Love One Another- I John 4:7-21
Our reading from Acts shows the Gospel spreading out from Jerusalem to touch those in other parts of the world, as Philip shows the Ethiopian eunuch how the words of Isaiah relate to Jesus and his suffering on the cross. Our Psalm connects very much to Jesus. He was quoting it on the cross. St. Augustine said,
“The passion of Christ is recounted in this Psalm as clearly as in the gospel”.
As we read it, we can’t help but witness the passion of Jesus. And in verses 27 and 28 we see the spread of the Good News of Jesus and the worship of Israel’s God beyond the land of Israel. We read,
“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations” (22:27-28).
So what is implied in placing this Psalm with our Acts reading is that the spreading of the Gospel to the nations, like Ethiopia, is a part of that plan from the beginning
I’d like to spend most of our time looking at John’s first letter. This letter is very personally powerful to me. … In my teens I was pretty anti-Christian. I thought Christianity was full of lies and judgement. I don’t know where I got those ideas. Mostly from movies and TV, probably. Regardless, I had a really big chip on my shoulder when it came to Christianity.
I have told this story a few times, so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail, but one of the major life-changing moments in my life was an experience in a bar, here in Red Deer. That experience changed everything for me. I hadn’t been drinking yet. It was an experience of love that was way beyond any experience I ever had before. I felt this love towards everyone in the room. I didn’t love anyone more or less than anyone else in the room. It was an intense love that flowed out to everyone equally. It wasn’t dependent on them. There was no sense of anyone deserving this love. There was no sense that anyone had the power to stop this love by mistreating me. … it was as if I was being let in on something, like the curtain of the universe was being pulled back to show something very fundamental to reality. … I don’t know how long the experience lasted. It felt outside of time, but it wasn’t more than 10 minutes. … At this time I still wasn’t a Christian. I had no idea what this was.
It was around this time that I was driven to pick up the Bible and I started reading the New Testament. I read about Jesus teaching us to love our enemies. I read about Jesus forgiving the people who were crucifying him. Eventually I got to this letter- John’s first letter- and I read,
I’d like to spend most of our time looking at John’s first letter. This letter is very personally powerful to me. … In my teens I was pretty anti-Christian. I thought Christianity was full of lies and judgement. I don’t know where I got those ideas. Mostly from movies and TV, probably. Regardless, I had a really big chip on my shoulder when it came to Christianity.
I have told this story a few times, so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail, but one of the major life-changing moments in my life was an experience in a bar, here in Red Deer. That experience changed everything for me. I hadn’t been drinking yet. It was an experience of love that was way beyond any experience I ever had before. I felt this love towards everyone in the room. I didn’t love anyone more or less than anyone else in the room. It was an intense love that flowed out to everyone equally. It wasn’t dependent on them. There was no sense of anyone deserving this love. There was no sense that anyone had the power to stop this love by mistreating me. … it was as if I was being let in on something, like the curtain of the universe was being pulled back to show something very fundamental to reality. … I don’t know how long the experience lasted. It felt outside of time, but it wasn’t more than 10 minutes. … At this time I still wasn’t a Christian. I had no idea what this was.
It was around this time that I was driven to pick up the Bible and I started reading the New Testament. I read about Jesus teaching us to love our enemies. I read about Jesus forgiving the people who were crucifying him. Eventually I got to this letter- John’s first letter- and I read,
“God is love” (1 John 4:8).
I remember those words hitting me so powerfully.
I felt like, when the curtain was pulled back, and I saw love, it was God. And the love I felt wasn’t mine. It was God loving- maybe through me. It was the kind of love that wouldn’t stop even if the beloved was crucifying the one who loved them. It was a love that can’t be turned off because that love isn’t something God is doing, God is love. … So whenever I read this letter, I remember how powerfully it has effected me.
This letter is dripping with the word “love”. In our 14 verses our reading says “love” 28 times. When we look at the original Greek we see that the word “beloved” appears twice. The Greek word for “beloved” is “Ἀγαπητοί” (agapetoi). The word used for love is “ἀγάπη” (agape). So the letter is addressed to the “agapetoi” (Ἀγαπητοί) and it is about “agape” (ἀγάπη). “Beloved” is a good word to use if we hear the word “love” contained within the word.
There are some interestingly broad abstract statements said in this letter. Our reading begins,
I felt like, when the curtain was pulled back, and I saw love, it was God. And the love I felt wasn’t mine. It was God loving- maybe through me. It was the kind of love that wouldn’t stop even if the beloved was crucifying the one who loved them. It was a love that can’t be turned off because that love isn’t something God is doing, God is love. … So whenever I read this letter, I remember how powerfully it has effected me.
