claim, because it demonstrates how God is redefining love through the example of his Son Jesus Christ, who did not show love the way we tend to on earth!! Jesus demonstrates love an infinite number of ways, but chiefly among them includes sacrifice. Verse 10 continues: "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." And verse 11: "Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another."
To put it simply, God's love is first and foremost self-sacrificial for the benefit of all humankind. The most impressive and clear way that we know God's love is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We often think of Jesus' sacrifice as giving his life up and willingly heading to the cross, but we find through the Gospel that everything Jesus did was sacrifice. First, Jesus sacrificed comfort and assurance when he became human; while he was still the King, the Firstborn, he was not recognized in this way during his lifetime, sacrificing the honor that comes with being God! Then, Jesus sacrificed by suffering a life on earth putting on flesh, enduring all of the pain and suffering we know here in this world. Jesus did not build up his own kingdom, but worked for God's Kingdom, sacrificing his identity and self-hood so that his Father in heaven could be glorified. He sacrificed his time, treasure and talent in order to heal, deliver and teach us. Each moment of his life was pouring out for us, and all of this would come to a crescendo at Calvary, where Christ did not withhold even his earthly life for us. Christ's offering of himself could stop at death, but not even did this prevent him from sacrificing glory in heaven; rather, Christ welcomed us to share in that glory for all of eternity, proving that Christ truly exists for the singular purpose of loving humanity, because we know that God's love is sacrificial for others.
The next time we think about love, if we are going to live as Christians, then we ought to recognize that God's love is primarily a love of sacrifice for others, not only those for whom we desire to sacrifice, but for all others around us: our neighbors. When you say, "I love you", and you do so through Christ who strengthens you, do you really mean that you would make real sacrifices for that person? If you say you love God, for example, will you sacrifice your time and resources for the building of his Kingdom? If you say that you love your neighbors, are you willing to truly love them by spending time with them, praying for them and helping provide their earthly needs?
Just as "faith" is more of a verb than a noun, as we discussed in last week's post, so too is "love" a physical, intentional action rather than simply a warm, fuzzy feeling. And we are called to enact that love for God's Kingdom to come, for God's will to be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.
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