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This Is Love - Part 5

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:7-21

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Well, I invite you to turn with me to 1 John, chapter 4. Over the last several weeks, we have been considering God's love for us, and what an amazing journey it's been to rehearse the love of God shown to us in Christ. Today, we come to the reality of “The Believer’s Love for God,” the believer’s love for God. Now, before we consider what loving God means, I first want to make sure that we all understand what loving God is not, because there are a lot of bad ideas, faulty concepts, of loving God out there.

First of all, loving God is not pure sentimentality or emotionalism. It's not a feeling that comes over you while we're singing. Loving God is not pure sentimentality. A.W. Tozer put it this way in his generation. He said:

The taking over of the romantic ideal into our relation to God has been extremely injurious to our Christian lives. The idea that we should fall in love with God is ignoble, unscriptural, unworthy of us, and certainly does no honor to the Most High God. We do not come to love God by a sudden emotional visitation. Love for God results from repentance, amendment of life, and a fixed determination to love Him.

Loving God is not religious ritual. There are a lot of people in our world who think that's what it means to love God. But Jesus, in Mark 12:33, said to love God is “…more than all (whole) burnt offerings and sacrifices.” So religious ritual is not what it means to love God.

External conformity to God's Law is not loving God. In Luke 11:42, Jesus said, “…woe to you Pharisees! Because you tithe your herbs, but you disregard the love of God.” (Paraphrase.) Religious knowledge is not loving God. Now, don't misunderstand, you can't love God without knowing about Him, but you can know a lot about God and not love Him. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:2, as he's talking about the priority of love, he says, "If I had all knowledge…but I don't have love, then it's absolutely worthless, and I am nothing.” (Paraphrase.)

Obedience alone is not loving God. The most graphic illustration of this is in Revelation, chapter 2, verses 2 to 4, where Jesus is talking to the church in Ephesus, and He rehearses their incredible obedience, and then He says, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” And so all of those are deficient concepts of true love for God.

So, what exactly does it mean to love God? Well, that's what we want to discover together this morning. To remind you of the context in 1 John 4, John is focusing on the social test of eternal life. Its “Love for God and Love for His People.” It runs from chapter 4, verse 7, down through verse 21. Let's read it for one last time together, I John 4, you follow along as I begin in verse 7.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten 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 propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he and God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. (And that brings us to our text today, verse 19.) We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one 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, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Now John begins this section with a clear statement of his theme in verse 7. “Beloved, let us love one another,” let us love our fellow brothers and sisters. And beginning in the middle of our 7 and running through the rest of this chapter, He gives us three compelling reasons that we should love one another. Let me just remind you of what we've covered so far.

First of all, we should love one another because of “God's Unchanging Nature of Love.” God is love. That's the message of verses 7 and 8, therefore, we ought to love one another.

The second compelling reason is in verses 9 through 12, and it's “God's Unparalleled Demonstration of Love,” specifically, His sending His Son into the world as One of us, to die on the cross as the propitiation for our sins. Because of that, we should love.

And then beginning in verse 13, and running down through the end of the chapter, the third reason that we should love is “God's Unspeakable Gift of Love.” Here's the flow of thought; because the Father is love, verses 7 and 8; He sent the Son, verses 9 through 12; and He gave us the Spirit, verses 13 to 21. Verse 13, He talks about the gift of the Holy Spirit, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, (That we're true Christians.) because He has given us of His Spirit.” If you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit; the Father has given us the unspeakable gift of love, that is His Holy Spirit to be with us and to live within us.

And the rest of this passage, then, John goes on to explain the work of the Holy Spirit, beginning in verse 14 down through the end. Having talked about the gift of the Spirit, he describes the ongoing work of the Spirit. In verses 14 to 16, we looked at “His Saving Work,” how the Holy Spirit brought us to understand the gospel, to believe in the gospel, to understand God's love in the Gospel, and to trust in Christ.

But beginning in the middle of verse 16, down through the end of the chapter, we're looking at how the Spirit continues that work in “Sanctifying the Believer,” in making us increasingly like Jesus Christ, and specifically, that sanctifying work has two parts in this passage. Last time, we looked at the first part, and that is, “The Spirit produces in us a mature understanding of God's love for us.” We believed God's love when we believed the gospel, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, (so) that whoever believes in Him shall (should) not perish, but have everlasting life.” We believed that God loved us in Christ when we first believed the gospel.

But the Spirit produces a mature understanding of that love over time. First of all, the second part of verse 16, “He keeps us continuing to believe that love in the gospel;” we keep on believing that, we abide in that love. And verses 17 and 18, as we saw last time, “He matures the believer’s understanding of God's love for us,” so that we move beyond fear, fear of judgment, fear of punishment, and we begin to understand God's love in such a way that we have confidence as we think about the judgment. We have confidence as we consider His coming. Now, that's the first part of His sanctifying work.

