God Is Love

Do you remember the beginning of the film Superman? Lois Lane has just climbed into a helicopter on a landing pad at the top of a sky-scraper. The helicopter takes off, but is snagged on a cable. It crashes and is left hanging precariously over the side of the building. The door on Lois's side swings open and she stares horrified at the crowds 50 storeys below. But you know it's too early in the film for Lois to be killed, so you relax. Something will happen. And sure enough it does. The helicopter shifts again. It slides further over the edge of the building, and Lois falls out. She catches one of the chopper's runners and is left hanging in space. But you still refuse to invest any emotional energy in her plight. She can't have been paid $1.2 million just to fall out of a helicopter after 5 minutes, can she? But fall she suddenly does. And as she plummets down the side of the building, a red blur streaks upwards from the street. Just in time, after a hasty change in a telephone kiosk, Superman is airborne. He catches her, and they glide gently upwards back towards the helicopter pad. 'It's OK, Miss,' says Christopher Reeve (Superman), 'I've got you.' To which Lois -clearly terrified - replies, 'You've got me? So who's got you?' Which goes to show that you can be safe without being confident you're safe. You can actually be secure, but feel insecure. And when you feel like that, you need reassurance. If you were here for last week's instalment of 1 John, you'll know that the theme of the passage was assurance. And the theme of tonight's passage is assurance. In fact, assurance is the theme of the whole letter. Just glance over to 5.13:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know you have eternal life.

Which I find striking and encouraging. I find it striking because it says that genuine Christian believers ('you who believe in the name of the Son of God') may lack assurance, and need reassurance. Like Lois Lane, they may be secure, but they may feel insecure. A genuine believer may still find him/herself wondering whether they are a genuine believer. And I find it encouraging because I experience this problem and 1 John is saying to me, 'I'm the book to read to help you with this problem.' So let's 'back up' to 4.13. And the question we're asking is: 'How can I know I'm a real Christian, really born again, really secure with God for ever?' Verse 13:

We know that we live in him [that is, God] and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Which at first sight doesn't look all that helpful. Because if you're unsure whether you're really a Christian, you're probably unsure whether the Holy Spirit is present and active in your life. Now, as I understand it, the whole of verses 13 through to 19 goes together. Just look at verse 13 again:

We know that we live in God and he in us, because

And the 'because' covers the rest of what John has to say down to verse 19. So,

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Yes, John, but how do I know that he's given me his Spirit? What's the evidence that the Holy Spirit has done this in my life? What shows that someone is 'born again'? 'Born again': how do I know it's happened to me? Well, in his Gospel, in John 3, John tells us what Jesus said about this. Jesus, you might remember, said, 'You must be born again,' or 'born of the Spirit.' (See John 3.1-8) And it seems he was quoting an Old Testament promise which looked forward to the time when God would change people inwardly by the work of his Spirit. And since the coming of Jesus, we now live in that time. The promise is from Ezekiel 36.26-27 and it goes like this:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

So when God wants to explain what happens when someone is born again, born of the Spirit, he uses the picture of a heart transplant operation. Just think about that for a moment. Imagine you have a desperate heart-condition. (I think of a school-friend of mine who was born with a hole in his heart). You can barely breathe. Your complexion is pale, almost blue. You've been bed-bound for months, you've lost weight and even if you could breathe, you couldn't walk because your muscle tone is so poor. And then let's say you have a heart transplant operation. And it's a success. Well there will be a whole chain of after-effects. Some will be immediate. Perhaps very rapidly, your colour is much more normal. Perhaps soon your breathing is far more comfortable. Your appetite returns. Other after-effects will be less immediate; they'll be gradual. When you first get on your feet after the operation, it won't be an immediate triumph of walking and running within the week. Those kind of changes will be much longer-term. That's the picture. A heart-transplant. Now, back to 1 John 4. How can I know whether a spiritual heart-transplant has taken place in me? What is the evidence that spiritual birth has happened? Well, it's a similar chain of after-effects; some immediate, some much longer-term, much more gradual. The immediate effect of being 'born again' Verses 14 and 15. The most immediate effect of being born again is that you come to see who Jesus really is and what he's done for you:

And we [I think that means John and his fellow-apostles - compare 1 John 1.1-3] have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. ['That's our bit,' says John. 'We've passed onto you the good news that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God forever.'] If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, ['Well, there's only one conclusion,' says John:] God lives in him and he in God.

