Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from 1 John 3. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- Knowing God’s love provides us with two sets of blessings. The first pertains to our personal life, our emotions, our confidence, our peace and joy. The second pertains to the good of others – the effects that God’s love has upon us which extends outward from us to others around us. Both are obviously quite important!
- The apostle John is all about love. His writing always gets to this most important topic. And in many respects this is what all theology is about, for the most central and forceful aspect of God is simply this, that “God is love.” This apostle, John, is the author of this succinct but powerful and accurate description of God.
- In that all of our inner health and well-being is dependent upon “KNOWING GOD’S LOVE,” John is eager to convey and instill this knowledge in us. Likewise, in that all human good in this world comes through “KNOWING GOD’S LOVE,” he is eager for as many people as possible to come to this knowledge.
- And we should have the very same eagerness, to know and believe God’s love for us for the inner comfort and courage it gives us, and also for the love, kindness, care, and compassion that comes into the world through God’s love. We too should have as our highest priority the spread of “KNOWING GOD’S LOVE” into the whole world.
- John first reminds us that:
I. We Know God’s Love By Christ’s Sacrificial Death
Text: “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us.”
A. His Cleansing Forgiveness Overrides Our Conscience And Self-Condemnation
Text: “Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.”
1 John 1:7 “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
B. His Love And His Gracious Forgiveness Empowers Our Love For God And For Others
Text: “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
1 John 4:19 “We love because He first loved us.”
John 15:12-14 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
C. Because We Know His Love For Us We Aim To Keep His Commandments
1. In constant repentance and faith
2. By walking in love at all times
Text: “This is His commandment, that we believe in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us. Whoever keeps His commandments abide in Him, and He in them.”
Statement: These are the principles and dynamics that come into play when people “KNOW GOD’S LOVE.” The greatest waste of human happiness and blessedness, the most appalling and unnecessary waste of cosmic energy, is the rejection of God’s love, the refusal of so many human beings in the world to “know and believe the love that God has for us.” Consider that “KNOWING GOD’S LOVE” provides us with comfort, peace, and joy in His gracious forgiveness. It enables us to quit our impenitent self-justification of our evil. It destroys our self-righteous and hypocritical judging of other people. “KNOWING GOD’S LOVE” moves and compels us to humility and to real compassion and love for others. And this assures us that we abide in Him and that He abides in us!
Application: All of Christian life moves and works together to continuously strengthen us in faith and love. We come to “KNOW GOD’S LOVE” by seeing that He laid down His life for us, for our sin. This encourages us to confess our sin. In confession we are assured of His forgiveness and cleansing away of all our sin. This moves us to greater love and service. But we recognize that we do not love as we ought to, and our hearts condemn us. But this moves us to realize once again that He laid down His life for us – and that His grace and mercy is greater than our sin. This compels us to love – and so the circle moves on and on, and both our faith and our love are increased – all by “KNOWING GOD’S LOVE.”
Transition: Thus God redeems and renews the world, His world, His creation. And He wills this for all. How sad it is when we must observe the absence of this dynamic in people we know, some even within the church! For John assures us that:
II. As We Live In The Knowledge Of His Love We Grow To Love Like Him
A. Yes, We Certainly Love With Our Words And Talk
1 Cor. 13:4-6 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
Eph. 4:30-32 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
B. But We Also Love In Compassionate Deeds And Truth [In Reality, What We Do]
Text: “let us love . . . in deed and in truth.”
C. And We Love Concretely, As He Does So That We Open Our Hearts And Resources To Those In Need
Text: “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in Him?”
Text: “Whatever we ask we receive from Him.”
Statement: In the next chapter John writes: “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” Jesus said the same: “Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of My brothers, you have done it unto Me.”
But to love like God, to keep His commandments, one must “KNOW GOD’S LOVE.” And God’s love is known in the fact that Jesus laid down His life for us. To appreciate this requires repentance and faith. But for anyone who lives in repentance and faith, “KNOWING GOD’S LOVE,” his love continues to grow and increase and he becomes more and more like God.
Application: And God’s love certainly comes to us through His Word, but also concretely – by what He actually does. As our love comes to emulate His it becomes more and more concrete as well – and is expressed and conveyed by what we actually do for others. This means keeping our hearts open to those in need, and doing good to our brother “whom we have seen,” who we see every day! Obviously, there can be no hypocrisy in our fellowship with God. In fact, one of the things that God detests most is hypocrisy. For hypocrisy not only does not bring any love into the world, it is actually a form of hatred and malice toward others.
Conclusion: For our own great good and blessedness, God wants us and all people to be “KNOWING HIS LOVE.” It benefits us deeply – not only in terms of how we feel, but also in terms of what we are and what we do. It then benefits others as well.
We know God’s love in Christ, what He did for us and for our salvation, and we know this by means of God’s Word. Hence the importance of worship and Bible Study!
And if we want to do the one most important thing for the health of the people around us, we will be doing all that we can to help them “KNOW GOD’S LOVE.” May God grant all of us an abundance of the blessings of His love, Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.