Today, we come to a second part of the Spirit’s sanctifying work in us, and that is that the Spirit produces practical responses to God's love for us.” Not only does He deepen our understanding of God's love for us, but in light of that understanding, He changes us, He produces responses within us. And in verses 19 through 21, he tells us about two very key responses that the Holy Spirit produces in every true believer; if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, then these two responses to God's love, characterize your life, not perfectly, but in some measure. Let's look at them together.

First of all, the Holy Spirit produces “Love for God,” He produces love for God. Verse 19, “We love, because He first loved us.” Literally, the Greek text says, “We ourselves are loving,” this is a continuing pattern; this is not a one-time deal. This is who we are, “We are loving.”

Now, only later Greek manuscripts add a direct object. Some of them add, “We love Him” or others say, “We love God.” Those are not likely original readings; the more likely is just what we have here, “We ourselves are loving.” However, even though there's no direct object, it is still likely that verse 19 is talking about our love for God in response to His love for us.

And that's true for two reasons. First of all, notice the second half of verse 19, “…because He first loved us.” What does that imply? It implies that our love, in the first half of the verse, is a love for Him in response to His love for us. That's why later Greek manuscripts do include the word ‘Him’ or ‘God,’ because that just makes logical sense in the passage.

A second reason, notice verse 20 begins, “If someone says, ‘I love God.’” It goes on to talk about our loving one another, but it begins with “If someone says, ‘I love God,’” which implies that verse 19, the verse immediately preceding is, in fact, about loving God. So, we could paraphrase verse 19 like this, “We ourselves are loving God because He Himself first loved us.” It’s an amazing statement, and in fact, in that one brief verse, verse 19, there are several key assertions about the relationship between God's love for us, and our love for God.

Let me give you those assertions, there are several of them. Number one, God loved us first, that's the most obvious one. God loved us first. He took the initiative. So, here's a question for you, a quiz. When did God first love you, believer? The answer is, ‘in eternity past.’ Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 4 and 5 says, “God the Father chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world.” And then it says. “In love, He predestined (He predetermined our destiny.) us to the adoption as (of) sons and daughters.” Do you realize, believer, that God loved you before there was anything but God? He loved you first. He wins.

But it's not really talking here about God's eternal electing love. Notice the verb ‘loved,’ the tense points to a past event. In context, it has to be referring back to the Father's sending His Son in the Incarnation, verse 9, and sending His Son to the cross to be the propitiation for our sins, He first loved us. So, not only does He win because He loved you in eternity past, but He wins because 2,000 years ago, He loved you and sent His Son to die on your behalf. That's why Titus 2:3-4, you know, this morning, we read Titus 2, which says “…the kindness (grace) of God appeared,” talking about Christ. He's the grace of God personified. Titus 3:4 says, God's “…love for mankind appeared,” that’s Jesus too. His love appeared 2,000 years ago, “He sent His Son.”

But here's the remarkable thing, He loved you first, not just in that He loved you in eternity past, not just that He loved you 2,000 years ago when He sent His Son into the world; He loved you first in your lifetime. This is what Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 4 and 5 says:

God…because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, (He's talking now about our lifetime; before we believed in Christ, God loved us. God loved us when we were dead in our transgressions. And because of that love, He) made us alive together with Christ (By grace you have been saved.)

So, He loved you first. He loved you first in eternity past; He loved you first 2,000 years ago when He sent His Son, and He loved you first, when in your lifetime, He loved you enough to take you, a dead sinner, bound for hell, and say, “Let there be life and there was life.” God loved us first. He took the initiative. And by the way, if He hadn't taken the initiative, we would all still be dead in our sins, headed to a Christless eternity.

Second assertion, in this verse 19, is that our love is a response to God's love. That's the obvious one as well. “We love (God), because He first loved us.” Our love for God is a response; it's commensurate with and grows in proportion to our understanding of God's love. If you're a Christian, you already came to trust in and believe God's love for you. But as you grow, you grow deeper in your understanding of God's love because you understand more of what His love really is.

Thirdly, our love is solely the product of what God has done in us. The very capacity to love with Godlike love is not inherent in us, in our fallen nature. It is entirely due to God. His Spirit enabled us to grasp God's love in the Gospel, verse 14. His Spirit gave us the faith to believe in God's love in the Gospel, the first part of verse 16. His Spirit gave us the faith to continually believe in the gospel, the second half of verse 16. And His Spirit produces in us the fruit of love for God and others. Galatians 5:22, “The fruit of the Spirit is love...”