In other words, if anyone hears the Christian message and comes to the point of saying for themselves, 'Jesus is the Son of God and he died for me, for my sins, for my forgiveness, and thanks to him I'm secure with God,' well then, he or she is born again. It's impossible to come to see who Jesus is and what he did for you on the cross, and trust it for your own forgiveness unless you've been born again. Look back to the end of 1 John 4.8, and follow John's line of thought. 'God is love,' he tells us. Yes, but how do I know? After all, I can't see him. And I don't always feel he loves me. And I still do plenty of things wrong in my life which are reasons why he shouldn't love me. So, how do I know? Well, 4.9-10:

This is how God showed his love among us: [ie, this is how God's love become visible in human history; this is where God has made himself obvious and put his existence and his love beyond reasonable doubt.] 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. [Ie, he sent his own Son, who never sinned, to face the punishment for our sins, so we need never face it ourselves, but rather be forgiven. Which is the meaning of Jesus' death on the cross.]

And how did we come to know about all that? Verse 14: the apostles, like John, have passed on that good news in the pages of the New Testament. And some Christian, or church, or book has brought that message to us. And, if we are genuinely able to say those words: 'Jesus is the Son of God and he died for me,' well, verse 15, there's no way we could be saying that and trusting that unless we were born again. And so [says John] we know and rely on the love God has for us. (v16) That's the immediate effect of being born again. If you think of Jesus dying on the cross and you're able to say, 'He did that for me because he loved me. That's what I stake my life on; that's who I live for,' you're born again. On the other hand, if that makes no sense to you, it's most likely that you're not. In which case, your first need is to find out clearly who Jesus is and why he came. And a helpful way ahead would be to pick up one of these booklets from the bookstall tonight - 'Why Jesus?' The longer-term effect of being 'born again' But there's a second after-effect of being born again. And it's a bit more like the getting-out-of-bed-and-starting-to-walk effect in the heart-transplant illustration. It's not an immediate and total change. It begins straight away, but it's a gradual transformation. Verse 16, again:

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. [And then here's the second after-effect of the new birth.] Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us' (vv16-17)

The second after-effect of being born again is a change of how we live. The born again person, says John, 'lives in love.' Born again people find in themselves a new desire to love people and they actually do it. It doesn't mean they exercised no love before they came to faith. It does mean that they now experience a desire to love people in the way God has loved them - and that they're actually living out that desire - albeit imperfectly. (See 1 John 1.8-10: however much the Christian changes this side of heaven, he or she remains unable to say, 'I am without sin'). It's changed them. It's changed the way they talk, the attitudes they have to people; it's resolved relationship-difficulties - at least, they're working at things where before they didn't. And so on. Change is detectable. And John says, verse 17:

In this way, love is made complete among us.

The word translated, 'made complete' is the kind of word you'd use of a train arriving at its destination. Imagine the Flying Scotsman from Aberdeen. Its aim, its purpose is to get you into King's Cross. And when it does, when you finally hop out onto the platform in London, at that point, to use John's language, 'The Flying Scotsman is made complete.' It's achieved its purpose for you, because you are now in London. John is saying that if you're a believer, a whole train of events stands behind that. We often think of it from our side. 'I became a Christian.' (That is, 'I made a commitment, I did something.') But think of it from God's side. He loved me before I was even around to sin and need forgiving. He sent his Son to die for me, knowing in advance every sin I would commit and whose judgement I'd need saving from (vv9-10). He saw to it that there was a New Testament, care of the apostolic circle of witnesses - a complete Bible to tell me how I can be saved (v14) He got that message to me via Christians who cared enough and had courage enough to tell me. And he sent his Spirit to give me new birth. Oh, yes. And then I became a Christian (v15) - as a result of all those other things God had done first. And the final thing in that chain of events is that you're left standing in God's love and you ask him, 'Well, what can I do for you in return? How can I even begin to love you back?' And Jesus says:

If you love me, you will obey what I command. (John 14.15)

A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13.34)

So, out you go to start trying to love people in a way you never did before. And that's the 'end of the line'. That's where God's love is 'made complete' among us. This whole train of events pulls into our lives and changes us. Last summer I visited the home of one of our students who recently graduated. I'd always been struck by this guy - by his character, his friendships, his concern for people and so on. And within five minutes of arriving at his home, meeting his Mum and Dad, I knew why he was like that. Love begets love. Those who are on the receiving end of love are those who give it. And that's John's point. Those who are on the receiving end of God's love, give it. Verse 17:

In this way, love is made complete among us [and here's the point he's making, to do with assurance] so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world, we are like him.

Remember: John is writing to believers so that they can find assurance that they are real Christians, born again people, however you like to put it. And in this passage, he brings together two things which add up to give us assurance. Two sources of assurance First source of assurance: The foundation for assurance is the love of God, demonstrated when Jesus died on the cross. Perhaps I feel God doesn't love me because of the sins of yesterday, or this or that particular sin on my conscience. John says to us: God's reason for loving you doesn't lie inside you. It lies inside him: God is love. That's why he loves. He doesn't love you because you're loveable; he loves you because he is love. So, don't look inside yourself - that's where you'll find the reasons God shouldn't love you, namely your sins. Look outside yourself to what he did when he sent his Son to die on the cross to bear the punishment for your sins once and for all. Take your sins there and like 1 John 1.9 says:

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The cross is the foundation for assurance. That's the basis on which God accepts us, and we simply have to trust that. We put our faith in it, and we find reassurance that we can be, and in fact have been, forgiven because of what happened on the cross - and because of nothing else. But then someone might say, 'I know all that. My problem is this. I don't know whether I really have faith. At least, sometimes my faith is weak. Or it seems to come and go.' And you can tie yourself up in knots that way. Which is where verses 17-18 come in Second source of assurance: Well, says John, can you detect any change at all in the way you live? Are you beginning to love people - albeit imperfectly - in a way you didn't before? Are you relating to people differently? Have you found yourself stopping the hurtful humour, or the sarcasm? Have you found more patience and kindness where there was previously just a short fuse? Have you perhaps been surprised to find in yourself a capacity to forgive people that wasn't there before? Have you put yourself out for others in a way you didn't used to - and even enjoyed doing so? Are you now more disappointed with yourself when you fail to love people? Not perfection. But change. Can you detect any of that, says John? Well, verse 17, that should give us confidence for the day we meet God face to face. If we're showing something of the family likeness - albeit imperfectly - that should give us confidence that he has made us members of his family. And members of his family will be welcomed in with open arms on that day. The cross is the foundation for assurance. We put our faith there - and there alone - as the basis of our acceptance by God. But then the change in our lives reassures us that our faith is real. The change in our lives is not the reason God accepts us. It's the result of God accepting us. The person who knows that God loves him, and finds himself loving others in a way he didn't before, will experience assurance that he really is a Christian. He lives in love - receiving it (perfectly) from God and giving it (imperfectly) to others. And verse 18:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Now, there is a right 'fear' of God (see, for example, Proverbs 1.7, Psalm 103.13, 17; Philippians 2.12-13, 1 Peter 1.17). It's right to fear offending God, to fear responding to his love with carelessness and sin. But John has in mind here the fear of rejection by God - the fear that we could arrive before him on the day of judgement only to be turned away. And he says that 'perfect love' drives out fear. ('Perfect love' means being at the point where receiving God's love has changed us - to love God and love others in response.) If we believers loved others perfectly, presumably we would have perfect assurance of our standing as God's children. But we do not (this side of heaven, cannot and will not) love perfectly. So we must look back to that first source of assurance: to the cross, which tells us, 'Don't fear. Jesus died for you. He won't give up on you.' And we look at our own lives and we do find that, over time, we're not the people we were. And as we see the change, we're less fearful that we might not be real Christians. Perfect love - that is, God's love that is bringing about its planned effect in us - drives out fear. What about when assurance is lacking? There are, says John, fearful people around in churches. They're religious people; people who've perhaps knocked around church or churches for a while. Maybe all their life. People who believe something about God, but nothing Christian about God - they're not believers in the Lord Jesus. That's certainly where I was, before I heard the gospel, aged 15. Before I heard about Jesus, my only source of information was a liberal school chapel. I'd begun to believe God was probably there. I'd started to think that the reason my conscience was bad about so much was that God was there and I was doing things he didn't like. I supposed that God had high standards and it seemed pretty reasonable to think I might have to face him one day and explain why I'd lived the way I'd lived. I even, in my own way, tried to live for him. I tried to 'love' him. But it was an impossible chore and I gave it up. Because my heart wasn't in it. Because I was basically afraid. You can't love someone when you don't know where you stand with them. You can fear them. But you can't love them. What's missing in people like that - people like I was, before hearing the good news? People like 'god-fearing' Jews or Muslims, or members of any other world religion which believes in a Creator-God to whom we are accountable? Well, what's missing is: Jesus. What's missing is knowing that God is love and has shown his love in time and space in Jesus, his Son. It may be that some of us identify with 'the one who fears', as John puts it. Maybe because we're not believers. Well if that's you, at least now you've heard what you've been missing and what you need to look into until you can say, 'I believe Jesus is the Son of God and died for me. And because of that, my fears are over.' But believers can also live in fear. Our temperaments vary, and they certainly have an effect in all this. But even the sunniest of us can find ourselves dwelling on our sin and forgetting that God is love - 24 hour a day, settled love. And forgetting that Jesus died for all sins - even the ones we believe to be beyond the pale. We forget that God is love and that he has shown that, at the cross. We begin to think he loves only sometimes, only some people. We find it easy enough to believe he loves and forgives others - but somehow, not us. At least, not this time, not over this particular thing in our lives. But that's nonsense. Just think of the statement: 'Fire is warmth'. That means, it's impossible to draw near a fire without being warmed. However cold you are, however pessimistic you feel about getting warmed up, if you draw near to the fire, you cannot but be warmed. Well, similarly, 'God is love'. And we cannot approach God without approaching love and being loved. He doesn't switch his love 'on' or 'off', depending on the person or the circumstance. However sin-burdened you are, however pessimistic of your 'chances' of being forgiven, if you draw near to God, you cannot but be loved. The only way not to be loved by God is to stay away, back resolutely turned on him, unwilling to come by faith. Well if we've forgotten that God is love and has shown his love, we need to go back to the cross. Whatever spiritual ruts we've dug ourselves into, let's go back to the cross. Think of that card in the game 'Monopoly' that sends you to Jail. It says very definitely, 'Do not pass 'Go', do not collect £200' - go straight to jail before you do anything else in this game. And John would say to 'the one who fears': go to the cross. Do not try to cover up or carry on or muddle through or put a brave face on it in your Home Group, or wherever. Go to the cross. Straight to the cross. Re-start from there, because you can have a totally fresh start from there as many times - an hour, a day, a week, a lifetime - as you need it. And, God knows, we need it. Only then, after going back to the cross, can we carry on with the Christian life - without fear. Which is verse 19:

We love because he first loved us.

The Christian life hasn't started until we tumble to the truth that he loves us first. He loves us before we've done anything at all - good or bad. He loves us because he loves us and if that sounds circular, it is. Totally. Which is why the believer is totally secure. If you know you need to start the Christian life, or re-start the Christian life (that covers all of us), go to the cross. And having done that, verse 20:

If anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

In other words, let's search ourselves for hypocrisy and, having confessed it, go out and try afresh to love. Which is verse 21:

And he has given us this command: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

And in the process of doing that - looking back to the cross, and looking out to love others - assurance will come. For further reading on 1 John:

From Head to Heart, Roy Clements, Kingsway 1995