First John

God is Love

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: I John 4:16-18, God is Love

Genre: Sermon

Lesson: 12 of 16

Track: #12

Year:

Dictation Name: RR308F12

[Unknown speaker] Let us worship God. Praise ye the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary, praise for His mighty acts, praise Him according to His excellent greatness, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Let us pray.

Our mighty God and heavenly Father we come before you now with praise and thanksgiving. We praise you for Your wondrous works, we praise You that You have by Your mighty and merciful hand saved us. We know that all good things come from Your throne, we know that it is the sin of man that is the destructive evil force that we see in the world, we know that it is only through Your grace that we can overcome what is in the world and what is within us, through Your Holy Spirit. We thank You for the salvation that we have from our sins through the blood atonement of Your Son Jesus Christ, we pray that You would help us to make this an important part of our lives, help it to become the focus of our thinking and our actions. Help our relationship with You through Jesus Christ to be the lens through which we understand our role in life, help it to be the center of our activity so that we might serve You, and we pray that it would be the center of our individual activities, of our life as covenant families in Your truth, in our relationship as families, help it to be the focus of our life as workers in our vocations. We pray that Your Spirit would work in our society, we pray that we would see revival so that Jesus Christ would truly be praised amongst more and more men in our nation and throughout the world. We thank You for those who labor to that end. We think especially this morning of those who gather together in Your name throughout the earth and we pray especially for those who are suffering persecution and repression because they name the name of Jesus Christ. We pray that Your Spirit would encourage them, we pray especially for those who physically seek to relieve their suffering and their distress, bless them and safeguard them. We ask that You would bless now this time that we have together, we pray that You would encourage us as we hear the preaching of Your word. Bless us now and encourage us in Thy service, in this time together, in Christ our Savior’s name, amen.

Our scripture reading this morning is I John chapter 4, verses 16-18. First John chapter 4 verses 16-18, and the title of this morning’s sermon will be “God is Love”, I John 4, beginning at 16.

“16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

[Rushdoony] Our text gives us that very great and familiar statement “God is love.” Few things however are more misunderstood then that statement because, as we have seen, there are three words in the Greek for love, only one in English. Now, one of these three words is eros, erotic love in other words, and certainly the text does not mean that God is erotic love. The second word is phileo which means ordinary human love, as in Philadelphia, brotherly love is the meaning of that name, and that very well describes the meaning of phileo, brotherly love, human love. We see it all around us, we love those who are close and important to use, but again this is not the word used in the text. It is rather the third Greek word, agape, in English a-g-a-p-e, and agape means a love that is selfless, a love that is uncaused, a love that is pure grace. So that when we say “God is love” the first two meanings of love, or the first two Greek words, do not apply, only agape. God is love in the sense that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were yet at enmity with God he loved us and sent His only begotten Son to die for us. This is why it is so important to understand the meaning of the Greek word in order to understand what it says when we read “God is love.”

“16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” Now, what John is saying is that this is how we were saved, through this selfless love of God, through His sovereign grace, and therefore this is the love that we are to show in this world. We are not interested in some kind of humanistic love among all peoples; we are interested in the grace of God unto salvation, the love of God that reaches out to the uttermost. For God is love, a love that is pure grace, and only if we have this kind of love does God dwell in us. Now this is a tremendously important statement, it means that the Christian community is to be defined by this love, because God is love, agape, totally selfless, His love is pure grace. This is how we prove we are Christians; we manifest this same love one towards another and towards the world. This is what missionary activity is based on. We go out to people we do not know, nor do we love, to show the love of God. No missionary is anywhere in the world, probably because he loves the people in the humanistic sense, but because by God’s grace he manifests a love to those really unlovable, who may hate him, who may resent his presence. This is the love that is required of us.

“For God is love, (agape) and he that dwelleth in love (in agape) dwelleth in God, and God in Him. 17 Herein is our love made perfect (and the word “perfect in the Greek means mature), that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.” That’s a tremendous statement. How are we to be towards this world? Why we are to manifest that God is love, that He is sovereign grace, that the love He manifests towards us and towards others is not the kind of love we know. It is interesting Greek had the word agape, but it was rarely ever used, so it is a mystery why they had the love since there was nothing in Greek thinking, or Greek religion, that suited that word. But God had apparently created that word in the Greek language waiting for the day of the New Testament because suddenly a very strange and unfamiliar word becomes central to the Biblical understanding of God.

“As He is, so are we in this world.” We are to be people who manifest agape, we love those who may hate us, we love those who may be everything that we dislike. Why? Because God has said we are to seek their salvation, we are to manifest towards them the love that God did toward us, “for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That sentence tells us what agape is about, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

“18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” When we have agape in our heart because we have known God’s love, then there is no fear. For if we are truly mature in Christ’s love, perfect, mature, then we are truly able to love and to be without fear. When we talk about perfection we have a different meaning. It is interesting that the Biblical meaning of perfect was still in use when the constitution was written because the preamble begins “we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union.” Well if you take perfect in the modern sense that statement is nonsense, how can something be more perfect than perfect? But if you take it in the Biblical sense of mature than the preamble makes sense: “we the people of the United States in order to form a more mature union than the Articles of Confederation, do hereby establish the constitution.”

Mature love, perfect love, casteth out fear. We walk knowing we are surrounded by the love, the grace, and the mercy of God. So there is no fear in our love. Fear hath torment, fear reduces our life to uncertainty, but we cannot be uncertain when we live in the grace of God, because then we know His love. We know “while we were yet sinners, he died for us.” Well what more will He not do now that we are His people, believers in Him? “He that feareth is not made mature, or perfect, in love.” And so John summons us to grow in grace, to grow in our love of God, to grow in our maturity, and then there will be no fear in us because we know God, we can trust in Him and rely in Him whatever the situation or the context, we are then mature in love, in agape, in this selfless love. This is why it is so important to understand the meaning of agape in order to understand this very remarkable Biblical statement, “God is love.” Let us pray.

Our Father we thank Thee that Thou hast made us the objects of Thy love, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. For scarcely for a righteous man would some die, but we who were sinners, for us Christ died. Bless us mightily Lord; teach us to love one another and to show forth Thy love unto all the world. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Well if there are no questions let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father it has been good for us to be here. We thank Thee for the ties that bind us one to another in Christ. We thank Thee that Thou art love, and grant that we may show forth Thy love unto all men and nations. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.