A fourth assertion, and this one is key, our love for God is the inevitable result, and the key word is ‘inevitable.’ Our love for God is the inevitable result of His love for us, “We love (God), because He first loved us.” And John comes right back to one of the tests of eternal life. Here again, our love for God is a test of the genuineness of our faith. You want to know whether or not you're a Christian? Let's say, in fact, in your heart, right now, I want you to ask yourself, “Do you claim to be a Christian? Do you claim to be a follower of Christ?” Okay, that's a great claim. But there are a lot of people walking around who claim to be Christians who aren't. Jesus is very clear about that. So how do you know? Here's one of the tests, one of the three tests? “Do you love God? Do you love God your Creator? Do you love God your Redeemer? Do you, genuinely in your heart, can you say, “I love God, as God knows my heart, He knows that I love Him.” We love (God), because He first loved us.

Now, before we leave verse 19, I want to step away from our text here, and I want to answer some very key practical questions about loving God. Because frankly, there's a whole lot of sloppy thinking among Christians about what loving God is. So, let's look at it together. Here are some key questions. Why is loving God so important? Why does it matter? Let me give you two reasons. And reason number one, because “It's proof that we know God.” Unbelievers don't love God. Look back at chapter 2, verse 15. He’s just been talking about Christians loving the Father. Verse 15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world.” And by the way, the ‘things in the world,’ verse 16, the world is all about the lust of the flesh, the cravings of your unredeemed humanness, your body and your unredeemed humanness, the lust of the eyes, what you can have, what you can possess, what you can own, and the boastful pride of life, being somebody. If that's what you're all about, if that's what you love, then verse 15, says, “…the love of the Father is not in you.” You can't love both the world and God!

Loving God, however, is proof that you know God. Jesus put it this way in Luke 11:42. He said to the Pharisees, I quoted a moment ago, “…Woe to you Pharisees! For (Because) you tithe…your herbs, and yet you disregard the love of God.” (Paraphrase.) What’s He saying? “You don't know God, because you don't love God.” And in John 5:42, He says, “…I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.” By the way, He still knows. As you sit here this morning, Jesus Christ knows your heart, whether you love God or don't. And if you don't love God, you prove yourself not to be a Christian, but to be an unbeliever. It's proof that we know God, loving God is that important.

Secondly, “It's God's greatest command.” This is the obvious one; it is God's greatest command. Go back to Deuteronomy, chapter 6, in fact, keep your finger in Deuteronomy 6, I'm going to come back here a couple of times. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, this is the first time this command is laid out explicitly. Deuteronomy 6:4:

Hear, O Israel! The LORD (Yahweh) is our God, the LORD (Yahweh) is one! You shall love the LORD (Yahweh) your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Love God–that's the great commandment! And in case you didn't understand that, turn to Matthew 22, because Jesus makes it very clear in His interaction with the religious teachers of Israel.

It's Tuesday of the Passion Week; they're trying to ask Him questions to trip Him up, and one of them, in verse 36, of Matthew 22, says, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” What's the greatest commandment? Jesus said, now this isn't me, this is Jesus Christ, here it is, here's the great commandment, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, …WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” He says that text in Deuteronomy 6:5 is the greatest command in the Bible; love God. And then he adds, “This is the great and foremost (first) commandment. The second is like it.” So now He tells him what he didn’t ask. So, the greatest command is love God, here's the second one, and He pulls a verse from Leviticus 19:18. He says, “(The second is like it.) …you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And then He says this amazing thing, (Matthew 22:40) “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” That’s shorthand for the entire Hebrew Scriptures. You want to summarize everything God teaches in the Old Testament? There it is, love God with your whole heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. It's God's greatest command to love God.

So then, comes another really important question. If that's true, what does it mean to love God? If you're a Christian, you do love God, you want to love God, but let's clarify our thinking. If we love God, several qualities will be present. We're going to see these in Deuteronomy.

First of all, “We will give Him our exclusive allegiance,” we will give Him our exclusive allegiance. In Deuteronomy, this often shows up in the context of loving God. In fact, go back to Deuteronomy, chapter 6. We just read verses 4 and 5, go down a few verses to verse 13, “You shall fear only the LORD (Yahweh) your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you.” God says, if you're going to love me, it means it's going to have to be exclusive, you're going to have to be fully committed to me. Chapter 11, verse 22, says, “…love the LORD (Yahweh) your God…and hold fast to Him.” Jesus’ love for the Father was this kind of exclusive allegiance. In Matthew, chapter 4, verse 10, Jesus says to Satan, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

Now, this just makes sense, doesn't it where there is this kind of relationship, even in human relationships? In July of this year, Sheila and I will celebrate our 37th wedding anniversary. In 1986, we stood hand in hand in the presence of God and hundreds of witnesses, and we partook in a ceremony. And a key part of that ceremony, it's very hard, was a commitment to exclusive love and devotion. The wedding vows addressed to the man asked this question, “Do you solemnly promise before God and these witnesses, that you will love her, comfort her, honor and keep her (Here it is.) and forsaking all others keep only to her, so long as you both shall live?” And what's the response of love? “I do, I will!” In the same way, loving God requires exclusive allegiance.

