Church Period: Lent Easter 7th Sunday After, Mother's Day
Sermon Title: The Tests Of True Christian Love
Sermon Date: May 12, 1991
Rev. August Hauptman
Sermon Text: 1 John 4:13-21
Dear Christian friends:
A mother's love is notorious for its reliability and
faithfulness. The Bible even uses it as an example of
God's love. Through the prophet Isaiah God asks, “Can a
woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb?” Then God answers his
own question with these words, showing the superiority of
his love, “Yes, they (mothers) may forget, yet I will not
forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15) David confirms this greater
love of God saying, “When my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me up.” (Psalm 27:10)
In our text, the apostle of love, John, calls our
attention to this amazing love of God which is greater than
parental love. He commends this love to us and urges us to
receive it and then demonstrate this love in our lives. In
a way he even gives us some tests by which we may measure
our love to see if it is true love.
The first proof or test of our love can be summoned up in
this question: Do I believe that God loves me? We cannot
really have true love unless we believe that he loves us.
In our text John says, “We love because he first loved us.”
(verse 19)
Most people do not believe that God loves them. Because of
our natural sinfulness and rebellion against God, we don't
see how God could possibly love us. It doesn't seem
reasonable. So we tend to leave God out of our lives. We
get busy working and playing. The student with his studies
the artist with his art, the business man with his
business, the soldier with his soldiering, the mother with
her mothering, the playboy with his playing, the religious
with his religion, that negates the true love of God, the
Gospel, and trusts in the works of the law.
Some who are more audacious attempt to prove insolently
that there is no God to whom they are accountable. They
may support various theories of evolution one such that the
world began with a big bang etc. These all deny the plain
evidence before their very eyes, for God has not left man
without evidence of his existence: “The heavens (sky)
declare the glory of God and the whole earth shows his
handiwork. “Those who deny that there is a God contradict
their own reason, for the Bible says, “The fool has said in
his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt; they have
done abominable works.” (Psalm 14:1) People behave in these
foolish ways simply because they cannot believe that God
loves them.
Even though it is unreasonable and a mystery, God does love
us sinners. John and the other eleven apostles and St.
Paul witness to this glorious truth. They were eyewitnesses
of his glory. John says in our text, “And we
have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to
be the Savior of the world.” (verse 14) By this act God showed
His unconditional love. We are not talking about ordinary
human love, such as a mother has for her child, commendable
as that is. We are talking about God's love in Jesus
Christ which surpasses all human love. We have a much
greater reason to love others: God has loved us in Jesus
Christ while we were enemies. Now we can love even those
who hate us.
By this God gives us his Holy Spirit so that we can believe
the unbelievable and even have the courage to acknowledge
or confess that God loves and forgives sinners. John says
in our text, "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son
of God, God lives in him, and he in God. And so we know and
rely on the love God has for us.” (verses 15-16a) Do _you_know
and rely on the love God has for you? This is John's first
test of true Christian love.
Another test which he presents is this: Do I have confidence
regarding the day of universal judgment? (verses 16-18) There
will be a day of universal judgment. Although a person may
not admit it, he knows in his heart that death is God's
summons to open the books and give account to him. This is
why people fear death. They know instinctively what the
Bible says and their conscience confirms it: “It is
appointed unto man once to die, after this the judgment.”
(Hebrews 9:27) St. Paul says, “The sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the Law.”(1 Cor. 15:56) The
Holy Law of God which we have broken condemns us. This is
the sting of death.
However, those who really love God will have confidence on
that day of universal judgment and even look forward to it.
How can they? Because the Judge is Jesus, their Friend and
Savior, whom they trusted that they might have forgiveness
of sins. And because of God's love and forgiveness they in
turn loved God and showed this love by many good works
which they did. So John writes in our text, “God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” In
this way, love is made complete among us so that we have
confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we
are like him (we love and do good, just like God). 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.” (verses 16b-18)
We have this boldness toward Christ, the Judge, because the
Holy Spirit through the Word has conformed us to the very
image of God the Father and Jesus the Son. Much of God's
love, mercy, and goodness can now be seen in us. This is
the second test of true Christian love: Do I have confidence
on the day of Judgment or do I dread and fear it?
This leads us to to the final test or proof of Christian
love: Do I love my Christian brothers and sisters who are
the visible, living image or likeness of God? Those who
really love God, also love their fellow believers. John
says in the verse preceding our text: “No one has ever seen
God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his
love is made complete in us.”(verse 12) Since our love has
its source in God's love, his love achieves full expression
(“is made complete”) when we love our fellow Christians.
Thus, the God whom “no one has seen” is seen in those who
love, because God lives in them.
That is why love for a Christian brother or sister is a
proof of our love to God, whether we really love God or
not. So John says in our text, “If anyone says, I love
God, yet he 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.” (verse 20) The believer in
Christ has much of God visible in him; how then shall the
hater of a visible image of God pretend to love the unseen,
original, the invisible God himself?
Illustration: I think you will agree that your pastor is a
Christian. Therefore, much of God's love and goodness is
shown through him by what he is by what he says and by what
he does, granted that he is not a perfect image of God, but
to some extent he is a living visible image of God. Now if
a certain church member hates his pastor (and there are
those that do), yet they say that they love God. John here
calls such a church member a “liar”, a hypocrite. If they
don't love the pastor, the god whom they can see, how can
they love God whom they have not seen? And so it is the Law
and Command of God: "Whoever loves God must also love his
brother." (verse 21) It is not an option!
If our love is true, we will love God originally and
supremely and others in him, because they have been reborn
of him, are his children and have received his love and
goodness, and he is their Father!
Now here this, all you who claim to love God: Since our
Christian brothers and sisters have a new nature and have
received excellent graces and privileges from God, and
since God is the loving, dear Father of them and us, it is
his highest law and command and our most sacred duty, that
“whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (verse 21)
Wow! I don't know about you, but I feel terribly guilty
and ashamed when I learn this sacred law of God. I have
not loved my fellow Christians very well. I have not even
loved my fellow pastors very well. Sometimes I have envied
them and been jealous of them because of their superior
gifts and talents. I have failed this test of Christian
love more than I want to admit. But I do it to encourage
you to do the same. After all John would not have written
this to the Christians of his day if they really loved one
another so well. He wanted them to see their sinfulness
and then turn to God for mercy and forgiveness through His
Son Jesus Christ and having received His love, to endeavor
more and more to love God the Father and all his children,
their brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Holy Spirit would have us do the same today. We have
failed to love one another perfectly. We have not been
very good living images of God. But Jesus was He perfectly
loved His heavenly Father and all of God's children. He
could say to His disciples, “Anyone who has seen me has
seen the Father!” (John 14:9) He accepted the Father's
call to die on the cross, showing the depth of God's love.
By faith in the perfect Jesus we are forgiven and become
little Christs and little gods, Christians, visible images
of the invisible God!
Conclusion: May God give us his Holy Spirit and empower us
with true Christian love - love toward God and love toward
one another, to really love God, whom we can't see, and
then to love the little gods we can see!
Amen