This letter is dripping with the word “love”. In our 14 verses our reading says “love” 28 times. When we look at the original Greek we see that the word “beloved” appears twice. The Greek word for “beloved” is “Ἀγαπητοί” (agapetoi). The word used for love is “ἀγάπη” (agape). So the letter is addressed to the “agapetoi” (Ἀγαπητοί) and it is about “agape” (ἀγάπη). “Beloved” is a good word to use if we hear the word “love” contained within the word.
There are some interestingly broad abstract statements said in this letter. Our reading begins,
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:7-8).
It is a beautiful statement, and amazingly broad. Wherever you see love, there is God. It is the kind of statement we would be happy to put on a T-shirt. Lots of different kinds of people can get behind a statement like that.
But then John moves from the general to the specific- from the abstract to the concrete. What is this love? It is this-
But then John moves from the general to the specific- from the abstract to the concrete. What is this love? It is this-
“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” (1 Jn 4:9-10).
This love isn’t a feeling without an action. This love has an expression- an action towards the beloved. … It is so specific it would disappoint some people who like the more general, abstract beginning.
God’s specific act of love should inspire us in our love for one another. As verse 11 says,
God’s specific act of love should inspire us in our love for one another. As verse 11 says,
“Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn 4:11).
… There was a beautiful scene in episode 3 of the second season of The Chosen. (I’m sorry, this is a spoiler. And if you haven’t seen this show, please find it and watch it). So, in this episode Jesus is healing everyone who comes to him. He has this massive line of people coming to see him, to be healed- A massive line of human suffering. The disciples are taking turns with crowd control- making sure people stay in line and take their turns. Jesus keeps going non-stop. Healing one after another. Lives changed, one after another. The deaf. The blind. Lepers. … In the episode we don’t actually see Jesus healing much. Most of the episode is focused around the disciples who are taking a break from the crowd. They are gathered around the fire at their campsite away from the crowd. Eventually, they get into an argument. Simon is picking on Matthew for betraying his people by working for the romans and becoming a tax collector. As the argument gets heated, Jesus shows up just exhausted. He had been going all day without stopping. As he walks past them, towards his tent, he smiles and says “goodnight”. We can see that Jesus is ready to collapse from exhaustion. He has been loving and pouring himself out for hours and hours and he is ready to collapse. You get the sense that he can barely walk. …. And the disciples all just stop and watch him. His mother gets up to help him to bed. The rest just hang their head. … What do you think they were feeling? …. Here is Jesus pouring out his love and energy to serve and heal. He didn’t take any breaks. … And his disciples are bickering at each other. …
It’s the opposite of what we see John talking about. When we see the love of Jesus, especially on the cross, do we feel justified and encouraged in our complaints against one another? Our nit-picking the people in our lives? Verse 11 says,
It’s the opposite of what we see John talking about. When we see the love of Jesus, especially on the cross, do we feel justified and encouraged in our complaints against one another? Our nit-picking the people in our lives? Verse 11 says,
“Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn 4:11).
Shouldn’t we be able to muster a little bit of patience and grace? Maybe even love, knowing what God has done for us? Knowing what Jesus has done, even for those who killed him?
Verse 12 says,
Verse 12 says,
“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 Jn 4:12).
And looking back at verse 8 we read,
“Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).
Jumping down to verses 20 and 21 we read,
“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.”
… Our treatment of one another is intimately related to our relationship with God. We express our love for God by how we love each other.
This isn’t something we can do on our own, and we all know that well. It requires abiding in Christ. In our Gospel reading, the branches need to be nourished by the vine. A branch cut off from the vine is dead. … Jesus has promised to always be present with us. He has promised to nourish us with his life and power, but we can’t expect that to happen without abiding in him to receive that life. We have to seek a continuous connection with him. It is only as we constantly draw our attention to him in prayerful gratitude for what he has done that we will learn to love this way. And as we learn to love his way, we will see God more and more clearly, because “God is love”. AMEN
This isn’t something we can do on our own, and we all know that well. It requires abiding in Christ. In our Gospel reading, the branches need to be nourished by the vine. A branch cut off from the vine is dead. … Jesus has promised to always be present with us. He has promised to nourish us with his life and power, but we can’t expect that to happen without abiding in him to receive that life. We have to seek a continuous connection with him. It is only as we constantly draw our attention to him in prayerful gratitude for what he has done that we will learn to love this way. And as we learn to love his way, we will see God more and more clearly, because “God is love”. AMEN
Watch all of it, but the part i reference starts at 1:48 to 1:55
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