What are the potential rivals to wholehearted love for God? I wish I had time to fill this out. I have passages in my notes, but I don't have time, so let me just give you a few specific ways, rivals to love for God. Loving self, loving money, loving pleasure, loving family. Jesus said, “You have to love Me more than you love your family.” Loving the approval of men, loving being first, like Diotrephes in 3 John 9, loving sin, or loving our own lives. Jesus said, “If you're going to be my disciple, you have got to love Me more than you love your own life.” Those are just some of the rivals to wholehearted allegiance to God. Loving God means we must allow no rivals to Him. We have to make a commitment to the true God just like husbands and wives make on their wedding day. “Exclusive allegiance!”

A second quality that finds true love for God is that “We will give Him our faithful obedience,” our faithful obedience. Loving God means we must faithfully obey His Word. In Deuteronomy, this quality appears often. Loving God means walking in His ways and keeping His commands. Turn back again to Deuteronomy, and look at chapter 11 this time. Deuteronomy 11, verse 1, “You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His charge (Here's how you love Him. You'll keep His charge.), His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.” Verse 13, “It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I'm commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and…soul.” There again, you see the relationship between obedience and love. Verse 22, “…if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I'm commanding you to do, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to hold fast to Him.” Again, the relationship of love and walking in His ways. They go together; if you love God, you obey Him!

We see this quality also in our Lord's love for the Father in John 14:31, listen to what He says, listen to how He connects love and obedience. He says, “…so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father has commanded me.” True love for God means we give Him “Our Exclusive Allegiance,” and “Our Faithful Obedience.”

A third quality is present when we truly love God, and that is “We will give Him our genuine affection,” our genuine affection. Wherever there's true love, there will also be genuine feeling and emotion. Now don't misunderstand, love for God is not solely emotional, but it's not unemotional either. And this is true of human relationships. I mean, what if I told you, “I love Sheila,” my wife, but as you watch me interact with her, and you watch me treat her, I did so with a sort of cold calculating, unfeeling, entirely lacking in genuine affection. You would conclude rightly, what? “Tom, you say you love Sheila, but you don't love her.” Why? Because there's no genuine affection for her. God wants your “Genuine Affection.”

The Old Testament gives us some helpful insight into this quality. When the Old Testament authors describe God's love for His people, it uses these warm, affectionate metaphors that help us see what a reciprocal love for God looks like. One of them is this, God's love for His people is like the love of a father for his son. Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.” God says, “I love my people like a father loves his son.” Guess what? Our love and response to God should be the same; it should be the love of sons and daughters for our Father.

He also, the Old Testament authors, describe God's love for His people as being like the love of a mother for her infant. Isaiah 49:15, God says, “Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb?” What's the likelihood of that? Well, on rare occasions it might happen, almost never, but God says, “Listen, even if these may forget, I will not forget you. If a nursing mother lacks compassion toward her infant, that's not going to happen in my case.” So, that's the way our love should look; there should be a genuine affection for God. Loving God is giving Him not only “Our Exclusive Allegiance,” “Our Faithful Obedience,” but “Our Genuine Affection.”

There's one other quality of true love for God, and that is, “We will give Him our total devotion.” Go back to Deuteronomy 6, and look again at verse 5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Now, when this verse is quoted elsewhere in Scripture, the list of human faculties varies because this isn't meant to be a precise delineation of the parts of the human person. The focus is on the phrase “with all!” We are to love God with the totality of our being.

But there's still nuances or shades of meaning in these words. Let's look at them briefly. First of all, “with all your heart and soul.” That expression occurs seventeen times in the Old Testament, half of them in Deuteronomy. And that expression is used, interestingly enough, to describe how we're supposed to serve God, how we're supposed to observe God's commandments, how we're supposed to return to Him in repentance when we sin, and how we're to love Him–with all your heart and soul.

Now, the word ‘heart’ in Hebrew is not primarily the seat of our emotions or feelings as it is in English. Instead, it's the seat of your intellect, your will. Your heart shapes your character, your choices, your decisions, you think in your heart. In fact, the Septuagint uses the Greek word for ‘mind,’ in Deuteronomy 6. That's why when our Lord quotes it in Matthew 22, He adds that word ‘mind’ to the great commandment. So, in other words, you're to love God with all of your heart, with all of your will, with all of your thoughts, with all of these things internal, and the Moses adds, “We are to love God with all our souls.”

Most often, this Hebrew word is used to express the ‘whole inner self, with all the emotions, desires, and personal characteristics that make you a unique person.’ I love the way David defines it in Psalm 103:1, he says, “My soul is all that is within me.” (Paraphrase.). He says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.” So, to love God with all your heart and soul, then, is to love Him with your whole self, with all of your mind, your will, your emotions, your desires, your affections; to be genuine, your love for God must include all of you, “with all” is the point!

But Moses adds there in Deuteronomy 6:5, “…with all your might.” That is a very interesting word. Every other time that Hebrew word occurs in the Old Testament, it's translated as an adverb, ‘exceedingly,’ or ‘greatly.’ But here in Deuteronomy 6, it's a noun, it's used as a noun. The most common English translation is either ‘strength’ or ‘might.’ But literally, let me translate it for you, “Love God, with all your very muchness!” In other words, “Love God with your total devotion, with everything in you.” That's what love for God looks like. Look at that list. If you love God, it means you will give him your “Exclusive Allegiance.” You will give Him your “Faithful Obedience.” It means you will give Him your “Genuine Affection.” And you will give Him your “Total Devotion!” That's what loving God is like.

But that brings one last question and that is, “How Do We Demonstrate Love for God,” how do we demonstrate that love for God? The Scriptures reveal a number of them, let me just give you a little list. I'm not going to go through them in detail; you can jot the references down or come back, and these slides will be on the website. You can go back and look at them and meditate on them, but here's how to demonstrate your love for God.

Number one, you want to show God you love Him? Start “By loving His Son,” start by loving His Son. John 5:42, Jesus says, “…I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.” How did He know that? “I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive Me.” Jesus says, “Listen, you don't love God because you don’t love Me.” John 8:42 “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me.’” Listen, if you claim to love God, you will love Jesus Christ. Now, there are a whole lot of people in the larger Christian community in our country who talk a whole lot about God, “Oh, it's just a God thing,” but you will never hear the name ‘Jesus Christ’ on their lips. If you love God, you will love Jesus Christ! (See also John 15:23)

Secondly, you demonstrate love for God “By Loving His People.” I'll just mention that one because we're going to come back to that one at the end of our text in just a moment. You love God by loving His people.

Thirdly, you love God “By Loving and Obeying His Word.” If you, we’re still looking at Deuteronomy 6, it's interesting in Deuteronomy 6, it says, “Love God.” You know what the very next passage, the next verse talks about? Responding to His Word. Read verses 6 to 9 of Deuteronomy 6. It's about your relationship to God's Word. In fact, look at 1 John, back to 1 John, and look at chapter 2, verse 5; 1 John 2, and verse 5 says, “…whoever keeps His word, in him, the love of God has truly been perfected.” Look over to chapter 5, verse 3, “…this is the love of God (This is what it means to love God.), that we keep His commandments.” (See also John 6; John 14:15, 23)

Fourthly, you can demonstrate love for God “By Delighting in God.” Again, this makes sense at a human level. When you really love someone, what do you do? You delight in them, you enjoy them? Well, the same thing is true with God. Psalm 5:11, “…let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exalt in You.” People who love God, delight in God, they enjoy God. Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD (Yahweh.)

Number five, you can demonstrate your love for God “By Hating Your Sin.” Psalm 97:10, “Hate evil, you who love the LORD.” You can't love a holy, pure, spotless God and love sin at the same time.

And I hope this will be an encouragement to you, number 6, for many of you who are in the middle of a lot of difficulties right now, maybe in the serious valley of your life. You can love God, you can demonstrate your love for God, “By Persevering in Your Trial.” James 1, verse 12, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life (Listen to this.) which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” How do you demonstrate your love for God? One way is by persevering in the midst of trial. You just keep on loving God, obeying God, trusting God, and let Him work out the details of your life; and in doing that, you show that you love Him. So, in 1 John 4:19, we're reminded that in the heart of every genuine believer, the Spirit produces love for God as a practical response to His love for us.

But the Spirit also produces a second practical response; not only love for God, but in verses 20 and 21, “Love for Fellow Christians,” love for fellow Christians. This is something he's touched on so many times before. Here, he just touches on it briefly. Notice first of all, this love for fellow Christians is “An Absolute Necessity.” Verse 20, he says, “If you don't love, then your claim to love God is a lie.” (Paraphrase.) In other words, he says this, “If how you live contradicts your claims to be a Christian, then you are a liar.”

Now let me show you, this is interesting because he says exactly the same thing with all three tests of eternal life. First of all, it's true with the “Moral Test.” Go back to chapter 1, verse 6, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him (fellowship with God) and yet walk (We are walking.) in the darkness, we (We’re living a life of sin. We what?) lie.” Same thing is true with the “Doctrinal Test.” Go to chapter 2, verse 22, “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah)?” In other words, if you don't believe in the biblical Jesus, then your profession is a lie. And it's true with the “Social Test” here in chapter 4, verse 20. Look at it again, “If someone says, ‘I love God.’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.”

Liar, liar, liar! (John Stott writes.) These are the three black lies of the letter. We may insist that we are Christian, but one, habitual sin; two, denial of Christ; or three, selfish hatred expose us as liars. (And then he turns those positive, he says.) Only one, holiness; two, faith; and three, love, can prove the truth of our claim to know, possess, and love God.

Let's look at it, verse 20, “If someone (Literally, the Greek text says, ‘If anyone, there are no exceptions, If anyone.’) says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he's a liar.” That brings us back to the theme of the section in verse 7, “Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God.” But notice in verse 20 this person's verbatim claim, “I love God,” literally, “I am loving God, I have a continuing pattern of love for God in my life.” Notice this person's continuing attitude in spite of that claim, this person “is hating his Christian brother or sister.” It doesn't mean active hate; it just means the failure to love. It includes both; they fail to love. And here's God's verdict, “If a person says, claims, “I love God,” I have a life characterized by love for God, but I also have an attitude of lack of love for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, then God's verdict is, “He or she is a liar.” This person’s claim to love God is entirely false.

Now, that lie could work one of two ways. It could be that the person is a conscious hypocrite. In other words, the person says, “I know God,” when they know good and well, they don't know God. But it could be that the person really thinks they are a Christian, claims to be a Christian, but are proven by their lack of love not to be a Christian; in which case, their profession is a lie even if they didn't intend to lie–it's still a lie. They don't love God, and therefore, they don't love their true brothers and sisters in Christ, and therefore, they're not a true Christian.

John Calvin writes, “It is a false boast when anyone says that he loves God, but neglects God's image which is before his eyes.” I love that quote because what it's saying is the people around us are made in God's image, and believers have been renewed in God's image according to Colossians 3; they are being renewed into God's image. And so, for me to say, “I love God,” but not love the person standing in front of me who bears God's image is ridiculous.

One of my professors in seminary, it made a huge impression on me, I still remember it clearly, many years ago, sitting in seminary, and he was talking about this very fact. And he said, he pulled a picture of his wife out of his wallet, and he said, “What if I say, ‘I love my wife,’ but then you see me taking this picture of my wife, and I'm stabbing it with my pen, I'm cutting it up into little pieces, I’m throwing it in the trash can, and then I burn that picture. What would you think about my love for my wife?” “Umph, you don’t love your wife, you don't love your wife and treat an image of her like that.” Well, the same thing is true with God; you don't love God and treat someone made in His image like that.

Verse 20 says, “(…because) for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot (There's the key word.) love God whom he has not seen.” ‘Cannot,’ this person lacks the capacity to love God. Why? Because, listen, folks, it's a whole lot easier to love somebody standing in front of you in flesh and blood than it is somebody you've never seen Who's invisible. If you can't love that person standing in front of you in flesh and blood, who is a fellow brother or sister in Christ, saved like you were saved, loved by God like you were loved by God, if you can’t love that person, then don't say for a moment that you love God. Our profession of faith and our claim to love God are delusions, they’re lies if they're not accompanied by practical love for our Christian brothers and sisters.

Let me put it bluntly, it is impossible to love God and not love His children, impossible! So, if you say, “Tom, I love God, but I don't particularly like these people around me, and I don't really want to be a part of the church, and I'm happy that way, I can just kind of live my own life and have my own little relationship with God.” God says, “You're a liar; you don't know Me; you don't love Me.” It's impossible to consistently harbor both love and hate in the same heart. Love for fellow Christians is a necessity.

And verse 21 says, “It's also a Command.” And this commandment we have from Him, and notice the commandment, “…that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” It doesn't say you should love God; doesn't say you should love your brother. The commandment is love both God and your brother. What John is doing here is reminding us that love for God and love for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ only come as a package; they can't be divided. I mean, Jesus made that point, right? In Matthew 22, we just saw it a moment ago, He took Deuteronomy 6:5, love for God, and He united it with Leviticus 19:18, love for others, and He joined them together and says, “There's commandment number one and commandment number two,” and that's everything God demands of you.

In addition, if we love God, we will keep His commandments. We just saw that a moment ago, if we love God, we'll keep His commandments. Well guess what commandment number two is? “Love others.” So, you can't love God and not keep commandment number two; you can't keep commandment number one and love God if you don't obey God. And commandment number two is “love others;” it goes together.

So, what are the lessons that you and I can learn from these remarkable verses? Let me give you a couple. Loving God, and loving your fellow Christians is, first of all, “A Test of Your Profession,” it's a test of your profession. Let me ask you a question, and I want you to answer this question in your heart. “Do you, talking to you individually, do you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ?” I want you to answer that question in your heart. “Do you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ?” If you do, then here is a test of your profession. The love that is in our hearts and expresses itself outwardly is one of three key tests of eternal life in 1 John, a true believer loves God. If you don't love God in the ways we've talked about, then you're not a believer; you don't know God, you aren't a Christian. And that's not Tom talking. That's the Apostle John talking, that's the Word of God talking, ultimately, that's Christ Himself talking. He says to you, “If you don't love God, you're not a Christian.” It doesn't matter what you profess, doesn't matter what emotional experience you had, doesn't matter what prayer you prayed years ago. If you don't love God, you're not a Christian.

A true believer also loves his or her fellow Christians. If you don't love God, and if you don't love believers, then you're not a Christian. This is a test. This isn't my test. This is Jesus’ test, so, I hope you will take that test, and it goes in one of two directions.

Number two, another lesson is, “It's the Ground of Your Assurance.” If you take this test, and you say, “Tom, you know, I'm a sinner, and my love isn't perfect, but as the Lord knows my heart, and as He sees my life, there is within my life a genuine love for Him in the ways you’ve talked about this morning, in the ways we've seen from the Scripture, I do love God, I want to love Him more, but I love Him, and He knows I love Him.” I love the way, you know, Peter says to Jesus, in John 21:17, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” If you can say that to the Lord, and you can say, “Lord, you know that, while I'm not perfect in it, I love Your people, I care for them, I want to reach out to them.” If you can say that, then this is supposed to be part of the ground of your assurance, you've passed one of the three tests of eternal life. And the Spirit wants to use that, to give you assurance. That's not Tom's assurance. Again, that's the Scriptures assurance. That's the Apostle John's assurance. That's ultimately the Lord Jesus’ assurance that you're His, if you love God, and you love His people, you're one of His. You can have confidence as you think about the Day of Judgment. Be encouraged!

But if you took that test, there's a third lesson. And that is if you failed, this is “An Invitation to Repent of Your Sins and to Believe in Jesus.” You see, if you don't love God, and you don't love other believers, understand this, it is God's indictment, and it proves your guilt before God. You have broken God's two greatest commandments. It's not going to go well for you at the judgment; you're not going to get there and go, “Well, I hope my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds.” They're not going to because you have broken the two greatest commandments. So, this is an indictment.

But at the same time, this is also an invitation; this is God's gracious invitation. Nothing could be more gracious than what God is doing here. He's holding up a mirror, and He's saying, “I want you to look at yourself in the mirror, and I want you to see if your claim to know Jesus really passes the test.” It's His invitation to abandon the lie that you’ve believed about yourself, that everything's fine between you and God; it's not fine between you and God, if you don't love God, and you don't love fellow Christians, you're not a Christian, you have broken God's two greatest commands, and you will face eternal judgment for those sins.

But at the same time, this is an invitation to truly repent, and believe in Jesus, and experience forgiveness for your breaking of those laws. God sent His only Son into the world as one of us. That's what earlier, in this fourth chapter, John reminds us of, God sent His only Son, fully God, fully human, and Jesus did for thirty-three and a half years, what we were supposed to do, but never did; He perfectly kept God's Law; He obeyed God's Law to love God, and to love others, and He never failed! Where you and I have never kept it. I've never loved God perfectly with all my heart, and neither have you. I've never loved my neighbor as myself without one twinge of selfish motive involved, and neither have you. But Jesus did!

And then Jesus suffered and died on the cross to fully pay the penalty that God's Law demanded for our breaking of God's Law. And He did that on behalf of everyone who would believe in Him. And that includes you if you will believe in Him. And then God raised Him from the dead on the third day to show that He had accepted Jesus’ death as the payment in full. You want to know whether or not God will forgive your sins? Then just look at the resurrection; that was God's stamp on what Jesus did. And He said, “I accept it, the payment has been made.”

So, what do you need to do? Jesus put it this way in Mark 1; He says you need to repent of your sins. You need to acknowledge that you're a sinner; that without Christ and what He did, you're hopeless, your situation is hopeless; you will face God's judgment and eternal hell. But because of Christ, you have hope. Repent of your sins, turn to God, acknowledge your sin, turn away from your sin, and plead for God's mercy, believe in Jesus Christ, and what He did in His life, death, and resurrection as your only hope of being right with God, trust in Him as Savior and Lord. And Paul says, “You will be saved, you will be rescued;” that's the gospel, and that's my hope for you today.

Let's pray together. Father, thank You for this amazing passage. I pray that You would use it in all of our hearts. For those of us who take this test, and, Lord, while we're not perfect and we do fail You, and we want to love You more, and we want to love our Christian brothers and sisters more. Yet, Father, when we look at our lives, we can see that there is genuine love for You and genuine love for one another because You've done that in us by your Spirit. Lord, give us a greater sense of the assurance that we know You that You want us to have. Pray for Your people here today. Lord, don't let one true believer doubt because of this passage, but, Father, instead, let every true believer find assurance and confidence which is the intent of Your Spirit.

But Father, on the other hand, I pray for those who have come into our service, some who came in knowing they're not believers, others who came in deceived, thinking that they were because of some form or profession, some prayer they prayed, some decision they made. Father, if they don't love You, and they don't love Your people, let them look in the mirror of Your Word and see themselves as You see them: lost, hopeless, undone, headed for eternal hell. And Father, may they turn to You and cry out today for Your mercy through what You did through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord, may they throw themselves on Your mercy and find You to be a gracious, compassionate God who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, because of Your Son, in whose name we pray, Amen.

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46.

This Is Love - Part 4

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:7-21
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47.

This Is Love - Part 5

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:7-21
Next
48.

The Nature of Saving Faith

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:1-13

More from this Series

1 John

1.

An Introduction to 1 John

Tom Pennington 1 John
2.

The Apostles' Proclamation - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:1-4
3.

The Apostles' Proclamation - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:1-4
4.

The Apostles' Proclamation - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:1-4
5.

The Believer's New Relationship to Sin - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:5-2:6
6.

The Believer's New Relationship to Sin - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:5-2:6
7.

The Believer's New Relationship to Sin - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:5-2:6
8.

The Believer's New Relationship to Sin - Part 4

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:5-2:6
9.

The Believer's New Relationship to Sin - Part 5

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:5-2:6
10.

The Believer's New Relationship to Sin - Part 6

Tom Pennington 1 John 1:5-2:6
11.

The Priority of Love

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:7-8
12.

Loving One Another - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:9-11
13.

Loving One Another - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:9-11
14.

A Child of the Father

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:12-14
15.

Do Not Love the World

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:15-17
16.

It Matters What You Believe - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:18-27
17.

It Matters What You Believe - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:18-27
18.

It Matters What You Believe - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:18-27
19.

It Matters What You Believe - Part 4

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:18-27
20.

It Matters What You Believe - Part 5

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:18-27
21.

It Matters What You Believe - Part 6

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:18-27
22.

The Christian's DNA - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:28-3:3
23.

The Christian's DNA - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:28-3:3
24.

The Christian's DNA - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:28-3:3
25.

The Christian's DNA - Part 4

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:28-3:3
26.

The Christian's DNA - Part 5

Tom Pennington 1 John 2:28-3:3
27.

Oil & Water

Tom Pennington 1 John 3:4-6
28.

Researching Your Spiritual Ancestry - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 3:7-10
29.

Researching Your Spiritual Ancestry - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 3:7-10
30.

Love as a Sign of Life - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 3:11-24
31.

Love as a Sign of Life - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 3:11-24
32.

Love as a Sign of Life - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 3:11-24
33.

Love as a Sign of Life - Part 4

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34.

Love as a Sign of Life - Part 5

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35.

Love as a Sign of Life - Part 6

Tom Pennington 1 John 3:11-24
36.

Love As a Sign of Life - Part 7

Tom Pennington 1 John 3:11-24
37.

Recognizing False Teachers - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:1-6
38.

Recognizing False Teachers - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:1-6
39.

Recognizing False Teachers - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:1-6
40.

Recognizing False Teachers - Part 4

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:1-6
41.

Recognizing False Teachers - Part 5

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:1-6
42.

Recognizing False Teachers - Part 6

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:1-6
43.

This Is Love - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:7-21
44.

This Is Love - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:7-21
45.

This Is Love - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:7-21
46.

This Is Love - Part 4

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:7-21
47.

This Is Love - Part 5

Tom Pennington 1 John 4:7-21
48.

The Nature of Saving Faith

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:1-13
49.

The Nature of Saving Faith - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:1-13
50.

The Nature of Saving Faith - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:1-13
51.

The Nature of Saving Faith - Part 4

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:1-13
52.

The Nature of Saving Faith - Part 5

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:1-13
53.

The Nature of Saving Faith - Part 6

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:1-13
54.

The Nature of Saving Faith - Part 7

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:1-15
55.

Real Christians & Deep Fakes - Part 1

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:16-21
56.

Real Christians & Deep Fakes - Part 2

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:16-21
57.

Real Christians & Deep Fakes - Part 3

Tom Pennington 1 John 5:16-21
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